House Republicans are Falling Apart. Democrats Coming Together

Writing by on Sunday, 14 of January , 2007 at 9:03 am

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This story just makes me giddy. Now that the Republicans are out of power, and for the most part, the Gestapo that ruled them for so long has lost election, or under indictment is gone, and the fact that the White House is thumbing it’s nose at the Military and the American people on Iraq, Republicans are starting to act like individuals, and that is causing the Republicans to fall apart.

From the Washington Post (bolds are mine)

House Republican leaders, who confidently predicted they would drive a wedge through the new Democratic majority, have found their own party splintering, with Republican lawmakers siding with Democrats in droves on the House's opening legislative blitz.

Freed from the pressures of being the majority and from the heavy hand of former leaders including retired representative Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), many back-bench Republicans are showing themselves to be more moderate than their conservative leadership and increasingly mindful of shifting voter sentiment. The closest vote last week — Friday's push to require the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare — pulled 24 Republicans. The Democrats' homeland security bill attracted 68 Republicans, the minimum wage increase 82.

"You're freer to vote your conscience," said Rep. Jo Anne Emerson (R-Mo.), who received an 88 percent voting record from the American Conservative Union in 2005 but has so far sided with Democrats on new budget rules, Medicare prescription-drug negotiations, raising the minimum wage and funding stem cell research. "Or, really, I feel free to represent my constituents exactly as they want me to be."

"Times have changed. I don't want to be someone who they say is too stubborn to change too," said Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), whose 92 percent conservative rating did not stop him from voting with Democrats on the homeland security and minimum-wage bills.

After their stinging defeat in November, Republican leaders in the House had gamely promised to draft procedural motions and parliamentary gambits that they said would split the new majority. With so many new Democrats hailing from moderate-to-conservative districts, even some Democrats saw the pledge as plausible.

In theory, Republicans have made good on their promises. Republicans argued vociferously against Democratic measures over the past two weeks, saying new deficit-control rules would guarantee tax increases, stringent homeland security measures would cripple commerce, and a minimum-wage increase would hurt the economy.

Man I love it when the smug Republicans fall on their asses. You know they were a failure as a majority, proving to Americans that they could not govern, and not it looks like they can not even be an effective Minority.

Technorati Tags: Failed Presidency, Government, Life in Bushs America, Republican Culture of Corruption, republicans

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Category: Life in Bushs America, Failed Presidency, Republicans, Republican Culture of Corruption, Government

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