Patriotic Extortion

Marty Kaplan
HuffPost

Like religious zealots whose tiny parties hold Israeli governing coalitions hostage, three Republican senators have the Democratic Congress by the short hairs. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, along with Maine's two Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, have improbably been empowered to kosher the stimulus bill - to decide which billions get called pork, and which get the "centrist" seal of approval. And in the political equivalent of the Stockholm syndrome, grass roots Democrats are now being urged by liberal groups to call these senators' offices and tell them what profiles in courage they are.

I don't doubt that it took gumption for Sens. Specter, Snowe and Collins to tell Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that they were going rogue on him. After all, not a single House Republican had the moxie to tell their leader, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), that the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression might be an opportune moment to find common ground with a party fresh from winning the House, the Senate and the White House with the promise to change how Washington works.

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