The GOP’s Payroll Tax Debacle -Updated

So what about it Gentle WCF Readers? Did the Obama administration seriously outmaneuver the Congressional GOP Tea Party faction on this issue, or what?

The Democrats set a trap and the Republicans walked right into it. By rejecting an ostensibly bipartisan “compromise,” the Republican House was portrayed as obstructionist and, even worse, heartless — willing to raise taxes on the middle class while resolutely opposing any tax increases on the rich.

Washington Post Op-ed
The GOP’s payroll tax debacle
December 22, 2011

The GOP’s performance nicely reprises that scene in “Animal House” where the marching band turns into a blind alley and row after row of plumed morons plows into a brick wall, crumbling to the ground in an unceremonious heap.
With one difference: House Republicans are unplumed.

Washington Post Op-ed
The GOP’s payroll tax debacle
December 22, 2011

Spot-on Washington Post op-ed for our WCF readers' perusal this morning from WaPo neoCON columnist Charles Krauthammer, concerning the U.S. House of Representatives' ham-handed handling of an eleventh hour "final compromise," which ushers in a WAY too short two-month payroll tax holiday for 160 million middle-class Americans, an outcome which even the most die-hard Congressional Republican obstructionists privately conceded to be inevitable.

Here's the lede:

Now that Congress has reached agreement on what must be one of the worst pieces of legislation in years — the temporary payroll tax holiday extension — let’s survey the damage:

Check out the full editorial here:

• The GOP’s payroll tax debacle

And the upshot?

Note the toll it is already taking on Republicans. For three decades Republicans owned the tax issue. Today, Obama leads by five points, a 12-point swing since just early October. The payroll tax ploy has even affected his overall approval rating, now up five points (in six weeks) to 49 percent.

While your blogmeister seldom agrees with anything that Krautheimer spouts, I have to agree with him on this. This GOP tactical blunder will haunt the Grand Old Party through the 2012 presidential elections, methinks.

So what about it Gentle WCF Readers? Did the Obama administration seriously outmaneuver the Congressional GOP Tea Party faction on this issue, or what?

Will this issue have lingering political traction continuing into November, 2012?

Wake up, people!

Update 12/23/11 8:48 p.m.: Oh my! Looks like the White House is already making political hay with this. Here's a letter which your blogmeister received in his email inbox a coupla hours ago:

• 12/23/11 Obama Letter

Gotta admit we're curious about how the White House latched onto our email address.