Henry Waxman Discovers The GOP Plan

California Dem Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Energy And Finance Committee, has stumbled across the GOP Plan.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who has had an eventful couple of weeks to say the least, believes House Republican opposition to climate change legislation and the stimulus indicates they’re cheering against the good ol’ US of A.

“It appears that the Republican Party leadership in the Congress has made a decision that they want to deny President Obama success, which means, in my mind, they are rooting against the country, as well,” the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman told WAMU radio host Diane Rehm on Tuesday morning, promoting his new book, “The Waxman Report.”

Still, he said that one House Republican leader, speaking to him after the climate change squeaker, predicted that “a lot” of GOP-ers would vote for the (presumably) weakened bill when it emerges from the Senate.

Hey look, Henry's figured it out! Good on him. The GOP on the other hand is already quite pissy about being called out on it.

Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), quickly demanded an apology from Waxman — who clashed with Boehner during the climate change vote last month.

“That is an outrageous statement, and obviously Chairman Waxman owes the American people an apology,” Steel wrote in an e-mail to POLITICO.

“Frankly, this sort of irresponsible rhetoric smacks of desperation from a chairman who just forced members of his own party to walk the plank on an unpopular national energy tax and is having trouble convincing them to do it again on a government takeover of health care,” he added.

It's funny how defensive the GOP gets if you hit them right in the mouth like that. Frankly, the Dems need to go to town on the GOP presumption that Obama must fail and that the country must suffer. Destroy Obama by destroying the country, the economy, health care, the environment, and everything else...that's the big plan for the Republicans.

Good for Waxman coming out and saying it. As Steve Benen notes:

Really? It seems to me Republicans spent the first few months of the year debating amongst themselves whether routing for failure was a good idea.

We're talking about a group of partisans who've argued for half a year now that Democrats are deliberately trying to destroy the country. Waxman suggests GOP leaders are indirectly "rooting against the country" and Boehner's office is once again looking for the feinting couch?

Please.

They're committed to destruction, absolutely...and get all petulant when you point that out.