The Blame Game

With respect to the Republican House behavior, I don't know what's happened to the Corner and other conservative commentary we layman rely on. The Speaker's comments just before a critical, nervous, tight vote was not only "extremely unwise and irresponsible" but incredibly stupid and incompetent in its blatant partisanship. Especially since Ms. Pelosi needed Republican votes so she could shield her own committee heads from having to vote Yes to the legislation. To her, this important legislation was nothing more than a handy way to diss the Republicans and win more seats and the Presidency this November.

In politics, as in business and every other walk of life, the personal is important, and the Democrats have routinely savaged the Republicans for partisan gain ever since Paulsen proposed the bailout. And, as John McCain attempted to help (at the request of both Democrats and Paulson), they upped their rhetoric to stratispheric levels, even to the point of telling the sitting Senator from Arizona to get out of town! Has this ever happened before? Has any Senator ever been told to get out of town by the political leadership of the opposing party just prior to one of the most important votes facing the Republic in my lifetime?

Statesmanship is important, and Republicans have always had to carry this burden due to the Democrat's congenital lack of moral fiber. But the fact is, neither conservatives nor anyone else knows whether or not this legislation would even work. Under these circumstances the argument for statesmanship is decidedly weak. When Social Security went negative in the 80's, Ronald Reagan dumped his economic and political principals and signed off on a huge increase in Social Security taxes. That's statesmanship, but statesmanship in the service of something that, whatever its problems and ramifications, would at least fix for a time the central problem facing the Government and the American people. This Bill bore no such certainty of fixing anything - it was simply audaciously hopeful.

The Democrats have spent a week now trying to gain political advantage from this crisis, and the Republicans have spent a week trying to be statesmanlike and solve the problem. Nancy Pelosi's speech was just the latest salvo in the Democrats electoral partisanship and made it plain that Republicans are expected to take a knife in the gut in the supposed patriotic protection of their country, while Democrats reap great electoral rewards.

They have the majority; this is critical legislation; the Republican President is ready to sign what they put before him. It's time for the Democrats to show statesmanship, and if they don't, it's time for National Review and other conservatives to stick the blame where it belongs: with the Democrats. This outrage against Republicans has got to stop.

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