Well, that’s one spin. My spin is that Senate Republicans have committed themselves to a policy of opposition as a matter of principle. From now on, that’s all they’ll do. As Fred Kaplan, also at Slate, notes, the behavior of the Republicans on the Armed Services Committee during the hearings on Hagel’s nomination was both pathetic and appalling. They harassed a flaccid and flabby Hagel not over the tough issues, concerning which they displayed neither interest nor knowledge, but only the trivial ones. The treatment of Hillary Clinton over Benghazi was similar. Republicans have no interest in substance: their focus is entirely on political advantage as an end in itself.
It’s tempting to go after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (it has to be someone’s fault, after all), for trying to pretend that “the Senate isn’t the House.” Coming from Nevada, it’s not surprising that Reid wants to hold onto the “old Senate,” where each senator remained an independent power center, so useful for protecting the rights of small states (like the “right” not to be the site for the burial of nuclear waste). But the Republicans have killed the old Senate. Newt Gingrich has won, and Bob Dole has lost. Freshman senators like Ted Cruz (TX) are cut from the same cloth as Eric Cantor in the House.
Republicans have been the party of obstruction and destruction ever since Newt led the fight against G.H.W. Bush’s tax hikes in 1990. G.W. Bush tried to give them a domestic agenda, stealing the Democrats’ issues on both education and health care, but happily abandoned them to play soldier overseas. Americans have lost their taste for combat these days, so it’s unlikely that Republicans will start another war—another real war. But they will posture endlessly, seeking to extract the last drop of blood on every issue to conceal the emptiness inside.
