REPUBLICANS ARE ALWAYS ON OFFENSE

Here are three D.C. stories from the past 36 hours or so. First this, from yesterday:

With House Republicans divided over impeachment for members of the Biden administration, some in the GOP ranks are considering a possible alternative: simply zeroing out their salaries.

The tool that some members, mostly conservatives, are eying is the Holman Rule, an obscure and controversial power that allows lawmakers to reduce the salaries of — and effectively fire — specific federal employees.

Their possible targets? You can probably guess: Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND, Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, and possibly even FBI Director CHRISTOPHER WRAY, for starters. Some are hoping to use the procedure on investigators working for special counsel JACK SMITH.

... Using the power of the purse to punish Biden administration officials isn’t destined to be any more successful than impeaching them — which is to say not at all, given Democrats’ control of the Senate and the need for Biden’s signature on any appropriations bill.

Today there's this:

Republicans have a new idea for how to take Washington politics out of the FBI: Take the FBI out of Washington and send it to Huntsville, Ala.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), who has accused the bureau of overzealously investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies, wants to strip the bureau of funding for a new headquarters unless it relocates to the midsize Alabama city a 700-mile drive from the nation’s capital.

The Huntsville proposal, which Jordan attached Tuesday to coming appropriations bills, is unlikely to become law....

And this, which of course is an ongoing story:

The blockade from Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on about 250 of the Pentagon’s general and flag officers has left the Marine Corps without a confirmed leader for the first time in 164 years.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger officially retired on Monday, leaving Assistant Commandant Gen. Eric Smith as the acting commandant and leader of the military branch until he is confirmed in the Senate....

Tuberville is protesting the Pentagon’s abortion policy because it provides paid leave and reimbursement costs for travel for servicemembers who cross state lines to get an abortion.

Republians don't control the White House or the Senate, but they're never on defense. Even if they can't change laws or administration policy, they're always looking for -- and finding -- new ways to gum up the works, or at least tell the world how they might gum up the works in a few weeks or months, or the next time they control the government.

Democrats don't do this. Democrats seem more defensive when they have power than Republicans are when they don't. Mostly, that's a matter of temperament. But there's another reason.

Democrats regularly try to implement big, important policy changes that will make million of people's lives better. Universal health coverage! A massive infrastructure program! Student debt relief! That's what Democrats focus on. It's hard to fight for these things, and they can get watered down or blocked by the courts, or be implemented poorly. It might be years before Americans realize that somthing good happened as a result of Democratic policy.

What doesn't seem to interest Democrats is petty partisan warfare that does little or nothing for the general public but makes the base cheer. How would Americans benefit from an effort to zero out the salary appropriation for the homeland security secretary or the attorney general, never mind the fact that it could never get past the Senate and the president? How would moving the FBI help most Americans? How does Tuberville's blockade help them?

But this posture of total warfare is an easy way to keep the GOP's voters fired up. Meanwhile, Democrats are concerned that some of their base might not turn out in 2024, especially the young. It's hard to do many of the big things young people want, especially when Republicans block the efforts in the federal courts and in the states.

But petty partisan revenge might be easier. Democrats should consider it once in a while, just to send a signal that they're still out there fighting. It works for the GOP.