Search This Blog

Friday, December 10, 2010

Do the Democrats Really Think Defeat Helps?

In the past week, the lame duck Democrats who still control the congress have tried and failed to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; they have attempted passage of the Dream Act, another likely failure; they have tried to derail the compromise on tax rates announced by Obama, although passage still seems likely; and they have tried to pass an omnibus continuing resolution to fund the government on an ad hoc basis for the rest of the year, a total failure of the budgeting process. Each of these is a big failure for the Democrats. Taken together it is a wholesale rejection of most of the liberal wish list.

The Democrats, however, are throwing themselves into these losing efforts with gusto and, in some cases, with venom. The question, of course, is why are they doing it? They know that their efforts will fail, but they persist. They know that the failures anger key constituencies of their party, but they persist. They must know that they look like the Keystone Kops, but they persist.
One thing that the Democrats are doing is making it easy for the new Republican House. After the implosion of the Democrats, nearly anything the GOP does will look good.

No comments: