NYET!….The Obama administration wants to extend the February 17 deadline for TV stations to switch from analog to digital transmissions. I don’t have a strong opinion about the merits of this delay, but check out the results of the roll call vote in Congress:
[Joe] Barton led the push to scuttle the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously on Monday night after lawmakers in that chamber struck a bipartisan compromise….But those concessions did not placate most Republicans in the House. Only 22 Republicans voted for the bill, while 155 voted against it.
So here we have a relatively nonideological issue. It went through a modest amount of give-and-take and a compromise was struck. And the result? 100% of Senate Republicans voted in favor but 90% of House Republicans voted against. Shazam!
Apparently the House GOP caucus really has decided to blindly stonewall everything Obama wants, no matter what. This is even more of a wakeup call than the vote on the stimulus bill.