GRAND OLD PARTY OF HYPOCRISY

From the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

New Figures Reveal Aggressive GOP Obstructionist Strategy

Using obstructionism to defeat or delay an opponent's agenda is nothing new in Washington. Over the past five years, there have been more than 260 threats of a legislative filibuster in the Senate. But the numbers suggest that with Democrats now in power, such tactics are dramatically on the rise. Sixty-four times this year legislation has come before the Senate requiring 60 votes or more to pass - almost twice as many as all of last year, when the balance of power was switched, and nearly three times as much as 2005.

With more than three months left to go in the current Congress, the U.S. Senate has already seen 45 cloture motions -- measures introduced by a senator requiring a 3/5 majority to end debate. Twenty-three of these motions have been rejected. In addition, there have been 19 votes - such as that on the Webb amendment - in which the Senate has voluntarily agreed to work along a three-fifths threshold, thereby avoiding the cumbersome process of invoking cloture (which requires a 30-hour waiting period). Last year, such a procedural move occurred just twice.

Combined, these methods of forcing super-majority votes have made the current Congress a paradigm of political gridlock. Among the legislation that has succumbed to natural and pseudo-filibustering are amendments to advance stem cell research, a bill that would have reduced the cost of attending college, multiple pieces of legislation designed to facilitate a drawdown of troops from Iraq, and a provision that would have allowed the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with drug companies.

Click here for the rest.

Atrios and Kos have been hitting this issue pretty aggressively for the last couple of weeks or so, and I've stayed out of the debate primarily because wonkery is not my strong suit. But these essays keep hitting the internet, keeping the issue fresh in my mind: I'm realizing that Republican hypocrisy isn't simply about sexual issues; it's about everything. Take "states' rights" for instance. When the GOP controlled only the White House, and at times not even that, for much of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, they pushed "states' rights" as an important political issue. Once they completely took over in 2001, not only did this trademark conservative issue fade into obscurity, the federal government began to actively oppose states' rights on everything from physician assisted suicide, to gay marriage, to health care. In the end, it was all about where they were able to exert the most control, and back in the day, that was at the state level.

I could go on and on, but there's no need. This issue about filibustering, which was branded by Republicans as being anti-American just two years ago, but is now their legislative bread-and-butter, proves the point. The bottom line is that, when all is said and done, Republicans don't believe anything. Their views are shaped by and for the moment, and once they've done their job, they're abandoned. Power is the Republicans' sole unifying ideological principle.

If only the Democrats had the balls to point this out. But then, they don't believe anything either, so why should I even hope?

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