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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

George McClellan’s Ghost Must be Advising Congressional Conservatives

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  February 27th, 2013 at 10:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Forget John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. Conservatives in the House and Senate have been hit with the stupid stick. All I can think is that George McClellan’s ghost is whispering in their ear.

The conservatives in Congress — forget Republican leaders for a minute — want to make their stand not on the continuing resolution to keep the government going, but on the debt ceiling.

Each time Congress has had a debt ceiling fight, it has ended badly for the GOP. Conservatives have been rhetorically slaughtered by even conservatives in the media each time they’ve tried to block a debt ceiling increase.

And guess what? They’ve failed every time.

They did get sequestration, but now are witnesses their own Republican leaders flail about and lose a PR battle over something Barack Obama himself proposed.

Conservatives in Congress are worse than Charlie Brown getting a football pulled away from them. They are more a trained circus seal who barks for a fish from Republican leaders and does a few tricks to wow the crowd.

Right now there is a brewing continuing resolution fight. Conservatives could be demanding defunding of the federal exchange component of Obamacare and the expansion of Medicaid. Obamacare remains deeply unpopular with the public and there are more and more signs it is going to be massively more problematic for the nation.

But no, Congressional conservatives do not want to make a stand on the continuing resolution. They’ll take sequestration and nothing else. They do not understand that they should at least ask for more and negotiate back to sequestration in the worst case scenario.

Instead, they’ll make a stand on the debt ceiling and see it raised again. Meanwhile, they parade around like heroes for the sequester when (A) it was Obama’s idea and (B) the only freaking thing they’ve done is absolutely nothing. Sequestration was last week and will be next week the present and existing law of the land. Conservatives did jack.

George McClellan must be designing their strategy as conservatives in Congress these days are to me one of the mysteries of the war against the leviathan.

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COMMENTS

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  • mkeprof

    We seem to have no plan to deal with the media hysteria, countdown clocks, market declines, blame game etc that are bound to happen as we get close to a debt ceiling showdown. Since we have no counter message, the Dem message sticks and we me up capitulating in the end – and get ourselves a ton of negative PR as a bonus. For once, draw a line, state your reasonable conditions for crossing it and unflinchingly stick to your positions – media be dammed. Well – we can all hope – right?

  • Cogburn

    Our “team” is made up mostly of individuals who are egotistical narcissists. While we have a few team players, the captains are not focused on moving toward what we hired them for, which is a smaller, less intrusive government. Their objective is first and foremost to continue to enjoy the immoluments of their position.
    John McCain enjoys spouting his self-righteousness from on high as much as Shmuck Chumer does.

  • rosenstern

    That is a great idea. Anything to move us away from “omnibus” style bills would be a tremendous improvement and would allow a lot more “sunshine” to sanitize spending bills.

  • junglecogs

    I give up; the Marxists are in control. They run the entertainment media, the unions, the press, the educational system, the free enterprise producers are viewed as evil and Democrats have reached their goal of half the population dependent on government. We look more like the USSR every day.

  • Ausonius

    America satirizes itself every day: you cannot mock stuff like the recent Drudge headline showing McConnell looking dafter and daffier than ever and ready to agree to make MAObama Our Supreme Leader, and turn the Senate into a rubber stamp.

    McConnell and the Republicans mock themselves unwittingly with their own cowardice and servile, mush-mouthed idiocy.

  • conservativecurmudgeon

    Abe Lincoln said of McLellan: “He’s got the slows”. And, boy, do the Republicans in Congress have the “slows”.

    They are slow to learn; they are slow to act; they are slow to demonstrate leadership. They are slow to adhere to anything resembling principle.

    On the other hand, Abe Lincoln said of Grant, when confronted with Grant’s love affair with the Bottle: “I can’t afford to lose this man: He Fights!”

    Where is our Ulysses S. Grant? Nobody in the ranks of Congressional Republicanism fights– it’s been four-plus years of supine capitulation, cowardly reaction, panty-waisted speechifying. If you want an explanation for Romney’s dismal showing, this lack of fighting spirit is IT. I am so thoroughly disgusted withe entire lot of Washington Republicans that I am seriously beginning to doubt my ability to ever vote for one again– unless we find a Grant, who fights– and really, really soon.

    The allusions to the Civil War are apt. Barack Obama and his party are a thoroughly corrupted party of far-left, lock-step radicals. The Sixties Pot-Heads are in charge of the cultural and most governmental institutions, and they are defiling and befouling all the tributaries of traditional American liberty. This is a goal that, while distinct from the battles of the Civil War, are trod upon the same ground as that struggle: That some in American society might have personal liberty– and some may not, based entirely upon subjective definitions: Skin color, economic status, and so on.

    But, the Republicans;– a party born of the prescient vision of that struggle, but one that knew it was righteous– has abandoned the battlefield of THIS struggle. Why? Clearly, it is exhausted and in the throes of societal irrelevance, by virtue of…

    The Slows.

  • oribasius

    That really is the issue. Most elected officials on both sides are really not interested in issues. They’re interested in power. They may talk a good game, but ultimately they’re interested in two things: reelection and amassing more power.

  • Tbone

    The real problem with DC and the Nation is the “Congressional Staffers” are running the country. How many staffers have ever actually lived any part of their adult life and worked in the United States of America. Probably less than 5%. They get out odf some liberal university with a degree in Poli Sci and move to DC and go to work for some politician or lobbying firm. They are nothing more than well educated, ignorant fools.

    So, a conservative comes along and inherits an office full these idiots whose most useful knowledge is where to take a leak or get sandwich. Before the politician knows it, the staff is running his life and telling him how to vote.

    This country would be just as well served if all Congress was replaced with Disney supplied animatronic figures who could sit in their chairs with their voting fingers wired back to the staff office. At least we wouldn’t have to waste money on elections.

    The only hope for this country is a meteor impact inside the Beltway. Be honest now, would you really miss the Federal Government?

  • gmat

    I don’t understand the debt ceiling fight anyway. It’s irrational and makes the GOP look like idiots. Obviously, if you authorize more spending than there is revenue, you’re going to have to borrow.

    The issue to get at is how much spending do you authorize in the first place, whether it’s budget or CR.

  • http://www.baseballcrank.com Dan McLaughlin

    In a way, worse. At least McClellan kept improving & increasing the size of his army, so the next guy was able to actually use it.

  • rabun1016

    That’s what we get when we elect George Hamilton as House Leader. Mediocre is really overstating his skills of persuasion. Unfortunately, no one opposed him because of his past retribution to anyone acting independently. Until we get rid of Boehner, we have little hope of any success on any major issue.

  • Jack_Savage

    To paraphrase Lincoln, if they are not going to use their majority, may we borrow it?

  • Jack_Savage

    In your description of Lincoln’s reaction to Grant I think you may have found why Democrats rally around their own when a scandal erupts – it’s easy to defend someone who fights.

  • jaydickb

    Thanks, and as much as I would like to take credit for its origin, it came from Newt Gingrich.

  • jaydickb

    Exactly. In response to those who argued against raising the debt ceiling at all, I pointed out that Obama could legitimately criticize Republicans for refusing to pay for what they authorized. Republicans had little choice but to raise the ceiling.

    Sequestration is another matter. It may be a poor way to reduce spending increases (remember, spending will not be reduced in absolute terms), but at least it’s a reduction.

  • gyakuzuki

    Where are the R’s crying Obama is acting like a “terrorist” with national security by docking aircraft carriers and letting illegal aliens go free? We are completely missing the rhetorical game he is playing and he is winning.

  • edintexas

    It will take more than getting rid of Boehner.

  • freemkts

    What’s crazy is that most Republicans come from safe districts in solidly red states. Yet, they act like their constituents are the DC media. Who gives a s*** what David Gregory and the MTP panel thinks about you! Do your job and represent the people who elected you.

  • plh

    Thank you! Individual, targeted bills, submitted at different times over the next four weeks! I have suggested a similar approach in several posts and cannot fathom why the Republicans don’t try this strategy. Regardless of how the MSM would spin it, it would be the Democrats’ fault if the Senate were to ignore/defeat them or the President veto them. Let them try to rationalize, for example: “we won’t fund Interior because the Agriculture funding resolution cuts food stamps.” How would that play with the public?

  • plh

    The solution here is to let any debt ceiling increase pass with Democrat votes only. If they want it that badly and it’s too toxic to oppose, let them own it and all of its “kick the can down the road” consequences. [Apologies to those who think I bring this up too often, but I honestly don't see a downside to it.]

  • plh

    Bob Woodward has already got the carrier part covered, although his term was “madness.”

  • plh

    Good luck, and I mean that with complete sincerity.

  • Frank_Katz

    What makes the situation even worse is that the current sequester is an old “victory.” It was the price that we extracted for agreeing to allow the country to immediately go further into debt by $1.2 trillion back in 2011. Now the feckless Republican leadership (sadly, including many so-called Conservatives) are suggesting that they’ll agree to a continuing resolution to raise the debt ceiling anew as long as we protect the sequester that we already secured anyway.
    Instead of crowing about their ability to preserve the sequester, they should be insisting on a new round of cuts in exchange for once again moving us further to insolvency. Sadly, while McClellan may be leading our army, I don’t see a Grant anywhere on the horizon.

  • Notre Droite

    I am surprised to see such defeatist talk from Erick. He posted yesterday about using procedure (rules committee, etc) to stop un-American bills from coming to the floor. Now he’s suggesting Republicans cave on the debt ceiling?

    To say “Instead, they’ll make a stand on the debt ceiling and see it raised again,” makes no sense to me. If they make a stand, the debt ceiling will not be raised. It’s simple as that. Comrade Obama will have to make do with the mere $2.4 TRILLION in tax revenue this year. Then when the economy naturally prospers once all our private companies (almost all of whom are run by conservatives) finally have the confidence to invest and hire, Obama will look like the panic-inspiring fool that he is.

    The debt ceiling is EXACTLY where Republicans should continue to FIGHT. Anyone suggesting they surrender this leverage is not a true conservative.

  • plh

    Thanks to the meaning it has taken on in recent years, “omnibus” has become one of the words that makes we want to gag, almost as badly as “comprehensive” and “balanced.”