Quote :

"HOUSE GOP MELTDOWN UPDATE: The Plank's favorite Hill correspondent just checked in: Hey, if you haven't been watching it, the House GOP has lost their first floor vote since, well since I started working here in 1997. The new "leadership" team is flailing. Moderates are talking of fielding a leadership candidate in January, the right wingers are about to drive the moderates out into the rice paddies, it's absolute anarchy. Apparently this vote was on the House-Senate conference report on the Labor-HHS spending bill. (The bill went down, 220-209. The House promptly adjourned for GOP leaders to have a hyperventilation session.) We'll try to find out what the blowup was. Thoughts very welcome from other Hill staffers out there (email address below). MORE: Think our correspondent is exaggerating? Check out the lead story in this morning's CongressDaily. It's not about the Labor-HHS bill, but it suggests that House Republicans may be headed over a cliff: With the clock ticking down for the second week in a row on a contentious spending reconciliation package... GOP members and aides who support the legislation are sending out warning signals that Republicans might be on the brink of a war within the ranks if Congress cannot muster the votes to approve the bill. [emphasis added] On the larger subject of the congressional GOP's grip on power, see also the wise Sam Rosenfeld and the most excellent Mark Schmitt. --Michael Crowley"

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=3646


They're starting to crack.

11/17/2005 9:29:36 PM

yea?


we'll see.

11/17/2005 9:31:24 PM

Better article:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/17/congress.spending.ap/index.html

11/17/2005 9:32:52 PM

11/17/2005 10:11:50 PM

^AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

11/17/2005 10:20:19 PM

From CNN:

Quote :

"Republicans said they may have lost votes because this year's bill, down $1.5 billion from last year, included no special projects or earmarks for lawmakers. "You take those out and you lose the incentive," said Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, who voted for the bill."

"We need pork to make government work..." - Davis

11/18/2005 12:10:36 AM

this is a meltdown of NCSU athletics proportion.

11/18/2005 12:15:31 AM

This is what happens when you try to be majority whip and majority leader at the same time.

11/18/2005 9:56:06 AM

Quote :

"They're starting to crack."

Dude, I could have told you that a month ago. The party's on the verge of collapse. As someone put it on NPR once: "The only thing the [congressional] Republicans have going for them at this point is the Democratic leadership."

11/18/2005 10:10:18 AM

Also the housing bubble is about to burst! Oh noes! Anarchy!

11/18/2005 10:12:32 AM

Quote :

""The only thing the [congressional] Republicans have going for them at this point is the Democratic leadership.""

The dems have been letting the GOP tear themselves apart. The Democratic leadership is starting to step forward, now that repugnicans have bloodied themselves.

11/18/2005 10:50:28 AM

eh, i see it but i don't agree with the implications.

they're fighting about which direction they want the big tent to go, but they still run shit as a party. as a whole they're way better off than the other guys right now.

11/18/2005 1:44:55 PM

Quote :

"The dems have been letting the GOP tear themselves apart. The Democratic leadership is starting to step forward, now that repugnicans have bloodied themselves."

It took them two national elections to figure that one out. It's good to see the Democratic leadership starting to step forward, but I have yet to see any evidence of a common, alternate vision outside of the usual "Anything but Bush!" and "Withdrawal from Iraq" slogans. Until they start offering a more substantial plan and vision for the future instead of simple opposition, they're not going to win back Congress.

11/18/2005 2:57:15 PM

^ Agreed. Democrats are lacking in the leadership department. They spend too much time saying what's wrong without saying how to fix it. No one's got the backbone to field another comprehensive plan since it's much safer to simply call the GOP morons.

11/20/2005 12:01:10 PM