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.
Already, the Republican leadership has moved to saddle the new Democratic majority with responsibility for resolving $463 billion in spending bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. And the departing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Thomas (R., Calif.), has been demanding that the Democrat-crafted 2008 budget absorb most of the $13 billion in costs incurred from a decision now to protect physician reimbursements under Medicare, the federal health-care program for the elderly and disabled.
Funny how our national guardians of the civility chalice tend to ignore spiteful behavior that actually has an impact on how our country runs. Is this crap really that much harder to comment on than society-page gossip about Nancy Pelosi disliking Jane Harman? Paging Atrios…
ThymeZone
Yes, but Clinton’s staff took the W keycaps off White House computers on their way out.
So both parties are equally bad.
RSA
I thought the Republicans were the Daddy Party, not the Spoiled-Teenage-Kids-with-a-Credit-Card Party.
Jake
I hereby dub the 109th The Alexandra Congress after the spiteful bitch from Josie & The Pussycats.
Dave
I’m watching Red State and listening to wing nut radio, waiting to hear the outrage over this.
Elvis Elvisberg
This isn’t “Republican Stupidity,” it’s “Republican Malevolence,” or maybe “Malfeasance.” I guess that’s what the KMBA tag gets across…
Nothing’s shocking, anymore, as far as conservative indifference to American interests goes.
John Cole
The Democrats are worse.
Bombadil
Quit complaining. You voted for ’em.
ThymeZone
John, you misspelled Demo-rats.
AkaDad
The Democrats are 100 times worse.
Fixed.
Your welcome.
scarshapedstar
2 days a week is hard work!
SeesThroughIt
That is the Daddy Party.
[stomps foot] “Daaaaaaaaaddy!”
TenguPhule
Of course. Because in retaliation for this they’re going to make Congress work 5 days a week instead of only 2 in the next session.
You can already hear the lazy whiny ass righty bitches squealing on the Hill if you hold a Haliburton Stock Certificate up to your ear.
The Other Steve
When the Democrats left in 1994 they trashed the House after a big keg party! This is nothing like that.
The Other Steve
I’m going to start working a Republican Work Week.
Andrew
A kegay party is more like it.
N.b. Mark Foley caught the gay from a page boy who got stuck in a cloak room for two weeks after really rocking Ways & Means goodbye fiesta.
jake
There.
The Other Steve
And this is nothing like the time Bill Clinton trashed the WhiteHouse, leaving pizza boxes everywhere.
Faux News
9/11 changed everything.
(I’m hoping this phrase still works)
pie
The Republicans are doing whatever it takes to minimize the damage the Democrats can cause to this country. If that involves a few rearguard actions, so be it. Our national security is at stake.
Is there anything in the Constitution that lets the President and the Supreme Court impeach the Congressional majority, if they’re actively trying to undermine America’s freedom by holding hearings on Iraq or trying to pull us out prematurely?
Zifnab
Why stop there? I say go total scorched earth. Level the capital building, set fire to the congressional offices, and litter the wreckage with trip-wires and landmines. Then spread out to K-Street and form an elite band of guerilla lobbiests to sabatoge legislation.
The south shall rise again!
Jake
Rearguard action? Premature pull outs?
What does the Jeff Gannon/Karl Rove/Dick Cheney bizarre love triangle have to do with anything? Get a grip pie.
pie
We need to fight the insurgents and their Demoratic puppets with an insurgency of our own. If it works for them over there, it’ll work in DC, too.
Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Tulkinghorn
If last year’s budget is unfinished, let’s get an estate tax repeal in ASAP, on the basis that we need the $$ for the war (which we do). It is a chance to hammer the White House on domestic issues… let him veto one bill per week if he wants to.
Punchy
I agree. Just give him a completely FUBAR’d budget, with major Republican-favored shit cut out and huge increases for domestic programs to favor the poor and the Iraq “War” Veterans, and watch him veto one budget after another after another. I’m sure CNN would still somehow blame the Democrats for being “obstructionist”…
demimondian
Actually, Tulkinghorn has it exactly right — bring in popular bill after popular bill that forces a filibuster by the R’s or a veto by the WH. The President does not have the power to control the legislative agenda, and so all the Congress needs to do is stick to its knitting: require the Executive to go to pay-as-you-go on Iraq, push for a sharp increase in the minimum wage (and, perhaps, even indexing it to inflation), fix Medicare Part D…
The press will hate it. And it will work.
Darrell
Do it. And propose other tax hikes too, all the while telling yourself that your tax hiking positions are “popular” with voters. I think you lefties should call your congressman and Senators ASAP on this important recommendation.