So there’s plenty of commentary flying around about why not a single Republican in the House of Representatives decided to vote for the Obama stimulus package.

Me? I’m with publius:

That’s essentially what the House Republicans did today when they voted unanimously against the stimulus – they went all in before the flop.  And now they too are completely at the mercy of the flop — and fate — with a less than stellar hand.

Frankly, I don’t think it was a completely irrational move considering the circumstances.  The House Republicans’ long-term prospects ain’t good – they’re locked into a declining, southern-centric demographic base getting smaller by the year.  Plus, it’s not like voting for the stimulus will reverse these trends.  If it works, Obama will probably get credit regardless of what the GOP does.  Accordingly, the GOP decided to do something more drastic, and then hope for the best by hoping for the worst.

And it might work.  The flop might save them.  Maybe the economy will get even worse in 2 or 4 years.  If so, the Republicans can stand up and say, “if only we had cut more taxes, if only we hadn’t wasted all this money…”  And who knows?  If the economy continues to tank, that might get some traction.

But make no mistake – it’s an extremely risky strategy.  The GOP locked themselves into a game of Russian roullette today.  If the economy gets better, or if the GOP somehow manages to block it in the Senate, then the Republicans’ unanimous opposition could send the party into the wilderness for a long time to come.  Republicans, remember, picked the wrong horse in the New Deal debate, and ultimately lost control of Congress (with periodic and fleeting exceptions) for about 60 years.

A purely political move, from a purely political party, lacking any real ideas or substance.  What a great match.

And another thing, to borrow another gambling metaphor, this is also like the guy in craps who bets the “Don’t Pass” line.  Nobody likes that guy.

Tags: GOP, HoR

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Some Pulp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.