Leaving aside the terrible headline by the NYT, which makes it look to the casual reader as though Harry Reid is to blame, this bullet to the back of the head to hopes of passing the START treaty is just so typical of how the past two years have gone.
... a Senate Republican leader moved to block a vote in what could be a devastating blow to the president’s most tangible foreign policy achievement.
[...]
The announcement shocked and angered the White House, which learned about it from the news media. Both parties had considered Mr. Kyl the make-or-break voice on the pact, with Republicans essentially deputizing him to work out a deal that would secure tens of billions of dollars to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex in exchange for approval of the treaty. After months of negotiations and the addition of even more money in recent days, the White House thought it had given Mr. Kyl what he wanted.
They ask for concessions and the proverbial seat at the table while whining on Fox that they're being "shut out of the process" and having things "rammed down their throats," and no one of significance ever calls them on this bullshit while it's happening. Meanwhile, they actually do get what they ask for, they stall as long as they can, and then when they finally have to act, they go all Lucy on Charlie Brown once again.
Because who cares what's good for the country and good for the world? The only way these people are capable of seeing things is "let's make sure we deny Obama a victory."
(h/t: Wonderment | x-posted)
2 comments:
Republicans are gonna go nuclear on the deficit..
You think? How so?
My own guess is that they'll try to make a huge show about earmarks (effect on deficit: ~0) and slice at the edges of anything to do with help for the non-well-off (effect on deficit: minimal).
There are only two realistic ways to go nuclear on the deficit at this point: cut military spending or raise taxes. And you know they're not going to do either of those.
So how do you think they're going to do it?
Post a Comment