In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

Via e-mail, Zandardad asks:

So far I am very unhappy with some of the specifics of the stimulus plan; and I think the Democrats in the Senate really need to open up the process to get at least some Republicans on board. What do you think?

Well, the answer is yes, especially in the Senate. Republicans will filibuster, and I honestly don't think Obama's going to get every single Democrat in the Senate on board either. Mathematically he has to get some Republicans on board. That's just fact.

Pops points out David Broder's Friday column as an example of this reality. For once, he has a couple of salient points.

Last week the $819 billion tax and spending bill passed the House with all but 11 Democrats supporting it and not a single Republican voting yes. The first important roll call of the Obama presidency looked as bitterly partisan as any of the Bush years.

It was not for lack of effort on the part of the new president. Obama went to the Capitol to visit Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers, and he encouraged the Democratic draftsmen to scrap a couple of egregiously irrelevant spending programs they had penciled into the bill.

On the other hand, Broder takes those points and uses them to blame Nancy and Harry. Obama indeed reached out in a good faith effort. For his troubles, the House GOP flipped him off in a completely partisan show of disrespect.

My problem is Broder's assumption that the Republicans should be ultimately controlling this legislation. Getting some Republicans on board is one thing. Surrendering the legislation to the GOP is another. Why should Obama and the Democrats bow and scrape to the GOP? The Republicans lost the election. The people rejected them having control of the country in an unequivocal and total fashion.

Let's recall who got us into this mess in the first place: The Republicans and their $3 trillion war, years of lack of executive branch oversight, and flat out greed.

The Republicans had their chance. They had their say. And still, Obama offered them an olive branch time and time again. Their ultimate answer was a total, unanimous rejection of the bill by every single Republican in the House.

Now they are complaining about not being involved in the process of legislation they wholly struck down, in the most petulant, whiny fashion possible. Broder, being the Village Idiot In Chief, is doing their whining for them.

Pop, the GOP wants the stimulus to fail. Period. Don't fall for this bipartisanship crap. You can recognize a user and an enabler when you see one.