Republicans emerge, briefly, from their cave

Posted by Greg Laden on September 28, 2008
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The waiting is over. Republican house representatives initially reluctant to support the newly crafted legislation to fix the markets have been meeting for the last two or three hours. It took a lot longer for these Republicans to go over the bill than it did for the Democrats, owing I assume to their reduced intelligence.

So, after meeting for a few hours, they’ve come out of the meeting and are being rather mealy mouthed about the results. On one hand, they are claiming to support the package, but only if they can blame the failing economy on Obama. Always blame it on the black guy. OK, I’m only kidding about the ‘black guy’ part, but you KNOW this is what they are thinking.

As they describe their position they seem to be suggesting that they will be introducing significant changes in the legislation, which I assume will be brought to the floor of the house at a later time and not forced into the present bill. On the other hand, it appears that they are going
to continue meeting. In the end, we really don’t know what they are going to do.


It is interesting that a major and possibly irreparable rift has developed within the Republican leadership over this issue, which appears to be delicately knit together for the time being. The question now is this: Can this hold through perhaps Wednesday by which time the bill could possibly be passed by both houses and signed into law? Or is the renegade faction going to Balk … tonight, tomorrow, later in the week …. and throw the markets into a dive once again.

Of course, Congressman Boehner did take the opportunity during the brief press conference to lie twice about McCain’s role in negotiating this deal.

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Comments

  1. #1 tbell1
    September 29, 2008

    dude, i don’t really see how this fits into the ongoing cultural/political axe grinding. I can’t stand the republicans, but I don’t see how a little reluctance to hand over 7*10^9 dollars on demand is somehow evidence of the cave-dwellin nature of the conservatives…
    It’s a cheap shot.
    Everyone ought to be damn well skeptical when we’re talking this kind of dough. And I’d dearly love it if my supposed representatives, the democrats, would make sure to include some oversight and regulation with teeth in this massive bailout, since it seems apparent that it is the lack of oversight that has permitted this fiasco.

  2. #2 Stephanie Z
    September 29, 2008

    tbell1, this is McCain’s legacy in dealing with the bailout. The House Republicans were whining about not being included in discussions of the bailout. McCain waltzed in off the campaign trail, looked around for something he could do, and said, “Sorry, guys. I know you’re close to a consensus and all, and I know the House Republicans haven’t really decided what, if anything, they want to see happen here. Still, I think you really need to pull them into this, ’cause…uh, just ’cause.”

    This is the result: a bit of a delay, no changes and the promise of future posturing. W00t.

  3. #3 Greg Laden
    September 29, 2008

    the cave-dwellin nature of the conservatives…
    It’s a cheap shot.

    Hey, wait a minuted there. As an archaeologist I’ve excavated caves and as an ethnographer I’ve lived in them. Living in caves is a good thing, and that was not a slur. Calling them stupid, that was a slur. (But can it be a slur if it is true?)

    Keep in mind that the original Republican plan was to remove oversight. These troglodytes do not get credit for being more responsible because they spent one hour instead of two reaeding a 120 pag document after seven years of out of control irresponsibility. Don’t you think?

  4. #4 tbell1
    September 29, 2008

    well, you’re right of course that the Republicans bear most of the responsibility. I guess I just didn’t think they deserve any extra abuse for taking a bit of time. And you’re also right that it just amounts to posturing. it just that I fear that this opportunity to put in regulation is going to be passed over because of very real time pressure to make a decision. And dang it, i meant 7*10^11 dollars.