Remember how the Republicans always used to beat up on the Democrats for being the party of “no”? Seems Mike Pence figures, “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
Sylvia Smith has an article entitled Pence pushes GOP principles in quest to lead party in House in which Pence offers the following in his quest to become House Minority Leader:
He said that in addition to trying to thwart Democratic legislation, he would stand up to President Bush “when he pursues policies at odds with the principles of limited government and the rule of law.â€
First, so much for bipartisanship. Second, wtf took you so long? I don’t particularly mind one group thwarting the legislation of another. Not always, but gridlock tends to be good. Still, it doesn’t speak much for a bipartisanship intention when gridlock becomes a leading campaign plank. As for standing up to President Bush, he hasn’t done it for the past 5 years, permit me to doubt he’ll develop a meaningful spine implant in the next 2 years. I’d love to be proven wrong on this one. But I don’t see Pence leading the charge to stop warrantless wiretaps on U.S. citizens, adherence to the Geneva Conventions, and rolling back the rest of Bush’s executive power grabs.
On the other hand, he’s a Hoosier and he’d be better than Boehner. So, good luck to you Mike.
Doug,
Although Pence has stayed silent on many issues and has voted with the President a lot, he was one of only a few members who stood against Every Child Left Behind and he led the fight against the Senior Prescription Drug Bill. If you remember, the Prescription Drug Bill almost got voted down, and only passed partly because of our Congressman, Steve Buyer, who promised to vote against the bill the day before the vote, and switched his vote at the last minute (Buyer now claims he wrote the bill). Thus, although I have disagreements with Pence, I wouldn’t say that he has not stood against the President.
Pence sure got a free pass on the “nuclear documents on the internet” fiasco. Considering that apparently he was the one who inspired Bush to pursue that piece of idiocy, I would expect to hear something about it as he pursues a leadership post.
When Pence stood up to correctly declare that his party was out of control on spending, you will recall that he was taken to the woodshed by his party’s leadership.
I think his ‘no’ is as much for his own party or more than it is for Dems.
As a partisan Libertarian, I am delighted that Pence was not elected House minority leader, as Boehmer represents the status quo on spending issues. Ideologically, I wish Pence had been named leader so that either of those two parties had some leadership in reigning in spending, but pragmatically, I have faith that gridlock will rule the day and have the effect of reducing spending.