Taking the Speaker at His Word

by: Matt Singer

Fri May 04, 2007 at 10:15:27 AM MST

Ed is ultimately calling for a truce in the war of words. I respond in his comments, but some of it is worth highlighting:

Meanwhile, Democratic leadership in the legislature is working to get a sit-down meeting in Billings with Republican leadership to hammer out some details - and if the Dems and the GOP in the leg can work out a deal, the Governor will basically have to come along for the ride. But the Dems aren't even sure that House GOP leadership, consisting of the Sideshow and the Madman, will bother to come.

Anyways, it's pretty important to remember when the war of words started, since people seem to think that it was started by the all-powerful liberal bloggers. It wasn't. It was Sales and Lange who from day one insisted that their job was to obstruct, to declare war, and to break their own campaign promises as need be.

The difference between liberal bloggers and the mainstream press was that most of us liberal bloggers had the audacity to take the Speaker at his word. He's following through on those promises now. We still seem to be the only ones noticing.

But it just doesn't make any sense now to pretend that Sales and Lange are being anything close to responsible. They keep demanding things of other people without asking anything of themselves.

I think Ed knows this, too. He and I have pretty different perspectives, but a fairly recurring theme on his site is the need for responsibility. Republican leadership in the House pretty clearly still needs to learn what that means.

And they need to stop simply demanding that other people clean up their messes for them.