Political Truth and Fact.Com
Neither fair nor balanced, but absolutely factual
Republicans must learn the lesson Democrats just provided
We arrive at a Monday in Washington during an interregnum between Congressional sessions and at a major chasm of political change. Just two years ago, Democrats were taking over Washington with victories from the White House to the House of Representatives, with a swing by the US Senate. The far left owned dominating majorities and the veto pen was safely sheathed.
Liberals stood positioned to impose their will on all Americans.
History will show they certainly tried. Beginning by taking over major auto companies and financial institutions with massive bail outs, liberals moved for government take-over of health care. Republicans, reduced to pitiful minorities, faced circumstances meaning any bi-partisan twitch would be surrender. So Republicans hung together with unified opposition to Obama’s frivolous “stimulus” scam, and then with Obamacare and other measures.
Meanwhile, grass root Americans revolted, found their voice and the grass root uprising known as the tea party movement began. It was powerful.
As a result, voters handed Republicans a major victory in the mid-term elections and thus the nation looks toward January as a dénouement of the current political narrative.
James Lewis, writing in today’s American Thinker asks: “Want to know why the Democrats in Congress are mumbling (obscenities) regarding the president"?
“Want to know why the Cancun mobsters are demanding world power for yesterday's climate fascism?
“This is Dunkirk, folks. It's the Battles of Midway and Gettysburg rolled into one. This is the watershed moment in history.
“This is where the Evil Empire gets its comeuppance. “
Concludes Lewis:“The next few years may be the most historic ones in our lives. “
Lewis is not alone in his evaluation. Carl Hulse, writing in no less a liberal newspaper than the NY Times, says: “As House Democrats met privately to weigh the tax deal negotiated by the White House, an angry chant spontaneously rolled across the room.
‘“Just say no, just say no,’ rebellious lawmakers cried. Vulgar words were aimed at President Obama. Incensed members spoiled for a fight.
“The fury coursing through the meeting last Thursday in the basement of the Capitol was just the latest manifestation of the foul mood of House and Senate Democrats as they suffer through the final days of the 111th Congress, watching their power ebb while scores of them cast their last votes.”
The Times article concludes: “Many are having difficulty adjusting to their abruptly changed circumstances just two years after a triumphant inauguration of a new president who sealed Democratic hegemony over Washington. Deepening the wound is the fact that Democrats are still in charge, yet the White House struck its tax deal mainly with Senate Republicans.“
Thus Democrats stand amid the rubble of the empire they thought was dawning 24 months ago. Their defeat will no doubt usher in major changes in government operations – more than simply a conventional shift in party power.
Republicans provided a matrix on which effective resistance to the liberal wave could be built by ordinary Americans outraged by liberal extremism. But the GOP sweep is a product, not of Republican conversions, but of grass root resistance to far left government ordinary Americans opposed.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a major contributor to the massive defeat of her party. By election day, Pelosi and her policies were as much motivation for emotional opposition to Democrats as were those of Obama himself.
Thus, the great political divide at which we stand today. As much as Republicans might claim they won, Democrats – especially Pelosi and the President – lost. Most of all, ordinary American voters won.
Political equations have shifted, and new rules will govern Washington in the new session of Congress. As they take controls once more, Republicans should keep in mind how the arrogant actions of Democrats angered voters and inspired reaction. Forget back room deals, and comfortable compromise. Voters want action to fulfill the perceived promise of the election. They will be keeping close tabs on the direction GOP leadership takes, and hold them responsible – as they did the Democrats.
So far, Republicans are on the proper path. They should be encouraged to continue.
Buddy
The Day’s Top Political News:
Federal Judge to Rule on Health Law's Constitutionality
WALL STREET JOURNAL: A Virginia federal judge is expected to rule today on whether the Obama administration's health law violates the Constitution, opening a new stage in the administration's defense of its biggest legislative achievement.
The ruling by District Judge Henry E. Hudson is perhaps the most significant so far among a slew of state-based legal challenges to the law, which also faces attack by newly resurgent Republicans in Congress. More than 20 federal lawsuits have been filed against the health overhaul since President Barack Obama signed it in March.
While the cases differ somewhat, they largely rest on the argument that Congress lacks constitutional authority to require most Americans to carry health insurance or pay a fee. The Obama administration counters that three clauses of the Constitution gave Congress the power to put the requirement, known as the individual mandate, in the law as part of regulating how people pay for health care. The Virginia challenge is led by that state's attorney general, Republican Ken Cuccinelli. Separately, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola, Fla., on Thursday will hear arguments in a challenge brought by officials in 20 states. He could offer the clearest indication yet of how he will rule.
Poll: Obama's losing support; Romney would beat him now
McCatchy: President Barack Obama's approval ratings have sunk to the lowest level of his presidency, so low that he'd lose the White House to Republican Mitt Romney if the election were held today, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.
The biggest reason for Obama's fall: a sharp drop in approval among Democrats and liberals, apparently unhappy with his moves toward the center since he led the party to landslide losses in November's midterm elections. At the same time, he's gained nothing among independents.
The poll was taken from Dec. 2 through Wednesday, as the president proposed a two-year freeze on federal civilian workers' pay and cut a deal with congressional Republicans to extend expiring tax cuts — even those for the wealthy, which he'd opposed. Overall, just 42 percent of registered voters approve of how he's doing his job, while 50 percent disapprove.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/10/105105/poll-obamas-losing-support-romney.html#ixzz180B9ir5u
New Appropriations Republicans vow to slash spending quickly
THE HILL: The nine new Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee are united in espousing the new GOP appropriations mantra: make deep cuts to spending, and make them quickly. House Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio) has vowed weekly votes on spending cuts starting in January, and the Appropriations committee will be charged with drafting rescission bills to make that happen.
New committee members interviewed by The Hill on Friday identified unspent stimulus money and the Obama healthcare reform bills as high on their list of targets for cuts. They said a more careful approach has to be taken with defense spending.
Whether the new committee members will, in the long run, remain true to their rhetoric about fiscal restraint is an open question. Some of the GOP lawmakers interviewed expressed some unease with the voluntary earmarks moratorium that Republicans in the House and Senate adopted last month.
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