Winning short term and long term
by digby
So, Ornstein and Mann say that the GOP opposition to all of President’s Obama’s programs is not ideological but rather a strategy to make him fail. I’m sure they want to make him fail, but I think that’s too facile. It’s true that they want to make him fail, no doubt about it. But it’s also ideological.
Take this lunacy for instance:
The Navy’s ambitious renewable energy plans aren’t sunk quite yet. But they took a major hit Thursday, when the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to all-but-ban the military from buying alternative fuels.
The House Armed Services Committee passed a similar measure earlier this month. But the House is controlled by Republicans, who are generally skeptical of alternative energy efforts. Democrats are in charge of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And if anything, the Senate’s alt-fuel prohibition goes even further than the House’s. If it becomes law, if would not only sink the Navy’s attempt to sail a “Great Green Fleet,” powered largely by biofuels. It would also sabotage a half-billion dollar program to shore up a tottering biofuels industry.
Like their counterparts in the House, senators prohibited the Pentagon from buying renewable fuels that are more expensive than traditional ones — a standard that biofuels many never meet. In addition, the committee blocked the Defense Department from helping build biofuel refineries unless “specifically authorized by law” – just as the Navy was set to pour $170 million into an effort with the Departments of Energy and Agriculture to do precisely that.
The measures — amendments to the Pentagon’s budget for next year — were pushed by two Republicans. Sen. James Inhofe has long been one of the Republican’s fiercest critics of renewable energy efforts; Sen. John McCain has in recent years turned away from long-held eco-friendly positions.
“Adopting a ‘green agenda’ for national defense of course is a terrible misplacement of priorities,” McCain told National Journal Daily on Tuesday, calling it “a clear indication that the president doesn’t understand national security.”
These old men who are apparently determined to destroy the planet are he same people who are rending their garments over the possible future tax rates of their grandchildren.
Ok. So McCain is carrying a grudge and wants to show the president doesn’t care about national security. No surprise for the mean old man. But Inhofe? He’s a true believer and he wants to stop the United States from developing alternative fuels because he truly thinks there is no need for it and has it in his head that the United States can run forever if only it will drill, baby, drill. And he represents a large faction of the throwback base and the oil barons who stand to make a lot of money. It’s a twofer.
In fact, underlying all of these obstructive maneuvers is an advancement of their agenda at the same time. This used to be considered basic smart politics. Whatever you do, win or lose, it should be in service of both your short term goals and your long term goals. Republicans have always kept their eyes on both the short term and the long term, and tend to screw up only when they are overcome by hubris and do something silly like impeach a president over a sexual indiscretion.
For all I know, Democrats are always doing this too. If they really believe that deficits are the greatest threat to the nation (it’s just a matter of getting the rich to throw in some tip money for it to be all good) or that America really should be a military empire then they’ve been doing a bang-up job. Otherwise, the Republicans have been playing much smarter politics for decades now. All along the way their stated agenda has been advanced far more often than it’s retreated. The opposite is true for the Democrats.
The GOP may be heading toward one of those hubristic set-backs. But both sides have set up a monumental confrontation on the budget and tax cuts after the election and if I were a betting person I’d have to say that it’s the GOP agenda that is likely to be the big winner. In fact, both parties have set it up so that’s there’s no other possible outcome.
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