Eugene Robinson: Democrats learn no good deed goes unpunished

[bigtree]

3/20/2010

WASHINGTON — If health care reform finally staggers across the finish line, it will be because President Obama and congressional Democrats recognized — at long last — the truth that has been staring them in the face for more than a year: They'll be better off politically if they just try their best to do the right thing.

No matter what the Democrats attempt or how they go about it, Republicans are going to complain, obstruct and attack. That's the inescapable lesson from this whole exercise, and it's hard to fathom why it took so long to sink in. The Democrats looked ridiculous, sitting around the campfire and singing "Kumbaya" while the opposition was out in the forest whittling spears and arrows.

As if to prove my point, some Republicans are already talking about trying to repeal the reform bill even though it hasn't yet been passed. This hardly seems in the spirit of bipartisanship — which the GOP, with cynical but skillful rhetoric, has elevated into some kind of saintly virtue.

You have to admire the GOP's chutzpah. George W. Bush governed like a steamroller as he enacted his radical initiatives — massive tax cuts, a huge shift in the balance between privacy and security, an unprecedented "big government" takeover of education policy, an expensive and unfunded Medicare prescription drug program.

But the moment the Republicans were out of power, they discovered a moral imperative for the majority party to do everything in a bipartisan fashion. Democrats, mindful of polls showing that party affiliation has dramatically weakened over the past generation, were all too happy to oblige. In their first big legislative exercise — the $862 billion stimulus bill — the new president and the new Congress bent over backward to incorporate Republican ideas such as tax cuts. But of course, no good deed goes unpunished: More than a year later, the GOP is still attacking the stimulus as if it had been crafted by Chairman Mao.


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[sufrommich]

1. I love Eugene Robinson. he always cuts to the quick. nt

[RKP5637]

2. I hope the Democrats have learned by now the Republicans are obstructionists to everything. n/t

[Donnachaidh]

4. it's doubtful. I'm beginning to think Dems are so self-involved they'll do

*anything* to polish a "legacy". And that includes completely forgetting the will of the people. All to look *presidential* in future history books.

What they don't seem to *get* is the fact that some of those forgotten voters will be the ones WRITING those future history books. :evilgrin:

[WillyT]

3. What Eugene Said...

"The poll numbers started to turn around when Democratic leaders took a stand. Having the courage of one's convictions: What a concept."

:kick:

And Rec...

[Lex]

5. "it's hard to fathom why it took so long to sink in"

Absolutely. I mean, WTF, Democrats? Talk about looking clueless and incapable of leading the country.

[ldf]

7. its all posturing

they know.

they wanted to throw up enough cover to say they tried for "bipartisanship", yet at the same time, through the "give and take" of "bipartisanship" reduce the bill to nothing more than a pale imitation of what it SHOULD be, because that is what the corporate masters want.

what they will NOT allow is a single payer, or public option. THAT much you can bank on.

they know exactly what they are doing.

[kenny blankenship]

6. They'll be better off politically if they just try their best to do the right thing.

That was my advice to them a year ago. Not just because doing the right thing by Democratic Party principles is the right thing for the country and what they're pledged to do for the party rank and file, but because in this case it was also the best tactic politically. So just take your majorities and be the party you say you are. The Republicans made their opposition to everything clear from day one, and frankly if you couldn't see that was how the Republicans would react you're too stupid to be in this business.

Bipartisanship = breathing life into a dead & despicable fascist movement.

[Moochy]

8. doing the right thing is so pre-partisan

Obama is doing the post-partisan thing. You know, like continuing renditions, afghan war, protecting the corrupt afghan heroin trade, staying in Iraq, ignoring the torture war crimes, appointing a meek corporatist Attorney General who was the former council at Chiquita Banana, Rahm Emmanuel, loving reagan, pining for his bipartisan support across the aisle, promising health insurance lobbyists that there would be no public option, going on fox and badmouthing the left while sucking up to the right.

[bigtree]

9. .

[eridani]

10. Doing the right thing is apparently forcing us to pay protection money

--to useless sociopaths who ought to be put up against a wall and shot, not given a trillion dollars.

[glowing]

11. Speaking of Medicare Part D, my R congressman was on the t.v machine

saying people were mad about Medicare Part D... bunch of drivel.. so I'm a "no" vote. The lies coming out of his mouth were disgusting.. and he's one of the ass hats who made Part D possible. AND the last time I looked, that had to do with medicare. Had he been truthful, he would have said the bill closes the donut hole. Seniors would love that little tid bit.