There is another reason Democrats should abandon their boycott strategy.We saw this drill in 2011 in Wisconsin. It didn't work then and it's not going to work on the larger stage. The Republicans have the levers of power in Washington now and it now seems like they've figured out how to use them. The Strib editorial board is going to cheerlead for the port side, but at this point the Loyal Opposition needs to understand that they aren't exactly winning friends and influencing people. And as we saw at Berkeley earlier this week, deportment is becoming an issue:
It’s not working.
Thursday’s unanimous Senate panel approval of Environmental Protection Agency nominee Scott Pruitt is the latest proof. Democrats boycotted the hearing, as they did with hearings for Steven Mnuchin, the Goldman Sachs executive nominated to take over Treasury, and Sen. Tom Price, R-Georgia, Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services.
Republicans on those panels responded by suspending the rules — as is the majority’s prerogative — and quickly passing those nominees on to the full Senate for confirmation, undoubtedly relieved that Pruitt, Mnuchin and Price would be able to avoid further questioning.
We don't think that was Nancy Pelosi wielding the Mace, so there's that.
2 comments:
The other day Al Franken (praised by the Strib) went after Ted Cruz with a personal attack - and was immediately chastised for doing so by Cornyn because Cruz wasn't present in committee to defend himself.
"Well, he should be here," sputtered the humorist, with no sense of irony or self-awareness.
Thing is, Trump has essentially given the Republicans cover to do the things they knew they should have done all along in the past, but didn't, because they didn't want to "offend" anyone. With the Offend-Meter already at 11 then what difference does it make?
On a related note, I don't know if you saw my Samizdat link on FB yesterday, but it (and the excellent comment stream) is very interesting and relevant to what is going on. As one commenter put it, "GamerGate was the first time someone responded to the SJW's with "Screw you" instead of "I didn't do it." https://www.samizdata.net/2017/01/gamergate-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/
I did see the Samizdat link. I liked it, but FB is so toxic these days that I rarely "like" anything that is political. The lefties on my feed are bruiting about their participation in "The Resistance," but they don't get that they created a Resistance to them, which began with GamerGate. I'm strongly thinking about taking a break from FB for a while.
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