Is The Boomerrand Curving...Again

We can only hope. I know I do because I have always hated a bully.

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

I'm sensing that Congressional Republicans are swiftly moving to a monumental "Oops" mentality; that, having watched their Waterloo strategy march right up to the edge of victory, they're now realizing that the worm of political battle has irreversibly turned -- and, having already exhausted their supply of star-spangled obstructionism, there's nothing left but foxhole prayer and battlefield panic.

Ponder, for instance, the utter void of this risible threat, issued last Sunday by a seethingly insincere Lindsay Graham, on ABC's "This Week": "When it comes to health care, [Obama's] been tone-deaf, he's been arrogant and they're pushing a legislative proposal and a way to that legislative proposal that's going to destroy the ability of this country to work together for a very long time."

It's the president and his Capitol Hill allies who are going to destroy the ability of this country to work together? Man, that's classic; a genuine knee-slapper, even for the barely and only occasionally attentive.

The president, Mr. Graham, outfoxed your party but good. You never should have gathered your House forces to confront him on national TV, and you never ever should have shown up at Blair House. Not, that is, with the strategy you were packing, which was noticeably reducible to one word: "No."

Those sorry engagements were, with apologies to Churchill, the beginning of the end. They were the equivalent of orderly town halls -- now where's the populist fun in that? -- endlessly looped on video tape and expository of nothing but GOP nihilism.

No, No, No blanketed the airwaves for days -- a patchwork-spectacle ranging from unremitting hostility to uncomprehending sheepishness, a range that instilled a creeping sense of reconsideration among independents. Hold it, they thought; these guys aren't the principled opposition -- they're just a bunch of insatiable, unprincipled thugs.

The evidence of this is just barely quantifiable, but quantifiable nevertheless. Slight but undeniable upticks in pro-reform polling have appeared of late (pdf), with the shifts and stirrings coming almost certainly from the middle only. This tectonic phenomenon should be, of course, unsurprising, since in general it's only the non-ideological middle that's moveable.

And not a single one of my friends have been called for their opinions and they are all pro-reform and anti-healthcare industry. Their only regret is that big pharma aren't going to take the hit they deserve.

And though non-ideological the American middle may be, its one consistent sensibility is a resistance to naked brutishness.

Me thinks that the GOP ignored one very important thing. That would be the building animosity toward corporate America. I'm hearing and seeing a lot about that. 

Recall, for example, the GOP's "Oops" moments of the mid and late 1990s, infused as they were with a mindless government shutdown and a malicious impeachment. In both instances the GOP pushed too far -- as is the characteristic wont of a bully -- and was repelled into a humiliating retreat.

Now, the denouement of its Waterloo strategy is beginning to look familiar; indeed sound familiar, as rang so true in the hysteria of Lindsay Graham's "arrogance"-hurling and spectacularly laughable accusation of Democratic intransigence.

Aside from brutish obstructionism, Dennis Kucinich put his belated finger on an even larger GOP program already well in progress, which the body politic had been watching and uneasily noticing before this week:

"One of the things that’s bothered me is the attempt to try to delegitimize [Obama's] presidency," said the congressman at his Wednesday press conference. "That hurts the nation when that happens ... We have to be very careful that the potential of President Obama’s presidency not be destroyed by this debate. And I feel, even though I have many differences with him on policy, there’s something much bigger at stake here for America, and that’s what I’d like people to think about."

Mr. Kucinich, I think -- with no quantifying proof whatsoever -- that they've been doing just that.

While remaining rather neurotic about Obama's health care reform, public attitudes have begun to transcend that singular debate. Historical memory is stirring: The GOP's strategy is more than mere partisanship and polarization; it's yet another attempt to overturn yet another legitimate election. Or at least that's my sense of the electorate's sense.

Will all of this boomerang on the GOP in November? Who knows. It's way too early (albeit fun) to prognosticate with assurance, as Karl Rove preposterously did with his recent prediction that "if [Democrats] pass" health care reform, "they’re dead in the polls."

All we can do is watch the boomerang in flight; its destination unknown , but it seems to be curving.

Please respond to P.M.'s commentary by leaving comments below and sharing them with the BuzzFlash community. For personal questions or comments you can contact him at fifthcolumnistmail@gmail.com

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

Let The Sun Shine In......