Republicans Just Dont Get It

[Lurker]

Even though an overwhelming majority of Americans want Republicans to compromise, Republican's in Congress just don't get it.

They continue to arrogantly obstruct everything and refuse all attempts to reach bi-partisan agreements even on issues that have widespread cross party support among the American electorate. (Demanding deficit funded tax cuts for the wealthy and opposing DADT repeal are just two examples)

It's been obvious for two years now that the Republicans are willing to damage the country as long as it also damages Obama politically. They don't care about the deficit or jobs or the economy other than as a political weapon. I thought things would be different where international treaties were involved. New START was considered by many to be a sanity check for the Republican Party. The past treaties were ratified with near unanimous support. Would the new Republican Tea Party do the sane thing and ratify the treaty, or would they reflexively oppose it in order to damage Obama?

As if the answer wasn't obvious.

After months of disinformation by the know-nothings in the Republican Party, attempts to set the record straight by military experts and even a Republican Senator, we've come to this. After having his concerns addressed, Republican Senator Jon Kyl is going to oppose ratification anyways.

Back story with lots of links here. Steve Benen at Washington Monthly explains why this matters here and here.

If the Republicans block the ratification of the New Start treaty after Obama spent months trying to address their concerns, most of which were based in their own ignorance anyways, I never want to hear another person whine about bi-partisan this or that. It's clear that the only thing Republicans are interested in is their own political advantage, country be damned.

[Kulaf]

So the question on the poll was"

"Should Republicans in Congress Stick To Positions Or Compromise?"

Positions on what? Compromise on what?

[Kulaf]

I also see nothing in that story that says that Kyl is going to oppose ratification of the treaty when it comes up for a vote. Rather he wants to wait to vote on it next session. No doubt to put further pressure on the administration to meet what he sees as important upgrades to our nuclear defense.

[Lurker]

Kyl is playing the same game Republicans have been playing for two years now where they pretend to negotiate in good faith in other to drag out the process. The Administration addressed his concerns about modernization and funding (concerns that were not valid to begin with) and he just won't take 'yes' for an answer. Now he's saying there isn't enough time and that the issue is too complex.

So after months of delay caused by the Republicans they want to put it off to the next session of Congress wher ratification will become less likely due to the radicalized new members. And we aren't talking about something controversial here; this is a treaty that has overwhelming bi-partisan support among military and civilian leadership and foreign policy experts. The only place this is controversial is in the right wing propaganda machine and current Republican politicians who's only goal is to defeat Obama, country be damned.

[Kulaf]

A more likely scenario than "OMG the Republicans want the country to go down the drain!!11!", would be that they would like the new session to be in effect so they can take some of the credit for the ratification. But if you want to go with rampant paranoia.....I certainly won't stop you.

[Lurker]

I never said "Republicans want the country to go down the drain", I just said that they don't care if the country is damaged as long as they achieve their primary goal of hurting the Obama presidency. Anyone who doesn't accept that fact hasn't been paying attention the last two years.

But we'll find out soon enough. If the Republican's do successfully delay ratification until the new congress convenes we'll see how many Republican's line up to ratify this uncontroversial and widely supported treaty and how many continue to spread disinformation and demagogue on the issue.

I really hope I'm wrong, because like I said earlier ratification or opposition to this treaty is sort of a sanity test for the Republican Party and they've been failing it miserably.

[Embar Angylwrath]

I'm with Kula on this. I think Kyl will remove opposition once the lame-duck period is over. And I also think Russia wants START as much as we do, so using START to leverage some Russian concessions on Iran may also be in play here.

[Lurker]

You think a Senator is engaging in foreign policy and using opposition to START to leverage concessions from Russia regarding Iran? Did I read that right?

[Embar Angylwrath]

You think a Senator is engaging in foreign policy and using opposition to START to leverage concessions from Russia regarding Iran? Did I read that right?

Yep. Let's see how it unfolds. Lets see if Kyl or others start to make statements about Russia and iran in the debate on START.

[Lurker]

So far the only people making statements about Russia and Iran (and NK) are experts saying that Republican obstruction on START is damaging our relationship with Russia and making it harder to deal with the two roque countries.

But if you think Republicans are just playing 11-dimensional chess in an area they aren't supposed to be involved in at all, we'll see.