The Republican Party has seldom voted en masse the way the Democratic Party does. Whether that has more to do with a lack of unity or a sincere belief in doing what is right regardless of Party leadership desires is for you to decide on your own. But this has me scratching my head:
Unexpected cracks in Republican support threw into limbo President Bush’s high-profile nomination of John R. Bolton to be the country’s representative at the United Nations.
Pure politics. I’ve not seen anything that discounts Bolton’s ability to do the job. Democrats don’t want to approve any Bush appointees. They gave Condi Rice grief. But why are the Republicans wavering on any of these nominations? I don’t expect them to simply bow and scrape to the President, but they seem to be afraid of supporting his nominations.
If they can’t muster enough political courage to deal with something like this (and how much courage could voting for Bolton take?), how can we possible expect them to make tough decisions?
I guess they aren’t interested in remaining the majority party. They’ll certainly not get my vote acting like this.
Eh. It’s another AP “oh, the Republicans are at war with each other” story. What a surprise.
(Sorry. Just in a cynical mood.)
Comment by UML Guy — April 20, 2005 @ 9:22 am
Hear, Hear! I am frustrated with this whole process – we are acting like wimps!
Comment by Barb — April 20, 2005 @ 11:00 am
Bunker…my friends and I often talk about this very problem and it seems to stem from the Republican ability to “take charge” of a situation when it’s handed to them.
This nation’s electorate has put them in power, given them a majority in the House, the Senate, and now we’re supposed to be running the show from the White House, but what’s really changed? I guess my time in the military wants to scream from the mountaintops, “When in charge…be in charge!”
While the Republicans will still probably maintain a majority in the years to come, this is meaningless unless they’re willing to flex some muscle and expend some political capital. Let me add to that, “on matters that the American people are concerned about.”
See you on the high ground!
MajorDad1984
Comment by MajorDad1984 — April 20, 2005 @ 12:10 pm