We're right back to the same old crapola. Whether that shocks, angers, or depresses you will depend on whether you were naïve enough to expect anything else.
Call me a "party man" if you want, but I don't think O's churlishness is catching the elderly Campbell's Soup kid by surprise:
Senator Mitch McConnell kicked off his new role as majority leader Wednesday by holding out hope for compromise with Democrats on some of the nation's toughest issues, such as shoring up Medicare and Social Security....
Compromise from Democrats, since any true "shoring up" of Medicare and Social Security can only get it out of Washington, D.C., and ultimately the public sector altogether. Remember, this is an Associated Press story.
....while at the same time taking a jab at President Barack Obama.
McConnell said Obama was blocking the type of change voters sought in November with his threat to veto the first bill of the new, Republican-controlled Senate — a measure to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to carry Canadian oil into the U.S.
"Threatening to veto a jobs and infrastructure bill within minutes of a new Congress taking the oath of office — a bill with strong bipartisan support — is anything but productive," McConnell, R-KY, said of the veto promise issued by the White House Tuesday as lawmakers were formally opening the 114th Congress.
This is what the GOP has to do over the next year or so until the presidential campaign (assuming Barack Obama allows one) subsumes and drowns out everything else in the political arena: pass one popular conservative, pro-growth bill after another - Keystone XL, dismantling ObamaCare, tax cuts and simplification, nullifying O's unconstitutional decrees [AHEM] - send them down Pennsylvania Avenue and make The One have to veto each and every one of them. And after he vetoes each and every one, and/or preemptively threatens to do so, Boehner and/or McConnell should call a presser and sorrowfully - not angrily, but gently and reasonably, complete with shake of the head and shrug of the shoulder - tell the American voters that, "We are doing the work you sent us here to do, but Barack Obama continues to thwart your expressed will." The next sentence writes itself: "We need a president in the White House who will work with us, and for you, to get this job done."
In military terms, it's called "preparing the battlefield." With Harry (G)Reid no longer able to block such House Republican bills on Red Barry's behalf, the latter is going to have to become the Obstructor-In-Chief, the "Do Nothing President," or see every bit of "fundamental transformation" of the past six years be taken down and hauled off to the policy dump. We know what his ego, strutting narcissism, and hard-left zealotry will demand he do, and it will be maximally visible, unable to be kept under the "public radar".
Yes, yes, we all know how putrid Republicans have always been at messaging, especially from Capitol Hill. But if they can keep on this script, they can fully utilize the power of controlling Congress to capitalize on the Chicago Cherubim's downward-spiraling popularity and credibility and enhance the chances of his ouster in 2016.
And it appears that McConnell is off to a good start:
[I]n his first major speech as majority leader, McConnell spoke optimistically of working with Obama and Democrats on issues such as trade agreements, infrastructure improvements and rewriting tax laws.
He even raised hope of compromise on bigger efforts that have bedeviled Congress for years, such as strengthening Medicare and Social Security, balancing the budget and whittling away the national debt.
"But bipartisan reform can only be achieved if President Obama is interested in it," McConnell said. "The president is the only one who can bring his party on board. He's the only one who can sign what Congress passes."
Maybe he should call these kindly scoldings "Sing Along With Mitch". I'm certainly game.
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