OVERWHELMING….Byron York reports from the trenches:
Just talked to a very clued-in Republican on the Hill. This person wouldn’t predict a unanimous Republican vote against the Democratic stimulus package, but said there would be “minimal” GOP support of the bill. “I don’t know if it will be unanimous, but Democrats are not going to have the kind of bipartisan support the president was trying to get,” he told me. An “overwhelming” number of Republicans will vote no, he predicted.
That’s pretty much what I expect too. And hey — I don’t blame them, either. The job of the opposition is to oppose, and if this were some big Republican tax cut fest following a GOP victory I’d expect Democrats to oppose that overwhelmingly too.
I really don’t think the opposition party owes the president any votes just because he won the election. They owe him votes if he convinces them that, on balance, one of his initiatives is a good thing for the country, or if they get some concession they want, or if they think it’s political suicide to oppose him. In other words, the usual political reasons. Contrary to what our talking heads mindlessly recite after every election, honeymoons are for newlyweds, not presidents, and stuff needs to get done for four years out of four, not just for the first hundred days. It’s long past time for the media to get over its preoccupation with both of these romantic notions.