The Republicans Have Nothing to Party About

The bill is going to pass. The problem is that it is larded up with Republican tax cuts but has been painted as a Democratic "wish list," thus starving the beast while feeding the tax 'n spend, fiscal responsibility shibboleths at the same time. There's nothing we can do about that now. Unfortunately, the big battles to come are going to be much tougher because of it.

We're still in the first round, but I would say the Republicans have already masterfully played it. After just having their asses handed to them in November, they managed to turn the crisis into an opportunity to shore up their base, weaken their opposition and misdirect the commentariat to the debt (which they created) rather than the crisis (which they also created) and narrow the options for the new president. All in the first two weeks.

Oh, and they have successfully portrayed the Democrats as crazed social engineers with a credit card and the President as a very nice young man who just isn't strong enough to control the congress. It's good stuff.

Again, it's round one. The Dems will ultimately win it, but they are bloodied.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/state-of-play-by-digby-last-night-i.html