In Perspective

From the Atlantic, a look behind the Gregg withrawal and the Republicans refusal to accept the results of the last election:

Judd Gregg approached the Obama administration to see if he could be a part of it...assuming that his own party wasn't going to adopt a policy of total warfare against the newly elected president in a time of enormous economic peril.

[One can't help but be] taken aback by the force of the Republican assault. Even in a downturn as swift and alarming as this one, even after an election that clearly favored one approach over another, even after the most conciliatory efforts by an incoming president in memory, these people have gone to war against the President. The President should stay cool.

The rest of us should realize [that the Republicans have declared war on Obama]. Their clear and open intent is to do all they can, however they can, to sabotage the new administration (and the economy to boot). They want failure. Even now. Even after the last eight years. Even in a recession as steeply dangerous as this one. There are legitimate debates to be had; and then there is the cynicism and surrealism of total political war. We now should have even less doubt about what kind of people they are. And the mountain of partisan vitriol Obama will have to climb every day of the next four or eight years.