Dick Morris takes a break from watching Jets coach's wife's vid to complain about lame-duck progress

[Amerigo Vespucci]

December 23, 2010 11:00 AM
Righties are mad that so much got done during the lame-duck session. Cue the whining

By David Neiwert

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/righties-are-mad-so-much-got-done-du



As Ezra Klein observes, the lame-duck session of Congress was unusually productive. And one of the keys was that, for a change, there actually were a few Republicans who decided to be, you know, sane:

The incumbent -- and the outgoing -- Republicans know that the fact that Republicans will have more power in 2011 doesn't necessarily mean that they'll use that power to pass sensible legislation. So those of them who wanted to pass sensible legislation decided to get it all done now, even if that meant handing Reid and Obama a slew of apparent victories in the lame-duck session.

Ooooooh! That wascawwy Obama! Laura Ingraham and Dick Morris were all worked up about it last night on The O'Reilly Factor, turning blue in the face

Morris: But what is crucial to focus on, is they didn't get any spending cuts in return! Had the Republicans simply said, 'No dice. This is an illegitimate, lame-duck session of people who are not entitled to vote because they were defeated. And we're not going to pass anything, and we're going to do it on January 2, and then we're going to demand spending cuts!' Which now will have to be fought for in the debt limit ceiling or the new budget. And in the meantime the deficit keeps clicking.

Morris then went on to list all the Republican Senators who were going to be facing primaries -- from Tea Party challengers, no doubt -- in the near future because of their various sins in the lame-duck session. Considering this is the guy who predicted a 100-seat gain for Republicans in the House, I'm sure they're quaking.

But I'm also struck by Morris's proposal: Evidently he doesn't care that the Constitution pretty explicitly lays out how this election stuff works. Congress keeps meeting after elections, and new members do not take office till they take their oaths. It's all there in the 20th Amendment.

Don't these guys have great reverence for the Constitution? Except, as always, the parts they find inconvenient.

Like every other Republican right now, Morris also seems to have conveniently forgotten about the 1998 lame-duck session when Republicans impeached President Clinton. Which is quite a remarkable case of amnesia.

[Vegetarianist]

1. 1998 isn't a fair comparison imo

The argument is that if the congressperson got voted out then his views doesn't represent his district anymore. That means in 2010's lame duck, there's 63 people who don't represent their district anymore. In 1998 the GOP lost 5 seats (and still received a plurality of the vote), so that means the electorate still supported the GOP's platform.


I agree with you on the overall of course, but I don't want this easily argued point becoming (more of) a meme.

[shraby]

2. This country runs by the Constitution. It states in Amendment

XX, Section 1. The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of the Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3rd day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Nuff said.

[Vegetarianist]

7. I agree.

But if we use flawed comparisons, it undermines the whole point. We can win the debate with logic, we don't need to compare two things with glaring differences.

[gratuitous]

3. The limit of Republican concern for the will of the people

The end of their nose, or in Morris's case, the end of his toes.

[Canuckistanian]

4. I love it when Morris makes predictions

He has a ZERO batting average for predicting correctly.

[OneGrassRoot]

5. LOL! Great subject line. K&R for that alone! ;) n/t

[JimGinPA]

6. +1