Brand new Buzzwords like:
"common-sense, center-right, and competence" ...
[...] What that leaves the GOP is an opportunity to reformulate its center-right coalition in time for the next presidential race, when not only the policies but the spirit of Obamaism -- government by brute force and nasty partisanship -- will be on the ballot.
How do they do this?
First, by rejecting governance by bullying and by inflaming the base, the Republicans can earn the trust of the country as a whole [...]
Recall how Republicans won the Senate -- good candidates, focused on a common-sense agenda. The real payback is another big win at the polls. Democrats have show[n] that so long as they hold either house or the presidency, there is only strife and chaos. Now Republicans must show they are fully capable of running the show until Democrats come to their senses.
The best revenge for the GOP is victory
by Jennifer Rubin, washingtonpost.com -- Nov 21, 2014
-- Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.
Beware of Republicans expecting:
"bipartisan agreement" ... aka in GOP-land as 'simple surrender' ...
“By any objective standard the president got crushed in this election,” Mr. McConnell said at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council annual meeting. “So I’ve been perplexed by the reaction since the election, the sort of in your face dramatic move to the left. I don’t know what we can expect in terms of reaching bipartisan agreement.”
[...]
Mr. McConnell said he has no objection to negotiating with the White House and gets along with Mr. Obama.
“We don’t have any personal problems,” he said. “There is however a deep philosophical difference.”
McConnell ‘Perplexed’ by Obama’s Reaction to Midterm ‘Butt Kicking’
by Jeffrey Sparshott, wsj.com -- Dec 2, 2014
Beware of Republicans who want to explain away, their last six years of stone-walling filibusters as:
"non-personal ... philosophical differences" ...
Beware of Republicans who blame their own "Olympian records of Obstruction" on the 'mean-spirited failures' of the Democratic Party ...
[...] As we contemplate our world dominated by Republicans controlling the House and Senate, we must therefore consider life in the face of deep hypocrisy.
Mitch McConnell, with a straight face and no apparent appreciation for irony, said that voters should install a Republican majority in the Senate because his party would "be able to bring the current legislative gridlock to a merciful end." This really reaches new heights of absurdity. The Filibuster King, the Guru of Gridlock himself, says that in order to end gridlock we need to elect the people who are responsible for bringing us Olympian records of obstruction. McConnell's Republican army in the Senate has led more filibusters than any previous Congress in our nation's history, attempting to thwart any progress on a gleeful spree of "no." This is the McConnell who made obstruction his publicly announced number one goal when Obama was elected to his first term. But now McConnell wants to say yes, to have you vote for him because he is the one to rid us of the scourge of the gridlock he created. Give him a majority and voila he will make sure gridlock is a distant memory. This means of course that he expects the newly-made minority to simply go along with his agenda; you know, like he went along with the Democrats when they had the majority. Sigh. It is enough to make one's head explode.
The Price of Failure and Rise of Extremism: How Democrats Blew It
by Jeff Schweitzer, huffingtonpost.com -- Nov 4, 2014
-- Jeff Schweitzer Scientist and former White House Senior Policy Analyst; Ph.D.
And while you're at it, beware of Democrats who want to:
"simply go along with" McConnell's shiny new Bipartisan Agenda.
With new and stronger Republican majorities, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are in a position to reignite the legislative boilers that have gone cold. That doesn’t necessarily mean a partisan approach. Even with the 54 Republican senators suggested by Tuesday’s results, McConnell will need Democratic allies on every bill to close debate and avoid filibusters. In the Senate, those votes are produced by giving members the chance to offer amendments that shape legislation to their liking.
In an opinion piece last week, the two Republican leaders presented an agenda centered on the economy and job creation -- issues well-suited to a more open legislative approach. On energy, for example, there’s plenty of consensus around incentives for domestic production, conservation, and construction of the Keystone pipeline -- something that 61 members of the new Senate have endorsed. McConnell’s challenge will be to maintain the patience required to set aside floor time and allow the Senate work its will.
Election 2014 could mark a return to normal
by John E. Sununu, bostonglobe.com -- Nov 7, 2014
Beware of Republicans who will be trying to wish-away their many wearisome years of Obstruction, like they never even happened:
“We have to prove in two years the Republican Congress can govern,” said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.
Republicans mull strategy if they control Congress
by The Associated Press -- Nov 2, 2014
And the Democratic Party has only 2 short years -- to prove to nation that Republicans CAN'T govern.
-- to prove that what's good for the Democratic Goose, is also good for the stone-walling Gander ...
Because "Bipartisanship" -- as the GOP has so clearly taught the nation:
"Bipartisanship was the name for their ornery dog, that just won't hunt anymore ... with cusses like 'the Democrat' Party!"
But you know NOW they have a happy new tune:
"Bipartisanship is simply their 'trusty old nickname'.
NOW, they're eager to go ... go prove somethin' to the world.
and as always, we ought to "Beware" ... of Republicans bearing such "gifts."