Posted on 01/22/2010 10:25:12 PM PST by pissant
Golly, I wonder what the reaction in the comments to this bon mot will be.
Gingrich sees the Massachusetts as a boost for his party, but also as a renunciation of go-it-alone by either party, and thinks Republicans would be “clever” to pass a series of relatively non-controversial measures with “huge bipartisan majorities.”
That said, he thinks many Republicans disdain Pelosi so much they simply won’t go along with anything with the speaker’s name on it, even if it serves the party’s larger interests.
“If you are a House member in the [GOP] caucus, I suspect we are about to have a huge argument. We could get clever and work with her…And I think people should work with her… But at that point it becomes a huge problem because nobody trusts her, they distrust her ideology and distrust her because she has run over them so hard…
Insane? Eh, not really. It all depends on how inoffensive the new stripped-down ObamaCare bill is and whether it looks like the Dems really do have the votes this time. If it’s a fait accompli and the reforms are minute, why not take a free kick by voting yes and blowing a hole in the left’s “party of no” crap before the midterms? Then the GOP could boast that not only did it help kill the awful first iteration of ObamaCare, but that when they finally got a good-ish bill, they proved themselves to be “Scott Brown Republicans” or whatever. The problem is, the left is already worried about precisely this scenario and is whining about it to HuffPo:
That the latter strategy [of passing a pared-down bill] is being seriously considered by progressive lawmakers is a testament to how large an albatross health care reform has become for the party. But the worry, for some, is that it could lead to Republicans claming victory.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “will have his whole caucus vote for it and make it a political win for the Republicans,” one well-connected Democratic health care strategist said. “They’ll say, ‘This was the Republican plan from the beginning. We’re glad the Democrats joined us.’ And take all the credit for passing reform.”…
Alternately, some Democrats might welcome such a move. “Hell yeah,” a Democratic congressional aide said. “We would have created a bi-partisan bill. We would have shown leadership. And we’d get credit for that.”
They would get some credit for it, which is the main partisan objection to it on the Republican side. It’s also hard to imagine the circumstances in which Pelosi would need a bunch of GOP votes for a health-care bill. Is she really going to float something that’s so centrist and modest that House progressives would walk away from it, leaving a vacuum for Boehner to fill? I’m skeptical, but if this drags on another week or two and there’s still no clear path ahead for Dems, they might just be desperate enough to try it. The urgent question right now: Should McConnell and Boehner approach Reid and Pelosi with their own compromise plan? At the moment they have as much leverage as they’re every going to get. If they think some sort of legislative accomplishment is important before the midterms, there’s no time like the present to strike.
Elsewhere, my lefty pal Michael Roston is horrified that the Democratic strategist quoted by HuffPo would reduce the health-care issue to such pure partisan politics. To which I say: But why? Hasn’t the goal from the beginning been simply to pass something to placate the left and preserve the Dems’ electoral viability? Politics has always been job one here. Effective health-care reform is an afterthought.
(I mean yuck to the Graham comment not JD beating McCain.)
: )
Newt pulling a McCain, how further out of touch can he be with conservatives? Boggles the mind.
Maybe the Democrats should work with Brown on health care
The Newt of 1994 would bitch-slap the Newt of 2010.
The man’s condition has advanced from “clueless” to “blithering idiot”.
The GOP’s only significance is the “not-Democrat” space filler.
I was pleased that Gingrich recently said - with some anxiety it sounded like - that “The American people are close to ungovernable at the this time”.
Bastille Day is coming!
The tea party movement is the reactor core of modern day politics,from which the energy of conservatism flows. The short circuit manifests itself through the corroded thinking of Newt and his ilk.
Newt,shut up.
Newt;
1994 and the REPUBLICANS had taken control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years.
Right after that Newt starts backstabbing the Republicans because he was being blackmailed by the Clintons with the FBI file revealing his donking his secretary.
Nah, never happened. Newt never turned wussie. Never got blackmailed. Never donked his assistant.
Oh, wait. He was spending his time donking while he was preaching conservatism.
His FBI files must have been chock full of goodies in order for him to make , or have to , make an idiotic statement so soon after Brown’s victory.
Just one more thing pissant,
Yo Newt, eat pooh and die.
Good grief. If there some kind of parasite that infects the brains of politicians who spend too much time in DC?
So what are the economics of the MSM loving you because you cave on Conservative principles and as a result, you get more and more air time?
I believe Gingrich getting a little senile.
If anything they should work with Pelosi to kill the program altogether. Then move on to more important things rather than destroying the best health care system known.
The only thing that Newt is a contender for is the title of “McCain Jr”.
Can any REPUB actually grab victory when it hits them in the face?
And health savings accounts, along with requirements for health care providers to implement full price transparency. Those are legitimate, meaningful and conservative reforms.
Newt is in the middle of the forrest, but he can’t see it because the trees are in the way.
Maybe Newt you should sit on the sofa with Nancy and make out. Keep it off TV.
They will next week according to Congresswoman Bachmann (MN).
Unfortunately the RNC/GOP DC elite class thinks the same.
They dont listen.....
Conservatives want the liberals destroyed politically!!!!! We dont want to compromise, to get along or cave in!
This sound familiar. Her general discussion about it sounded a lot like what the GOP plan was last year. I think the press forgot to report it. Maybe they will next week:>
http://www.gop.gov/solutions/healthcare
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