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Republicans are Now Just Furniture

by Ben Hoffman

Arlen Spector, one of the last moderate Republicans announced today that he is switching parties and will run for reelection next November as a Democrat. Once Al Frankin is seated, which is expected to come later this week, Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority. This means that the radical-right will be virtually powerless! Republicans have been reduced to furniture. Noisy, and somewhat smelly furniture that moves around, but they are furniture!

Happy days are here again, the skies above are clear again…

Posted on April 28, 2009 at 2:14 PM in Education, Politics   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL

10 Comments to “Republicans are Now Just Furniture”

    
  1. LOUDelf
    April 28, 2009 at 2:27 PM

    I’ll have what you’re smoking. One party rule is good?

    Reply
  2. jonolan
    April 28, 2009 at 2:29 PM

    Sadly – for you – you’re wrong. Specter is not ideologically aligned with the Dems on many, many core issues. It’s doubtful that he would side with the Dems on those issues; therefor still no proof vs. filibuster on those issues.

    Sadly – for me – Specter is not ideologically aligned with the GOP on many other core issues. This means that it’s been doubtful he would not, even as a titular Republican, not side with the Dems on those issues.

    Frankly I think the whole Specter thing is a non-issue.

    Reply
  3. Anok
    April 28, 2009 at 3:03 PM

    The GOP has swung so far to the right they are alienating an entire section of moderates. They will be their own undoing.

    And Good riddance.

    Oh, and loudelf, not being able to filibuster each and every option on the table just because it was offered by a Democrat or Obama doesn’t mean it’s a one party rule. They can still participate politically, they’ll just have to actually interact, and perhaps even compromise with the other side of the aisle. Imagine that, cooperative efforts to create change that will improve the country.

    How Awful!!

    Reply
  4. Ben Hoffman
    April 28, 2009 at 6:21 PM

    Specter has always been a moderate. He voted against the impeachment of Bill Clinton, is pro-choice, voted against CAFTA, and of course, was one of three Republicans who voted for Obama’s stimulus bill. He’s a good man. He’s never been a ditto head for the Republican party and won’t be for the Democrats, which is exactly what we want: balance.

    Reply
  5. Mark Stoneman
    April 28, 2009 at 7:01 PM

    I don’t see Specter becoming a rubber stamp on many things, but I think you’ll see him go along with the Democratic majority on key issues. Keeping 60 senators on the same page is never an easy task, even if they are all affiliated with the same party.

    Reply
  6. LOUDelf
    April 28, 2009 at 7:33 PM

    Anok,

    You’re kidding, right? The only reason any party that dominates the legislative and executive branches don’t go completely wild in bill-passing frenzy is the threat of a filibuster by the minority.

    At least during 6 of the last 8 years, there was the speedbump of a filibuster, and often to avoid it, there were negotiations. Now there won’t be that. VERY scary indeed.

    Were it the Republicans to have this same situation, I’d be equally as scared.

    Reply
  7. Anok
    April 28, 2009 at 7:55 PM

    Loudelf – filibusters aren’t the only thing that “keeps a party in check”. Cooperation and compromise work well, too.

    Simply said, there isn’t a one party system here, there is a two party system, with one party willfully sitting out because they keep stumbling over their own party ideologies to the point of alienation.

    There are still two parties in DC, the Republicans just have to interact with the other party. Democrats are more than willing (and have shown that in the past) to compromise and work with reasonable Republicans, across the aisle.

    Right now, they’re simply trying to block each and every proposal on the table because they do not want to cooperate one iota, based on partisan political games. Now they’ve lost the ability to filibuster like a small child stubbornly saying no to everything mommy says, even if it is an offer for ice cream and cake.

    Reply
    • LOUDelf
      April 28, 2009 at 8:20 PM

      Anok,

      You have a very short memory if you want to paint the Republicans as THE uncooperative party. It appears you have been drinking a little too much blue Kool Aid…

      The problem with our two main parties is that they are too worried about jockeying for position with each other, that they usually screw up the main issues important to the people. Neither party has been better at this than the other, but they have both tried to win this contest.

      Reply
      • Anok
        April 28, 2009 at 8:45 PM

        The Republican party has done everything in it’s power to be uncooperative regardless of the validity and merit of whatever it is they are opposing.

        Jockeying for power or seats is nothing new, bipartisan banter and arguing is nothing new. It’s one thing to reject bills, reject language, or debate acts on the floor, but eventually come to a compromise and another thing entirely to simply sit back and reject everything regardless of what it is.

        Completely stonewalling every single bill, legislation, act, or move made for no reason other than noncooperation is the epitome of party over country. The Democrats (and so far as I remember previous Republicans) have never behaved this way before. It’s counter productive, alienating, and it is undermining any progress for the citizens of the US.

        It’s the reason moderates are leaving the party. I used to be Republican too (In actions, I still am in name for the purpose of voting/working) – I left hat party a long time ago when I saw this type of behavior starting to surface. I never imagined it would get this bad.

  8. LOUDelf
    April 29, 2009 at 9:37 AM

    Anok,

    You need to only look back 8 years to see the Dems behave in similar fashion.

    But every bill? How many have there been? There have been few, and all loom large in the spending, but low in the in yield which for the GOP (in theory) is sacriledge.

    Reply
    

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