Legal Commentary

On The Republicans

By Big Tent Democrat

I did not watch much of Governor Bobby Jindal's response last night and frankly, have not paid much attention to what Republicans have been saying about much of anything lately. There is a reason for this - Democrats hold the Presidency and the Congress. Unless the Roberts Court decides to become the Lochner Court, the policies and solutions to our current crisis is in the hands of the Democratic President and Congress. There will be no sharing of the credit or the blame now.

All of the critiques of the Republicans, such as this one from David Brooks, are irrelevant in my view:

JIM LEHRER: Now that, of course, was Gov. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, making the Republican response. David, how well do you think he did?

DAVID BROOKS: Uh, not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I oppose the stimulus because I thought it was poorly drafted. But to come up at this moment in history with a stale "government is the problem," "we can't trust the federal government" - it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic right now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but that idea that we're just gonna - that government is going to have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that - In a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say "government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending," it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. There's an intra-Republican debate. Some people say the Republican Party lost its way because they got too moderate. Some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and so he's making that case. I think it's insane, and I just think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

My own view is that if anyone believes that the developments of the next few years will create a judgment on Republican ideas, they are nuts. It will be Democratic ideas that are judged. If they are found wanting, Democrats will be voted out and Republicans will be voted in. It is that simple.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 25, 2009 (boomark / email).