Me:
You’d think that the Beltway conventional wisdom would reflect the simple reality revealed in the polling: the stimulus legislation was overwhelmingly popular, Obama and congressional Democrats benefited politically from passing it, and Republicans are being punished by popular sentiment for opposing it. Alas, D.C. is located in an entirely different dimension from the real world.
MSNBC’s First Read declared the Republicans winners, because the party "demonstrated unity after its big losses in November." The Associated Press’s Liz Sidoti risibly wrote, "Adrift after back-to-back electoral losses, they found their voice against a Democratic Speaker and an expanded majority ... as they led the effort to define the package as too costly and too quick." The propagandists at Fox News echoed those sentiments: "Republican lawmakers may turn out to be winners. Most of them voted against the package, and in their largely unified opposition, they found an issue to galvanize the party."
Apparently, the GOP’s problem isn’t that its ideas are stale and vacant, or that it can’t win elections — its problem has been a lack of unity. And since that "problem" had been solved by uniting around imaginary (and possibly gay) marsh mice, last week was a victory for them. Huzzah!
Seriously. Look at Republicans, their enablers and allies, and the beltway media -- they're all trumpeting how the GOP is "back!" because of their "unity".
Unity? Really?
That's never been a problem with the GOP. In fact, we were able to kick their asses the last two cycles precisely because Republicans were unable to break with Bush on anything, not even on denying healthcare to kids. Heck, that was the point of all those "Congressman X voted with Bush 99.8 percent of the time" commercials Democratic challengers ran (and will continue to run in 2010). If there's one thing Republicans can do, it's "unity". And it's done them (and the country) zero good in recent years.
But somehow, everyone has convinced themselves that by showing "unity", that Republicans are suddenly back and a force to be reckoned with, despite all the polling showing otherwise. As if anyone gives a damn outside of the Beltway media whether Republicans are "unified" or not. As if "unity" ever had anything to do with the GOP's woes (which still boil down to "their ideas suck and everyone hates them").
But let those jokers believe whatever it is they want to believe. The country is certainly marching to a different beat.