The GOP's New Solutions Center

Eric Cantor, John Boehner and other intellectual giants who lead the minority in the House are going to to establish a "Solutions Center" as a way to combat the negative attention they have received in the past few months. They are frustrated with the label as the "Party of No" and believe the Center idea will help frame their ideas and improve their stock with the voting public. The mission appears to be as much about repackaging long-standing principles as it is about offering brand-new ideas for each debate. Cantor’s Solutions Center often restates proposals Republicans offered as their alternatives to the president’s plans.

A GOP Solutions Center is a political oxymoron. When has the Grand Old Party offered any REAL solutions to the economic crisis in the past year? Or to resolve our most serious foreign policy challenges? So far all I have heard from the most vocal members of the party of ideas is that President Obama is a socialist, we should cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, and Rush Limbaugh is always right. And now some GOP governors and House members will be joining the teabaggers on April 15th to protest against the TARP outlays, deficit spending, derivative investing and tax policies promulgated by their fellow travelers in the Bush Administration. Teabagging is either a trumped up protest desperately looking for a culprit to blame or something Larry Craig would deny engaging in.

I do have this image of mad Eric, John, and their ally, Michelle Bachman, ensconced in a laboratory under the Capitol Building mixing together weird solutions in test tubes trying to find the right formula to combat the Obama express. The problem is Eric will only work where he can repeatedly see his own image and the new Solutions Center has no mirrors. John can't be more than a five minute walk from a tanning bed. And Michelle, well Michelle is just too busy converting her dollars into gold to devote any time to working in the Center.

The Solutions Center is just another lame brain political gimmick. It sounds like something at a Home Depot to help homeowners find a new paint color for their living room or get rid of moles in their yards. Please GOP...you have to do better than this.