House Republicans: bad on politics; honorable on principle. But isn't the latter why we elected them? (updated)

Krauthammer: The GOP’s payroll tax debacle  ..."The House Republicans’ initial rejection of this two-month extension was therefore correct on principle and on policy. But this was absolutely the wrong place, the wrong time, to plant the flag. Once Senate Republicans overwhelmingly backed the temporary extension, that part of the fight was lost. Opposing it became kamikaze politics."....
"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."...

Update: Now for the Fallout on Payroll Deal  "The payroll deal is is being billed as a House Republican defeat, and from a political optics standpoint it is. But the deal, which was passed by unanimous consent, actually isn’t bad for Republicans, especially considering some of the new language that was inserted:"...


The House, Harry Reid, and the Payroll Tax "The House previously passed a bill extending the cut for a full year, and that bill is good policy. It doesn’t increase the deficit. It forces a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. And it’s President Obama’s major year-end priority. So why is the Democratic Senate blocking the bill’s path between Capitol Hill and the White House signing desk, and pushing the bill the House rejected instead?"

From Hope n' Change:  40 Bellyachers and a Mule

"In a powerful updating of the holiday classic "A Christmas Carol," Barack Obama went before the cameras yesterday to claim that the poor, lame little ragamuffin Tiny Tim would soon die if Ebenezer Boehner didn't give the Cratchit family an extra $40 in each paycheck."

WaPo calls it "remarkable capitulation on the part of House Republicans".
"He credited public pressure — which was fanned by the White House — with changing the House’s position.
"Boehner said he was convinced by fellow House members that although a short-term deal was not ideal, they should support it if they could get the change to the payroll tax reporting requirements."

Kimberley Strassel: The GOP's Message Problem   "If Republicans want to take the White House or the Senate, the next 11 months have to be an exercise in crisp compare-and-contrast. They have to explain Mr. Obama's tax and regulatory and energy and health-care policy and make the "moral" argument against it. But to do that effectively they must simultaneously embrace and sell their own sweeping alternative vision of the universe. If Mitt Romney thinks he can win by out-pandering Mr. Obama with the middle class, he's never seen Democrats pander. All he does is muddy a debate that demands clarity."

Will we have a replay of the pain of that plain McCain campaign ? It's looking that way here. TD

From December 20:  Sheila Jackson Lee: Obama Should Use Executive Order to Extend Payroll Tax Cut/Unemployment  "A member of Congress being this ignorant about the Constitution is… a crime."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2011/12/21/94870