The Democrats Now Have Nobody to Blame for Bad Policy But Themselves

I think Bill Kristol, writing for the Washington Post is dead on with this:

I wonder if today’s Arlen Specter party switch, this time to the president’s party, won’t end up being bad for President Obama and the Democrats. With the likely seating of Al Franken from Minnesota, Democrats will have 60 seats in the Senate, giving Obama unambiguous governing majorities in both bodies. He’ll be responsible for everything. GOP obstructionism will go away as an issue, and Democratic defections will become the constant worry and story line. This will make it easier for GOP candidates in 2010 to ask to be elected to help restore some checks and balance in Washington — and, meanwhile, Specter’s party change won’t likely have made much difference in getting key legislation passed or not. So, losing Specter may help produce greater GOP gains in November 2010, and a brighter Republican future.

Plus, now the Democrats have to put up with him.

While logic would dictate that the Democrats now have nobody to blame but themselves, don’t count on it. The Democrats don’t even know what the words “personal responsibility” or “personal accountability” mean.

They’ll continue to blame everything on:

1. President Bush
2. Dick Cheney
3. Karl Rove
4. FOX News
5. Right-wing Extremists (i.e., Veterans)

Pretty much anybody but themselves. Hell…President Obama even tried to dodge responsibility for the photo-op of Air Force 1 turned panic scare that occurred in New York City this week, claiming he “knew nothing about it”.

The man has no idea what “the buck stops here” means, does he?

Patrick Ruffini at The Next Right agrees with Kristol. This is exactly the way the Right should be responding to the cleansing of our party and the total shift of the burden of Governing to the Democrats:

Today the mandate was cemented. The Democrats now have full control over Washington, D.C. They can now break the filibuster. And any failure to do so is not the result of GOP “obstruction” but of self-beclowning Democratic overreach of the sort they couldn’t possibly hope to get away with if any semblance of a balance of power existed.

The Democrats are now fully responsible for what happens in Washington. And though it is necessary that the GOP go above and beyond to demonstrate their eventual fitness to govern, their first responsibility right now as the loyal opposition is to hold the majority in check. And that will entail a lot of “no” votes — and persistent explanation of why the “no” votes will lead to better outcomes for ordinary Americans.

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On a side (but related) note: how much longer ’til Sen. Olympia Snowe (RINO-Maine) also defects to the Jackass party? I guess less than a month from now.