GOP cannot fix problems it won't face

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120520/A_OPINION0623/205200304/-1/NEWSMAP

GOP cannot fix problems it won't face

By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald

May 20, 2012 12:00 AM

<snip>But Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar did not go quietly. After his defeat in the GOP primary earlier this month, the veteran legislator issued a remarkable statement warning of the dangers of continued partisanship. Lugar, a conservative who embraces "the Republican principles of small government, low taxes, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and trade expansion," was nevertheless targeted for defeat by conservatives who felt he had strayed from ideological orthodoxy. This, because he compromised with the other party on a few matters - the auto industry bailout, TARP, the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices - that were, he thought, "the right votes for the country."

"Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum," said Lugar, "are dominating the political debate in our country. ... They have worked to make it as difficult as possible for a legislator of either party to hold independent views or engage in constructive compromise. If that attitude prevails in American politics, our government will remain mired in the dysfunction we have witnessed during the last several years."

The senator is in the ballpark. But he misstates the problem in two ways.

In the first place, the issue is not partisanship, but hyper-partisanship, a mindset that prioritizes party above country. In the second place, Lugar's sop to moral equivalence notwithstanding, this is not a problem caused by partisans "at both ends of the political spectrum." snip

Or, as Lugar's opponent, Richard Mourdock, said in response to Lugar's statement: "I have a mindset that says bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view."

[Fumesucker]

1. "Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum," said Lugar, "are dominating the political debate

Even while he's admitting the Republicans are nuts he's busy trying to push the Overton Window to the right..

Yeah, both sides do it.

These people are pathological..