Can You Trust the Republicans?
By Robert Parry
February 27, 2009
If you watch the pundits on cable news or read the big-name newspaper columnists, you will find a general consensus that the national Republicans are returning to their core principles in their near-unanimous opposition to President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill and other proposals.
Republicans are taken at their word when they claim to be motivated by ideological consistency in opposing Obama’s “big government” solutions to America’s economic troubles, not by a political desire to strangle Obama’s presidency in the cradle.
Despite this Washington “conventional wisdom,”
there is a growing sense across the United States that the Republicans are lying about their motivations, that their real reason for trying to obstruct Obama is not principle but political opportunism, that they want the President to fail so they can succeed at the polls.One of the most telling responses to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll was what people said in answering Question 44: “Do you think {Republicans} opposed {the stimulus bill} mostly because they thought it would be bad for the economy or mostly for political reasons?”
Sixty-three percent of respondents cited “political reasons” and only 29 percent believed the “not good for the economy” explanation from the Republicans. This two-to-one margin suggests that the Republicans are suffering from a serious credibility gap.
snip//
In my three decades as a Washington-based journalist, what I have witnessed is a Republican Party that has grown increasingly arrogant about its ability to twist reality into any shape of its choosing – and to get lots of gullible people to go along.more...
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/022709.html
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