An Explosive Release Of Hot Air

That loud "thbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt" sound you're hearing is Mitch McConnell on the teevee completely validating my theory from yesterday that the GOP will oppose financial reform no mater what.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Sunday said it was more than just the so-called "bailout fund" that's keeping him from supporting Democrats' financial regulatory reform bill.

The fund to which McConnell refers is a liquidation pool, paid into by banks, that would be used to ensure a collapsing financial firm would not damage the entire financial system.

But when asked if he would support the bill if Democrats removed that fund, McConnell told CNN's "State of the Union" he would still have other issues with the legislation, though he did not say what those qualms were.

"What we ought to do is get back to the table and have a bipartisan bill," McConnell said. "I don't know anybody in the Senate who thinks we ought not to pass a bill, the question is what it looks like."

What McConnell means by "bipartisan bill" is "one written by Republicans that totally prevents the banks from actually being regulated in any way, because that's what the banks expects from us for their fundraising money."

If Friday's notion that Obama is willing to drop the liquidation pool from the bill was a trial balloon to see the Republicans would work with him on this, then that just got blown out of the sky as well.  I'm not sure why Obama wasted time on doing that, but if he was trying to prove that the Republicans have no intention of working with the Democrats on any legislation ever while he's President, then he's done so.

We've known that since 2007 however.  Not real sure what the hell the deal is on that, but there you are.

On the other hand, this also means the Republicans have convinced themselves that they are holding all the cards, that the voters will turn on the Democrats because of the economy and health care reform, and that the GOP can do whatever they damn well please, up to and including demanding total capitulation from a President they increasingly see as irrelevant.  That means the GOP will certainly start becoming more arrogant, cocky, and obnoxious as they become convinced they'll retake the House and even the Senate in November.  Whether or not that is reality remains to be seen.  The Republicans are acting like it's already a done deal.

Then again I have to begrudgingly admit the point that this is looking like Obama playing 11-dimensional chess again while the GOP is playing Crazy Eights with nothing higher in the deck than a four.  Obama's M.O. is to hold out these olive branches to the GOP that always get grabbed out of his hand, set on fire, urinated on and then the wet ashes stomped out and thrown back in his face.  It does make the GOP look childish and Obama does get to pass his legislation anyway...but the bills that do get signed into law get shifted more and more to the right by Obama's offers.

I fully expect the liquidation pool, like the public option before it, to become a casualty of negotiation.   What continues to bother me is like the public option, it could have passed if it has the President's support.  But being sacrificed right off the bat like that meant the White House was never serious about it being included in the legislation either.  As a result, should financial reform pass (and I'm still skeptical on that) then it will not have the liquidation pool in it.

I appreciate Obama passing things like HCR.  The GOP continues to fall for it and Obama keeps winning in the end.  But negotiating away his position of strength for nothing in return is getting tiresome.