As I write, passage of the $15 billion dollar bailout package for Detroit auto makers is far from a done deal. But should it pass, know that it did so because Democrats yet again folded like cheap lawn chairs.
There had been language in the package to force the car companies to drop lawsuits against California and other states which sought to enact tougher-than-federally-required emission standards on new cars.
The car companies said "no" to that.
The Democrats said "okay."
Which means, one way or another, your tax dollars will be used to sue your legislators to keep them from forcing the Big Three to make more consumer-friendly cars.
And by the way, that bailout money is being tapped from the cash that was supposed to fund the retooling of factories to make more fuel-efficient vehicles.
We've just run out of orifices for which the Dems to violate us.
If the Democrats had stood firm, what exactly would the car companies have done? Just slipped off quietly in the night like that old lady dying at the end of Titanic? And if they had, then we'd know their clack about a "new way of doing business" was just the empty promise of alcoholics trying to fake like they're sober between benders.
There is a slight provision "requiring" the car companies to respect the state-imposed limits. But that means little if courts rule against states.
Meanwhile, Republicans are looking to get "give backs" from the Unions. And they should. But the Democrats capitulating on both sides is hardly a compromise. Particularly when it's the Dems who are trying to help out Detroit.
But if they couldn't hold their ground on something as important as Iraq, are we surprised by their current lack of spine?
It's always funny to me when people accuse President-elect Obama of abandoning the left and moving toward the Center now that he's got the White House. Based on the ineffectiveness of the current Democratic congress, Obama can't get to the Center quick enough.