With GOP self-examination, is Washington becoming less dysfunctional?
Are Republicans rebranding or rethinking?
By E.J. Dionne Jr., WashPost, Published: February 6
Rebranding is trendy in the Republican Party
Rep. Eric Cantor gave a major speech Tuesday to advance the effort. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wants the GOP to stop being the “stupid party.” Karl Rove is setting up a political action committee (it’s what he does these days) to defeat right-wing crazies who cost the party Senate seats.
But there’s a big difference between rebranding and pursuing a different approach to governing.
The good news is that some Republicans have decided that the party moved too far to the right and are backing off long-standing positions on tax increases, guns and immigration. Their new flexibility, combined with President Obama’s new post-election aggressiveness, is producing a quiet revolution in Washington. The place is becoming less dysfunctional.
Congress has already passed a substantial tax increase, Republicans avoided a debt ceiling fight, and the ice is breaking on guns and immigration.
The mixed news: A lot of the rebranding efforts are superficial yet nonetheless reflect an awareness that the party has been asking the wrong questions, talking about the wrong issues and limiting the range of voters it’s been addressing.
(More here.)
Rebranding is trendy in the Republican Party
Rep. Eric Cantor gave a major speech Tuesday to advance the effort. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wants the GOP to stop being the “stupid party.” Karl Rove is setting up a political action committee (it’s what he does these days) to defeat right-wing crazies who cost the party Senate seats.
But there’s a big difference between rebranding and pursuing a different approach to governing.
The good news is that some Republicans have decided that the party moved too far to the right and are backing off long-standing positions on tax increases, guns and immigration. Their new flexibility, combined with President Obama’s new post-election aggressiveness, is producing a quiet revolution in Washington. The place is becoming less dysfunctional.
Congress has already passed a substantial tax increase, Republicans avoided a debt ceiling fight, and the ice is breaking on guns and immigration.
The mixed news: A lot of the rebranding efforts are superficial yet nonetheless reflect an awareness that the party has been asking the wrong questions, talking about the wrong issues and limiting the range of voters it’s been addressing.
(More here.)
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2 Comments:
ReBranding, ReThinking or ReUpholstering
MeThinks it is reupholstering … GOP is taking their comfy, old sofa and putting some new shiny fabric on it --- and Cantor is just the one to do it.
Think back to the STOCK Act … it never got a vote in the House … Tim Walz should be ashamed that he accepted Cantor’s substitute plan which was definitely weaker and that got the vote.
Watch for what happens with the Violence Against Women Act … the Senate will no doubt pass it’s version which has bi-partisan support - complete with improvements for Native Americans, gays, and others … Cantor is working with Tom Cole (R-OK and a member of the Chickasaw Nation) over wording that will address the Native American issue without empowering tribal courts' with full civil jurisdiction which could impact non-Indians … then Cantor will bring that bill up (ignoring protections for immigrants and LGBT victims), get a vote, and then he can push it back to the Senate and say “we’ve passed a bill” so don’t blame us.
Cantor’s speech Making Life Work (which happens to be a book which advocates how the Bible can be the basis of your life) went after reforming Federal Education policy. The reform is to advance charter schools --- to allow monies to flow based on the student and not to a school system … this was a policy proposal that Romney embraced.
MeThinks that this ReUpholstering job needs to be ReJECTED.
BTW ... here is a link to the transcript of Cantor's speech.
If healthcare is an issue that you care about, note his assertion :
ObamaCare has unnecessarily raised the costs of our health care. Even those who have pre-existing conditions could get the coverage they need without a trillion dollar government program costing us all more.
Hmmm.... yep, "could" is the key word ... notice missing is the word "affordable".
Cantor should know that 1.7 million non-elderly Virginians have been diagnosed with pre-existing conditions
that could lead to denials of coverage, absent health reform per the GOP often-cited research experts at The Lewin Group.
Cantor said his remarks in the context of advocating for the repeal of the Medical Device tax. He brought a guest to the speech citing the need for the repeal ... the "guest" happens to be an employee of the Towson Orthopedic Association ... do you think that they want the tax repealed but still have patients covered ?
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