House Republican Whines About Being Thrown Under the Bus

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...
Consider this latest twist a reward for the fact that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn't stop FISA legislation or put impeachment back on the table.

What other explanation could there be for the decision by the White House to cut the Republicans in the House off at the knees over offshore drilling?

A House Republican leader is lambasting President Bush on his decision not to call Congress back into session to deal with the energy crisis.

In a legislative update sent to GOP members and staff on Tuesday, Republican House Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.) accused "Beijing George" Bush of throwing House Republicans "under the bone-dry bus" on his way to the Olympics in China.

I would not be surprised to see scores of House Republicans break loose and begin to abandon the White House wherever possible, just to deliver a little payback. They are clearly divorced now in spirit--whether that means they finalize it through some legal proceeding is debatable. Everyone is going to focus on their own needs and their own re-election. And while House Republicans posture and whine, it means fewer of them are traveling to their districts to campaign.

With fewer of them campaigning at home, it reminds all of us why we need to throw as many of them out as possible while always looking for better Democrats. These up-or-down votes could be critical next year:

House GOP leaders last week called on Bush to convene an emergency session ofCongress, but the White House said such a move would not make a difference because Democrats would not call for an up-or-down vote on offshore drilling legislation.

How bad is it? I don't think this Congressman is going to be the only one looking for payback:

McCotter, known for his frank and sometimes unusual political opinions, was not pleased with that decision. His memo stated, "Today, in his final term, the wildly unpopular President George W. Bush boarded Air Force One bound for the Beijing Olympics and a meeting with his chum Hu Jintao, the dapper ruler of a nuclear armed, communist dictatorship. ... Perhaps our Compassionate Conservative-in-Chief will bring our absent Democrat Congress some 'Made in (communist) China' souvenir t-shirts: 'Bush went to Beijing and all I got was this lousy five week, paid vacation.' "

You've gotta love to see a Republican throwing the word "communist" in the face of the leader of his party like a drink at a party...Remember to update your blogrolls and bookmarks with our new domain name, They gave us a republic...

Adjournment Means What to House Republicans?

The only thing more pathetic than House Democrats are House Republicans. This is the kind of thing that only a shameless idiot would do. It's August. Go home. Go on vacation. At least when you people aren't in session, you're not making things worse. Better Democrats, please. And different ones in charge.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House and turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.

At one point, the lights went off in the House and the microphones were turned off in the chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in the dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz..) was speaking, the lights went back on and the microphones were turned on shortly afterward.

But C-SPAN, which has no control over the cameras in the chamber, has stopped broadcasting the House floor, meaning no one was witnessing this except the assembled Republicans, their aides, and one Democrat, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has now left.

Yawn. Now, go back to your district and wait for your beating in the fall.

--WS

Jean Schmidt Feels the Love

I'm not sure whether or not Mr. Brinkman realizes this, but a darned good way to ensure that no one is sympathetic to your cause is to call a woman a bitch. However, we're talking about deranged wingnut congresswoman Jean Schmidt, who is only five shades of eyeshadow away from pulling a full-on Michelle Bachmann. Perhaps in this case, he's using some other form of psychology to win over the voters in his district.

Every now and then we like to check in on the latest antics surrounding GOP Rep. Jean Schmidt -- the Ohio Republican who called Jack Murtha a coward on the House floor. And boy oh boy, her latest doesn't disappoint.

Schmidt is now enmeshed in a bitter feud with another Ohio Republican, who's so furious with her that he called her a "lying b----" and a "despicable person" who would "sell her mother" -- and expressly told us we could print that!

The issue? GOP State Rep. Tom Brinkman, who founded an anti-tax government watchdog group, is charging that Schmidt's House staffers frequently work on her campaign for re-election.

I'm pretty sure the work there is "bitch" but sometimes, it can also show up as "beeyatch." We'll have that debate later, I guess.

Either way, I don't endorse calling women "bitches." In the case of Jean Schmidt, I do heartily make an exception. On election night, I will be hoping to see her go down in flames.

--WS

Schlepping up the hill to bitch-slap the Resident...

On Tuesday the Resident was confronted with the reality of 11 unhappy GOP moderates from the House of Representatives, who schlepped up to the White House to tell their Idiot Prince that his headstrong, stubborn insistence on doing things his way in Iraq, and his idiotic refusal to accept reality - was destroying the GOP, and by the way, does he even care about that part???

House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months.

The meeting, which ran for an hour and a half Tuesday afternoon, was disclosed by participants yesterday as the House prepared to vote this evening on a spending bill that could cut funding for the Iraq war as early as July. GOP moderates told Bush they would stay united against the latest effort by House Democrats to end U.S. involvement in the war. Even Senate Democrats called the House measure unrealistic.

But the meeting between 11 House Republicans, Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, White House political adviser Karl Rove and presidential press secretary Tony Snow was perhaps the clearest sign yet that patience in the party is running out. The meeting, organized by Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.), one of the co-chairs of the moderate "Tuesday Group," included Reps. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), Michael N. Castle (Del.), Todd R. Platts (Pa.), Jim Ramstad (Minn.) and Jo Ann Emerson (Mo.).

"It was a very remarkable, candid conversation," Davis said. "People are always saying President Bush is in a bubble. Well, this was our chance, and we took it."

Yeah. I just bet it was. Candid and remarkable, I mean.

But still, even as pressure mounts, the Resident digs his heels in deeper, refusing any compromise on funding the war effort, and threatening yet another veto…

We have long since passed the point that digging in and hunkering down had a prayer of working. These storms shant pass. They shall just settle in overhead and rain down with fury, for as long as it takes.