Mark Finkelstein
NewsBusters
1/1/2011
If President Obama’s signal fight in the coming year will be preserving ObamaCare, he can count on at least one ally in his struggle with Republicans: ABC News and in particular its Political Director, Amy Walter.
On GMA today, Walter issued a stern warning to Republicans who might have the audacity of hoping to repeal ObamaCare. The segment began with a montage of Republicans vowing to do so, including an oddly mocking replay of a Mitch McConnell moment.
Then Walter appeared and pronounced her admonition.
AMY WALTER: If Republicans decide they’re going to spend the first six months of this year going over and debating the individual mandate or ObamaCare or whatever they want to call it, I think that’s not going to sit very well with the electorate.
Great point, Amy. After all, consider the shellacking the electorate administered to the Republicans for making ObamaCare a key plank in last year’s elections.
Oh, wait . . .
H/T Tony Salazar, Patriot Action Network
Related: Opinion: Will GOP freshmen take the lead?
House Republican leaders are making bold statements about what the public can expect during their tenure in the majority. In addition to the “backroom deal” tax compromise, last week, through their appointments to chairmanships of the Energy and Commerce and the Appropriations committees, they sent a clear message that despite an electoral victory driven by the tea party movement and fueled by public disgust with incumbents, Washington is back to business as usual.
The large incoming freshman class is filled with tea party representatives. Yet the GOP’s old paradigm leaders are daring this new class to stand for the principles on which it was elected.
By appointing the most liberal possible choice to chair Energy and Commerce, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the leaders indicated they are not serious about expanding the nation’s energy-producing capability. Upton, after all, is most recently famous for highly unpopular legislation banning the incandescent light bulb. He is hardly the choice for a nation desperate for energy through an expansion of domestic oil drilling and the relaxation of regulations on nuclear, coal and other energy sources…
