It’s gotta be tough to be a New England Republican these days

What do you do if you haven’t drunk the tea?

By Will Collette

Lots of Progressive Charlestown readers are registered Republicans. They read PC because of our local coverage since, as they often remind me, party labels (except maybe “CCA”) matter very little at the town level.

I try to bear that in mind, although my politics also affect my views on local issues almost as much as they do on national matters.

But, geez, it’s gotta be tough to be a Republican these days. As most people who pay any attention at all to politics know, the weeks since the November 6 election have been pretty tough on the GOP. For whatever reasons, they seem to have only compounded all the problems that caused them to get their asses kicked on Election Day on matters as diverse as the budget, taxes, Social Security, disaster relief, the farm bill, energy, violence against women and even time-honored traditions of civility.

To see Republicans like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and ultra-conservative Rep.Peter King call their own party a disgrace and to suggest that maybe it’s just nuts for a northeastern Republican to stick with a party that tells the whole northeast region to “go f@$k itself,” well, that’s something I never expected to see.

Some weeks ago, there was noise about the possibility of the Congress enacting the much-dreaded CCA boogeyman, the “Carcieri Fix” (click here for detail). I predicted that it simply wasn’t going to happen, simply because the 112^th Congress couldn’t get anything done.

Sure enough, the 112^th Congress finally adjourned with no Carcieri Fix.

Also no Farm Bill, which for most Republican legislators is an absolute no-brainer since it is absolutely essential to the economies of nearly every Red state in the US. The Senate passed a new five-year version of the Farm Bill months ago, but in the Republican House, they couldn’t even agree to bring it to the floor.

It was only after the network news started broadcasting the story that, without the Farm Bill, milk prices were going to double (and the networks weren’t making this up), that the House finally agreed to a temporary extension of the existing Farm Bill for a few months into 2013.

The disaster relief bill for Hurricane Sandy was the last straw for many northeastern Republicans. In the end, after Gov. Christie, Rep. King and others cursed out Speaker Boehner and the other House leadership, that the House approved a $9 billion stopgap bill, promising to consider the rest of the money, $51 billion, later. That $9 billion simply covers federal flood insurance payments that have already been committed and nothing for the broader need to help rebuild the northeast.

Weekapaug shoreline - no money for beach restoration, thanks to GOP

We’ve run a number of syndicated articles in Progressive Charlestown about the Republican misadventures on the budget and their seemingly relentless push to gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Then there’s the House Republicans’decision to allow the Violence Against Women Act expire because they objected to the new bill’s extension of protection to Native Americans, even though data shows domestic violence to be a particular problem.

LBJ gets in Sen. Richard Russell's face, literally

I’ve been a student of politics since LBJ’s time and I have never seen the likes of politics practiced by Republicans today. LBJ was famous for being one of the meanest, crudest politicians in the business – there’s a legendary story of local interest involving LBJ and the late John Chafee. Chafee got his start in politics as a page in Congress, running the elevator in one of the office buildings. As the story goes, LBJ was waiting for the elevator but young 

Chafee couldn’t bring the elevator to a halt in time to stop at LBJ’s floor. He immediately returned to get Johnson who cursed him out in terms that would make a Marine blush. Chafee was told to immediately tell his sponsor to try to save his job. Anyway, that’s the legend – whether it’s true or not, I can’t say, but by all accounts, Johnson could be a pretty nasty guy.

But not even LBJ would have done what Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner did when he walked up the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and told him to “go f@%k yourself” for no apparent reason other than, just because he could. When Reid, who is an elderly gentleman and a devote Mormon, asked Boehner what he said, Boehner repeated his statement.

Cartoon by Tim Eagan. For more, click here

Later, Boehner laughed and joked as he told his buddies how he told Reid to go f#@k himself.

Now, I’m a pretty salty guy and those who know me know that I am not bashful about using colorful language. But, is this any way to run a country?

I’m curious, and I would invite the Republican readers of Progressive Charlestown to share their views on exactly what the f%@#k is going on. And how, as Republicans, can they explain, never mind justify what House Republicans are doing to this country?

Waiting to hear, GW, Davespop and our legion of anonymous commenters. What’s it like to be a Republican these days?