Read Frank Rich today. He explains that the Republicans really have zero to offer. Zero:
If anything, the Republican Congressional leadership seems to be emulating John McCain’s September stunt of “suspending” his campaign to “fix” the Wall Street meltdown. For all his bluster, McCain in the end had no fixes to offer and sat like a pet rock at the White House meeting on the crisis before capitulating to the bailout. His imitators likewise posture in public about their determination to take action, then do nothing while more and more Americans cry for help.Don't read David Broder's column today. It conveys everything wrong with the conventional wisdom, of which Broder is the king. In short, he thinks Republicans are "The Votes Obama Truly Needs." He's been listening to Republicans on the Hill who are whining Democrats have been mean to them. They're complaining about the process, which Broder thinks is legitimate. Actually, Broder should read Rich's column. Because while the GOPers complain, they still have zero ideas -- and the Republicans actually did cause this economic crisis in the first place (a fact Broder chooses to ignore.)
The problem is not that House Republicans gave the stimulus bill zero votes last week. That’s transitory political symbolism, and it had no effect on the outcome. Some of the naysayers will vote for the revised final bill anyway (and claim, Kerry-style, that they were against it before they were for it). The more disturbing problem is that the party has zero leaders and zero ideas. It is as AWOL in this disaster as the Bush administration was during Katrina.
If the country wasn’t suffering, the Republicans’ behavior would be a laugh riot. The House minority leader, John Boehner, from the economic wasteland of Ohio, declared on “Meet the Press” last Sunday that the G.O.P. didn’t want to be “the party of ‘No’ ” but “the party of better ideas, better solutions.” And what are those ideas, exactly? He said he’ll get back to us “over the coming months.”
His deputy, the Virginia congressman Eric Cantor, has followed the same script, claiming that the G.O.P. will not be “the party of ‘No’ ” but will someday offer unspecified “solutions and alternatives.” Not to be left out, the party’s great white hope, Sarah Palin, unveiled a new political action committee last week with a Web site also promising “fresh ideas.” But as the liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga observed, the site invites visitors to make donations and read Palin hagiography while offering no links to any ideas, fresh or otherwise.
What Obama needs is a stimulus package that will save the economy -- with or without Republican votes. Along those lines, Broder should also read Jane Bryant Quinn's column in the business section of his own paper. She actually look at the substance and writes:
So President Obama appears to have it about right: Government spending, including state and local, for a quick fix; temporary tax reductions to help households pay down debt and, eventually, spend the money to strengthen the private sector; and no permanent tax cuts that would stick us with even worse deficits than are projected now.On saving the economy, policy matters more than process.
