For Some in the GOP, Party Trumps Country

From the Wall Street Journal:
“>Some Republicans Take a Scorched-Hill Tack Leaving Budget Decisions To Democrats Could Disrupt New Leadership’s Agenda

Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats to govern when they take power in Congress next month.

…The unstated goal is to disrupt the Democratic agenda and make it harder for the new majority to meet its promise to reinstitute “pay-as-you-go” budget rules, under which new costs or tax cuts must be offset to protect the deficit from growing.

…The White House is watching with alarm, as are many Senate Republicans, who have a greater stake than the House in maintaining relations with Democrats.

“There are individuals who want to blow up the tracks, and there are more of those individuals in the House,” said one Senate leadership aide.

Partisans might see this as simply the way the game is played. But I see it a sad corruption of elected representatives who see their roles as champions for their party rather than for their country.