GOP Hypocrisy is Mind Boggling

I liked it better when Congressional Republicans merely said "No!" You knew where they stood. Now they've determined it plays better to say "Yes!" -- till no one's looking, then it's back to "No!"

You can admire or deplore administration policy but com'on, at least make a pass at honesty. Republicans accuse President Obama of running up deficits, but the last three Republican presidents added $8.5 trillion of the $10.7 trillion debt amassed since Reagan took office. Bush 43 alone, after inheriting a balanced budget from Bill Clinton, added $3.5 trillion in new debt and handed off a trillion dollar plus deficit to Obama. Republicans had six years under W. to pass their own version of health care if they really gave as much a damn about it as they now claim. And Republicans, like Dick Cheney, have slammed the administration for its handling of Christmas bomber Umar Abdulmutalla, but he was handled precisely the same as Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and dozens of other terror suspects under Bush.

GOP congressmen blast the $862 billion stimulus, yet every time a grant is awarded in their district, they're right there in their hardhats for the photo op. Republican legislators who once supported a variety of bills from cap and trade to immigration reform to closing Guantanamo have reversed course as part of their leadership's Hammer Obama Strategy. Nine Republican senators cosponsored the bipartisan deficit commission and another four supported Pay (as you) Go legislation until they were endorsed by the president, then voted "No!" John McCain and others who once stated they would follow the chiefs of staff ' recommendation on Don't Ask Don't Tell now have decided the generals don't know what they're talking about.

Republicans accused Democrats of being out of touch with voters when they couldn't muster the 60-vote super majority (pre-Scott Brown) required to pass nearly anything of significance. Last I looked Senate Democrats have 52 to 55 predictable progressive votes out of 100 on any issue, reflecting the same 53 percent of the votes President Obama received in his 2008 landslide. So where's the "out of touch" thing? It's not Democratic senators that are out of touch, it's the archaic Senate rules permitting a two-faced, obstructionist minority to bind up the system like a geezer who ate too much cheese.

This is not simply partisan opposition in the American tradition but a strategy of intentional gridlock to sabotage majority rule, discredit the president and drive a perception that government doesn't work, all to advance Republicans' nihilistic philosophy of unregulated, buccaneer capitalism at the expense of the citizenry.

For the good of the country, Republicans need to start acting a little less like bratty teenagers and more like a serious opposition party.