You said,

"By contrast, a plurality of respondents -- 55 percent -- disapprove of Republican congressional leaders."

As far as I know, 55 percent is a majority. Hooray for the majority!

...if the GOP had their own proposal of some sort that made some kind of coherent sense. Their big accomplishment is the equivalent of standing outside of a used car lot, and shouting at passersby "these cars are a stupid waste of money!"

Perhaps their victory would be a bit more meaningful had they actually sold the people on an better idea, or come up with any sort of idea at all.

Accomplished!

"More tax cuts! Give the rich people more money. They'll toss you a few pennies, one day, if they feel like it."

Oops, good point, thanks.

Contrary to Rep. Cantor, who asserted:

"What transpired . . . and will give us a shot in the arm going forward is that we are standing up on principle and just saying no."

Actually, what you are doing is standing up and saying "Fuck you!" to the American worker, to millions of American families who are struggling, and millions of Americans who have lost, or are about to lose their homes.

Don't you get that?

This is a moment in history where we absolutely need to come together and fix the enormous problems at hand. We don't need congressional representatives (read: the Republican party) dragging their feet and hurting us all by stalling on this.

The American people know this, and they also know that the Republican party is playing partisan politics with a life or death issue. But, clueless and disconnected as ever, the Republican leadership sees this as a victory.

Is it any wonder these people were obliterated in the election?

Beat me to it.

I think it's pretty much a given for the GOP to declare victory early and then blame everyone else for any failures which may result. It's not like this is the first time the Repubs have decided to ignore the facts while celebrating their rhetoric.

The GOP is happy standing in opposition to government. Makes it difficult to govern. Rather than flailing around, lost in the proverbial woods, they just gotten back to what they are good at – standing in the way of successful governance. The only thing likely to change that is if substantial supporters with deep pockets start walking away. Afterall, the conservative dogma is destroy the government for fun and profit. If there isn’t money in it they will change to find a new con game.

They are also good at controlling the message- even if they are failing to convince people they have the media using their frame and discussing the issues on their terms.

Republicans have been pretending to take principled stands, then voting in lockstep, for decades. See: Arlen Specter.

The drama plays out again and again and again, and the media pretends it's new, every time.

They risk putting themselves in the position where if the stimulus works, Obama/dems get the credit. If the stimulus fails, repubs will get the blame for hamstringing Obama/dems.

Bafflingly, their strategy seems to count on America suffering a great depression. Obama fails, America sinks into economic ruin,then the RNC maybe wins the public perception war and looks good.

WTF is wrong with these people?

Whether intentional or not, Obama has deployed the old "Rope-a-Dope" on the Republicans, who are "ecstatic" over their little Washington-insider games while the economy tanks. They are playing to a small minority that still think Bush hung the moon. The rest of us are not so impressed, and the Gallup poll shows it.

The Republicans are impressed with themselves because they have the support of some cable-news zombies who are pulling down seven-figure incomes and don't really believe we are heading to a depression. Obama seems to be taking the long view, just as he did in the campaign. What did they say about history repeating itself?

The GOP must cater to its TV blowhards and Hate Radio. Otherwise it will lose its most consistent base, the knee-jerk dittohead crowd.

That is precisely why they are a dying Party.

...republican votes were required for the bill to pass?

I suspect that if they didn't know the bill was going to pass anyway in the house without their votes. It's one thing to hold the line against something that's going to happen anyway. If the stimulus goes poorly, republican congressmen gain a lot for being able to say they opposed it, but if the stimulus goes well, most of the credit will go to the democrats no matter what.

If republican votes were needed for the stimulus to pass, republicans run the risk of the stimulus not passing, the economy getting worse, and their opponents beating them over the head for obstructing the thing that would have made the situation better. I'm sure many republican congressmen would think twice about voting no on principle if there was a real risk of that happening.

I'm sure a game theorist could have a day of the whole situation.

I think that has to do with the desire to have stories that familiar and original at the same time. So we get cycles of the same rehashed crap over and over. The message makers recognize the need to have some familar hook and they recycle. The reporter/blogger thinks they are the first to put some original spin on it and voila crappy discourse. Really original ideas often get discarded becasue they don't fit familiar themes, not because of their merit.

Sad state of affairs. I see Obama trying to shift this discourse - like the 'I screwed up' thing that really shook up reporters (my local news anchor kept repeating hit over and over like a little kid who has discovered their power to say a dirty word out loud.) That's the sort of leadership that can help but it requires more than one person being honest.

is what McCain said this bill is. I guess is McCain's kids or grand kids don't use public school, public transportation, health care or cares about renewable energy and jobs for the future generations anyway (they are so freaking rich, they don't need jobs), that is why he thinks the future generations, which would be benefited by these investments is a waste. After all, these is the guy who has 10+ houses that he can't even remember how many he has exactly.