The Discerning Texan

Dennis Sevakis hits the nail on the head when he says it is high time that the Republicans in Congress start to play a little hardball of their own:

Challenged to throw out Trent Lott as Senate Majority Leader after a questionable remark far milder than the rhetoric of Senator Byrd, and all the Republican Senators could do is give him the bum’s rush. The Democrats beat the Republicans bloody and all the party of Lincoln can do is whimper. Hardly a blow thrown in defense, let alone an offensive swing.

Even after the 2002 and 2004 Republican election victories, the Republican Senators seem reluctant to push their advantage. Why? Because it seems every time this Administration tries something, the Dems and the MSM come out swinging and force a retreat. It’s happened so many times that the voting public wonders whether or not the Democrats are correct in their characterization of Republican motives. For why would they back down on these issues if there really were principle behind the Republican positions? How come they give up so easily? It must all be horsepucky.

All the Dems have to do is huff and puff and the Republican house falls down. “Use the nuclear option and we’ll bring the Senate to a halt” blusters Senate Minority Leader Reid while holding his copy of the Declaration and the Constitution – or something to that effect. Daschle gets voted out for his blustering but the Republicans fire their own guy for an off-hand remark. Go figure.

No matter how badly they lose come election time, I’ll give the Dems credit for sticking to their lines. They are not shy about it. Republican Senators and, I dare say, the President seem unable to get their act together on domestic policy and legislation. When they try to seize the initiative, the Democrats, MSM and lefty NGO’s seem to pop up like Jim Carrey in the “Mask” with both hands converted into a myriad of horrific weapons, and they fire their arsenal without hesitation. The Republicans seem not to have planned for the Democratic response before launching their original trial balloons. And that’s the problem. The voters see these things as trial balloons and not policy initiatives.

If the Republicans let the Dems scold them into dumping Tom DeLay for what are being touted as ethics offenses, but that are not in letter nor spirit any more offensive than what Dems themselves do, they may as well do nothing other than pass a Democrat’s budget and shelve any initiatives until after the next mid-term elections – if that next plebiscite they can manage to survive. If Republicans can’t bring themselves to go to the mat for fully qualified judicial candidates, cut the pork out of the budget, do something meaningful regarding illegal immigration, and quit playing the diversity game with national security, why should anyone expect the President’s numbers to go up?

David Brooks states that “Leaders who want to change things had better not give off the impression that they love change for its own sake.” I don’t think that’s the problem. The Congress and the Administration have just not done a good job of communicating to the American electorate what really should be changed, or done, or left alone – or whatever. For every time they open their mouths, it seems as though the Democrats are there more than ready, willing and able to help the Republicans put their own foot in their own oral orifice. Sometimes it almost seems like the Gong Show with the hapless Republicans being repeatedly pulled off the stage with the hooked shepherd’s staff.

The voters don’t like the Democrats for what they are doing. They don’t like the Republicans for what they are not doing. That is, not governing. We’ve given you the votes in Congress, guys. Use it or lose it. Don’t run at the first whiff of voter response teased out of a poll cleverly structured to garner the desired result. Get everyone on the same page of the hymnal. Then show some backbone. Get up and go. Give better than you get. You can be gentlemen, but don’t fight with a limp wrist.

Play hardball!