Keeping a tax break for the majority of Americans in place just like Republicans fought for on behalf of skabillionaires last year was, of course, “the right thing to do”. A clear no-brainer, barely worth the breath it takes to discuss it. One would have thought all those House Republicans that signed the Grover Norquist pledge not to raise taxes would have bent over backwards to get this extension passed. Somehow, however, they managed to bend themselves into pretzels, instead, figuring out why it’s okay to raise takes on most Americans but not gajillionaires after signing the Norquist pledge.
But there’s one piece from yesterday’s massive and epic GOPfail that really stood out from me. Here’s House Speaker John Boehner, leader of the House Republicans:
“Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing, and sometimes it’s politically difficult to do the right thing. But you know, when everybody called for a one-year extension of the payroll tax deduction, when everybody wanted a full year of extended unemployment benefits, we were here fighting for the right things. It may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world, but let me tell you what: I think our members waged a good fight.”
And, more significantly:
“It’s not always easy to do the right thing, but we believe that we came here to change the way this town does business.
And, even more significantly:
[W]hy not do the right thing for the American people, even though it’s not exactly what we want?
Look at that language. “Hard to do the right thing.” “Not easy to do the right thing.” “Waged a good fight.” “Do the right thing…even though it’s not…what we want.”
Republicans, by their own admission — the admission of their leader — fought a “good fight” against “doing the right thing”.
These little snippets should be spliced into a tidy 30 second commercial and run continuously between now and the 2012 election.
No, Speaker Boehner, “doing the right thing” is NOT difficult. Fighting against doing the right thing and making everyone believe that that is somehow the right thing to do is difficult, however. For once, you failed miserably.
And I enjoyed that very, very much.
