I’m not really an admirer of America’s system of loose party discipline, so I have a real respect for the House Republicans’ determination to hang together. Still, I find it puzzling. The loose discipline system is an outgrowth of objective elements of the electoral system, not the personal attributes of politicians. Strong incentives would seem to exist for not pulling this kind of stunt:
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine asked Virginia’s members of Congress to come to Richmond to discuss the state’s federal stimulus package needs, but all five of the state’s Republican Congressmen were absent. [...] They also discussed strategy for countering the Pentagon’s plans to move an aircraft carrier group from its mooring in Norfolk to Mayport, Fla. [...] Not only did U.S. Reps. Eric Cantor, Robert Goodlatte, Frank Wolf, Randy Forbes and Rob Wittman not attend, they didn’t even send aides to represent them.
The Virginia GOP has been taking a beating in the past few cycles, and this kind of thing—simply refusing to try to work with the state’s governor and the president to take care of the state’s needs—isn’t going to help. As I say, I respect it. The tendency of legislators to put their responsibilities to the idiosyncratic needs of their districts over broader questions of principle is annoying to an ideologue like me. But there’s a reason legislators normally act that way.
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