House Republicans Are Juvenile
I was struck by this piece in the National Review Online. The National Review is, as AmericaBlog notes, the father of the modern conservative movement. For the National Review to take Republican members of Congress to task in this way is remarkable.
From the National Review piece (linked above):
I consider Nancy Pelosi to be one of the worst political figures of my lifetime: hyper-partisan, small-minded, and wrong on issue after issue. And I thought her speech on the House Floor yesterday — tearing into the president and Republicans when her job was to rally support for an economic rescue plan — was extremely unwise and irresponsible. It set exactly the wrong tone for a tough vote. But the assertion by Republican leaders in the House that as many as a dozen of their members who were leaning toward voting for the legislation ended up voting against it because of Pelosi’s speech is extraordinary.
Let’s see if we have this straight: whichever side of the issue you were on, yesterday’s vote was considered one of the most important ones members of Congress will ever face. Many respected voices argued that an economic catastrophe might follow in the wake of its defeat. Opponents of the legislation considered it a terrible violation of free-market principles. The stakes could not be higher.
After the legislation was defeated and only one-third of House Republicans backed the plan, John Boehner and Roy Blunt took to the microphones and indicated that Pelosi’s speech had been so alienating and offensive that a significant number of House Republicans changed their mind and voted against the bill.
Can they be serious? Do they realize how foolish and irresponsible they sound? On one of the most important votes they will ever cast, insisting “the speech made me do it” is lame and adolescent. The vote, after all, was on the legislation, not the speech. And to say that a dozen members of your caucus voted not out of principle but out of pique is a terrible indictment of them. I hope we learn the names of these delicate figures whose feelings were so bruised and abused.
I have been defending House Republicans for a week against friends who thought they were acting in an irresponsible fashion. I argued they were people with admirable free-market principles who were simply trying to improve legislation and have their voices heard, something to which they were certainly entitled. And I thought they made the bill better than it was. But yesterday’s vote, and the excuses that followed the vote, have made me reassess my judgment. Watching Boehner, Blunt, and Cantor blame the outcome on the Pelosi speech was an embarrassment.
We are in one of the most dispiriting moments I have ever witnessed in Washington, when political authority seems to be collapsing all around us. House Republicans have contributed to this, and it’s a shame.
As I mentioned yesterday, Nancy Pelosi could have been more politic in her speech yesterday. Yesterday wasn’t the time for a speech like the one she gave. But the notion that a mean speech could make House Republicans vote against a bill that their leadership all said was needed is just, well, asinine. Is the House of Representatives high school? “I didn’t vote for the bill because the nasty Speaker was mean to me.” How idiotic. House Republicans yesterday were irresponsible, foolish, and juvenile.
Maybe so–but the reality is this–the congress is controlled by Democrats. They allegedly want this bill to pass–they failed. They have no leadership to blame for this than their own. For B. Frank to claim the Republicans are at fault is simply idiotic. The only reality is that Speaker Pelosi didn’t really want this albatross of a bill to pass unless she could later blame Republicans for its passage–so she needed her own party to vote against it in large numbers.
They talk about bi-partisanship–but the reality is that this bill is once again more about poltical gain than actually helping America. And yet–it seems that this Country may be ready to elect a person who wants nothing more than to increase the Government’s involvement in our lives, our decision making and our businesses.
Wow! Really—-Wow!
You’re correct that Democrats hold a majority in Congress. You’ll also note that two-thirds of Democrats voted for this bill while two-thirds of Republicans voted against.
But the Republicans’ leaders are the ones who went to the press and said that Pelosi’s speech so alienated their colleagues so that they couldn’t vote for the bill. That’s pretty juvenile in my book.
There is a right time to say something and there is a wrong time. Pelosi should not have delivered such a partisan speech. Whereas what she said was true it was not wise to say it at that moment, but in no way was her speech the reason the bill did not pass. Those that were on the fence were looking for a reason to jump off and they used her words as the reason and that only showed cowardice.
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I agree with you, Muses. Pelosi shouldn’t have given that speech. She should know that discretion is indeed the better part of valor. She’s always had a problem with that.
It was cowardly, embarrassing, and juvenile that the Republicans jumped away because Pelosi was a little mean to them. They need to grow up.
Pelosi cannot be blamed for the republicans whimpering away – what are they ‘girly men’?
Last McCain went to Washington and DECLARED that he had rounded up the House republicans and they were ready to do his bidding – WHAT HAPPENED with McCain’s clout?
George Bush called all 17 elected officials from Texas and only FIVE voted the way he requested.
Neither McCain nor Bush has any clout in their party and their own party smacked them in the face – that’s the problem.
Speaker Pelosi’s speech was, inarguably, the wrong speech at the wrong time.
However, I can’t imagine that anyone was actually going to back the bill and changed his/her mind because of Rep. Pelosi’s partisan twaddle.
Yes, Rep. Boehner said it, but I’m pretty sure that he was just trying to score points against Rep. Pelosi. He’s a partisan hack, too, after all. He was trying to explain his failure to get the votes by blaming it on Speaker Pelosi.
That’s my take, anyway.
I love Barney Frank’s response:
That’s a great response, Rutherford. It was a ridiculous thing for Boehner to say.