http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/mov...es/002336.html
Where Are the Grownups in the Republican Party?
At last night's very pleasant event, where a substantial chunk of Berkeley economics faculty (plus one sociologist) took Robin Wells and Paul Krugman out to dinner, one of the main topics of conversation was: "Where are the grownups in the Republican Party?"
And where are they? Where are the grownups? Where are even the semi-grownups?
On the economic policy side, Marty Feldstein and Mike Boskin and company did not campaign for Bush thinking they were electing a guy who would blow open the federal budget and send our domestic politics on a trajectory that--unless reversed--will indeed land us in the neighborhood of Argentina. "It's amazing what they've done," says one senior Federal Reserve official. "It's like being up 8 runs at the start of the ninth inning, and then down 12 halfway through the ninth." Larry Lindsey and John Taylor did not join the federal government to impose tariffs on steel imports and blow up the Doha Round of the WTO. Greg Mankiw and Glenn Hubbard did not join the administration to stammer that there was a plan to reduce the budget deficit by half (even though nobody can say what it is without evoking laughter). Yet they are all very silent: hardly a peep, and certainly not a resignation on principle.
On the security side, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, and Brent Scowcroft did try to draw a line in the sand in favor of the containment rather than the invasion of Iraq. They did not think that they had campaigned for an administration that would tie down our combat brigades--the most modern, powerful, and mechanized combat brigades ever seen--as military police in the Iraqi desert, and in the process strain our powerful, useful, and just alliances with Europe to the breaking point. But their line in the sand was weakly drawn. And since last winter they too have fallen awfully silent.
Assistant Secretaries of State, Directors at the National Security Council, fellow-traveling outside ideologues--they did not sign up for an administration in which not one but two senior White House officials (with the approval and knowledge of God knows how many others in George W. Bush's inner circle) would dial reporter after reporter (in the end, six reporters) trying to find somebody who would help them blow the cover of covert American intelligence officers. Yet they too are awfully silent.
The only theory peddled around the dinner table that made even one quarter sense is that all the Republican grownup insiders fear loss of White House mess privileges and cherish the illusion that by quietly working on the inside they keep things from being much worse, and all the Republican grownup outsiders fear that putting themselves in opposition to the administration will mean that a number of phone calls will be made to K-Street lobbyists and right-wing foundations and that they will find their incomes in a free fall. But that only makes a quarter-sense--not even half-sense. First, the older ones have nothing to fear from the administration's retaliation: they have long since made their f*** you money. Second, such people are always much more into the influence than the big-pile-of-consumption-goods game, and to be a tireless advocate for this administration's economic or security policy seems to be a good way to blow your reputation and credibility for life.
Where are the grownups of the Republican Party?