Posted on 01/24/2010 6:08:02 AM PST by Cheap_Hessian
The breathless pace that President Obama set after taking office last January jolted lawmakers from the soporific haze of the final George W. Bush years, revving up dormant committees and lighting up phone lines with a frenzy of dealmaking.
Wielding large Democratic majorities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) relied on their expert vote-counting skills to send Obama 13 major bills and bring an overhaul of the nation's health-care system to the brink of final passage. By Christmas Eve, when the Senate finally adjourned, lawmakers were exuberant, if exhausted.
Then the bullet train screeched to a halt. Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts special election on Tuesday cost the Democrats' their filibuster-proof Senate majority. Obama's biggest priorities -- overhauling health care, expanding college aid, reducing climate change -- are now in limbo, facing dim prospects as Republicans show little interest in cooperating, and Democrats brace for a 2010 midterm election year potentially as volatile as 1994, when the GOP captured the Senate and the House two years after Bill Clinton was elected president.
The agenda, Obama acknowledged Friday, had run into a "buzz saw" of opposition. "It's just an ugly process," he told an audience at an Ohio community college. "You're running headlong into special interests, and armies of lobbyists, and partisan politics that's aimed at exploiting fears instead of getting things done. And the longer it takes, the uglier it looks. . . . I can promise you there will be more fights ahead."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The Washington Post never claimed Democrats were weakening the Republican agenda.
“The agenda, Obama acknowledged Friday, had run into a “buzz saw” of opposition”
Yea us!
Personally speaking I’ve had enough interpretations of the Massachusetts vote this week from Democrats and the President.
Why?
They’re all wrong and misguided. They have no idea what they’ve awaken and how badly they’re going to get destroyed come November.
I remember after the 1994 races there were reports that Clinton staffers pack the Oral Orifice reading off the list of defeated Democrat senators and representatives like a phone book. That was over something relatively minor in comparison like the House Bank/Post Office and the assault weapons ban.
When you’re talking about nationalizing banks, mortgages, autos, trying to take away the free market for health care, jailing people over failing to participate in said plan, taxing benefits, destroying the economy with tax and trade... we all know the list. They’re going to be met with a seismic rejection.
I honestly think all of projections that I’ve seen have been mild. No D in a swing district will ever get away with “but I’m a centrist Democrat” ever again. The population has waken up. They get to DC they are towing the Reid/Peolsi/Zero line.
They OWN everything going wrong. They’ve had the Congress for 5 years now and this was all their doing. Blame Bush is over and is now a laughable footnote no one believes anymore except the communist Kool Aide drinkers.
That sounds like the outline for a hilarious comedy script.
We could have Dick Gregory play the President and Brad Pitt could be his number 1 adviser. Angeline Jolie could play a top Pharmaceutical lobbyist..Whaddya think ?
If it wasn't for the Tea Parties NONE of this would be happening! This is why the conservative agenda must move forward with a resilient determination!
NO MORE RINOS!
You said it before I did! No question about it! Republican’s better understand what this Brown victory means, and why he won.
“...As momentum built, larger bipartisan coalitions would form to tackle more ambitious initiatives.”
what it is is an Ivy League sophomore’s polysci fantasy....
Obama’s “feistyness” will continue to unite Republicans. I just hope the Democrats continue to follow Obama over the cliff.
Like Hitler was , perhaps , too hard on Jews, or the Soviets were , perhaps , too agressive?
Bullet Train ground to a halt?
More like the Hooterville Trolley, clanking and chugging along, overburdened by the weight of printing presses, a steep grade, and hurricane force headwinds when suddenly an 18 wheeler appears ahead hung-up on the tracks. Screeeeeech!
The independents are deserting Obama and the Democrats in droves and without Obama on the ballot the base is less than motivated.
No, that sound like the outline for a successful election cycle for the Democrats. It not only might have worked, it probably would have worked. I'm not saying the policies would have worked -- just that the Democrats could have gotten Republican votes to pass them.
Then, the Republican Party would be in a fix. It couldn't run on what was passed, as it didn't work and/or enraged the Republican base. The Republican Party also couldn't run, as a party, against what was passed, as it would have been passed with Republican votes. Politically, it would have been disasterous for the Republicans. Remeber, a year ago, the pundits were talking about the democrats gaining up to three seats in the Senate in 2010. Before Specter flipped, and before you factor in the unexpied terms of BO, Biden and Hillary, the Republicans were actually defending more Senate seats tha the Democrats.
Fortunately for the Republican Party, the Democrat leadership forgot a maxim of Ronald Reagan, who got a lot done with fewer than 200 seats in the House: There is no limit to what you can accomplish, if you don't care who gets credit for it.
BO, Reid, Pelosi, et al, didn't jut want to win. They wanted to get partisan credit for winning, and they wanted to rub the Republican's nose in their defeat. If LBJ and Sam Rayburn had been in charge of the Democrats in Congress, Obamacare would have passed last May.
I thought the new dem talking point was that the Scott Brown victory was a victory for Obama and a show of support for Obamacare.
The dirty little secret is that the opposition is azr more bipartisan that those that advocate Obama’s Marxist policies. The real problems lies within the Dem party. The Reps can’t stop anything. They don’t have the votes.
“The Reps can’t stop anything. They don’t have the votes”
We do now if the Maine girls don’t whore themselves. And then there’s McCain and Graham to worry about.
“We do now if the Maine girls don’t whore themselves. And then there’s McCain and Graham to worry about.”
They haven’t yet - and did ANYONE out there think that they would stick with the party this long?
The Maine girls now have more power. The only lever they had before was to contribute to “bipartisanship.” Now they can actually be the swing vote.
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