How to Block The Liberal Agenda

Skull Pilot

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Nov 17, 2007
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Kimberley A. Strassel: How to Block the Liberal Agenda - WSJ.com

Washington, meet Barack Obama. Barack Obama, remeet the Republican senators who are now going to help define your presidency.

Democrats won big on Tuesday but not big enough. The voters' rebuke of the GOP was brutal, though not so cruel as to hand Mr. Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid the 60 votes they needed to grease a sweeping agenda. The GOP still owns a filibuster, and that is as big a factor in this new "era" as is our president-elect.

Democrats, who now officially own 55 seats, are still salivating over that distant 60. But Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is holding on, and Georgia's Saxby Chambliss is positioned to win a run-off. Norm Coleman in Minnesota is in for an ugly recount, but he starts with a lead. If Mr. Reid goes postal on the McCain-supporting Joe Lieberman, Republicans could also find themselves with occasional help from the liberated Connecticuter.
[How to Block the Liberal Agenda] Associated Press

Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi.

These numbers aren't an accident, but instead say something about America's interest in a check on the Democratic majority. Mr. Obama won Oregon by 15 percentage points, yet thousands of his own supporters pulled the lever for Republican Gordon Smith, who lost narrowly. In Minnesota Mr. Obama won by 10, yet Mr. Coleman leads. Alaskans appear to have voted for a felon in part to deny the left a supermajority.

The biggest Republican victory this week was in fact that of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose considerable tactical skills will now be in even greater demand. Democrats have a healthy fear of Mr. McConnell's abilities, one reason Chuck Schumer chose to divert $6 million into the long-shot Kentucky race, rather than keep it in say, Minnesota, where his boy Al Franken is now losing.

Mr. McConnell's strength has been putting up a principled opposition, without earning the reputation for Tom Daschle-like obstruction. And from the sounds of his opening statement this week, his game plan is the same, only with higher stakes. Mr. McConnell "stands ready" to hear Mr. Obama's "ideas for implementing his campaign promises of cutting taxes, increasing energy security, reducing spending and easing the burden of an immense and growing national debt." Note he is not standing ready to negotiate on eliminating union secret ballots, nationalizing health care, enacting a climate program, or over-regulating the financial industry.

Nevertheless, Mr. Reid is closer to 60 votes than he was before, and he is already strategizing about which Republicans to pick off on specific issues. At the top of every list is Maine's Olympia Snowe. Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter is up for re-election in 2010. Susan Collins and Mr. Coleman (should he return) will also be targets. And Mr. McConnell will have already lost those battles for which he was dependent on a veto, such as more funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Then again, the minority leader has several things going for him. Congressional Democrats will overreach, as they are already doing. (House liberal Henry Waxman is moving to unseat fellow House liberal John Dingell -- who he doesn't find liberal enough -- from the Energy and Commerce committee.) This means tension with a President Obama, who may not be so eager to throw out his "bipartisan" image on Day One. Republicans can sit back to watch that fight.

Democrats also can't depend on President Bush to save them from themselves. All but one of Mr. Reid's 51 caucus members voted last year to proceed with legislation eliminating union secret ballots, and all 50 knew it would never become law. Mr. McConnell has his own list of vulnerable Democrats who he -- with the help of the business community -- will remind of the electoral consequences of enacting a measure hated by 80% of the country, according to polls. Maybe Nebraska's Bill Nelson, who hails from a right-to-work state, will vote to allow his constituents to be bullied by union thugs. Or, when it comes down to it, maybe not.

Mr. Obama and his party are meanwhile now the sole political proprietors of a major financial crisis. Revenues will contract, even as Mr. Obama promises tax cuts. That alone may temper ambitions on issues like health care, which Democrats may now have to approach piecemeal. But also expect to see the GOP rediscover a devotion to fiscal responsibility. Any Democratic proposal, for anything, will elicit howls of "deficit spending." Some Republicans are actually looking forward to January.

And let's not forget that the left has spent eight years helpfully showing Republicans how they might make life difficult. Democrats have insisted a filibuster for judicial and cabinet positions is "essential" and that a president "must" consult with the opposition. Mr. Obama himself voted to filibuster Bush picks. They don't call these things "precedents" for nothing. Democrats have also highlighted procedural tools that the right could now use to slow Senate business to a slug's pace.

So yes, it is a new day in Washington. Just don't go thinking it will be an easy one.


Break out the popcorn and beer, this is going to be a great fight.
 
The fact that this election was a Democratic sweep was not an accident. If the Republicans choose to simply act as an impediment, there will be a 60+ Democratic Senate in 2010. The Republican Party has failed miserably in every field for the last eight years. Two failed wars, a huge deficit, an economic debacle that is beginning to look like the Second Great Republican Depression. Do you think that this will be forgotten in only two years?
 
OK so the repudlicans using dimocratic tactics of the past 2 years is somehow more egregious than when dimocrats act as obstructionists.

Once again what's good for the pachyderm isn't good for the donkey
 
Obama needs to do what Reagan did. Reagan went on tv and told us to call our politicians and tell them what we want. So we would call our senators and representatives and flood their telephones and presured them to do what Reagan wanted. The Dems controlled the Senate back then and that's how Reagan got his way.
 
The fact that this election was a Democratic sweep was not an accident. If the Republicans choose to simply act as an impediment, there will be a 60+ Democratic Senate in 2010. The Republican Party has failed miserably in every field for the last eight years. Two failed wars, a huge deficit, an economic debacle that is beginning to look like the Second Great Republican Depression. Do you think that this will be forgotten in only two years?

I think it's time to completely evict the Republicans from Congress.
 
Obama needs to do what Reagan did. Reagan went on tv and told us to call our politicians and tell them what we want. So we would call our senators and representatives and flood their telephones and presured them to do what Reagan wanted. The Dems controlled the Senate back then and that's how Reagan got his way.

HA

we saw how well the pols listened to public opinion with the bail out. The voters overwhelmingly objected but we got it shoved down our throats (or up our asses) anyway
 
I think it's time to completely evict the Republicans from Congress.

You know that the idiots on here who talk about the repubs obstructing everything haven't a clue about politics. The repubs will work with Obama to fix the budget. Obama is not a stupid man and he knows his plans have to be scaled back to realistic monetary proportions.

The repubs need to be there. But they need to be the smart ones. The freaking loonies need to go home because they've been repudiated as having any solutions right now because the country saw what they did over the last eight years.

Before the 2010 election, you will probably see a lot of blaming obama for not solving all of bush's problems in the first two years. They will be either rewarded for that if Obama doesn't speak to the needs of the electorate. Or they will be punished even more.
 
You know that the idiots on here who talk about the repubs obstructing everything haven't a clue about politics. The repubs will work with Obama to fix the budget. Obama is not a stupid man and he knows his plans have to be scaled back to realistic monetary proportions.

The repubs need to be there. But they need to be the smart ones. The freaking loonies need to go home because they've been repudiated as having any solutions right now because the country saw what they did over the last eight years.

Yeah, but the republican party has been shrunk to its loony core essence - the NeoCon and Rightwing christian base. Almost all the moderate republicans in congress have been defeated and kicked out of office.

Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter might work with Obama.

Jillian, do you think the rightwing kooks who are left standing are going to do anything but obstruct? Maybe you're right, some of them will work on bipartisan issues
 
That's it skull, screw America and push your conservative agenda over country first. Too bad that that is what put US in this mess.
 
You know that the idiots on here who talk about the repubs obstructing everything haven't a clue about politics. The repubs will work with Obama to fix the budget. Obama is not a stupid man and he knows his plans have to be scaled back to realistic monetary proportions.

The repubs need to be there. But they need to be the smart ones. The freaking loonies need to go home because they've been repudiated as having any solutions right now because the country saw what they did over the last eight years.

Before the 2010 election, you will probably see a lot of blaming obama for not solving all of bush's problems in the first two years. They will be either rewarded for that if Obama doesn't speak to the needs of the electorate. Or they will be punished even more.



translation, he bald faced lied to us about our tax cuts didn't he?


I hope your politicians know more about PR. and unity building than you do..



from one idiot to another I'm jez saying
 
That's it skull, screw America and push your conservative agenda over country first. Too bad that that is what put US in this mess.

What?

Conservative agenda?

Please, there hasn't been a real conservative anywhere near Washington in the last decade.

Will the real conservative please stand up? - Opinion - USATODAY.com

the truth is we might be in another progressive moment in American politics, where both parties represent the same basic assumptions about the role of government, leaving conservatives out in the cold.

What is progressivism? For our purposes, let's just say it's the belief that the government "runs" the whole country, imposing its values on the group, the way a teacher runs a class or a drill sergeant runs a platoon.


Big government conservative'

The 2000 GOP convention's theme was "Prosperity with a Purpose," and in Bush's acceptance speech he insisted that "American government was made for great purposes." In some ways, Bush was ripping off Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose campaign was a homage to Teddy Roosevelt and the need for Americans to unite in a "cause greater than themselves."

And while the war gets most of the attention, it has hardly escaped notice that the president is a proud "big government conservative" championing everything from government-funded marriage counseling to a new prescription drug entitlement to the federal government's intrusion into education.

In 2003, Bush declared that "when somebody hurts, government has to move." More recently, he explicitly rejected William F. Buckley's dictum that conservatives should yell "Stop" to ever-expanding government, saying instead that he believes conservatives must "lead." This makes for an interesting prologue to the 2008 election.




Please don't make the mistake of confusing GW or any repudlican with a conservative
 
Kimberley A. Strassel: How to Block the Liberal Agenda - WSJ.com


And let's not forget that the left has spent eight years helpfully showing Republicans how they might make life difficult. Democrats have insisted a filibuster for judicial and cabinet positions is "essential" and that a president "must" consult with the opposition. Mr. Obama himself voted to filibuster Bush picks. They don't call these things "precedents" for nothing. Democrats have also highlighted procedural tools that the right could now use to slow Senate business to a slug's pace.

So yes, it is a new day in Washington. Just don't go thinking it will be an easy one.


Break out the popcorn and beer, this is going to be a great fight.

Its one thing to block if the proposed legislation is unpopular but another to block when the legislation is popular. The first things up in an Obama administration will likely be the tax package, economic stimulus, plus energy. If republicans act to block any they will likely be skewered. As stupid as conservatives are I doubt the republican party will act in a manor that will cause them to loose still more seats. Look for hands across the isle, more bipartisanship, and lots of kumbiah. Save your popcorn and beer for a football game...
 

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