Moderate Republicans: An Endangered Species

Since the surprise election of Scott Brown (R-MA) to replace the senate seat owned by the late liberal lion Ted Kennedy, Democrats have been shifting gears towards corralling Republicans instead of leaving them in the dust. Even though Obamacare passed the house and Senate under reconciliation, the political victory almost seems a tiny bit pyrrhic. My opinions about process and how the bill was written and passed aside, Democrats have hit a nearly immovable wall in the run up to the Midterm elections.

It’s no secret that process in Washington moves at a snail’s pace. Arguments about the definition of biomass for Agricultural states and appeals to use political time to change the nature of the college football BCS system are a just a few roadblocks to meaningful progress. But, in a time where a snail’s pace has turned into something akin to the velocity of plate tectonic movement, the ability to compromise and move to the middle has become an anomaly, even for lawmakers who had a history of such an act.

The prime example for such a description would be Arizona Senator and multi-presidential candidate John McCain. This is the same John McCain who supported rights for gays, was waffly on the Republican pro-life litmus test, cosponsored campaign finance reform with liberal Russ Feingold, supported a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants (with Ted Kennedy cosponsoring) and helped draft one of the first (but failed) climate bills with, then Democrat (now Independent), Joe Lieberman.

Where is he now? Since losing the election in 2008, he has abandoned his centrist ideals, stuck his tail between his legs and scampered towards the right. He has abandoned support for any climate legislation, released a statement that practically supports an Arizona immigration law that would amount to ethnic profiling and has dropped his support of gay marriage. He was also the supporter of an actual strategy of opposing every Democrat supported bill, even on traditionally bipartisan issues like nuclear non-proliferation and defense spending. He recently called the Supreme Court decision that specifically shot down his campaign finance law (I will try to post on the Campaign Finance law decision in the near future) “disappointing.” That is surely a tepid answer to a direct assault on ones principles.

McCain is not alone, unfortunately. The once-cool Senator Lindsay Graham from South Carolina has recently dropped his support of a tripartisan (Democrat John Kerry, Independent Joe Lieberman and himself in cahoots) comprehensive climate bill. Once a senator who dismissed hecklers who said he was a RINO and repeatedly voiced his support for bipartisanship on issues like immigration reform, has also bowed to pressure from his own party. By announcing that he is discontinuing his negotiations with his two counterparts on a climate bill because of the White House’s ambition to pass immigration reform he is essentially destroying his bipartisan credentials (besides the fact that he threatened to abandon his support of immigration if healthcare passed).

But, there is some hope. One of the first things that Scott Brown voted on when he got into office was a small jobs bill supported by the White House. His affirmative vote on the bill to pass out of cloture included yes votes from Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Kit Bond (R-MO) and George Voinovich (R-OH). The bill passed on the Senate floor with support from the likes of Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and (GASP!) James Inhofe (R-OK). I also suspect that the new Supreme Court nomination will not be filibustered by Republicans (although anything could happen) and that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed by Russian president Dmitri Medvedev and President Obama will also pass with some Republican support.

Although there have been small incidents of bipartisanship, the overall environment in Washington has been one of extreme opinions and lot of yelling. From the tea parties to the unprecedented breaks in procedural décor (“It’s a baby killer” and “you lie”), it does not seem there will be much fruitful negotiation on any important issue in the next couple of months. I have a feeling that this warning will ring true, especially when our lawmakers choose to gain political points instead of political progress, and move farther towards the fringe and away from the middle.

As for financial market reform, which has a 66% support from the public, bipartisan support has broken down. But, hey…who wants to regulate a derivative market with a $600 trillion (yes, that is trillion) value? Maybe some people like bailouts with taxpayer money and investment companies who use “naked” derivatives (credit default swaps, etc) for low return and high risk. But, of course, those are the people who didn’t think bubbles could burst.