Earlier this month, Lindsay Graham said he would support the START treaty once tax cuts for the rich were passed. He got his way, but now he is leading the charge of the whiners about all that voting:
Poor Senator Graham! Maybe he needs a really, really long vacation. After all, if he is too tired to protect us from nuclear war, even though the treaty has been on his desk for eight months.
Also ironic is that Graham is complaining about having to vote on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but the man who forced the lame duck vote on DADT (and even threatened too keep the Senate in session through Christmas to do it) was his close friend Joe Lieberman (Graham once called Lieberman a “national treasure“).
But seriously, what really bothers me about this is that Republicans don’t seem to care about whether something is, you know, actually good for the country. They are still caught in the Rovian trap of looking at everything through a partisan lens. A prime example is this editorial from conservative Charles Krauthammer. Krauthammer seems unable to even conceive that Obama might actually care about what happens to the American economy, except how it affects his reelection chances. I guess when you are that cynical, you can’t imagine that anyone else isn’t also that cynical as well. {Maybe the Christian Science Monitor is right — Obama is the only grown-up in Washington.}
The end result is that most Republicans won’t vote for anything that might even look like a victory for Obama, even if — especially in the case of the START treaty and the Zadroga bill — it is clearly the right thing to do.
UPDATE: Dana Milbank thinks the Republican Party should be renamed the Petulant Party. And talking about their obstructionist tactics in the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell put it “If they think it’s bad now, wait till next year.”
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They have always been whiners.
“Don’t pick on our president, you have to support him no matter what ‘cos he’s our president.”
“We need more money, we’ll take $700 billion.”
“No, no, no gays in the military.”
“No, no, no health care for the people, just for us politicians who get it paid for by the people.”
“But we don’t want a half white/half black person in the white house.”
Obama made it very clear in his books: “I happen to be a Democrat” He is “for the people” not “for the Fat Cats” He is working for us, not trying for glory; although he readily admits that he likes the perks.
Needless to say that I’m crushed that the tax cuts for the rich weren’t rescinded. I see Obama’s point: that to give in on extended the debt the Republican Administration created, he gets his way on everything else but DREAM.
I’m going to pay my estimated taxes in 2011 as though there were no “qualified dividends” My interest free loan to the government will cost me all of 2% in interest that I won’t have to pay taxes. Just a loan, not a gift.
I’m sure that Obama is getting more done in the Lame Duck session than practically any other President. Article in CSM on DREAM act that didn’t go through.
And Obama’s family and family dog are already in Hawaii.
Charles Krauthammer, seriously, anyone can look at that guy and know he hasn’t laughed in at least 20 years. Now I don’t know if thats because he works for the Wash Post or he;s just wound that tight. Graham is looking more and more like an idiot to me.
On the “Republicans won’t allow anything to pass” you may need some retraction. They gave Obama DADT, they’ll ratify START, and they gave him extended unemployemnt. All in a lame duck, now thats not the party of no from the past year.
I actually agree with you Patriot. You are right, they aren’t the party of no from the past year, they are even worse.
When you say “they gave Obama DADT”, I assume you are referring to the 8 Republicans who voted yes and not the 31 Republicans who voted no.
When you say “they gave him extended unemployment”, I assume you are referring to the agreement to continue paying benefits to unemployed people who can’t find jobs (there are still not enough jobs out there) in exchange for a tax cut for the richest Americans out there.
As part of that same hostage agreement that got them the tax cuts, they blocked the Zadroga bill, which provides funding for 9/11 first responders. If that wasn’t disgusting enough, they are continuing to block it for a variety of nonsensical reasons.
Tom Coburn directly responded to why he is blocking the bill. You may find a couple of his points funny if you can stand the nausea.
He claims that one problem is that this re-opens the 9/11 Victim’s Compensation Fund despite the fact that the fund was intended to be temporary. Hmm, what else was intended to be temporary? Oh that’s right, the Bush tax cuts that the Republicans demanded be made permanent.
He claims that another problem is that the bill “hasn’t even been through a committee.” False because on June 29th, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on the bill. Ironic because Coburn sits on that committee. He didn’t attend the hearing.
Another issue he has is that this bill (I am quoting directly from his response) “provides overly generous funding, failing to acknowledge existing public and private benefits and past compensation.” Yep, you got it. We are being overly generous to 9/11 first responders. The men and women who ran into the collapsing towers while the rest of the public was running away in terror. The men and women who worked for weeks trying to pull survivors from the wreckage. The men and women who are now dying from various forms of cancer and being denied medical coverage.
But Coburn is right. We have already given them enough. The rest needs to go to the top 2% of Americans in the form of tax breaks. Because the Republican party knows exactly who needs help: those who don’t need help. If you need help, you shouldn’t be given help, because you’ve probably done something to deserve your needy situation and we’ve probably already given you enough help anyway.
I vote that the “Party of No” moniker be dropped in favor of the more accurate “Screw the Needy.” But don’t be afraid to pull out 9/11 again when it helps you R’s. When there is a community center to be built, a Fox News commercial to be made, or a campaign to be won, it’ll still be there waiting.
Don’t hold back 1032, tell us how you really feel! 😮
Did you run out of coffee 1032? 🙂
I fully agree with you on the 911 responders, they should have been taken care of years ago and I personally think it’s disgusting and the worst strategy error ever made. I couldn’t tell you why they are holding it hostage, maybe wikileaks will make it known.
The other bills passed, so in the end its W for Obama. Whether the others were catering to their base or not I don’t know.
I appreciate your candor 1032, and I hope the 911 bill currently before the house will pass.
Sorry for unloading there but I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. 🙂 So to speak.
My gut tells me they want to pass Republican legislation through the House and vote on it in the Senate. I don’t think they particularly care what a bill does or what’s even in the bill. They just want to have their party associated with it. Most of the whining from Republicans of late that IK is talking about wants to start working on problems after the seats change. It screams political posturing, even though going against the Zadroga bill in particular seems like political suicide.
It’s truly a shame. As an aside, it has given me new respect for Shep Smith. I don’t know how much time he’s got left on Fox though. 😉
At least they finally passed a watered down verisonof the Zadroga bill at last, after Jon Stewart and a lot of non-Wshington Republicans started pushing for it loudly.
I agree with 1032 that with the Republicans in control of the House we’ll see a lot of things they resisted for the last two years pushed forward so they can take credit for them. I do have some hope, however, that between the Tea Party newcomers and the continued negative public reaction to the extreme right wing agenda the Republican Block might just crack. They won’t be able to hide behind the illusion of “stoppping Obama” once they control the House
Let’s hear it for Jon Stewart and his push for the 9/11 responders.
Today the Senate has ratified the START treaty with 26 dissenting votes and passed the 911 vote without a single no vote.
I am amazed. More got done during this lame duck session then occurred all last year (minus HCR) and certainly the 6 months leading up to the elections.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but the first news reports (from newspapers – I don’t know what the cable news people are reporting, about the passage of the Zadroga will stated that the Senate finally passed it after pressure from Fox News. There was little attribution to Jon Stewart. I haven’t been able to watch Stephen Colbert recently, but I imagine that he probably made a few points about it too.
Starluna – I’m sure that reporting is a reflection of the fact that Fox News is a well-respected, main-stream, just-the-facts news organization (fair and balanced too) versus the comedy shows of Stewart and Colbert.
Mad Hatter – you are probably correct. 😀