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30 March 2009

I know I have said this before, but it just can't be any fun to be a Republican right now. In the face of President Obama's still reasonably robust poll numbers and his TV ratings (his press conference last week drew 40 million television viewers) it can't be fun to be in the political wilderness but it must be even more heartbreaking when your party leaders aren't even proving themselves to be an effective opposition.

As the nation and the globe faces numerous economic challenges of historic proportions, the Obama Administration is working overtime to find effective solutions to the myriad of problems that confront the U.S. and the rest of the world. Last week it was the troubled assets and regulatory reform, this week it is the auto industry and the G20 Summit.

In response, Republicans leaders have offered nothing. Well, almost nothing...

They have offered a "budget". Last week, to much fanfare, the Republican House Leadership rolled out its Republican budget alternative to the President's plan - the "Republican Road to Recovery" which ended up not being a budget at all, but rather a 19-page document that contained no numbers (no revenue, no expenses, no cash flow...) In the face of all the nation's problems, the best they could come up with was some vague proposals, a plan to reduce the tax rate on wealthy Americans from 35% to 25% and a lot of pictures. This left them standing at the podium with no answers and no credibility.

They have offered hyperbole - Republican Senator Chuck Grassley called the President's Budget a "big trend towards socialism," Republican Governor Bobby Jindal called the President's policies "akin to those of European socialism," Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor didn't dispute the charge that the country is in the grips of "fascism," and Republican Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said we are moving "towards a political dictatorship."

They have offered "support" - in the true spirit of partisanship, Governor Jindal has continued Rush Limbaugh's call for President Obama's policies to fail.

They have offered a "strategy" - beleaguered RNC Chairman Michael Steele this week continued his string of embarrassing media interviews, suggesting that his public gaffes have really in fact been part of a larger personal strategy.

Sadly, they haven't been able to offer Sarah Palin, who was supposed to be one of the leading lights of the party because she has been so devastatingly accident and error prone since leaving the limelight. They have offered Senator McCain, who appeared on Meet the Press this Sunday, but even though he was fairly critical of the President, he made more news because he refused to say that he would support Palin if she ran for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012.

The President is in fact feeling the strongest opposition from his own side of politics with the formation of the Moderate Democrats Working Group which was started by former Obama Vice Presidential contender Senator Evan Bayh and hopes to flex its muscle on behalf of fiscal responsibility. Certain Administration policies have also been criticized by progressives like Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, who found himself the front page of Newsweek this week as a result.

Despite the golden opportunity that the AIG bonuses and the fiscal crisis might have created for any other party in opposition, the Republicans have not been able to pull themselves out of their poor poll numbers and things don't look like they are getting any better - keep an eye on the special election on Tuesday in New York's 20th Congressional District.