Republican Congressman Blasts GOP: Party Caters To ‘Extremes,’ Is ‘Incapable Of Governing’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/30/611651/republican-congressman-blasts-gop-party-caters-to-extremes-is-incapable-of-governing/

Republican Congressman Blasts GOP: Party Caters To ‘Extremes,’ Is ‘Incapable Of Governing’

By Judd Legum on Jul 30, 2012 at 9:17 pm


Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) is fed up with the GOP.

Hanna singled out Michele Bachmann’s “suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin be investigated to see if she has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood” as an example of a party that has gone off the rails.

The Syaracuse Post-Standard has the story:

“I have to say that I’m frustrated by how much we — I mean the Republican Party — are willing to give deferential treatment to our extremes in this moment in history,” he told The Post-Standard editorial board.

…“We render ourselves incapable of governing when all we do is take severe sides…” he said. “If all people do is go down there and join a team, and the team is invested in winning and you have something that looks very similar to the shirts and the skins, there’s not a lot of value there.”

…“I would say that the friends I have in the Democratic Party I find … much more congenial — a little less anger,” he said.

BuzzFeed reports that Hanna is not alone and “moderate members of the House GOP conference feel that Boehner, who has struggled with an often raucous and openly defiant right wing, has forced them to go along with conservative demands but has provided them little in return.”

This isn’t the first time that Hanna, who was first elected to Congress in 2010, has been critical of the Republican party. At at women’s rights rally in March he advised the crowd to “contribute your money to people who speak out on your behalf, because the other side — my side — has a lot of it.”

[G_j]

1. K&R

[DevonRex]

2. Oh wow. I'm speechless. Is he staying

with them hoping they'll change back to what they used to be? Or will he switch?

[rurallib]

3. here's a little secret congressman: your party doesn't want to govern

haven't wnted to since Ford.
What they want is to not let Dems govern and have access to the treasury so they can pass it out to their friends.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Yep. Their job is to wreck and plunder, or at least make us so frustrated at

government's inefficiency and inadequacy that we let them dismantle it piece by piece.

[rickford66]

5. He's my Congressman

He's very conservative but not a nut job or lunatic. Still way too far to the right for me.

[Smilo]

6. He sounds more like

a Conservative of old - right wing, but not off the scale right wing we see today.

[Ikonoklast]

9. Nothing wrong with that, just as long as he retains his principles.

You can deal with a person who arrives at his beliefs in a rational manner, they can actually be persuaded to come around to a different viewpoint using facts as a basis for argument.

The others are all just plain freaking nutcases whose higher thought processes are non-existent, and facts just conflict with their view of reality.

[rickford66]

10. I recently found out

He says we need to have "safe" gas drilling (hydro-fracking) in the Southern Tier of New York, but he's invested in gas companies. The pro-drillers around here proclaim "It's not about the money" and we know when they say that, "It's all about the money."

[Roy Rolling]

7. bullseye

He will now be targeted by Super PACS to be replaced with a Teabilly candidate.

[caraher]

8. The comment thread at the original newspaper article is revealing

The original article was on the Syracuse Post-Standard web site. The comment thread pretty much reinforces every point Hanna makes...