By Ghost of John Brown
Over the last week or two, tensions have been running high for good reason. There is a lot riding on the outcome of the debt ceiling vote. As Conservatives, we've been waiting for this moment for most of the year. Considering that we control one of the three voting blocks (House, Senate, White House) we normally don't have any full control over legislation. However, the debt ceiling gives us a rare opportunity to make the other two voting blocks at least play in our court. We may or may not win the game, but at least we are invited to play this time.
While the outcome to our nation is paramount, there are other factors that are at play. How much can we get? Will we get blamed for this or that outcome? Will the press use 2-3 barrels of ink to say that conservatives in the House were playing fair or not? Will the results and the perceptions of this week make it more or less likely that Republicans will gain control of the Senate and/or the White House? Will the results of this week make it more or less likely that Conservatives will gain a bigger percentage of the various voting blocks? This isn't just three-dimensional chess, it's three dimensional chess played on the wing of an F-14 while juggling hand grenades.
I think it is a fair thing to say that each of us have various levels of commitment to each of the questions listed above and to the overall goal of the debt ceiling debate which is to hand off a better country to our children. Some may not care about the elections next year if it means a downgrade to our country. Some may be more interested in the elections next year and a chance to really change things.
I've been coaching my son in baseball for years now, so a lot of analogies come down to baseball. Consider this scenario. Bottom of the 9th, White Sox down 2-1. Juan Pierre is on third base - pretty decent runner. One out. Alexi Ramirez is up with Paul Konerko on deck. You need to at least get one run to tie and go into extra innings. Alexi pops it up to middle left field - not very deep. Do you send Juan Pierre home after the tag up to try and get a run, which is risky or do you wait considering the best hitter for the Sox is on deck? it's a hard decision. Third base coaches have made both calls for years. Sometimes they are the hero and sometimes they are the goat.
Back to politics.......
We have the same situation right now. Are we going for the run or are we waiting until we have the big guns up to bat. Just like with the third base coaches, we have political pundits and the leaders of our party making both calls. Some are encouraging conservatives to go for it now. Get the win right now. Some are encouraging us to forego the risky move and wait until our big gus are up after the 2012 elections.
The last person on the planet that I would want to be right now is John Boehner. He has half of the nation yelling at him that if he doesn't go for the compromise, he's going to kill the economy and risk our chances for 2012. If he does go for the compromise, he's a sellout and he is going to destroy the economy because our national debt will continue to spiral out of control and he signals to the Washington establishment that nothing has changed in Washington, D.C. He's in a no win situation, despite what you think of him personally.
There are those that are generally seen as solid conservatives that are supporting both options. Erick Erickson and Rush Limbaugh have been loudly proclaiming that the Republicans in the House are getting duped and that they are making the wrong decision by compromising. Thomas Sowell and Ace at Ace of Spades HQ have been encouraging the House to take the Boehner Bill and go for the long game. I respect each of those four gentlemen a lot and I know that all four of them have their hearts in the right place.
THE KEY is to differentiate strategy vs. intent. There are CERTAINLY a ton of politicians, pundits, hangers on, and sycophants in Washington DC that want to keep the money flowing. No cuts, no way, no how. If you want to call them RINO's, be my guest. There are others, like Senator Tom Coburn that have been called out as RINO's in the last week because they were trying to work out a deal in the Senate with the Gangrene of Six (I used that term in an earlier post, so I'm trying to be consistent). I don't agree with Senator Coburn's strategy in this case, but you would be hard pressed to find a Senator that has been a stronger advocate of spending cuts than Senator Coburn. HIS plan was to cut $9 Trillion over the next decade. He did it by detailing every single program down to those that are "just" $10 million per year or so. He got detailed, he laid it out, and he has advocated it. Hardly a tax and spender.
Some of our Congressmen and Senators will vote for a deal, some aren't going to vote for any deal besides Cut, Cap and Trade. Some of them will vote for a deal because they truly are RINO's and some are going to vote for a deal because they strategically think that voting yes will make winning the Senate and the White House more likely. What we need to do is to winnow out which ones are doing so because they are spineless and which ones are being strategic. If Mark Kirk votes for a deal, you could make a good case that he's just a RINO anyway and who cares. If someone like Peter Roskam (American Conservative Union lifetime rating of 98) or Congressman Manzullo (ACU lifetime rating of 95.75) votes for a deal, its difficult to say that they are being RINO's. They've been steady votes for us and I'm glad we have them in Congress. We could do a whole lot worse like Judy Biggert (ACU lifetime rating of 70.50) or Tim Johnson (ACU lifetime rate of 68.70).
After this is all over, some of us are going to be mad, some will be relieved, some will be happy (I say that not knowing what the outcome will be). Before you decide to support a Congressman or throw them under the bus because you think they have been a sell-out, take a look at the totality of their record and why they voted the way that they did. On this point, I think I'm saying the same thing that Erick Erickson is saying here.
A lot of what is happening in Congress right now is that the Democrats know two things: a) it's likely that no matter what the outcome, the press will view the Republicans as part of the problem and they'll print it that way, and b) there's a good likelihood that they can get all of us conservatives to start going postal on each other. The same thing is happening at the Federal level that is happening state wide. Don't let them win. Don't let them divide us. That's what the White House and the DNC wants.
Follow Ghost of John Brown on Facebook - Click here.
