Poor GOP: Getting No Respect, Seeing No Co-operation

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) and House Speaker John Boehner (R)

Republicans in Washington are breaking out in a rash over President Obama's threat to use his right of presidential veto during his last two years in office. 

The President is expected to veto the Keystone XL pipeline bill this week. It will be the third time the President has used his veto power during his six years in the White House.  To put that in perspective, W vetoed 12 pieces of legislature, while Bush the First used his veto 44 times; but have a Democrat use the veto three times and we have a crisis.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) had this to say: "There's a lot we can get done together if the president puts his famous pen to use signing bills rather than vetoing legislation his liberal allies don't like."

what eye thynk:  Too bad Mr. McConnell didn't think about all the things they could have gotten "done together" over the past six years if his party had spent more time on "together" and less time creating GOP designed roadblocks at every possible opportunity.  Things like...

The Senate:

• The filling of empty judgeships.  (Senate Democrats finally had to change the filibuster rule in order to fill bench seats that had remained open since 2008.)
• The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act - employers would have been given tax breaks if they brought overseas jobs back to the U.S. (Killed by Republican filibuster)
• Bring Jobs Home Act - would have stopped businesses from taking a tax deduction for expenses related to the moving of operations overseas. (Killed by Republican filibuser)
• The Paycheck Fairness Act - would have required employers to pay men and women at same rate for doing the same job. (Killed by Republican filibuster)
• The Paying a Fair Share Act - would have closed some tax loopholes and required that the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.  (Killed by Republican filibuster)
• The Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act - would have used big oil tax subsidy dollars to extend tax credits for alternative forms of energy in homes, vehicles, etc.-- big oil told Congress they did not need the subsidies. (Killed by Republican filibuster)
• Keep Student Loans Affordable and Student Loan Affordability Acts - both would have kept the subsidized student loan rate at 3.4 percent for two years. (Both bills killed by Republican filibuster)
• The Dream Act - young immigrants, brought to this country as children and educated in our schools would have been given a chance at citizenship. (Killed by Republican filibuster)
• The Disclose Act - would have required PACs, corporations and labor unions to disclose the names of donors who give more than $10,000 in support of political causes. (Killed by Republican filibuster)
• The Cybersecurity Bill - would have established standards for the computer systems that oversee our power grids, dams, trains and airports. (Killed by Republican filibuster even after the standards were made optional)
• The Sequestration replacement - would have postponed sequestration. (Killed by Republican filibuster, forcing the U.S. government to shut down in 2014)

While the Senate was busy blocking everything and anything that came within their sight, the House was busy perfecting their own brand of obstructionism:

• Benghazi - first, second, third investigations withered and died.  Even after their own hand-picked, final-answer team reported no wrong doing, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) created yet another panel to continue the investigation...and the declared-defunct investigation committee headed by Darrell Issa (R-California) trumpeted they would continue their own inquiries without the support of House leadership.
• IRS - another Republican hand-picked team reported the White House had done nothing wrong, but still the House continued calling for more time to be spent probing.
• The Affordable Care Act - over 50 votes taken to repeal the act, all while acknowledging that each vote was nothing more than political theater.
• Lawsuits - when "Obamacare" repeal votes began to lose their glitter for the people back home, the GOP needed to up the ante.  It took Mr. Boehner three tries, but he finally found a team of attorneys to take the House's case against the ACA, a case which has since gone nowhere.
• Immigration - despite a bi-partisan agreement having been passed by the Senate and indications that the bill would pass the House, John Boehner refused to present the bill for a vote.  Instead, he decided to throw more red meat to his fans by creating another lawsuit in an attempt to halt any executive action on the issue.
• Impeachment - another great piece of theater, allowing the right to puff out their chests and display their ultimate far-rightness for their voters while secretly acknowledging that they have nothing.
• Abortion - when all else fails, this is a great go-to issue to get their conservative base fired up.  Mr. Boehner's House can't actually say they've accomplished anything on this war-on-women issue, but it fills some time on C-SPAN and looks good back home.
• So intense has the focus of the U.S. House been on investigations and repeals and lawsuits and impeachment parades under John Boehner's leadership, that his House will go down in history as the least productive, with each subsequent year recording fewer bills than its predecessor--presenting very little for the President to actually sign with his "famous pen. 
• And most recently, Homeland Security - The House passed a bill that included wording to unravel the president's executive action on immigration reform.  The Senate can't get that bill past the Democrats' filibuster (payback is a bitch).

The simple answer to the current Homeland Security issue is to fund the department with a clean bill--an option that would pass both chambers easily; but John Boehner--even though facing another GOP shutdown fiasco--continues to encourage his caucus to rally around the Obstructionist Flag and refuses to allow the House to even consider a clean bill option.  Meanwhile Mitch McConnell drags himself in front of the media (complete with sad, whoa-is-me face) and attempts to foist the blame onto the White House.

For six years Republican party members proudly flaunted themselves as the party of "No."  Now that they are in control of Congress, they want to be seen as the put-upon, trying-so-hard party-of-togetherness, willing to do anything for the good of the country if only that darned president would co-operate.

No matter how doggedly Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell and all the little red soldiers lined up behind them try to sell it, nobody with a brain is buying.