Ludicrous -- when you think about it

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said a few weeks ago that his agenda was to make sure that Obama has a one-term presidency.

So I guess this is progress. But when you stop and think about it as a sign of the times we're in, it is ludicrous.

McConnell reportedly has told his Republican colleagues, in anticipation of the State of the Union Speech outlining a new agenda for more jobs and competitiveness:

"[M]y advice to my colleagues is if the president is willing to do what we would do anyway, then we should say yes."

This is supposed to be something other than self-evident, ordinary common sense? Why would you not agree to something you "would do anyway" when the president proposes it? Only if your agenda was to oppose anything he proposed. And that's exactly the point.

McConnell was forced to soften his obdurate oppositionalism. It's a clever finesse on Obama's part to propose something so unobjectionable to Republicans -- creating more jobs through incentives for businesses to be more competitive -- that they couldn't oppose it. Saying 'no' to make Obama look bad would make them look even worse.

But what a commentary on the parlous times we are in -- that the statement was needed, even to save McConnell's partisan hide.

Ralph