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The Spectacle Blog
Overnight, I actually was thinking of slightly modifying my post yesterday taking Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to task. I felt like maybe I had been a little too hard on him, in one respect. You see, my usual rule is to harshly criticize others on the right only when they violate ethics, or when they double-cross or utterly abandon their allies, or, most usually, when they themselves attack conservatives or portray conservatives, tacitly, in the same terms the left does -- wackos, extremists, etc. McConnell had done none of those things. Bad tactics, and even heavy-handed insistence on bad tactics while threatening retaliation against conservatives who don't play "team ball," are worthy of criticism, but not on their own worthy of criticism as harsh as I gave McConnell yesterday. What made me feel comfortable doing it, though, was that his failures on health care are so much a part of a pattern, and his disdain for conservatives' preferred strategies and tactics so longstanding, that in toto I thought they rose (or sank) to a level that made them the rough equivalent of Lindsay Graham actively insulting conservatives by callng us bigots, etc.
But, as I said, I had second thoughts. Here's why: Because at least McConnell has indeed been working very very very hard at the strategy he did choose. Even though he is/was wrong, dead wrong, terribly wrong in choosing the strategy and tactics he chose, he at least was giving his best effort to the fight. So, maybe, I thought, I should modulate my criticism.
Well, as Fagin said in Oliver Twist, I think I better think it out again. I was right the first time. No modulation is needed. Again, from Red State: McConnell surrenders. Rather than forcing the Dems to the utter edge, for a nighttime vote on Christmas Eve, McConnell has agreed to let the vote go forward early that morning, in order to get everybody out of there before an ice storm.
This is pitiful, or rather Pitiful with a capitl "P." If it is so important to the Dems to get this done before Christmas, well, then, make them suffer for it. On the other hand, if the Dems want to get out of town before the ice storm, then make them do so without passing this Obamacare bill. Make it THEIR tough choice. Make THEM face the consequences of not being able to get out of town.
Well, yeah, the GOP says, but what about the poor Republican staffers? Shouldn't they get to go home?
In a word: NO. Not if it will mean the difference between the Senate passing this thing before going home to face their constituents, or not passing it before facing their constituents at Christmas. Sorry, Charlie. Some things require sacrifice. I was a staffer on the Hill for five years. I knew what I signed up for. Staffers are often unsung heroes, to be sure, and so many of them have done such yeoman's work on all this that they deserve our thanks. But thanks do not equal giving leave to abandon the fight at such a time. This is the domestic political fight of our very lifetimes. It should be taken to the mat, to the breaking point, or to whatever other cliche applies.
If the Senate gets caught in town for Christmas, that would be Reid's fault. He is the one, not the GOP, who insisted on passing this before Christmas, before adequate reflection, before facing costituents. For him to do so even if icy sleet is coming down and killing Christmas plans would be a powerful symbol to the public of how unreasonable Reid and the Dems are being. Or at least, that s how it should have been portrayed.
Instead, McConnell caved like an injured puppy trying to escape a grizzly bear. The vote will be early in the morning on the 24th. It will be a formality. No drama. No symbolism. Just capitulation.
So yes, that makes him a loser.
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More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/12/22/mcconnell-weasels-out
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FriedmanFan| 12.22.09 @ 4:10PM
Your point is well-taken, and I'm not standing up for, or defending McConnell at all. The GOP leadership needs to stop playing pattycake and take the gloves off.
That being said, put this situation in the Bill Clinton/GOP majority government shutdown battle circa 1990's: Democrats might be successful in painting this as "Republicans, 'The Party of No' , keeping congress in session during Christmas to continue their parliamentary gamesmanship of obstructing any and all efforts to extend health coverage to uninsured Americans."
Of course I don't agree with that statement, but at least consider the possibility of that tactic working for the Democrats. They will have nothing to scream and cry crocodile tears about if we just let this go until after the holiday.
Dell| 12.22.09 @ 4:19PM
If not now, WHEN, Mitch????
Pingback| 12.22.09 @ 4:27PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : McConnell Weasels Out [ links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Tim| 12.22.09 @ 4:33PM
Wait a moment, these are powerful, privileged men and we cannot expect them to subject themselves to inconveniences for our sake.
Andrew| 12.22.09 @ 4:51PM
Quin, you and Erick have been busily calling the GOP Senate leader a "loser" and a "weasel" and acuusing him of "surrender" right in the middle of a huge fight. Your reasons are not trivial, and many of them may be spot on. But....
The main problem I have with this approach is that, you have not first waited to see if any GOP Senator voices even mild disagreement with McConnell's decision to have vote in the moring instead of the evening of December 24.
Although Tim was being sarcastic, the Senate is indeed something of a club. You and I do not know what (if anything) Reid got in exchange for the scheduling of the vote. We do not know how hard his fellow GOP Senators were pressuring him to schedule the vote for the evening instead of the morning. We do not know if an evening vote would have serisously alienated some Senators who McConnell is counting on to ultimately defeat this monstrosity. We don't know a lot of things about this particular decision. So, why not wait for at least one GOP Senator to at least say, "Gee, maybe the vote should have been scheduled for the evening," before piling on McConnell?
Now, maybe it will turn out that a lot of GOP Senators are extremely ticked off that McConnell did this. If so, I retract everything I've said in this comment, and praise your instincts.
Tim| 12.23.09 @ 11:18AM
I'd like to think this is all part of an elaborate and sophisticated strategy- but lately GOP cunning has been in short supply.
glenny| 12.22.09 @ 5:01PM
When will Senator Coburn require a reading of this bill on the floor of the Senate? Should take a couple of days. glenny
sre| 12.22.09 @ 5:05PM
While the point is a fair one, it comes back to the question of strategy versus tactics. Keeping everyone there until late on Christmas is, at best, a tactic, and as others have pointed out, one that is likely to blow up in Republicans' faces.
The real failing is that the Republicans lack a unified strategy on health care. As a result, we are only the party of "no."
We should have a single alternative bill that can be placed side-by-side with the Democratic monstrosities. We don't. Or, if we do, they've done a terrible job of promoting it.
The party is rudderless and reactive. No wonder we're down 60-40.
johninflorida| 12.23.09 @ 10:03AM
A "single, alternative bill" presented by the republicans would be just as big a monstrosity as the one the dems are proposing. It might have some features that are better (or worse) than what the dems are putting forward, but still, any "one size fits all" proposal throws the baby out with the bathwater. Individual proposals, targeting specific problems that exist within the system that 80% of the people think is mostly good, are what is needed. Portability of insurance, severing the ties to one's job, capping of punitive damages, allowing "catastrophic coverage only" policies for those who want them, these things need to be SPECIFICALLY addressed, not lumped together in a far reaching, pork filled, monstrosity of our own construction.
Andrew| 12.22.09 @ 5:08PM
CBS News is reporting: "Under the schedule announced today, the next and final cloture vote on the bill will happen at 2:15 p.m. tomorrow. Senators will then vote on the final bill at 8 a.m. the following day."
Does this mean that McConnell has gotten the Democrats to agree to ANOTHER cloture vote (on Wednesday)?
MarkJ| 12.22.09 @ 6:07PM
Here's my take: FIRE.THEM.ALL.
Next year, we're going to see a massacre of incumbents--both Donk and GOP--that'll make the Little Big Horn look like a Boy Scout jamboree. I'm tired of these back-stabbing, deal-making, deal-breaking, self-aggrandizing fossils (Robert Byrd, anybody?). Folks, I say it's high time to cut down the dead wood and haul it out to the burn pile.
Kyle Smith| 12.22.09 @ 6:12PM
Don't worry about being labled the "Party of NO" The Democrats were huge obstructionists before 2006, when they got their big majorities. The free market has made healthcare what it is today, and if a bill like this were passed 100 years ago, we'd probably have a polio epidemic still today. Gov't. will not fix this problem; not with bills like this one. The Republicans have to be the "Party of NO" The voters said NO to Republicans in 2006 and 2008, and now we are all paying the price. If voters want legislation from Republicans, they need to vote for Republicans, otherwise, don't be surprised if they don't support a bill they had no imput in.
BTW, on election day 2008, a poll showed that only 13% of voters listed health care reform as their top priority. Why are we acting like the life of the nation depends on government taking over healthcare?
bluecollarbytes| 12.22.09 @ 6:14PM
At least the Senate is back to normal traditions.
I've seen a place though where the weather plays such a large part at the table. Don't these guys have SUVs?
Richard Baker| 12.22.09 @ 6:23PM
Don't you understand? McConnell is being Senatorial in his collegiality, don't you know? Remember, these idiots style themselves as "The greatest deliberative body in the world." The shooting Revolution is imminent because too many of my fellow citizens sit on their ass and let these tyrants do their worst. Sic Semper Tyrannis.
Thomas| 12.22.09 @ 7:35PM
I don't know what else you expected. This is not Mr. Smith goes to Washington. The members of Congress, in general, and the Senate, in particular, have a life. And it doesn't include service to the country. I just don't know who you were electing when you pulled those levers. These people simply shouldn't be expected to put up with having to stand upon principle and stay in Washington where they can dine on caviar and goose in the Senate dining room while close to 30 million unemployed Americans sit at home and stuff themselves on Spam.
No, our Senators have sacrificed enough to do little or nothing to insure that another 30 million people are not unemployed by next Christmas.
Oh, and my heart goes out to the Obama's who may have to postpone the start of their Christmas vacation to Hawaii to lend moral support to our great Senators. I too will be foregoing my planned Christmas vacation Bali in similar support. Instead, I'll sit home and try to figure out how to pay my heating bills while wolfing down a succulent Spam dinner on the anniversery of the birth of the baby Jesus.
Thank you Senators for your sacrifice.
BD57| 12.22.09 @ 8:00PM
Quin,
I second the comments on "tactics" vs. "strategy."
The Dems could afford to be the party of "no" when they were in the minority because the MSM always had their back. Republicans have no such luxury.
The rule is very simple:
When Dems are in the majority, any frustration of their legislative desires is the fault of obstructionist Republicans.
When Republicans are in the majority, any frustration of their legislative desires is the result of Dems valiant defense of our basic human rights as Americans.
I do agree DC Republicans are lousy at strategy. Part of it, IMO, is there's very little loyalty to the caucus - there are simply too many show ponies like Graham & McCain who can't seem to find a way to disagree with their fellow Republicans without spouting Dem talking points to justify their actions.
Andrew| 12.22.09 @ 9:20PM
Here's what I'm hearing.... By agreeing to move up the health-care vote from evening to morning on December 24, the Senate GOP got some concessions. They got a vote in early January on giving TARP money back to the Treasury (instead of letting Obama use it for yet another stimulus in blue states). Also, they got a vote on stopping the EPA from regulating carbon emissions.
There will be a cloture vote on December 23 (tomorrow), and if the Dems win that, there will be final passage around 8:00 AM on December 24.
Senator Cornyn says: "There were extensive conversations about how do we keep the time we need to expose the deficiencies of this bill and, of course, the sweetheart deals that produced it, but yet show respect to people and their families, let them get home at least in time for Christmas Eve."
brooklyn| 12.22.09 @ 10:00PM
This is so overblown and typical distraction from the reality of those who are taking us downhill. Pure sophomoric hyperbole and emotive sophistry. It is like getting mad at those who have nothing to do, with those at the source of the problem. This is the same lackluster offering, that so sorely debased conservative interests in Washington after 2004. Same old self destructive folly.
Jack Burton| 12.22.09 @ 10:19PM
American soldiers will be fighting and dying on Christmas day, but these weasels are more consumed in getting home than doing the right thing. To say they disgust me would be an insult to the concept of disgust.
Andrew| 12.22.09 @ 10:44PM
Jack, if this were the final Senate vote on the bill, then I wouldn't have to think twice about agreeing with you. But it's not. And treating it like the final vote seems like it might be the same as conceding that there is no chance of winning this thing in January. The House and Senate still have to reconcile their bills, and if they are able to do that then there will be a whole other round of votes in both houses in January. So, this thing is likely to be drawn out for at least another month. Seems like the GOP would be better off focusing firepower on a winnable battle. I wouldn't mind if the vote were in the evening of December 24, instead of the morning, but this is not the Alamo. The battle will not be won or lost on December 24.
martin j smith| 12.23.09 @ 8:01AM
The issue is this: The Republican Party needs new leadership. What is most important is have leaders who grasp the nature of the opposition. The Democrat party is ruthless,totalitarian, and ideological in scope ( I think a blend of communism and fascism ). The current leadership does not show that they get it. New leaders have to be rational,bold and unafraid of exposing to the American people just what is happening in Washington and effecting the nation. Throw PC out the window. It s time of Hope and Change.
Lana| 12.23.09 @ 8:09AM
The Republicans DID have their own bill on health care, sre. I don't think it even got out of committee, or it was swiftly dispatched one way or another. So what else can the GOP do?
martin j smith| 12.23.09 @ 10:40AM
I'll what should be done: All 40 Republicans arrange to be at a press conference outside the senate building on the steps with leadership calling the individual mandate un-constitutional and directing attention to other onerous aspects of the legislation.
They could get on Fox News surely and get whatever publicity out about the bill. My point: Get out there and talk to the voters.
sre| 12.23.09 @ 11:22AM
I understand the bill never got out of committee. It was DOA from a legislative perspective. I'm talking about talking up a holistic alternative everytime a Republican gets in front of a camera. While I sympathize with JohninFlorida's notion that little pieces are better than a pork-filled monstronsity, this isn't real legislation so we should be able to keep the pork out of it. But we need to present a credible alternative plan. We don't. Hence we react. And we lose 60-40. We need to be FOR something, not just against anything the Dems put up.
Pingback| 12.23.09 @ 10:00AM
Obamacare promotes tyranny… « Time for Thorns links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
martin j smith| 12.23.09 @ 11:43AM
The question is: what is" credible". What was passed was not a healthcare plan--it was a Government Bureaucratic plan. The idea of allowing insurance companies to sell products accross state lines, tort reform are among the ideas offered--and not the only ones. But this is directly connected with the goal of Health care reform More importantly or equally was and is the need for voters to be aware of as many pitfalls,and economic problems voters will face--without any solution to healthcare reform at all. In fact it will do the opposite. So: " Do no harm" is not such a bad idea.
Big Java| 12.23.09 @ 12:39PM
Let's see. I will be at my work Christmas morning
by 6:00 AM until 2:30 PM. Part of the healthcare system don't ya know.
Mitch, grow some, be inconvienced and FIGHT for this country!
Oldefarte| 12.23.09 @ 1:09PM
As I've said many times before, Republican congressmen are ALMOST as guilty as Democrats in causing the federal monstrosity aka what's know as a budget and a deficit one at that. These Republicans for decades have gotten too comfortable in the Washington DC social arena, all the while ignoring or blowing off their constituents back home. For this I say, they possibly [along with all Democrats] should be defeated at re-election time; if there is any conservative neophite [of any party label] running against them [ie Rubio over Crist in Florida]. This federal budget crisis has been evolving for my entire lifetime, with Democrats loading same with any/all WELFARE programs/legislation for their indigent constituents, for which the American taxpayer is put upon the financial hook to pay for same. It's got to stop and stop NOW, and those same American taxpayers had better wake up and smell the roses, for it is on the verge of becoming TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!!!
flenser| 12.23.09 @ 10:45PM
McConnell should have been dumped after the amnesty fiasco, when he sided with the Democrats to screw the majority of his own Senate caucus. (To say nothing of the American people).
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