Blaming Republicans for Sour Relations in Congress

I wrote about the issue of giving proper blame to Republicans for the poor relationship, between member, in Congress a few months ago when I brought up Juliet Eliprien's book "Fight Club Politics". I would like to say a few more things at this point. It seems that many people in the political world do not want to give enough blame to the Republicans, especially Newt Gingrich, for the negative turn in the relationships of Congressman. Richard Fenno is a prominant political scientist and it seems that he may not be giving Newt Gingrich enough blame for destroying the Congressional relationship. It seems that Fenno and others are willing to point to Gingrich has having done some things that caused problems, but they never seem to completely say Gingrich is the reason for the problems we have today. Even as they are pointing out the things Gingrich did they on occasion blame the Democrats for Gingrich's actions.

Its almost NO PRISONERS TIME...

Civil but distant.....

Blame all of them but Newt seems to have initiated the cloudy atmosphere.

"get along, go along" political approach by touting his relationship with Bob Bullock, the Democratic lieutenant governor. He used Bullock to build his street cred as a uniter, then promptly dumped it when he got to Washington, if he ever had in the first place.

the American Constiution. http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/gen/resources/players/gingrich/ The 1995-model Gingrich took the gavel in January and ran, tearing through the articles of the Contract with America and passing most of them swiftly, though few pieces also made it through the Senate. But the confrontational nature of Gingrich's House seemed to frighten some Americans, and an all-out assault from liberal advocacy groups, labor unions and the Democratic Party steadily whittled away at Gingrich's popularity.

His public appeal went into free fall after the GOP Congress' budget battles with President Bill Clinton led to a series of government shutdowns in late 1995.

and "can't we all get along".. Their crimes are still lying bloody on the table, sucking the lifeblood out of the Country, the money, the Bill of Rights, the accountablility.. and they want everyone to just

forget about the rancorous, gridlocked past... let's work together...

Well

I'd go back to the Viguries and "movement conservatives" who rose following the impeachment of Nixon as the start of this "Fight Club". At first, the fight was quietly behind the scenes...grassroots and localized. This is where the real Southern Strategy kicked in as the alliance between "fiscal" conservatives, fundies and neo-cons began to develop...all behind the sockpuppet known as Ronald Raygun.

Gingrich took the game the next step in his early house days when he purposedly went after Tip O'Neill and came across as the underdog. While his politics were out there for all to see, his personality is what helped him rise...and then fall. As an underdog, he was a good story for the media and his "truth to power" game put him on a lot of TV screens.

He got a real foothold when Poppy Bush turned into a bust...and Gingrich by then had established a solid inside network...money and influence that filled a power vacuum left when booosh was ousted. In '94, he put it all together in what was the ultimate "big lie"...his "Contract On America". The game was to say all the things people want to say, but once in power to serve the monied interests. Gingrich thought he could play it both way...stay a "populist" while being a fat cat as well. That was his downfall.

But he also was a "victim" of his success. The "in-your-face" game he brought to politics would be a blue-print that many felt needed to go further right...people like DeLay and Armey...who eventually tossed Newt aside as both a threat and that he wasn't sharing the spoils.

Now Newt keeps attempting to re-invent himself...and honestly, I thought his con-game would be on full display this year. Instead he's sitting in the weeds. He sees his "movement" shreading and hopes once the dust settles to come out as the "savior". It'll be interesting to see if he tries to fill that power vaccuum again after the '08 elections as he did in '92.

The proper credit they deserve, but I also think that we have some democrats in congress that don't have the backbone to stand up to the republicans, and that is also a big problem. We also need to weed out those in congress on both sides that are in the pockets of big corporations and are taking huge amounts of money from corporations and their lobbyists. Nothing will ever get done in congress as long as votes can be bought by these corrupt corporate bastards!