You know, you used to be able to know, right from the get-go, where the Republican Party was – they were definitely the cat with the big bell on its neck. But these days, some of them seem to think they have a problem:

"We’re in this rebuilding time," Monica Notzon, a Washington-based Republican fundraiser, helpfully explained this month. "Trying to figure out who we are.

GOP does not know who they are

There ARE, though a couple of Republicans who appear to have a clear grasp (or perhaps not) on what the Republicans stand for and those two people are Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor. They locked down complete Republican rejection of the stimulus program put forward this week. They don’t want to be seen as The Grinch, however:

“The GOP may not control the agenda, but there are reasons for hope. We share a set of values that make us unapologetic about rewarding hard work and preserving the incentive for small businesses and the self-employed to grow. History is on our side. Countries, towns and communities stagnate when government micromanages industry and people are left to depend on handouts. They thrive when small, medium and large private businesses – driven to innovate and grow – create sustainable jobs.

At a moment when the country needs our help, it would be a great mistake for the House GOP to turn inward and simply become the party of “no.”

The Party of No

Really, Eric – actually, the GOP is not only the party of ‘no’ – it’s the party of Hell, no – Never – and over our dead bodies. The president met with them on several occasions – went TO them, and then invited THEM to come see him.

“Obama also persuaded House Democrats to remove provisions related to family-planning from the stimulus and — over the objections of many Democrats — inserted large tax cuts for businesses that Republicans wanted.

None of it was enough.

After the vote, Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said that he hoped the zero-vote showing would persuade Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to make changes to the bill during negotiations between the House and Senate.

"The onus is on Speaker Pelosi. She needs to meet with us. She needs to open her doors. We need to begin to work truly in a bipartisan fashion," he said.”

Cantor Says Obama Not Enough

Oh, Eric – the President of the United States is not good enough for you? You need Granny Pelosi to come to see you too? More cookies? What are you looking for?

“Cantor said the emphasis should be on cutting taxes, rejecting the Keynesian theory that when private sector investment recedes, the government must step in and be the employer and investor of last resort.
"Keynesian economics doesn’t hold a candle to the entrepreneurship that made this economy so prosperous up until the last six months," said Cantor.”

As we have seen here at FDL through all the economic analysis and writing, the economy was not ‘so prosperous up until the last six months’. As a matter of fact, the US economy has basically been in the toilet for several years – but Cantor and the Republicans seem to think that if it hadn’t been for those poor people who somehow got their hands on home mortgages that were too big for them, everything would have been just fine and dandy.

Except as we have also seen, people have been screaming and trying to get attention for the financial mess for at least 10 years.

Not much of a mess, Eric? Don’t want to cooperate? Or is it just, as Professor Wagstaff up at the top says about Democratic proposals, ‘Whatever it is, you’re against it?”