Stupid is as stupid does

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Much of the attention in Washington and among Washington-watchers at the moment focuses with a certain partisan glee on Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi and the apparently divisive and perhaps even self-destructive battle between Jack Murtha (Pelosi's pick and noted Iraq War critic) and Steny Hoyer (Democratic whip) to be House majority leader.

I commented on this battle in my last post -- see here. Although the possibility of conflict and division concerns me, it does seem that Pelosi and the Democrats are settling in well as the new majority party. And the divide between Murtha and Hoyer, like the divide between those who want to set a policy of redeployment now (Murtha et al.) and those who are more reluctant to promote a policy of phased withdrawal (Hoyer et al.), reflects not necessarily divisiveness but diversity, a healthy diversity, with Democrats, now in the majority, considering the best way to influence Bush's Iraq policy and to speak to the concerns of the American people.

And while Democrats are forging ahead, however difficult that may be, Republicans are stuck. And nothing is about to change in their ranks. As Bob Novak is reporting, it looks like the very House leaders who contributed to the party's recent demise will be re-elected to their positions in the leadership. That means Boehner, Blunt, and the rest. That means they've learned nothing:

While an unpopular Iraq war and an unpopular George W. Bush were primary causes of last Tuesday's Republican rout, massive public disapproval of the GOP-controlled Congress significantly contributed. While abandoning conservative principles, the spendthrift House has become chained to special corporate interests represented by K Street lobbyists.

Hastert will go, but that may be it. And Novak is blunt: "For good reason, the GOP often is called 'the stupid party.'" The "Republican Party [is] a private club where personal loyalties must transcend all else."

Stupid is as stupid does.

For more, see Ed Morrissey, who (like Novak) isn't terribly happy: "Re-electing Boehner, Blunt, and the entire slate will be tantamount to an endorsement of the same failed policies that lost the GOP the midterms." I don't share his appreciation for "the legacy of 1994," but he has a point. Not being a Republican, though, I'm enjoying this. One reaps what one sows.

See also Joe Gandelman, Steve Benen, and Barbara O'Brien.