Boehner was onboard with Obamas initial deal but cited his caucus as the reason he backed out of it. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 26/07/2011 01:39:27 AM
The stampede of Congressmen from both parties leaving DC because they can't stand the downright vicious bickering and hatred argues that the environment you speak of no longer exists. As does a leading candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination demanding Congressional investigation into Obama for un-American activities just a few years ago. Beating "them" is now officially more important than the countrys well being; that's why Boehner couldn't get a spending cut/tax hike deal that balanced the budget and reduced our debt: Cantor and Co. wouldn't let him. It's also why the only way Obama can get Republicans to agree to any "deal" is to grant all their concessions while getting none in return.
The 'stampede' wasn't particularly big, people do decide from time to time for normal reasons to leave office and you make it sounds like a couple percent of them retiring represents a mass exodus. Of those that did retire, some did for age or health as the primary reason, and mumble on about their golden years and how things used to be with the exact same accuracy as anyone else. A lot of them got out because they knew they had little chance of being re-elected and campaigning is exhausting, particularly if you've an uphill battle, but they'll also be happy to mumble on about 'the way it was' particularly since it gives them an excuse not to admit to themselves and others that they got out before they got kicked out. Times do change though, and I think most of it is simply what I said, spotlight and observer effect.
Now, to the rest, spare me, you just get done talking about how vicious politics has become then launch into a vicious and utterly partisan rant, which is like 90% of your posts. You didn't criticize any Dem up there and when you do criticize one you hammer at them for not being partisan enough, so pot meet kettle.
Likewise, how many bills has Obama passed without giving into all Republican demands in exchange for nothing? The TARP that they helped him pass then lambasted him for signing? The carbon copy of the Bush stimulus bill they passed unanimously but pilloried when Obama duplicated it? Do you contend I'm misrepresenting the facts? That Bachman wanted to investigate Obama for anti-American associations when he was a Senator, or that she's only running 2 or 3 points behind Romney in most GOP presidential polls? Yeah, I think Republicans are mostly (though not exclusively) in the wrong here, but you tell me:
1) Am I accusing anyone of anything they didn't do?
2) Am I misrepresenting their actions as anything save what they were?
If the shoe fits, wear it, and if you don't like how it chafes that's your fault and not the cobblers for picking the wrong one.
To be fair, a lot of the change is in the Senate specifically; the House has often been little better than a kindergarten since at least as far back as the Civil War, but in a way that's the problem: These days the once calm, deliberative and (dare I say it) statesmanlike Senate seems anything but. On the rare occasions a Senator does buck the party line it can earn him the fate of staunchly conservative Bob Bennett, who lost his job essentially because he didn't mark in lockstep with a GOP he supported 90% of the time. A lot of recent retirees (and this is what makes it most striking) were or are in no danger of defeat, but left anyway, specifically citing DC partisanship. I waited for a Republican Congressman to condemn Bachmanns thinly veiled accusations of treason against Obama the way Margaret Chase Smith condemned fellow Republican Joe McCarthy in the '50s. That moment never came; instead, Republicans may nominate her to run against him for the presidency. I'll leave it with the linked article in which Evan Bayh, in many ways the poster child for such Senators, remarks on doing just that two years ago; pay particular attention to his comments about a bipartisan debt reduction commission that was stillborn because people who'd supported it refused to vote for it because of (according to Bayh) purely partisan reasons.