Bush, GOP Congress Ripped by… Joe Scarborough?

I never thought I would have any reason to send you to something written by one of MSNBC's resident conservatives, Joe Scarborough, but that day has arrived.

In yesterday's Washington Post, the former Republican Congressman ripped into Bush saying that he feels sorry for his old buddies in Congress, trying to explain to voters this year "that it was their party that took a $155 billion surplus and turned it into a record-setting $400 billion deficit."

Writes Scarborough: "How exactly does one convince the teeming masses that Republicans deserve to stay in power despite botching a war, doubling the national debt, keeping company with Jack Abramoff, fumbling the response to Hurricane Katrina, expanding the government at record rates, raising cronyism to an art form, playing poker with Duke Cunningham, isolating America and repeatedly electing Tom DeLay as their House majority leader?"

My answer is that they don't convince them, given that they have been a major part of the problem.

On that note, Joe then shifts gears and goes after the do-nothing Republican Congress, calling them what they are: Rubber-stampers for a failed president:

"Even when the administration would not give generals the troops they needed to win the war in Iraq, Republican leaders did nothing. When the president refused to veto a single spending bill while the deficit spiraled upward, Republican leaders looked away. And when chaos was reigning in the streets of New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast in Katrina's horrific aftermath, Republican leaders remained mute.

"That silence -- proof that it is better to be feared than loved in politics -- has had devastating results. The United States is more divided than ever, our leaders are despised around the world, our fiscal situation is catastrophic and congressional approval ratings are the lowest ever. Since nothing sharpens the mind like a political hanging, Republican leaders in the Senate and House are finally considering doing what effete newspaper editorialists have suggested for years: throwing Bush overboard."

Any time Joe Scarborough writes something that looks like it could have come from me, my world suddenly makes no sense.

You can read Scarborough's editorial in its entirety here. But you've got to wonder just what the thinking must be under the rocks at the Republican National Committee when something like this is in the Sunday paper -- and it's come from one of their own.