Former Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) told MSNBC today, “(T)he republican party is undergoing some, you know, significant and serious changes and they are going to have to rethink their approach as a political party and how they are going to regroup and become a governing majority party that appeals to a broader group of Americans than they do today.”
Senator Snowe represents what the Republican Party used to be. She doesn’t agree with Democrats on much, but she’s a reasonable person who actually enjoyed doing her job for the people and she could operate in a bipartisan manner. While her advice is spot on, it doesn’t look like there’s anyone home to receive it. The Republican Party has been infested with ‘parasitic’ fringe tea party ideologues, who personally benefit by obstruction. (How else could a bunch of know-nothings survive and even thrive against establishment Republicans who actually know a bit of history.)
Watch here via MSNBC:
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MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown started with a clip of Bob Dole’s indictment of the GOP:
Bob Dole: I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says closed for repairs.
Kristen Welker: Well, you just heard Bob Dole say that he thinks your party should undergo repairs. How much responsibility do you think your party bears for the dysfunction on capitol hill and do you agree with bob dole?
Olympia Snowe: I certainly do agree with the former majority leader, Bob Dole with whom I worked when I first entered the senate and who was a consensus builder and understood what was essential and important for the Republican party brand what was important for America and that unfortunately has been lost today on Capitol Hill and yes, Republicans do bear responsibility and do the democrats, you have to work together and obviously, the Republican party is undergoing some, you know, significant and serious changes and they are going to have to rethink their approach as a political party and how they are going to regroup and become a governing majority party that appeals to a broader group of Americans than they do today.
It doesn’t seem likely that the Republican Party will take her advice, nor that of Bob Dole, given the infighting that is preventing them from even agreeing on their own policies and strategies.
You see, the Republican Party is now run by the “parasitic” “fringe” of “hopeless ideologues” whose survival depends upon the perception that Republican leadership is too prone to moderation. This is particularly evident in the House. To wit, a recent article titled, “The Cabal that Quietly Took Over the House”:
For decades, the group (Republican Study Committee ) was seen as a parasitic anomaly—a fringe organization of hopeless ideologues surviving off the perception of undue moderation among Republican leadership. Several previous speakers had bullied or ignored it, and one even dissolved the RSC in a quest to squelch internal dissent. For decades, the committee’s membership rolls were thin, and internal GOP debates didn’t matter much anyway, because the party was in the minority.
But the 2010 midterms—thanks to an influx of ideologically charged lawmakers converging with an increasingly conservative GOP—changed everything. More than 60 of 85 GOP freshmen joined the Republican Study Committee, giving the group a record 164 members. The committee known as “the conservative conscience of the House” was now, for the first time in history, a majority of the House majority.
That infestation of parasites has now hit Snowe’s former body of the Senate. It is the know-nothing Tea Party (paid well with corporate cash to fake ignorance in case they don’t come by it naturally) versus the Republicans who actually want to get something done, and might even know how to do that.
The reason Republicans refuse to move forward with a budget process is that the “parasitic anomalies” known as the fringe are fighting for control of the Senate now. Last week the New York Times broke it down:
In full view of C-Span cameras trained on the floor this week, Senators John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine jousted with a new generation of conservatives — Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky — over the party’s refusal to allow the Senate to open budget talks with the House despite Senate Republicans’ long call for Democrats to produce a budget.
Not only will Snowe’s advice go unheeded, but it doesn’t look like the country will get an agreement to enter into the budget reconciliation process from the alleged “fiscal hawk” party. Republicans spent years screaming about a budget and the deficit. Now that the deficit is improving under Obama, and the Democrats have done their part on the budget, Republicans can’t get to the table because the parasites are running the clown show. All they can do for you is pretend it’s 1998 again, and spend all of your money investigating trumped up charges against a Democratic president.
Republicans are incapable of governing. They can’t even govern their own party, let alone the House. And now the Senate is falling victim to their absurd parody of conservatism.
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