The Republicans running against themselves

[DogPoundPup]

It is clear that the Republican Party has settled on a message: "Washington is not working." The phrase is included in virtually every speech and every statement at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

We agree completely that Washington is in desperate need of renewal and reform. We're not even going to quibble about the fact that Barack Obama said it first. The problem is that American voters have yet to hear - from John McCain or his warm-up acts - any serious ideas on what, exactly, is wrong with Washington, apart from the fact that a Democrat might win the White House, never mind how to truly fix it.

The difficulty for the Republican ticket in talking about change and reform and acting like insurgents is that they have been running Washington - the White House and Congress - for most of the last eight years.

Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential nominee, was a combative and witty relief at a torpid convention. But it was bizarre hearing the running mate of a 26-year veteran of Congress mocking "the permanent political establishment in Washington."

And we couldn't imagine what Mitt Romney was thinking when he denounced "liberal Washington" and then, at the convention of the party that brought you unimpeded presidential spying, declared: "It's time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother!"

As hard as he tries, McCain cannot escape the burdensome shadow of President Bush because his policies offer no real change. On the all-important issue of the economy, McCain has no prescription for ending the mortgage-driven crisis or for fixing the huge fiscal problems Bush has bequeathed the nation. He wants to make even deeper cuts in corporate taxes, eliminate the alternative minimum income tax and make permanent the Bush tax cuts that vastly favor the wealthy that he once correctly opposed.

His only idea for balancing the budget seems to be controlling earmarks, which Republicans now denounce with the sort of single-minded fervor they used to reserve for Democratic-appointed judges.

Permanently extending the tax cuts would reduce tax revenue by $1 trillion over four years. If McCain eliminated every earmark (including money for the gas pipeline that Palin wants to build in Alaska), the savings would total about $18 billion a year. He hasn't offered any idea of where he'll get the rest of the money.

McCain also has yet to explain to voters how he intends to go on paying for the war in Iraq - and also fix a dangerously overburdened military. McCain talks about energy independence. But his primary solution is not a solution: drilling and more drilling.

McCain says he is the candidate who will better protect the country from terrorism. But about all he has to offer is his pledge to continue the war in Iraq. We have yet to hear an explanation for how he plans to do that while also salvaging the war in Afghanistan - the real front line in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/04/opinion/edrepublicans.php

[Warpy]

1. You have to admit the spectacle of a party running on a reform

platform when they've been in control for so many years is a little on the hilarious side, especially when the reform consists of the same old thieves in the same old offices pushing the same old agenda.