# Help me find this quote from a Republican Congresscritter **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-quote-from-a-republican-congresscritter/737311 "2015-11-11T18:29:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-quote-from-a-republican-congresscritter/737311/1 "2015-11-11T18:29:47Z")
I seem to recall reading that not long after the 2008 election or Obama’s inaugural, a leading Pub in Congress told a leading Dem, “You see, we can’t afford to let you succeed,” or words to that effect. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-quote-from-a-republican-congresscritter/737311/2 "2015-11-11T20:15:33Z")
Mitch McConnell apparently said something along those lines privately to other Republicans after the 2008 election but before the inauguration. It was in the news in 2013 with the publication of Martin Grunwald’s book _The New New Deal_. [cite](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/10/1118614/-Biden-Mitch-McConnell-vowed-no-cooperation-with-the-Obama-administration-from-the-get-go) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-quote-from-a-republican-congresscritter/737311/3 "2015-11-11T20:31:38Z")
No, I knew that about McConnell, I was thinking of something different – something a Pub said to a Dem, not to fellow Pubs. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-quote-from-a-republican-congresscritter/737311/4 "2015-11-12T15:37:30Z")
Nobody knows? I can’t seem to find it by googling, but I know I read it, and “we can’t afford to let you succeed” was definitely in there. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-quote-from-a-republican-congresscritter/737311/5 "2015-11-12T15:43:33Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, I knew that about McConnell, I was thinking of something different – something a Pub said to a Dem, not to fellow Pubs. Per the book referenced by **bibliophage** , Vice President Biden was told this by various GOP Senators. From [here](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/10/1118614/-Biden-Mitch-McConnell-vowed-no-cooperation-with-the-Obama-administration-from-the-get-go): [QUOTE=The New New Deal] Biden says that during the transition, he was warned not to expect any cooperation on many votes. “I spoke to seven different Republican Senators, who said, `Joe, I’m not going to be able to help you on anything,’ he recalls. His informants said [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell had demanded unified resistance. “The way it was characterized to me was: `For the next two years, we can’t let you succeed in anything. That’s our ticket to coming back,’” Biden says. The vice president says he hasn’t even told Obama who his sources were, but Bob Bennett of Utah and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania both confirmed they had conversations with Biden along these lines. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-quote-from-a-republican-congresscritter/737311/6 "2015-11-12T15:50:34Z")
And here’s another excerpt from the same book, per a [Time](http://swampland.time.com/2012/08/23/the-party-of-no-new-details-on-the-gop-plot-to-obstruct-obama/) article: > [@](#): > > David Obey, then chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, met with his GOP counterpart, Jerry Lewis, to explain what Democrats had in mind for the stimulus and ask what Republicans wanted to include. “Jerry’s response was, ‘I’m sorry, but leadership tells us we can’t play,’ ” Obey told me. “Exact quote: ‘We can’t play.’ What they said right from the get-go was, It doesn’t matter what the hell you do, we ain’t going to help you. We’re going to stand on the sidelines and bitch.” > > Lewis blames Obey and the Democrats for the committee’s turn toward extreme partisanship, but he doesn’t deny that GOP leaders made a decision not to play. “The leadership decided there was no play to be had,” he says. Republicans recognized that after Obama’s big promises about bipartisanship, they could break those promises by refusing to cooperate. In the words of Congressman Tom Cole, a deputy Republican whip: “We wanted the talking point: ‘The only thing bipartisan was the opposition.’ ”