Hugh Hewitt: McClellan Republicans

Above, Gen. George B. McClellan.

As soon as I read the title of this article, I immediately knew what Hugh Hewitt was talking about.

You see, I took Civil War history in college and learned a great deal about President Abraham Lincoln's exasperation over Gen. George McClellan's inaction at the start of the Civil War. At one point, the frustrated Lincoln remarked, "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."

As Hewitt put it:

George McClellan was the dashing commander of the Army of the Potomac at the start of the Civil War, whom the troops loved but whom Abraham Lincoln scorned as timid and quick to retreat.

Perhaps now even Steelers fans will understand why I have taken to calling the House Republican the McClellan Republicans –always preparing to fight but never quite getting to the political battlefield that is the great spending debate.

Why does Hewitt refer to the Republican leadership as "McClellan Republicans"? Here's part of the reason:

Speaker John Boehner, GOP Leader Eric Cantor and GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy have been in their saddles since November 2, and even though their formal power only arrived in January, they have had more than four months to prepare the debate over the CR, the debt ceiling and the FY 2012 budget.

If they prepared at all they prepared poorly, concentrating on symbolic gestures and focusing on procedural niceties like “open rules” rather than closing with the Democrats and forcing the first of the many showdowns ahead on spending. The phony cuts assembled thus far –the GOP talking points say $8 billion has been sawed from the federal budget—have not resulted in a single lay-off or program closure. One could look for months and see no effect from these paper cuts.

These Republican "leaders" don't seem to want to wage a battle with the Democrats. They were put into their leadership positions because the voters had enough of Obama and the socialism of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

So far, although the Democrats' numbers have been greatly diminished in the aftermath of last year's elections, they are still bringing artillery to the battle while the GOP leadership seemed to have shown up to the fight with fly-swatters.

By the way, George McClellan went on to become Lincoln's Democrat opponent in the 1864 elections.

To read Hewitt's full article, go here.