Andrew Jones for America: February 2009

I am not experienced or sage or exceedingly wise, but I do know that the measure of a person is determined based on how well they stick to their bedrock principles when times get tough. Today, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter have shown the people and the nation that they purport to care about how utterly spineless and worthless they truly are. The bill they “compromised” on tonight will cast an anchor around the neck of our nation far longer than either of these politicians will live. It is my generation and that of my children that will be forced to clean up the mess made by these two spineless moderates.

We conservatives expected a tough road after the election and we knew that compromises would be made. What we didn’t expect was to be broadsided by two turncoat senators who were too worried about appearing to obstruct a popular president from ramming a massive and, by all reasonable accounts, inefficient and ineffective stimulus bill down America’s throat. When big things like this come up, we expected our Republicans in Congress to stand in the way and shout “NO!” When this matter was taken up by the house, every Republican and even eleven members of President Obama’s own party stood up and shouted “NO!” and yet when the matter came before the body with the power to stop the bill, two cowards whimpered “yes”.

In Specter’s case, it can be attributed to his re-election campaign and his need to not appear to be standing in the way of the president, who is very popular in his home state. This is no excuse for abandoning his party and his country. I can only hope someone with a backbone and a sense of what’s right can knock the capitulating senator out in the primary.

Senator Collins has no excuse. She was just re-elected in the face of overwhelming Democratic victories in her region. She would have had 6 years and a presidential election cycle to explain her no vote to the people of Maine. Even if we grant that Specter needed to worry about an impending election (which I do not), this is not an option for explaining Susan Collins. Both of these senators are truly penny wise and dollar foolish.

President Reagan told us never to speak ill of a fellow Republican. I have to take issue with the great communicator, even if today is his birthday. A political party is nothing more than a collection of people who like the name if there are no fundamental principles that all members share at their core. Although the Republican Party has gotten lost in the woods in recent years, I still believe that there is a core of conservatism and fiscal restraint engrained at the very center of what it means to be a Republican. If these two senators can’t seem to get a grip on that when the big issues come up, who really cares if they side with the Republican caucus to stop the small stuff? Once you run the ship into the shore, who really cares if you move the rudder? In short, why do we allow these people the right to call themselves Republicans if they will abandon ship the moment it looks like they would be standing in the way of a popular president and a hysterical media feeding exaggerations and false comparisons to the Great Depression?

Those of you who know me understand that I am not anything close to a party line hack, but this is no ordinary bill and we are not in ordinary times. If each terrible part of this godforsaken bill were separate, I would have no issue with certain items passing in compromise. But this is an all or nothing monolith of government intervention and power grabbing. This is a defining moment for our nation and the Republican Party. If Collins and Specter aren’t able to stand strong with the rest of their colleagues, why do they deserve to stand up with them at all? There are moderate members of the house who somehow found the courage the shout “NO!” so why couldn’t these two weasels find a way to do the same?

This “stimulus” bill vote is going to be a defining moment for every member of this body one way or another. When my grandchildren ask me why they were born into a nation with so much debt and obligation, I will have to look them in the eye and tell them that two senators buckled to the pressure of fleeting popular opinion. When given the choice to stand up and say no to the foolish majority, Senators Specter and Collins sold our children and our grandchildren over $1,000,000,000 in debt simply so they didn’t have to look like obstructionists to “hope and change”.

Thanks for reading,
Andrew