…to make a first impression, and that is precisely what the Republican Congressional Caucus did. They chose by a (wait for it) zero vote on the the ‘stimulus bill’ to thumb their collective nose at the new President. They did this after wringing concessions (see tax-breaks) out of a cooperative, open-handed reach across the ‘green zone’ (I mean this in the Lebanon 1982-4 sense) in the pathetically divided house. This is the coup de gras for me. It’s breathless in its cynicism and arrogance. They actually still think they have a party with some trace DNA left in it. They actually think they have somewhere to lead us, other than off a cliff.
Well they’ve made a thundering first impression and President Obama should rewrite his neutered bill and take everything out he didn’t and doesn’t want (you know, the stuff he put in for the loyal opposition), and put back all the things he does.
Don Corleone: You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you or my boy to me? I forgo the vengeance of my son. But my youngest son had to leave this country because of this Sollozzo business. So now I have to make arraignments to bring him back safely cleared of all these false charges. But I’m a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him, if he should be shot in the head by a police officer, or if should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he’s struck by a bolt of lightening, then I’m going to blame some of the people in this room and that, I do not forgive. But, that aside, let say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we have made here today.
“…And that…I do not forgive.” Whatever peace we thought grown men could achieve after an historic election – a repudiation of business as usual, has been shattered, an impression has been irrevocably made, and it’s time to “go to the mattresses.” When you flip off a new president in his first hand-across-the partisan-divide week in office, you don’t get a do-over. It’s done. A tone has been set – an answer given, and to think I’m surprised and shocked, shows how much I overestimated the execrable house of representatives.
What a sham, and what a shame this is for us all.