Outside In

Since January 2009, with very few exceptions, congressional Republicans have remained nearly unanimously opposed to virtually every Obama/Reid/Pelosi-lead legislative initiative.  Hurrah!  Nevertheless, I've wondered for some time now just how they were managing to maintain such extraordinary party discipline.  I wanted to know if that discipline was chiefly the product of party leadership internally, or was it rather mostly a result of pressures being applied from the outside, from the Tea Party, for example.  Now I think I know.

In her bid for re-election, Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski recently lost the state's GOP primary to attorney Joe Miller.  It was close, but she lost.  She could, and should, as a good party member, have worked to ensure party unity for the general election this fall, but she decided to wage a campaign as a write-in candidate instead.  While she has little to no chance for victory, her move is almost certain to create wounds and perhaps leave scars in the party.  As a punishment for her petulance and disloyalty, the congressional GOP leadership began working to remove her from important committee assignments, significantly to cancel her membership on the Senate Energy Committee.  Well, apparently the leadership flinched.  She will retain her position on the committee after all.

My conclusion:  Thank God for the Tea Party uprising!  Without it, nothing, and I do mean nothing would change.  You simply cannot and, moreover, you must not trust most of our current political leadership, Democrat or Republican.  It is well past time to start over.  Throw the bums out!