Method To The Madness

Brian Beutler takes a crack at explaining why Republicans gave in on so much during the lame duck session.

One X-factor in the Dems' run of lame duck wins was the GOP. They didn't exactly make it easy for Dems to do stuff...but they could've made it harder. Much harder. They ceded back hours of time; they handed Dems the food-safety bill after Dems basically botched it; they wrote this high-dudgeon letter vowing to block all Dem initiatives until taxes and spending were resolved, but then basically didn't.

I think there were a few reasons for this. Part of it was that they knew Dems had more time on their hands than most people realized, and were willing to eat into it. Another was that, with the election over, there was little value added to blocking everything, particularly for moderate Republicans.

But Republicans must at some level have understood that some of these things weren't going away. DADT would've stayed on the agenda. 9/11 responders would have stayed on the agenda. DREAM will stay on the agenda. And I'm guessing they made the simple calculation that it would be easier and wiser to give Dems these victories now, rather than fight it out with them publicly next after the GOP takes over the House with a caucus that's divided over these things.

Now the issues are off the table, and that creates more space for them to set the agenda.

It's an interesting theory, but one that has more than a few holes in it.   Lisa Murkowski is a big part of the reason why things went so badly for the GOP.  Nobody could have expected her to basically vote for everything Obama wanted to see pass.  She was an extra vote that nullified Mark Kirk's automatic no, and then Mark Kirk turned around with the President a couple of times.

The real issue was that retiring Republican senators -- and those forced out by Tea Party primaries like Robert Bennett -- told the Republican caucus to go to hell in one final spate of pique.  It wasn't "Republicans were trying to get issues off the table", it was the last of the moderate Senate Republicans telling the Tea Party to go intercourse themselves with a rusty chainsaw.

What goes around, comes around.  That's what happened.  Obama used these departing senators to get things done.

Oh, and Republicans wanted to just go home already.  So yeah, they folded.  They figure they have a much larger and nastier hand to play come January, and they're right.  Besides, the Village was beginning to actually call the Republicans out on stopping Obama's agenda just to spite him, especially on the START treaty (and eventually the 9/11 first responders legislation too.)  Those were lose-lose battles for the GOP and DADT repeal was going that direction too.

They did cut their losses, but Republicans broke ranks for the first real time with nothing to lose anymore.  Obama won the lame duck big time.

All the more reason to expect Republicans will overplay their hand to exact their pounds of flesh come January.