GOP Needs Mitch Daniels, Not McConnell

Party should replace 'shameless' Senator with Ind. gov
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 11, 2009 9:00 AM CST
GOP Needs Mitch Daniels, Not McConnell
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels speaks at the Statehouse in Indianapolis earlier this year.   (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Indiana's principled and practical governor is the man who should be heading Senate Republicans instead of Mitch McConnell, writes Steven Pearlstein. The "bad Mitch" is "charmless and shameless hypocrite" who wants to see President Obama lose at any cost, while Mitch Daniels prefers getting something done to scoring political points, Pearlstein writes in the Washington Post.

Daniels has turned his state's deficit into a surplus and won bipartisan support for a program to help Hoosiers get health insurance, Pearlstein writes. If he'd been leading the Senate minority, the party could have won some major concessions in return for not filibustering. Instead, they were stuck with McConnell, who refused to collaborate seriously, and strong-armed moderates who tried to compromise. "The Republican party—along with the country—is likely to come out the losers as a result," Pearlstein notes.
(More Mitch Daniels stories.)

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