Obama Smiles by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online
With Hillary ensconced at State, ten Republican senators then voted to install Timothy Geithner at Treasury, a quarter of the party establishment thereby endorsing the enforcement of tax laws by a tax cheat. The decision not to mount a real fight on Geithner was calculated. According to a key GOP senator, as National Review’s Byron York reported, Republicans figured “members of the minority party have just so much ammunition, and using it against a cabinet official who serves at the pleasure of the president is not as wise as saving it to use against, say, a judicial nominee seeking a lifetime appointment to the bench.”
Like Obama’s pragmatism, this is hooey. Republicans just don’t want to fight. Fighting is hard. The other side calls you “partisan” and reminds people about all the times you betrayed the principles you now purport to hold dear. It’s very unpleasant.
It’s hooey for another reason: It represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how a political party obtains ammunition. In short, the more you use, the more you get. When you’re obviously fighting for what you hold dear against the forces of evil, you fire up your supporters, who become more active, more energized, and who, as a consequence, support you more strongly. You also attract the basic American love of the underdog who struggles against great odds.
Dumbasses answering polls may claim they love bipartisanship, but when has Hollywood ever made a successful movie in which the hero was “The Great Compromiser?”
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And the more you use, the more powerful it becomes, so the less you have to use in the future.
If the Democrats knew they were going to face a real fight every time they tried something like this, don’t you suppose they’d be more careful (or at least less blatant) in picking their nominees?