What happened in the elections in both 2006 and 2008, the drubbing the Republicans have gotten there and in so many other ways, the rejection of their embrace of extreme right wing stances (and candidates, like the joke that was Sarah Palin)-- it's an ongoing process.

They pay lip-service to acknowledging that they "got a real thumpin" at the time it happens, at least some of them do, but in practice they refuse to acknowledge the reality of any of it and act like they're representing the mainstream still.

This is helped along by the media enablers of course, who tell them, and us, about how it's a "center-right" country all the time, and of course in the minds of the GOP congress members, with their definition of "right" falling in the extreme fringes, this means someone like, well, like George Bush.

They haven't gotten it yet. Is my point. Their tone-deaf response to this stimulus bill is clear evidence of that. I mean it's a beautiful thing to watch, in a way, President Obama now looks like someone who tried to reach out and really be bi-partisan, and the Republicans look like the same lockstep right wingers that they have for years. The Rush Limbaugh episode was perfect, saying that he hopes that the President, and thus the country, fails, something that was underlined by the GOP member who dared to oppose this and then instantly groveled at Limbaugh's feet asking for forgiveness. Thus Limbaugh's stance became the GOP's stance, it was made very clear.

They're blind as bats, but it's just going to take a while. 2010 should make the 2008 elections look close by comparison.

It looks like the Republicans do not want their ideas to be taken seriously by Obama.

I think he made the good faith effort, even though it pissed me off, and got nothing in return.

I hope he nominates a solid liberal for Commerce.

Joan asks,

"Will Judd Gregg's treachery and zero GOP votes for his stimulus package convince the president bipartisanship is dead?"

What demonstrated business as usual in Washington was the behavior of congressional Democrats loading an emergency stimulus bill with long-term policy preferences which should have been addressed in a deliberative manner in normal appropriations bills.

If Rep. Pelosi putting a trillion dollar spending bill behind closed doors doesn't speak volumes to you about who is flying partisan colors, then you are indeed deaf.

... for ANYTHING from the republicans is one of the few things about Obama that worried and still worries me.

Anyone who is a realist and has been watching in horrified fascination at the actions and rhetoric of the republicans since the last election would have concluded that the republicans are hell bent on becoming even more partisan, not less, than ever before.

It worked for them with Clinton, do everything in their power to make sure the Democratic president cannot succeed at anything... if it wrecks the US economy, so be it! If there is no scandal to distract the media, make one up! Their constituents that they care about (Sorry Joe, the almost plumber, Mitch McConnell doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you… unless you suddenly start printing money and send it to his campaign fund. You and others like you are just stooges, if you weren’t such asses I’d feel sorry for you.) are quite frankly rich and are not worried about a economic crises.

You want to know what the republicans will do over the next four years? Just ask yourself “what would Lee Atwater do”. If anyone doesn’t know who Atwater was you need to learn and learn fast because the republicans have been using his playbook with great success for decades, even after he publicly pleaded with them, on his death bed no less, to stop because it was harming the country.

If Obama didn’t know all this and more before taking the job he is guilty of massive naivety, something the real president of the United States cannot afford. On the other hand he may have known what was going to happen all along and is setting up the republicans for a biblical mid term ass whoop’n at the polls… I just hope it’s the latter and not the former.

P.S.(I cannot understand for the life a me why the republicans and most of the news media do not conclude that the republicans obvious plan to sabotage the stimulus bill is going to be anything but a disaster for them. It seems to me that they set Obama up for a win-win on this. He gets the stimulus, they labeled themselves partisan obstructionists. If the economy gets better Obama and the Democrats alone get the credit, if it does not the republican’s obstruction will be blamed.)

The policies and positions of the last few years that got us into this mess in the first place should have also been more deliberative, but here we are. The situation is a crisis.

The definition of a crisis is, any situation in which doing nothing will result in disaster.

The Republicans were invited to participate, and to propose ideas. All they had in their bag was "tax cuts". Even conservative economists are saying that's not the way out.

The Republicans are trying to drive the country off a cliff. They think that will help them in the 2010 elections. If you have not realized that by now, then you are truly deaf.

He better have learned that Washington bipartisanship is dead. If he hadn't already, he surely got the lesson last night, when GOP Sen. Judd Gregg publicly humiliated the president by withdrawing his bid to be Commerce secretary. Gregg, who'd voted to abolish his own agency but then lobbied Obama to get the job, had no business in this administration to begin with

You hit it on the proverbial head! I looked at the guy's history and saw he'd been against the Census in the Dept. of Commerce, and wondered if Obama had a brain fart. Mayhap it is just too much for him at once to process, like the old "trying to drink water from a firehouse" routine - said to hold when frosh come into MIT. I don't know.

Obama needs to be more careful and not be so quick (out of his hubris) to make nice with sharks and serpents. They will as soon gobble you as let you pat them. The reptiles are no different.

What I want to see is for Obama to acquire a stiffer spine and a more pugnacious attitude. I also want him to drop that unassuming pose of his which is designed to try to broaden his likeability quotient at all times.

He doesn't need "likeability". He needs to be feared and respected, especially by the reeps.

Btw, Mr. President, don't you think it's time to re-enact the Fairness Doctrine. If you listened to Limbaugh lately and how he's rousing the masses against you, you'd see why.