Will the obstruction plot the Republicans hatched on January 20, 2009 pay off in the 2014 midterm election?

January 20, 2009 was an historic day in American history.  For on that day, Barack Hussein Obama not only was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, he became the FIRST African-American elected to the office in the then 233 year history of the United States.  The first slaves arrived in Jamestown (Virginia) in 1619 and it ONLY took America 389 years to elect an African descendent to the highest office in the land.  Better LATE than NEVER, right?  That day - January 20, 2009, indeed, was the launching of a New World Order.  The candidate who campaigned on hope and change was elected President and the country was ready to follow his lead. 

January 20, 2009 was an infamously historic day of sorts as well.  While Washington was alive and buzzing with Inauguration Balls all over town, key members of the Republican Party held an Inauguration Night pity party at a Washington, D.C. steakhouse.  The agenda: cry and whine about Barack Obama getting elected and to make an iron clad pledge to OBSTRUCT the newly inaugurated president at every turn.  In attendance was conservative pollster and propagandist Frank Lunz, who organized the pity party; disgraced former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich who served as the evening's Ring Master.  From the House of Representatives was then Minority Leader Eric Cantor; his sidekicks Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan.  This troika would later dub themselves "The Young Guns".  Other Republicans from the House were Pete Sessions and Jeb Hensarling, both from Texas; Pete Hoekstra from Michigan and Dan Lungren from California.  Senate Republicans in attendance were Jim DeMint from South Carolina; Jon Kyl from Arizona; Tom Coburn from Oklahoma; John Ensign from Nevada and Bob Corker from Tennessee.  This was a major collection of political victims among all the pageantry, pomp and circumstance of Inauguration Night.  The Republicans had been ROUTED in the November 2008 election.  The Democrats gained 8 Senate seats and added a net gain of 1 House seat where they won the majority in the 2006 midterm election that made Nancy Pelosi the FIRST woman Speaker of the House of Representatives.  These political victims were wounded and afraid.  In a video clip from the PBS program "Frontline", Frank Luntz said as much:

“The room was filled. It was a who’s who of ranking members who had at one point been committee chairmen, or in the majority, who now wondered out loud whether they were in the permanent minority."  (See the video: The Republicans Plan for the New President)

This was a pity party in the highest form.  Instead of licking their wounds and caucusing on how to have a wider appeal to American voters, these victims hatched a diabolical, spiteful and mean spirited plan of obstruction.  These victims arbitrarily decided to NULLIFY a national election.  They didn't waste time. either. 

Just 9 days after being sworn into office, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 - the law amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that extended the time women could file equal pay lawsuits against employers - and every Republican male senator voted against it.  EVERY single one.  (This link lists who voted for and against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009)

Next on the Republican's "stand in the way of list" was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which was more commonly referred to as The Stimulus Package.  Since the economy was a near Great Depression state mainly due to the fact 300,000-500,000 jobs were being lost every month at the time, the idea behind ARRA was for the federal government to infuse the economy - stimulate - with a cash flow by investing in infrastructure, healthcare, tax incentives and extended unemployment, Social Security and Medicare benefits.  The Republicans, despite the economy hemorrhaging jobs and the economy teetering on collapse, put up tremendous resistance to it.  The Republicans insisted upon additional tax cuts for top wage earners.  President Obama and Senate Democrats acquiesced and went along with those demands in the hope of reaching bipartisan agreement.  All but TWO of the 40 Republicans in the Senate at that time voted AGAINST the Stimulus - despite the bill including the tax cuts they said they needed in order to vote for the bill. 

Then came the most demonized, propagandized and debated legislation in the last 50 years - the Affordable Care Act,  Despite the fact that approximately 40 million Americans did not have access to affordable health care; despite the fact "Obamacare" was modeled after a health plan born and bred from The Heritage Foundation - an UBER conservative think tank - and despite the fact the same plan was implemented and working in Massachusetts, the Republicans mounted the fiercest obstruction campaign I have ever witnessed.  The Republicans convinced a large swath of Americans that "Obamacare" was the Demon Seed.  The town hall meetings around the country were filled with rage, anger and hate - all over a bill that would HELP other Americans.  Nevertheless, on a 61-39 party line vote, the Affordable Care Act was passed in the Senate and on March 23, 2010 was signed into law by President Obama.  The Republicans, with the aid a political cult that became the T.E.A. Party, campaigned AGAINST the ACA and became the majority party in the House and gained 8 seats in the Senate.  Just two days after the 2010 midterm elections, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R - Kentucky) was not bashful about the GOP's goal for the 2012 Presidential election:

The Republicans, who just two years earlier held a pity party and expressed fear for the future of their party, were now emboldened.  They wanted the White House in 2012.  After a grueling primary, the Republicans nominated one of the biggest political FRAUDS to come along in some time: one Willard Mitt Romney.  A venture capitalist (some would describe him as a VULTURE capitalist) who was such a fraud that he was forced to run away from his signature legislation he signed into law as governor of Massachusetts; An Act Providing Access to Affordable,Quality,Accountable Health Care - which served as the model for the Affordable Care Act - in order to win the nomination.  Prior to the 2012 election, President Obama proposed the American Jobs Act, a $447 billion bill that economists estimated would have created 10 million jobs.  The Republicans said no.  They made the calculated move that tanking the economy would help them and Mitt Romney win the White House in 2012.  How wrong they were.  Romney failed MISERABLY, Obama was re-elected  and the Democrats actually gained two seats in the Senate.  Although Democrats running for the House got more cumulative votes than Republicans, the GOP held on to the House due to gerrymandered congressional districts.  Since 2012, the Republicans have either blocked and/or voted against the extension of unemployment benefits for 2.5 million long term unemployed Americans as well as raising the federal minimum wage.  The Republican led House has voted to repeal the ACA 54 times.  House Speaker John Boehner has sued President Obama for his use of an Executive Order in delaying the employer mandate of the ACA.  Right ... the Republicans in the House are suing the President of the United States for using Executive Order on the ACA - a piece of legislation THEY have been obsessed with repealing.  Go figure. 

 

The lives have changed dramatically for some who attended the Grand Old PITY Party on January 20, 2009.  Frank Luntz has experienced a "Come to Jesus moment", if you will.  He miraculously came to realize how divided America is and the role he played in creating that seismic divide.  No?  Really?  Yeah, really.  He cries a river about his complicity in America's great divide in a piece on him in The Atlantic (The Agony of Frank Luntz).  Eric Cantor lost his re-election primary in his Virginia district and has since left Congress.  Don't cry for him, though.  He joined Moelis & Co, a Wall Street investment bank, where he was named vice chairman and managing director.  He will make a ton - make that TWO tons - of money peddling influence from Congress directly to Wall Street.  How fitting.  Cantor's sidekick in the House, Kevin McCarthy, replaced him as House Majority Leader.  The third rung of "The Young Guns", Paul Ryan, was Mitt Romney's running mate in the 2012 election.  He definitely will test the presidential waters in 2016.  Jim DeMint left the Senate and is now the president of the Heritage Foundation.  Jon Kyl retired from Congress and is a lawyer/lobbyist with Covington & Burling.  Tom Coburn is resigning from the Senate due to health concerns at the end of the 113th Congress.  John Ensigns was forced to leave the Senate in total DISGRACE due to quite a scandal he got himself involved in.  It turned out he was having an affair with the wife of a friend of his who worked for him when he was in the Senate.  Ensign's parents paid the couple off to the tune of $100,000 and it was quite a mess.  (John Ensign scandal)  Newt Gingrich is, well, Newt Gingrich.  He narcissistically ran for president in 2012 and his campaign predictably crashed and burned.  Don't be surprised if he runs again in 2016.  Newt is the smartest guy in America, if you believe him, and the country just might be smart enough to realize that and elect him to the highest office in the land.  Please don't hold your breath. 

There are 36 Senate seats up for grabs in the 2014 midterm elections.  The Democrats are defending 21 seats and the Republicans 15.  In addition to successfully defending the 15 seats in the Senate, the Republicans have to win 6 of the 21 seats the Democrats are defending.  The question now is simple: Will the party that launched the despicable and diabolical plan of obstruction on January 20, 2009; the party of NO and the party that has abused the filibuster be rewarded in the 2014 midterm elections?  How could any SENSIBLE voter vote for the party whose stated goal is to NOT get anything done? 

 

You would be surprised. 

Peace, peace.

Craig Riggins
Email: therigginsreport517@gmail.com
Facebook: The Riggins Report
Twitter: @CraigRiggins