No Republicans Fit to Endorse

The New York Times explains why it won't be endorsing a single Republican Congressional candidate this year — something they can't remember ever happening before:

To begin with, the Republican majority that has run the House — and for the most part, the Senate — during President Bush’s tenure has done a terrible job on the basics. Its tax-cutting-above-all-else has wrecked the budget, hobbled the middle class and endangered the long-term economy. It has refused to face up to global warming and done pathetically little about the country’s dependence on foreign oil.

Republican leaders, particularly in the House, have developed toxic symptoms of an overconfident majority that has been too long in power. They methodically shut the opposition — and even the more moderate members of their own party — out of any role in the legislative process. Their only mission seems to be self-perpetuation.

The current Republican majority managed to achieve that burned-out, brain-dead status in record time, and with a shocking disregard for the most minimal ethical standards. It was bad enough that a party that used to believe in fiscal austerity blew billions on pork-barrel projects. It is worse that many of the most expensive boondoggles were not even directed at their constituents, but at lobbyists who financed their campaigns and high-end lifestyles.

Posted on November 5, 2006 at 13.57 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events

2 Responses

Subscribe to comments via RSS

  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Sunday, 5 November 2006 at 17.26
    Permalink

    Tame and reserved in its wording, considering the severity of the situation. But this comes from a very Gray Lady, so that kind of figures.

    I like the way Andrew Sullivan put it during an interview on PBS "NOW" Friday night: "This is turning out to be not so much an election as an intervention."

  2. Written by rightsaidfred
    on Monday, 6 November 2006 at 01.03
    Permalink

    Yes, I plan to vote for the Islamic candidates this election.

Subscribe to comments via RSS

Leave a Reply

To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.

I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.