Matters in Washington are in such an apparently fluid state that this is not a time for extended comment. Followers of RINOcracy.com will know our view that the entire defunding/shutdown/debt ceiling gambit was ill-advised, dangerous and self-destructive. Does President Obama bear some responsibility for the present state of affairs? Of course he does. But the public seems to regard the Republicans as primarily responsible, and the view here is that, sadly, they have it right. We will have more to say about all that when at least some of the dust has settled.
In the meantime, it is Columbus Day, an occasion that need not pass without celebration or at least comment. In 1933, Ogden Nash marked the day with a poem “Look What You Did Christopher.” The poem is a gently satirical history of the nation and its historical development. In 1933, the depression was well underway, but Nash managed to end on a cautiously optimistic note:
The American people,
With grins jocose,
Always survive the fatal dose.
And though our systems are slightly wobbly
We’ll fool the doctor this time, probly.
That may suffice as a thought for the day.
Altho I applaud the efforts of RINOs to save the Republican party from self-destruction and also applaud DM Parker’s blogs, I cannot understand how he or anyone save a Tea Party type can blame Pres. Obama for any part of the recent shutdown and threatened debt ceiling gambit. What did he do wrong–fail to trade away, under Republican pressure, parts of his health care law that his opponents find distasteful? The TP is simply insane on the subject of that law–eve tho many of its adherents would doubtless benefit from some of the law’s provisions. Consider: the health care package was the centerpiece of Obama’s campaign; Congress enacted it; the Supreme Court upheld key provisions of it; House Republicans, acting like spoiled children, have repeatedly voted to overturn it, only to be rebuffed by the Senate. Enough, any sensible person would say. But not enough for the zanies in the Tea Party. They’d rather go down with the ship. May Providence accelerate their descent!
RINOcracy.com has made it clear that the defunding/shutdown/debt ceiling gambits were a mistake from start to finish and has not criticized President Obama for refusing to yield to them. His responsibility for the recent crisis, however, is twofold. With respect to Obamacare, he bears major responsibility for the defective design of the law and the arrogant manner with which it was jammed through Congress. Power plays beget power plays. He also must accept responsibility for the egregious failures in implementing the law, now drawing comparison with President Bush and Katrina. (Indeed, one supposes, President Obama may well have called Secretary Sebelius on October 1 or the day after to say “Heck of a job, Kathy.”) It is ironic that the initial demand for defunding Obamacare quickly became a demand for a delay in implementation of the individual mandate, a delay that the Administration may have to embrace. As for the debt ceiling, Obama’s responsibility lies in his failure to exert leadership in addressing the problem of entitlements, which are at the heart of our fiscal problems. While that failure did not create the need to raise the debt ceiling, it did create an environment in which refusals to increase the ceiling, however misguided, seemed far more plausible and were more likely to occur.
Way back then, when I was still a Republican, the GOP believed in representative government.
Come back and get into the fight. We need you.
History happens because of successful and unsuccessful negotiations.
Leave it to America’s Laureate of Light Verse to revive our confidence. In the system, anyway. It wasn’t all that different eighty years later. For more terrific observations on pretty much everything that matters, we commend to the attention of all RINOcrats, and those other Crats and Cans, this absorbing volume from our beloved RINO-in-Chief: “Ogden Nash — The Life and Work of America’s Laureate of Light Verse.” Available at fine booksellers near you. Or for you value shoppers:
http://www.amazon.com/Ogden-Nash-Americas-Laureate-Light/dp/1566637295
Thanks for the levity, Doug!
Ogden Nash……I think I’ve heard that Name,
Senator Cruz….,he gets all the Blame, & no fame
Doug Parker…….I think I’ve heard him Barker,
Ogdon Nash…….He thinks things lighter, not Darker
Ugggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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