WSJ: The Minority Maker -The clever GOP strategy for defeat in November

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008226

If Republicans lose control of Congress in November, they might want to look back at last Thursday as the day it was lost. That's when the big spenders among House Republicans blew up a deal between the leadership and rank-in-file to impose some modest spending discipline.

Unlike the collapse of the immigration bill, this fiasco can't be blamed on Senate Democrats. This one is all about Republicans and their refusal to give up their power to spend money at will and pass out "earmarks" like a bartender offering drinks on the house. The chief culprits are the House Appropriators, led by Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of California and his 13 subcommittee chairmen known as "cardinals." If Republicans lose the House--and they are well on their way--Mr. Lewis deserves the moniker of the minority maker.

For weeks, the Republican Study Committee, a group of fiscally conservative Members, had been negotiating a spending outline with the House leadership. But when they finally struck a deal last week, Mr. Lewis refused to go along and threatened to defeat the budget on the House floor if Speaker Denny Hastert brought it up. With Democrats opposing the budget as a matter of party unity, GOP leaders gave up and left town for Easter recess without a vote on their budget blueprint for 2007.

<snip>

A category five political storm is building in GOP precincts around the country, and it is going to blow Republicans right out of the majority in November if they don't soon give their supporters some reason to re-elect them. So far this year they've passed limits on free speech that liberals love, but they haven't been able to extend the wildly successful 2003 tax cuts by even a mere two years. And now they won't even allow a vote on budget reforms that their own President and a majority of their own Members support.

At the current pace, a Democratic majority in Congress would be preferable, if only for reasons of truth in advertising.

[AX10]

1. We will need a category 5 storm to overcome any chance....

of voter fraud.

In a fair election, the Dems could get 35 seats.

[ClintonTyree]

2. "Wildly successful 2003 tax cuts".....

:wtf: Wildly successful for the top 3% of Americans, yes. For everyone else it's been business as usual. :eyes:

Jerry Lewis has been nothing since he and Dean Martin split. He should stick to telethons and leave politics to those who can handle it: The Democrats! :rofl:

[Cassandra]

3. "wildly successful 2003 tax cuts"

wildly successful for them, of course. For the economy....not so much.

[ieoeja]

4. Only the WSJ would think that THIS is the factor.

How many people give a rat's ass about wasteful spending by the Conservatives? Ronald Reagan made voodoo the official centerpiece of his '80 campaign, but anyone with at least half a brain knows the Iranian hostage situation caused the problem.

In many ways we have Iranian militants to thank for our being in Iraq right now. Carter is the only president since before Truman to attempt a major shift in US foreign policy to a less intrusive one. He negotiated the return of the Sinai to Egypt and accepted the will of the Iranian people when they ousted the Shah. So how did the Iranian militants respond? They violated the most sacred law in international diplomacy by taking over our embassy.

The result? US foreign policy became more intrusive than ever before and has remained that way even after the Cold War.

[ClintonTyree]

5. Jimmy Carter.....

he was the ONLY Democrat my dyed in the wool GOPer Mother ever liked. "He was such a good man"....but she voted for Reagan. Twice. :eyes: