Party Responsibility Quotes
Ideology can easily take over within the losing party after a national defeat. Extremists in the party tend to blame the concern with moderation and the drift to the center as the reason for the defeat. While such has been the case with both parties, more often than not, the loser did not go far enough to the center for the voters at the time.
Written for delivery in Austin, Texas. His assassination prevented it.
A minority of newly elected ultra conservative Tea Party Republicans intimidated most of the main line Republicans by threatening to run against them in their primary elections. The result was that almost no legislation was passed and there was a constant drumbeat of attacks against anything the government was doing or might do in the future. Public confidence in government was driven very low, with only the public confidence in Congress lower. The Democrats who could accomplish very little in that circumstance became very unpopular while the Republicans were even more so. However, many Tea Party Republicans viewed that as a victory as their major objective is to enfeeble government—especially the Federal government.
Responding to criticism of some of his fellow congressional Democrats:
In 2006 the Republican Party controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency. A national debate began over illegal immigration and the Republican party was split over what to do about the 11 million illegal immigrants living and working among us and their roughly 3 million American-born children who were citizens of the United States. The Republican House and the Republican Senate were at loggerheads over two different approaches to the problem and nothing was getting done.
