On the "new" GOP "Pledge to America"

From The New York Times, today: The best way to understand the pledge is as a bid to co-opt the Tea Party by a Republican leadership that wants to sound insurrectionist but is the same old Washington elite. These are the folks who slashed taxes on the rich, turned a surplus into a crushing deficit, and helped unleash the financial crisis that has thrown millions of Americans out of their jobs and their homes. Not only are the players the same, the policies are the same. Just more tax cuts for the rich and more deficit spending. We find it hard to believe that even the most disaffected voters will be taken in. But again, these are strange and worrying times. Let's face it, there are two--and only two--things the Republicans can or should promise to the country that they would do, if returned to office in Washington. Those are cut spending---and truly, honestly and seriously do so--and shrink government. (Some of the cutting and shrinking for whoever is in power, too, will have to be at the Pentagon and across the entire military, something they are highly unlikely to do). Nothing else matters and nothing else means anything. If they only keep doing what they have been, that is, cutting taxes for the wealthy and reducing regulation on businesses, they are possibly likely to be overrun by the Tea Party. I don't think they're capable of either of these jobs, to date, but who knows? Maybe those old dogs could learn some new tricks. And keep their promises. Link to original story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/opinion/26sun1.html?th&emc=th