Another Sees The Light

Yesterday I wondered if Andrew Sullivan had been paying attention to the GOP after he was mystified over Judd Gregg. Last night, it turns out he indeed has seen the light.

This much is now clear. Their clear and open intent is to do all they can, however they can, to sabotage the new administration (and the economy to boot). They want failure. Even now. Even after the last eight years. Even in a recession as steeply dangerous as this one. There are legitimate debates to be had; and then there is the cynicism and surrealism of total political war. We now should have even less doubt about what kind of people they are. And the mountain of partisan vitriol Obama will have to climb every day of the next four or eight years.

In other words it can be boiled down to two words:

Destroy. Obama.

More and more folks are coming around to the realization that the election of 2008 did absolutely nothing to change the Republicans. They still believe after eight years that their ideas worked and will work in the future, after eight years of Bush lying, cheating, stealing, killing, and wreacking America's economy. They are denying 2001-2008 even existed, that somehow the economic crisis we have sprang into existence only after January 20, 2009 at 120:01 PM. They honestly believe that Obama is to blame for our economy right now.

When Republicans lose, they double down on their mistakes. They have been doing that for the last several years now. Why is any logical, intelligent human being even remotely surprised that this is the GOP plan? Pretend the last eight years were fine, declare Obama's Presidency to be failed at every turn, and vow revenge in 2010 and 2012.

You can't argue with fanatics in denial. You can't argue with people who believe Obama wasn't bipartisan enough because he didn't give the GOP 100% of exactly what they wanted. You can't reason with people who wholly believe the major problem in America is the President, the policies, and the actions of the last three and half weeks and not the President, the policies, and the actions of the preceding eight years.

They hated him from January 20. They vowed to destroy him. They will take the country down with them in the effort. They truly believe that after only 24 days, Obama is in freefall, doomed to one-term Carterism and that Judd Gregg is somehow the magical last straw that will turn the people against Obama and make them demand...what, impeachment? Tar and feathering? Any day now.

And when this groundswell of Obama hate fails to materialize and America is caught giving Obama a fair chance with positive approval ratings among a majority, the GOP will turn against the people as well, saying that they deserve their economic Armageddon for aiding and abetting this...this...Democrat.

It's about that point when the American people will switch off the GOP's bullhorn, tell them to shut up, and give Obama even more of a congressional majority.

But we're in for at least four years of hysterical, fever-bright, fanatical, venom-dripping hatred for Obama. They're out to annihilate him and anyone on his side, and increasingly that will mean the American people.

Never forget that.

[UPDATE] The GOP isn't even denying anymore that this is the plan. (h/t Digby)

More interesting, Vitter offered up a few specifics about the opposition party's political strategy given its diminished congressional power. Vitter said defeating the stimulus bill was never the goal; changing public opinion about it was. "We may have lost the vote, but we collectively have won the debate," he said, claiming that the public now perceived that the bill as evidence that the Obama administration was not bringing real change to Washington, but rather just engaging in the same old wasteful government spending. (Congressional Democrats have been disseminating polls showing that the stimulus plan is backed by a majority of the public.) "We're getting back to our roots," Vitter said of congressional Republicans.

According to Vitter, the GOP is basically betting the farm that the stimulus package is going to fail, and the party wants Democrats to go down with it. "Our next goal is to make President Obama and liberal Democrats in Congress own it completely," he said. Instead of coming up with serious measures to save the economy, the party intends to devote its time to an "we told you so" agenda that will include GOP-only hearings on the bill's impact in the coming months to highlight the bill's purportedly wasteful elements and shortcomings.

Here endeth the lesson.