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How seriously are outside conservative groups opposing the debt ceiling compromise negotiated in part by Republican Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell?
Not very seriously, it seems. Ultra-hardliner Erick Erickson, the proprietor of RedState.com, appeared to praise the compromise just days after he said he could offer “no absolution” on a debt deal.
We’re not going to get a better deal now. The GOP is scared of its own shadow. At least, however, at least . . . at least we may get some real entitlement reform.
Lastly, the tears of the left on this are delicious. For that alone, I want to support this deal. But because of the foregoing reasons, I can’t support this deal. However, it could be worse.
Rush Limbaugh came out with a very similar tone this afternoon on his talk show. In the first few minutes of his show, Limbaugh stated that “I’d love to support [the compromise deal]… there are supposedly no tax increases in it,” before eventually going on to say he doesn’t actually support the plan.
The wishy-washy criticism is telling – it suggests that even hard-line conservatives like Limbaugh and Erickson understand the power of their influence, and the consequences of their actions.Could it be that somewhere, beyond all the rhetoric of the previous months, they understand the repercussions of lobbying hard against the compromise? That in such a frenzied and rushed scenario, they recognize that a harder line in opposition to the deal could change a few ‘yes’ votes into ‘no’ votes, and cause a real blow to the U.S. economy?
More difficult to understand is the position of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who after a long delay announced Monday morning that he opposed the deal:
“As president, my plan would have produced a budget that was cut, capped and balanced – not one that opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense cuts on the table. President Obama’s leadership failure has pushed the economy to the brink at the eleventh hour and 59th minute. While I appreciate the extraordinarily difficult situation President Obama’s lack of leadership has placed Republican Members of Congress in, I personally cannot support this deal.”
Almost every other position taken by conservative groups seems easier to comprehend. Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform can sign off on it because there are no certain tax hikes. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce can sign off because the alternative – the failure of the compromise bill – would be devastating to its members.
And yet Romney seems to have less cognizance of what his position would mean if actually put into effect than Limbaugh or Erickson. This would make little sense, unless he figures that no one really believes that he opposes the debt ceiling bill, or that he has little influence over its passage.
This evening, Republicans and Democrats in the House are expected to vote on the compromise bill. Seems like we’ve reached an odd juncture when that the more responsible thing to do would be to listen to the better angels of Erickson and Limbaugh – which at least recognize the advantages of the deal – than to Romney’s dismissal of the plan.
C’mon Tim, you’re giving Mitt too much credit. The reason he opposed is because he’s running in the GOP primary and sounding insane is par for the course. Now, if he DOES become president, then his tune will change markedly.
Now there’s a chilling thought: imagine that Romney was president during this so-called “crisis,” and vacillating wildly between pandering to the corporate paymasters and in the next breath the screaming hordes of teanuts who would be holding his re-election hostage along with the economy. He’d probably be incapacitated by the severe whiplash. Whatever one might think about Obama’s leadership on this, at least it wasn’t a minute-to-minute guessing game and he wasn’t beholden to the tea hordes for his re-election. Heck, Romney couldn’t even stick his neck out until it was clear how the vote would go today and he knew he could safely pander shamelessly. Yet another GOP ‘leader’ (snicker).
Equivocate much?
You know your country is going belly up when people like them are asked for their opinions.
Romney’s obviously pandering to the Tea Party which still demands that the deficit must be eliminated immediately, not when the economy recovers. That a long term plan just is not good enough. The Tea Party does not support this plan, nor do they yet believe that would cause any economic harm to the nation or our families. As one Tea Party leader said today, the government can do what families do when short of cash: pay some of the bills and let the rest slide.
Yeah, great way to run a country. The US is not Argentina! The richest nation on the planet with a $14+ Trillion economy does not just pay some of its bills while letting others slide.
Yet, these are the people Romney feels he must impress by going along with their misguided, economically illiterate ideas to obtain the GOP nomination. Unfortunately, he’s probably right if he wants to win the nomination since they in combination with the Religious Right now control the party.
Gods, it just sickens me that the once Grand Old Party which can claim so many historically great leaders has declined so far to pander to the most ignorant as though those people were somehow special as well as being morally and intellectually superior. I wonder what Sen. Margaret Chase Smith would say were she to come back from the dead to see what has happened to her party? Now, she was a true leader and not afraid to speak her mind or blast her party when they were wrong.
“…the once Grand Old Party which can claim so many historically great leaders …”
Name two besides Lincoln and Eisenhower, both of whom have questionable Republican credentials. And Ms. Smith, whom you have already mentioned.
I ask for two because I know you will head your list with Reagan, whose Republican credentials were also marginal, and who could not win any Republican primary today.
unless he figures that no one really believes that he opposes the debt ceiling bill
Ding ding ding we have a winner.
Even for Romney this is beyond cynical. The man is nothing but ambition in a $2,000 suit, there is nothing else there.
He is just taking the opposite view because he cannot be for something that Obama is for. There is no thought or logic here. Just a knee jerk reaction to oppose Obama.
Romney is always pulling something out of his magic hat, so who cares? If he is the GOP’s frontrunner they are in doo-doo. He is very unappealing, very untrustworthy, very indecisive…. which means he has no chance at becoming President.
they have magic “hats” too?! Sheesh, how many *other magic garments to Mormons have? I have a pretty spell binding pair of sun-glasses, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call them magic. I’m definitely worshiping at the wrong alter.
Romney, Limbaugh, what’s the difference?
There’s no such thing as a moderate Republican. There’s Jim DeMint, and there are his enablers.
“More difficult to understand is the position of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who after a long delay announced Monday morning that he opposed the deal”
*Laugh!*
Why is it “difficult to understand” that MITT ROMNEY is trying to tell GOP primary voters what they want to hear..? He does it all the time after all.
BTW, his canned statement (“As president, my plan would have produced a budget that was cut, capped and balanced – not one that opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense cuts on the table. President Obama’s leadership failure[...]“) sounds like it was generated by a computer program based on poll tested input.
MARCU$
Romney is toast. Keep your eyes on Rick Perry.
Perry is the only potential GOP candidate who can stop Michelle Bachmann from winning the nomination.
Neither would have any chance at all against Obama in the general election.
I agree. Rick Perry is just as bad as Michelle Bachmann to me. Makes me shudder to think of it…
It’s almost too funny….Romney will be the nominee…of a party that hates him. Just like his arch-nemisis John McCain, Mitt will lead a rabble that despises him and tolerates him only because he is not “that damn Kenyan”. Mitt makes John Kerry’s windsailing skills look amateurish and after he saw the tea cons school both parties, Mittens knows he has to has to get a lot more Bachmann….fast.
My sense is that Bachmann is basically locked in to be the VP candidate no matter who the eventual nominee is (unless it is she herself). She is looking to be a Goldwateresque figure.
Anyone will be better than Odumbo. Come Jan 2013, we’ll have a GOP White House and Senate, so we can wipe our debt clean, correct 40+ years of socialism that almost destroyed us, and get ready for the social upheaval when the “entitled” no longer get their entitlement checks.
Word.
“Word.”
And anyways, what’s wrong with Limbaugh? He’s been around almost 20 years and still has high ratings. As for the liberal alternatives, well, think Air America. Har!!
Reasonable people can disagree; perhaps $1.44 trillion of the debt was created under Pres. Obama’s watch, after Pres. Bush created $5.07 trillion; or perhaps $1.4 trillion should be credited to Obama, and $7 trillion to Bush.
(Self-link; alas, we can’t post charts here anymore: http://www.poisonyourmind.com/2011/08/the-republican-party-created-the-deficit-and-the-debt/ ).
We know that the part of Dick “Deficits Don’t Matter” Cheney doesn’t care about the deficit, because they told us they don’t care about the deficit, and because they showed us that they don’t care about the deficit.
Thanks for the chart!
LOL Like we did under 8 years of Bush? Learn to read. They hide facts in books. You won’t find them by watching Fox “we had to apologize over 1000 times for getting the facts wrong in 2010″ News.
As for winning back ANYTHING in 2012? again learn to read and check out ALL polls. Unless a credible candidate comes out of the wood work? The GOP may be headed back to the forest after the last month of the worst decisions since they gave Bush/Cheney a blank check.
Don’t feed the troll. It posts only to get a reaction, and every time you provide one, you just get more and more stupidity.
trs, I thought you had me on “hide”?? You are the joke, and your hero will be repudiated next year.
Shoo, fly.
Word up! Even though 40% of Americans have their hands out like a Euro socialist wannabe, 60% of us will hold onto what our founding fathers fought for– freedom in all its forms, primarily capitalism that rewards achievement. Look what the past 40 years has given us! People looking for the gov’t to solve their problems instead of their own selves, families, friends, churches, etc. Charity is robbed, as there is no giver/receiver relationship with the government. Just a worn out trail to the mailbox, feeling entitled to that monthly check. Despicable. Obama touts the worn out phrase, “Shared sacrifice.” Who is sharing in it? The bottom half aren’t even sacrificing ANY of their income toward income taxes! I’d like to hear a “thank you” from them instead of their greedy rhetoric. Cut, cap, and balance; drill our own oil; shrink government and remove unnecessary federal programs trying to do what the states can do themselves, like educate our kids!
Wow, you have been taught how to use cliches very well.
Is Romney pulling a Limbaugh?
I think that’s against his religion.
“He’s been around almost 20 years and still has high ratings.”
Ah, yes, high ratings are the sign of worth. Which is why “Two and a Half Men” is superior to Shakespeare.
LOL!
The rudderless vacillation of blowhards like Erickson and Limbaugh are fantastic reasons for the public and especially politicians to ignore them.
Would that someone could invoke the spirit of Edmund Burke in the modern GOP…
Winners and losers | News Global TV // Aug 2, 2011 at 7:45 pm
[...] leader Mitch McConnell as winners for actually doing the deal; Mitt Romney as a loser for shamelessness in condemning it, but my choices are more [...]
Winners and losers | NewsGlobal TV // Aug 2, 2011 at 11:01 pm
[...] leader Mitch McConnell as winners for actually doing the deal; Mitt Romney as a loser for shamelessness in condemning it, but my choices are more [...]