What we have in the country is an alliance of Democrats and establishment Republicans trying to push a liberal agenda onto the country, over the objections of the people, and with the Wall Street Journal editorial page egging them on. This is clearly illustrated in the recent raising of the debt ceiling which passed with support of all the Democrats in Congress, plus 28 establishment Republicans in the House and 12 in the Senate. In spite of vows by Republicans to insist on conditions to raising the debt ceiling, it was passed without any conditions or even any dollar limits.
When the measure reached the Senate, Mitch McConnell had a deal with Harry Reid that they would just have a simple vote. That would allow all the Republicans to vote against the increase, even though a number of them wanted it to pass. Enter Senator Ted Cruz. He threatened a filibuster and thus blew the cover of Mitch McConnell and the other Republicans who wanted this. That was Wednesday. Thursday morning, Senator Cruz found himself the target of a vicious attack on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, which was very revealing of their editors’ thought processes.
As members of the Republican establishment, the editors of the Wall Street Journal wanted Congressional Republicans to be able to get away with fooling their constituents, and were therefore so mad at Senator Cruz that they could spit. They titled the piece, “The Minority Maker,” and here is what they said:
“The Senate passed the House debt-limit increase on Wednesday, but not before some needless drama that helps to explain why Republicans remain a minority.
“Democrats had enough votes to pass the increase with a simple majority, which means they would have owned the debt increase. But then Senator Ted Cruz—the same fellow who planned the GOP’s shutdown fiasco in October—objected on the floor and insisted on a 60-vote majority.”
So the Wall Street Journal editors believe that Republicans need to fool their constituents into believing they are conservatives in order to regain the majority. Earth to Wall Street Journal: What about the strategy of actually being conservatives? Did it ever occur to you that that might be a better strategy?
Anyway, they went on:
“The 60-vote threshold was reached only after GOP leaders Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and 10 others voted to let the final debt-ceiling vote proceed. All 12 then opposed the increase on final passage, but thanks to Mr. Cruz they had to walk the plank with Democrats on a procedural vote.”
So, according to the editors at the Wall Street Journal, actually voting as they believe was “walking the plank.” Interesting.
And then they wound up with this declaration:
“We’re all for holding politicians accountable with votes on substantive issues . . . .”
This is the most amazing part of the entire editorial. It’s doublespeak. They’re all for holding politicians accountable, but only on what they call “substantive” issues. In other words, they’re all for allowing politicians to pretend they’re for one thing by voting the way their constituents want on the substantive issue while they try to hide their votes on the procedural matters that actually move the legislation forward. Which means they’re actually against holding politicians accountable.
And their final sentence is almost as amazing:
“If Republicans fail again this November, a big reason will be their rump kamikaze caucus.”
In other words, the electorate is conservative, so we need to allow the Republicans in the Senate to hang together in trying to fool their constituents into thinking they’re conservative, so they can win in November.
Their logical twists and turns in defending their position are making me dizzy. They’re approaching Democrats in their proficiency with this skill.
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