Outgoing Democratic Rep. Brad Miller of the 13th district is commenting to slate.com about his time in Congress, the influence of Tea Party Republicans, and the conservative Blue Dogs in his own party.
When did I know that this current Congress would be rough? Election Night 2010. I thought in late November and December, in the lame duck after the 2010 election, I thought the Obama administration was wildly unrealistic about how it could get along with the new Congress. They’d been inside the Beltway bubble and had no idea how extreme the Tea Party folks were, and that part of the Tea Party ethic was: Never compromise. They felt betrayed by people like Bob Bennett, Dick Lugar, Lisa Murkowski, and even Orrin Hatch—though he’s changed that tendency—who compromise.
These days it is “extreme” to live within one’s means and to be concerned about the crushing debt being dumped on the next several generations.
