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Nancy Pelosi Congratulates Mitch McConnell on His ‘Pontius Pilate Act’. Seriously.

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  July 13th, 2011 at 09:37 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

If it weren’t bad enough that Harry Reid is trying to make Mitch McConnell‘s ‘Pontius Pilate Pass the Buck Act of 2011″ acceptable to Republicans, you might want to consider that Nancy Pelosi congratulated Mitch McConnell on a job well done.

Not kidding.

Stephen F. Hayes, who my wife says is the best looking guy on Bret Baier’s panel other than Bret (yeah, I have to hate them both because of that and that when my 5 year old was a baby, she’d stare at Bret Baier every time he came on TV and make sweet eyes at him, but I digress . . .) anyhoo . . . Stephen F. Hayes has a good write up on McConnell’s plan and includes this little nugget:

two sources familiar with the discussions at the White House Tuesday afternoon said that Nancy Pelosi offered McConnell “congratulations.”

That should tell Republicans all they need to know about why this deal should be unacceptable.

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COMMENTS

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  • Bill S

    Little Ezra Klein likes it also.

    “In praise of McConnell?s plan”

  • gawken

    Of late, we’ve been hearing much about the relationship, the synergy, between Mitch and Rand. I’m really curious to hear what Rand thinks of this.

    We will have a Senate majority in 2012. We may well have a new leader for the GOP. I think this all but guarantees that DeMint runs for leader.

  • Duke

    is to seriously consider retirement at the next electoral opportunity.

    Congress holds the purse strings, not the President. The mere fact that he is willing to give this up, notwithstanding some sort of imagined constraints on the President’s potential misuse of this authority, gives McConnell and his fellow conspirators the stench of “go along to get along.”

    Note to Congress: Man up, grow a pair, and do the job we sent you there to do!

  • Tbone

    It would seem appropriate.

  • autiger89

    That should also tell Mitch McConnell all he needs to know about why this deal should be unacceptable.

    The fact that it doesn’t tells us all we need to know about McConnell.

  • strikeeagle

    If they are not careful, the Republicans are headed for a compromise that will break the party into two — the Big Government/Establishment/Appropriators and the Small Government/Fiscal Conservatives/Tea Party

    Today’s question of the size and scope of the Federal government is of the same order and magnitude of the question of slavery was in 1850

    Ironically, the Whigs in the Senate were also lead by a Senator from Kentucky — Henry Clay, “The Great Compromiser”

  • Tavern Keeper

    This is how democracy dies.

  • cordpt

    but fully expecting a worse outcome than the one proposed by McConnell. We shall see.

    Nothing substantive in terms of policy will be achieved as long as Obama is the president and the Dems control the Senate. The faith that many here have on those guys is astonishing.

  • izoneguy

    for Idiot

  • chrysostom15

    Actually McConnell’s plan is a good idea. 2012 is the right war to fight spending. The dept ceiling debate going on now is not. If you want real spending cuts, you need a president who will sign them.

    This is the first smart plan by the GOP yet. Once Obama proposes the cuts, it provides political cover for the GOP to support those cuts (as Obama also did). This is the FIRST plan that, if passed, would help the GOP in 2012.

    It would not really have 2012 election chances to not raise the dept ceiling. The GOP would lose big-time, and even lose the house if they dept ceiling is not raised and they are blamed for it (which is what would happen).

    If the GOP supports tax increases, it will cause a party split with tea partiers. If the GOP pushes for spending cuts only, the Democrats will just say that GOP is protecting the rich at the expense of the services for the poor.

    The best political solution is to make Obama proposes the cuts. Then, Obama’s own party can block them in the Senate or the GOP can block them in the House. It makes Obama look ineffective.

  • chrysostom15

    Actually McConnell’s plan is a good idea. 2012 is the right war to fight spending. The dept ceiling debate going on now is not. If you want real spending cuts, you need a president who will sign them.

    This is the first smart plan by the GOP yet. Once Obama proposes the cuts, it provides political cover for the GOP to support those cuts (as Obama also did). This is the FIRST plan that, if passed, would help the GOP in 2012.

    It would not really have 2012 election chances to not raise the dept ceiling. The GOP would lose big-time, and even lose the house if they dept ceiling is not raised and they are blamed for it (which is what would happen).

    If the GOP supports tax increases, it will cause a party split with tea partiers. If the GOP pushes for spending cuts only, the Democrats will just say that GOP is protecting the rich at the expense of the services for the poor.

    The best political solution is to make Obama proposes the cuts. Then, Obama’s own party can block them in the Senate or the GOP can block them in the House. It makes Obama look ineffective.

  • lineholder

    This is why I do NOT trust politicians in general. Our economy is struggling right now. Our nation is carrying a heavy burden of debt. The wisest choice to make would be to keep the focus on how public funds are spent and to reduce the demands on public funds. But oh, no, they can’t do that. Put the first whisper of “collateral damage” out there in front of a blue-blood politician like McConnell, and they cave in like a wet cardboard tube. Politics HAS to come first.

    President Obama can set forth the narrative that the general public isn’t paying attention all he likes, but the outcome of this is likely to be that what has been a mild demand-side crisis will begin to move into the moderate category.

  • littlehouse18

    that raised the debt limit and Obama would have none of it. Maybe people should see that the world doesn’t end on Aug, 3 and that any consequences for seniors are the deliberate, unnecessary action of a vindictive president.

  • Tbone

    He has demonstrated gross, political stupidity.

  • HeyMikey

    Full disclosure: I’m a Democrat, trying to broaden my exposure to other points of view.

    It seems to me the GOP’s core problem on the debt ceiling issue is that it hasn’t addressed this conflict: (a) not raising the ceiling would require the USA to run a balanced budget, immediately, but (b) the GOP has not proposed an immediate balanced budget. Even the Ryan budget plan doesn’t balance the budget until approximately 2030. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Path_to_Prosperity

    Thus the GOP is saying, “we want to stop borrowing immediately, but for the next several years or couple of decades we want to keep spending more than we take in.”

    What am I missing?

  • Michael Dugas

    NOTHING> He has no intention of cutting anything at all. Every time he is directly asked about what cuts he is proposing he deflects and diverts and doesn’t say a word other than he doesn’t want to play his hand. What freekin hand? If you really believe there needs to be cuts than do your job “Mr.” Obama and tell us what you propose. If he can’t get the Republicans to cave then this guy wants a shutdown he can blame on Republicans…its so obvious as to be almost without question. McConnell is a two faced liar. After he finally signed on to Cap, Cut & Balance he immediately went behind everyone’s back and worked to push his disastrous legislation and undermine Cap, Cut & Balance.