John Kerry says GOP ‘ideological rigidity and stupidity’ hurting Congress, country

[Mass]

http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2012/03/john-kerry-says-gop-ideological-rigidity-and-stupidity-hurting-congress-country/FUeg8Irvx42FbPh8j8WEoO/index.html

Senator John Kerry today blasted what he branded Republican “ideological rigidity and stupidity” for driving moderates like Olympia Snowe out of Congress and damaging the United States’s image abroad.

The Massachusetts Democrat, speaking in Boston to a blend of Democratic and Republican business leaders at a breakfast meeting of the nonpartisan New England Council, said inflexibility by Republicans in the House and Senate has blocked investment in the country’s infrastructure and education and energy systems while China and other competitors fill the void.

“We’re sending a message of indecision, of gridlock, of weakness, of an inability to seize this global moment,” said Kerry.

Saying the GOP is singularly committed to limiting Barack Obama to being a one-term president, Kerry said critics who are for parliamentary rules changes are missing the real problem.

“It’s not the rules; it’s the people. It’s an attitude,” said Kerry.

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“Because of an ideological rigidity and stupidity in Washington, we’re having an impossible time doing the most simple things in order to build our nation to be competitive, to do what every citizen in America wants us to do, which is to create jobs, and put people to work, and be strong,” he said.