Who Killed the Responsible Republican? Bill Kristol, of course.

[babylonsister]

http://www.slate.com/id/2251101/

Dying Breed
Who Killed the Responsible Republican? Bill Kristol, of course.
By Jacob Weisberg
Updated Saturday, April 17, 2010, at 7:14 AM ET


Do you remember the Responsible Republicans? In the 1980s, small herds of them still roamed freely around Washington. In 1982, they stampeded over Ronald Reagan's veto of the largest tax increase in history to mitigate the fiscal harm of his 1981 tax cut. In 1983, they converged on Capitol Hill to pass a package of tax increases and benefit cuts recommended by the Greenspan Commission to keep Social Security solvent. In 1986, they followed Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson to pass bipartisan immigration reform legislation by a large majority. In 1990, several were spotted with President George H.W. Bush (the Responsible one) at Andrews Air Force Base, conspiring to reduce the deficit.

After the Andrews summit, however, glimpses of them outside captivity became increasingly rare. With their habitats in the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest under threat and their natural predators on the rise, the status of the species moved from "threatened" to "endangered." Though occasionally spotted on the rocky shoals of Maine's Penobscot Bay and in beach houses up and down the California coast, they now rarely emerge from the wilderness. During the health care battle, President Obama was unable to find a single Responsible Republican to serve as a mascot. There continue to be rumors of the Double R's return around issues such as immigration, financial reform, and climate change. Yet we have now gone several years without a confirmed sighting.

If Responsible Republicans are in fact nearing extinction, I think we can identify the crucial event that signaled their demise. It was a December 1993 memo by conservative strategist and commentator William Kristol. Kristol's advice about how Republicans should respond to Bill Clinton's 1993 health care effort—and a series of follow-up memos he wrote in 1994—pushed the GOP away from cooperation with Democrats on any social and economic legislation. His message marks the pivotal moment when Republicans shifted from fundamentally responsible partners in governing the country to uncompromising, hyperpartisan antagonists on all issues.

snip//

The politics of Republican implacability are based on what might seem an obvious insight that competition is a zero-sum game. If Democrats pass their plans, they succeed politically and Republicans lose. But while elections are zero-sum, politics as a whole is not. Without some level of bipartisan cooperation, voters become increasingly cynical, the system becomes too paralyzed to address the major issues, and the whole country suffers in consequence. Longer term, it is hard to see the politics of "no" as a winning Republican strategy.

The rise of hyperpartisanship is not one of those problems for which the left and right are equally to blame. Democrats, who like legislating better than Republican do, and who have seldom had the GOP's ability to march in lockstep, still instinctively prefer to work on a bipartisan basis. They continue to hope, against the odds, that Double Rs will escape extinction and one day provide partners for them again. Perhaps Ted Turner will find a way to breed them on his ranch.

[geckosfeet]

1. When I used to watch the faux shows on cable, and see Bill Kristol as

a talking head so often, the one thing I remember more than anything else is the crazed look in his eyes. In so much as ones outward appearance can manifest insanity, his does.

[Demeter]

2. He Had LOTS of Help

and Poppy isn't off the hook, either. It was a case of generational divide--the old men, frustrated and their time running out, egging on the younger to bigger and badder tricks. And the young got carried away into lawlessness.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Once upon a time, bipartisanship was the rule in the Senate and the House.

Even when members would disagree, it would be polite, respectful, and tempered. And "opposites" such as Teddy Kennedy and Orin Hatch would go out to lunch together as buddies. Too much acrimony and antagonism now to see that spirit today.

[BootinUp]

4. nice article.

Kristol was a major player no doubt. I think he was one of the first that I instinctively feared as I listened to the reverse logic he so deftly spewed.

[southernyankeebelle]

5. Plus have Fox News as a private nonstop hate machine of the left. If you get

anyone to agree with you on the right then they are traitors. So where is a responsible republican to go. Leave office. I am so sick and tired of hearing the msm is bias to the left when that isn't so.

[NC_Nurse]

6. He is a disgusting POS. I can't stand his permanent smug smile.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

He rarely gets taken to task for his obvious talent at being completely WRONG in his predictions either. It's infuriating.

[JohnWxy]

7. recommended!

Let's give some credit to Rush Limbaugh. The ultimate in human toxic waste.

[applegrove]

8. The right wingnuts escaped the republican party and their leadership in churches and have started

tea parties. They attack the responsible republican as a trator. They will destroy the old republican party or shut them up. Democrats will keep winning elections.