Looking for votes in all the wrong places

[dcsmart]

The Republicans' criticisms of fiscal stimulus legislation are based on their opposition to any government program that isn't ultimately aimed at putting money in the pockets of the rich. So, asks Alan Maass, why is Barack Obama reaching out to them?


THEY GOT blown out in the last two elections. From control of both houses of Congress and the White House, they now control none of the above. They nearly put their party's leadership body in the hands of a man who sees nothing wrong with a song called "Barack the Magic Negro." And the closest thing they have to a national spokesperson is talk radio jackass Rush Limbaugh.

So why are the Republicans dominating the mainstream debate about the top issue in U.S. politics: economic stimulus legislation. And why--why, why, why?--is the Obama administration letting them?

Two weeks after Washington was packed with millions of people celebrating the inauguration of Obama and the beginning of a new era with Democrats in charge, the Republicans--incredibly--have momentum on their side in national politics.

Yesterday, a second appointment to Obama's Cabinet collapsed in scandal: Tom Daschle, the former leader of the Democrats in the Senate and one of the earliest backers of Obama's presidential campaign among the party establishment, withdrew his name after revelations that he failed to pay $146,000 in taxes, most of it on perks he got from a corporate benefactor. The revelations were a major embarrassment for an administration that promised to hold officials to higher standards of conduct.

The ethically challenged Republicans--though up to their necks in scandal themselves throughout eight years of George Bush--had a field day.

But when they weren't smirking about Daschle, Republicans were filling the airwaves with complaints about the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus package and lectures about the need for more tax cuts for business as the solution to the crisis.

And the mainstream media and the Obama administration let them get away with it.

Now, after a House vote in which every single Republican opposed the stimulus package, the Senate has taken up the proposal, and a group of Republicans and conservative Democrats are reshaping important parts of the legislation to their liking.
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http://socialistworker.org/2009/02/04/looking-for-votes