The Republicans are trying to have it both ways. And maybe they can persuade the media to go along with this drivel but it doesn’t mean it has any basis in fact:
Republicans are feeling so good about their chances of retaking Congress this fall that they’re already debating their governing relationship with President Joe Biden. And they’re divided over how to handle their potential big wins.
With Biden and Democrats floundering right now, the GOP is increasingly favored to vault back to partial power in Washington by flipping the House, and potentially also the Senate, in the coming midterms. What comes next isn’t quite clear: Some Republicans are mulling ways to collaborate with Biden on issues like trade, energy or tech; others are prepared to go scorched-earth as their party eyes the bigger prize of retaking the White House in 2024.
The GOP’s pro-bipartisanship camp may not have a lot of space in 2023 to work with the president: funding the government and raising the debt ceiling will be a major challenge, given how often House and Senate Republicans diverge on critical pieces of legislation. And former President Donald Trump will continue trying to influence the party’s direction, criticizing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and anyone else who steps out of line with his combative politics.
Given those dynamics, there’s no unified GOP agenda for voters to examine this fall — other than an up-or-down vote on Biden and congressional Democrats’ record. Republicans aren’t sure what will happen next if they actually win.
“It’s really going to be a referendum on him and his administration and on the Democrat leadership in the Congress,” John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican who is also running for reelection this fall, said of Biden. “So we need to stay out of our own way.”
“It’s really important for us to highlight our differences, how we would do it differently,” the South Dakotan added. “And then … have some things that we would do or could do if there was a willingness to work together.”
That must be why Mitch McConnell announced that they would not have an agenda for the 2022 election.
Thune is running so there’s that. But this shows once again that the GOP is in a corner with their crazies — and their numbers are legion. They are going to do nothing but run investigations because that’s what their Dear Leader will demand of them. Moreover, they don’t want to “work together” on anything. If they did, they’d be negotiating in good faith on the massive number of initiatives the Democrats have already proposed.
Republicans care about three things: obstruction, tax cuts and judges. Period. Biden even gave them a gift by letting them bring home the bacon in the infrastructure bill without having to vote for it.
If they win it will be a shitshow. Count on it.