Chaffetz Gets It

I want to give an enormous shout out to Jason Chaffetz. I had the pleasure of meeting Jason before he was elected and again after he made it to Washington. I find him earnest and principled. There is a sentiment from the base that "you don't work with Democrats. You run them over." Of course this is the attitude the Democrats had with Republicans. And we see how well that worked for them.

Democrats blame Republicans for obstructionism, when there were few pieces of legislation the Democrats were actually prevented from passing. The most glaring one, climate change, wasn't even obstructed by the Republicans. The Democrats never introduced the bill in the senate. When the Democrats wanted to pass a bill it wasn't that hard to pick off a Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, George Voinovich, Susan Collins, or Kit Bond. The Democrats wrote the legislation in the back room and then were surprised when it was their own party that obstructed the bill.

No matter how many Republicans get elected Tuesday there will be over 200 Democrats in the House and Senate. All of them will have been elected too. We won't win on Tuesday. We'll win more than we lose. If you want to win independents you have to work with the other party. Republicans need to lead, but that doesn't mean exclude the other guys. The Democrats might have a few meaningful things to add to a bill.

The 90's were a good time because we had a smart effective Republican congress that worked with a Democratic President. America kept the Republicans in the majority until they forgot that's what they were supposed to do. So let's introduce bills in committee, have debate, and hearings. Let's listen to both sides, give a little and get a little. I know we can make Republicans bills that can get Democratic votes and Obama will sign. Sure, we should push Obama and make him veto some legislation, but only after we've got some wins to show America what Republicans can do.