How Far Will the Party of "No" Go in 2010?

It started shortly after the election of President Obama and spread like a disease during the health care debate last summer. If the democrats wanted it, the republicans didn't. Opposition became stall tactics, then scare tactics, then all out obstruction. No matter what the democrats suggested, the republican answer was "no." The republicans are acting like sore losers.

This is not the first time in American history that opposing parties have held control over the Congress and the White House. But it is the first time that the minority party has done everything in their power to bring the legislative process to a screeching halt wherever possible.

Who does this serve?

The republicans seem to think that it will serve them in the 2010 mid-term elections. The assumption is it's better to vote for a do-nothing, obstructionist than a democrat, right?

As it has been in previous elections, voters often pull the lever for the lesser of two evils. Or they vote for anyone - as long as they are not the incumbent. Negative voting, like negative political advertising has its charms.

However, if this strategy does prove successful for the republicans, what will we really end up with? Will the newly elected suddenly bolt down the halls of Congress with packs of legislation stuffed under their arms - eager to vote for everything?

Or will they continue to find excuses to buck the president on all modes of progress just because he is a democrat and they are not?

If it weren't so dangerous, this sore-loser attitude of the republicans would be funny.

But the people being hurt by the Washington games are not laughing. And wouldn't it be an ever-bigger surprise if in 2010, they weren't voting either.

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