I was listening to some reps on talk radio and cable news the other night. I felt bad for them for a moment when you consider that they are really up against it in Washington. The White House, Senate and House are all controled by the dems plus the margin of votes in the Senate gives a filabuster proof opposition. Basically the reps could get out the beach chairs and watch the dems work and hope for a turn around in 2010.
However my sympathy turned when I thought back just a couple of years ago when the dems were no in power and how they approached every day - like it was war. They openly, agressively and obnoxiously declared war on Bush and everything GOP. They started their day announcing how pitiful, incompetent and dangerous Bush was. They would use words like... "THIS PRESIDENT..." and then would sling forth their opposition. They acted as if they were in power and they were setting the agenda. You got to give it to them they never rolled over and played death. The news came to their press conferences (partly because of their liberal bias) but because they gave them something to write about.
Harry Reid flippantly sad the President lied....he was a murderer....he is destorying our country. In a real sense the dems and Big O are doing the same but do you hear the GOP use any of that language. We would say they the dems were hateful, vitroiolic and divisive. Yet they understood that as the opposition party their task was to fearlessly oppose!
You could say that the GOP is classy, stand up people, and have moral rightness and so they will not stoop to that level of politics. I say if they don't get some fire in the belly and start acting edgy they should bring beach chairs into the house chamber. Macevelli wrote that one of the sure ways for underdogs to defeat a stronger opponnent was to be "unpredictable" -- there is something empowering to the wildcat, the loose cannon, the crazy man/woman who force people to be nervous, to be fearful, on the defense. We saw this in the recent undercover films that exposed ACORN. For a week or so, they rolled out one video after another, they were unpredictable. ACORN and their defenders were silenced because they did not know how much more was going to be revealed. they did not know what was coming next.
I saw the GOP go for broke. Start holding court publicly about Charlie Rangle's finances. Harry Reid's sweetheart deals in Nevada. Nancy Pelosi's tax breaks on her CA Vineyards. Start turning the light on corruption. I would hire Private Investigators to do the work of a the House Ethics committee if the Dems will not allow full vetting of these questionable activities. The GOP needs to stop being political whimps and fight like a street dog. They need to openly attack the President - Joe Wilson had it right - when he lies, call him a liar!
Obama has an uncanny way to rebound as we are seeing in this health care debate. In August we thougfht it was dead. And even though he will not get all he wanted, he will get a lot and it will devastate our way of life. The GOP needs to knock the dems to the canvass, then like a street fight, step on their necks and finish it. You let a wounded person off the ground it is worst, because now they will fight like they have nothing to lose. Right now they do not want to lose their power and they are pretty confident. Take advantage of them letting their hands down in the fight. Stop being a whimp!