Last night we discussed Richard Mourdock’s despicable comments about Rape, claiming rape is God’s will. Clearly this is completely wrong, but let me assure you there is a lot more wrong with this guy! Over the next few days we will dig a little deeper so you will know exactly who Mitt has chosen to support. As we talk about this we need to focus not only what it says about Mr. Mourdock but more importantly on what it says about Mitt (and the Republican Leadership)!
First up, let’t talk about bipartisanship which is something that we have to have more of in Washington. The great article below (from the washingtonpost.com) discusses Richard Mourdock’s views on bi-partisanship.
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Richard Mourdock and the GOP’s idea of bipartisanship
Richard Mourdock, fresh off of defeating Dick Lugar in the Indiana Senate primary, hit the ground running with a quote everyone is talking about this morning:
MOURDOCK: I certainly think bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view. … If we [win the House, Senate, and White House], bipartisanship means they have to come our way, and if we’re successful in getting the numbers, we’ll work towards that.
That’s the Republican nominee on MSNBC.
What I think is interesting about this is that, by most accounts, Mourdock isn’t really part of the crazy faction of Republican politics. A recent New York Times profile compares him more to Utah Senator Mike Lee than to flaky and failed 2010 nominees Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell. That is, Mourdock is part of the new normal in Republican politics, and that’s a “normal” that utterly rejects the notion that any cooperation between the parties is possible — that is, without the other party’s abject capitulation.
As I’ve argued, the problem with the Republican Party — the problem that Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein write about in their new diagnosis of dysfunction, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks — isn’t that many of today’s Republicans are extraordinarily conservative. It’s that they reject the kinds of co-operation and compromise with their opponents that a Madisonian system depends upon.
What’s depressing about Mourdock’s quote is that it’s not about conservative policy positions or philosophy. It’s all about partisan polarization almost as a primary goal in and of itself — a goal that is now commonly aspired to even by mainstream Republicans. If their most important project during the Obama era has been to make the political system more dysfunctional than ever, that project took another step forward yesterday.
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So what does this tell us about Mitt? Mitt claims that he is going to reach across the aisle and work hand in hand with the Democrats to get things done i.e. he claims to support bipartisanship. But when you look at Richard Mourdock’s views (as captured in the article above) I think you see Mitt’s real views (after all Mr. Mourdock is the only Senate candidate that Mitt has done a commercial for).
Bipartisanship is the last thing on Mitt’s mind and on Richard Mourdock’s mind. In Mitt’s case this is just one more lie from a man that does not seem to have any sort of real moral compass. Completely wrong………..again!
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