No Policy, Just Politics

Ira Forman captures the decline of the Republican party in a nutshell on Talking Points Memo.

The theory that the Republican Party of 2009 has any interest in public policy was destroyed over the past 24 hours. Sensing that the momentum for health care reform has slowed, one GOP talking head spoke about the biggest domestic reform in decades using the most brazen partisan and cynical terms. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) joyfully told a conservative group, "[i]f we are able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Offering absolutely nothing as an alternative, the GOP is locked in on defeating the Obama health care reform effort. William Kristol urged the GOP to "go for the kill" in The Weekly Standard and RNC Chairman Michael Steele was telling the National Press Club that "I don't do policy."

No kidding. No wonder the Republicans are racking up such abysmal poll numbers.

UPDATE: Newsweek's Howard Fineman agrees on MSNBC's Countdown (h/t David Kurtz on Talking Points Memo).

I talked to people on the Hill all day today. I talked to Republicans as well as Democrats. Republicans claims they have a plan. They don't. They claim they're going to have a plan. They won't. Their whole strategy ... is to stand on the sidelines with their arms folded while the Democrats try to work this thing out. That's their whole strategy.

Clive Crook makes the same observation on The Atlantic.

--Ballard Burgher