Washington Post: Why Tom Cole was right

Washington Post - Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake

At the end of November, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole broke with party orthodoxy, insisting that his fellow Republicans should take a fiscal cliff deal that raised taxes on those making more than $250,000 immediately.

For that position he was pilloried by many within his own party who said that taking Cole’s approach amounted to surrendering before the fight had even started. More than a month later — and after two separate incidents in which House Republicans embarrassed themselves on a national stage — it turns out that Cole was, in the main, right.

What Cole, a political pollster and consultant prior to being elected to the House, understood better than virtually anyone else in his party — with the possible exception of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) — is that the GOP was playing an away game in the cliff negotiations.

That is, Democrats were able to argue that they simply wanted to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, forcing Republicans who opposed such a move into essentially defending the wealthiest among us. (To be clear: We are talking purely about political strategy and positioning here, not about the relative merits of the policy disagreements between the two sides.)

Cole said as much when explaining his position in late November. ”I think we ought to take the 98 percent deal right now,” he told Politico. “It doesn’t mean I agree with raising the top 2. I don’t.”

Online: Washington Post