Republicans choosing color palettes for new digs, fail leadership test

News reports today detail
how House Republicans are secretly planning their takeover of the Capitol after
November’s elections — right down to who gets the best views of the National Mall
out the West Front of the building. They’re reading the polls, choosing color
palettes and selecting office space, but as they plan to assume leadership
positions they’re failing to demonstrate leadership on everything from the
economy to jobs to foreign policy to Pastor Jones’s plan to fuel the fires of
hatred with the pages of the Quran.

It’s been several days
since Gen. David Petraeus outlined how the stunt will endanger American troops
abroad. Yet no Republican anywhere stepped up to defend our troops — even when
Pastor Jones summarily dismissed the general’s concerns. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton has directly rebuked the ill-advised idea on several occasions.
The FBI had warned that the stunt and others like it could incite terrorist
attacks. Even President Obama has taken the issue on. So where have the Republicans
been?

I know, yesterday the
Qwitterer (Sarah Palin), the founder of RomneyCare (Former Massachusetts governor
and perennial presidential candidate Mitt Romney) and the TanMan (House
Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio) expressed concern about Jones’s stunt.
But those comments were measured and failed to demonstrate leadership.

The failed leadership of
Republicans has become a constant theme for Boehner and Palin and other
Republican leaders. Boehner has been touring the country giving empty speeches
on the economy and outlining the Republican agenda if they take over — and so
far he’s outlined a “two-point plan”: He pledges to focus on spending (which
the Republicans failed to do when they had control of Congress previously) and
“subpoenas.”

That’s right, as he says,
he will focus on spending. He’s planning on spending millions of taxpayer
dollars on fishing expeditions by using subpoenas to cripple the administration.
You know what’s missing from his economic plan? An economic plan. His two-point
plan won’t put anyone to work but lawyers.

When it comes to the
economy, the Republicans are trying to sell Americans a used car they’ve
already totaled. They are running on the same failed policies that exploded
federal deficits and saddled us with crippling debt financed by China. They
have offered no new ideas other than “subpoenas.”

President Obama and the
Democrats have offered job-creating measures targeted at small businesses,
they’ve proposed extending unemployment benefits (the single most effective
government-sponsored economic incentive that returns more than it costs in real
dollars), they’ve proposed creating millions of new jobs through investment in
clean energy — all blocked by the GOP leaders in Congress.

The Gallup generic
congressional ballot poll that showed a 10-point Republican lead just 10 days
ago is now showing a dead heat between the two parties. What does that mean?
Maybe Americans started paying attention while Republican leaders were matching
their color palettes.