GOP Bumped Down a Couple Rungs

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) recreational habits notwithstanding — Britney Spears concert without the kids — the Republicans had a pretty good run until this last week. After an election and inauguration that left most of them feeling more than a bit deflated, the GOP had a surprise reprieve in the first 60 days of the Obama administration. From the stimulus to the earmark-stuffed omnibus bill that grew government by 8 percent, and now of course the new Congressional Budget Office forecast about brutal deficits heretofore undiagnosed by the new president’s team, they were on a roll.

Republicans have abandoned Obama — and not only in Congress. Polls show his support is now composed largely of independents and Democrats, with Republicans dropping away. Support for his budget has fallen and so has his job approval as Republicans found their voice on fiscal restraint after all those fiscally undisciplined years in power. Republicans even managed to raise $6 million, besting the Democratic National Committee by several million. In these terrible times, for the country and the Republican Party, those are some shocking numbers.

But suddenly this week, some wheels fell off the GOP. It was a rickety machine to start with — leaderless and down millions of voters — but it was getting down the road. Now not only did embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele come back out of hiding to go on CNN and declare he may run for president if God ever wants him to, but the party has presented a budget laughed out of town by liberals and conservatives alike.

After taunting the conservative Blue Dog Democrats as “lap dogs” for not breaking with their leadership, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) stood up and said “Here, Mr. President,” with a budget that contains no estimates, no numbers. Those are expected next week, say GOP leaders, though word is already out that the whole ordeal resulted from squabbling over whether or not to release an alternative budget. Since it was never going to pass, it was political anyway, but one can argue if you are going to write a budget supposedly “better” than the one a president has proposed, it should actually be a budget and you should have done some math.

Now that we know they’re mad at each other — the Senate Republicans had united behind an agreement not to produce an alternative budget because they knew it would be picked apart — the release of the details next week should be interesting. Republicans need to move quickly past this embarrassing episode and get to work on being the constructive opposition with real suggestions to back their constant criticism.

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