The nonsense continues from the WATB caucus:
“My name’s Tom Price and I represent the Sixth District of Georgia and [am] the privileged chair of the Republican Study Committee,” Price said. “It’s now noon on Wednesday. I’m standing outside the office of the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. The door is closed. We just heard news break there’s been an agreement between the House and the Senate on the non-stimulus bill.”
Negotiators were slated to meet later in the day. However, since news of a deal was leaked to the media, Price questioned if there were “shady deals” going on.
“It’s curious because Republicans were invited to a meeting they said at 3 o’clock this afternoon,” Price continued. “What this means is there are more shady deals going on behind closed doors — without the public, without Republicans in attendance.”
I suppose you could always read the bill to find out if there are any shady deals, but that is beside the point. What is the point? This:
If you want to get a sense of how Congress has changed under GOP control, just cruise the basement hallways of storied congressional office buildings like Rayburn, Longworth and Cannon. Here, in the minority offices for the various congressional committees, you will inevitably find exactly the same character — a Democratic staffer in rumpled khakis staring blankly off into space, nothing but a single lonely “Landscapes of Monticello” calendar on his wall, his eyes wide and full of astonished, impotent rage, like a rape victim. His skin is as white as the belly of a fish; he hasn’t seen the sun in seven years.
It is no big scoop that the majority party in Congress has always found ways of giving the shaft to the minority. But there is a marked difference in the size and the length of the shaft the Republicans have given the Democrats in the past six years. There has been a systematic effort not only to deny the Democrats any kind of power-sharing role in creating or refining legislation but to humiliate them publicly, show them up, pee in their faces. Washington was once a chummy fraternity in which members of both parties golfed together, played in the same pickup basketball games, probably even shared the same mistresses. Now it is a one-party town — and congressional business is conducted accordingly, as though the half of the country that the Democrats represent simply does not exist.
***The GOP’s “take that, bitch” approach to governing has been taken to the greatest heights by the House Judiciary Committee. The committee is chaired by the legendary Republican monster James Sensenbrenner Jr., an ever-sweating, fat-fingered beast who wields his gavel in a way that makes you think he might have used one before in some other arena, perhaps to beat prostitutes to death. Last year, Sensenbrenner became apoplectic when Democrats who wanted to hold a hearing on the Patriot Act invoked a little-known rule that required him to let them have one.
“Naturally, he scheduled it for something like 9 a.m. on a Friday when Congress wasn’t in session, hoping that no one would show,” recalls a Democratic staffer who attended the hearing. “But we got a pretty good turnout anyway.”
Sensenbrenner kept trying to gavel the hearing to a close, but Democrats again pointed to the rules, which said they had a certain amount of time to examine their witnesses. When they refused to stop the proceedings, the chairman did something unprecedented: He simply picked up his gavel and walked out.
“He was like a kid at the playground,” the staffer says. And just in case anyone missed the point, Sensenbrenner shut off the lights and cut the microphones on his way out of the room.
***For similarly petulant moves by a committee chair, one need look no further than the Ways and Means Committee, where Rep. Bill Thomas — a pugnacious Californian with an enviable ego who was caught having an affair with a pharmaceutical lobbyist — enjoys a reputation rivaling that of the rotund Sensenbrenner. The lowlight of his reign took place just before midnight on July 17th, 2003, when Thomas dumped a “substitute” pension bill on Democrats — one that they had never read — and informed them they would be voting on it the next morning. Infuriated, Democrats stalled by demanding that the bill be read out line by line while they recessed to a side room to confer. But Thomas wanted to move forward — so he called the Capitol police to evict the Democrats.
***In one legendary incident, Rep. Charles Rangel went searching for a secret conference being held by Thomas. When he found the room where Republicans closeted themselves, he knocked and knocked on the door, but no one answered. A House aide compares the scene to the famous “Land Shark” skit from Saturday Night Live, with everyone hiding behind the door afraid to make a sound. “Rangel was the land shark, I guess,” the aide jokes. But the real punch line came when Thomas finally opened the door. “This meeting,” he informed Rangel, “is only open to the coalition of the willing.”
And this is unfair to what the supporters of the stimulus bill did, which was… gather the supporters who would negotiate in good faith to discuss the bill before the public meeting to come to a final compromise. It wasn’t even in the same league as the Soviet style antics of the GOP in 2000-2006 as they rammed through the Bush/Rove agenda. I honestly can’t be the only one remembering all this, can I?
So just please grow up already. So much whining. This really is going to be the longest four years ever.
JGabriel
Ah, misty, water-colored memories of the way we were. It’s all taking on a nostalgic sepia tone, like gangrene & piss.
.
gbear
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Besides, how could it possibly feel longer than Bush 2004-2008?
Dave
A-fucking-men, John. I don’t care if it is small of me, but I am looking forward to the Idiot Brigade getting the short end of the stick.
Stuck
LOL. I remember well watching that and my jaw falling open in disbelief. As he went out the door he turned around with a big shit eatin’ grin, then turned back and swept away. Reminded me of Scarlet O’hara doing one of her Diva exits in Gone With the Wind.
Sensenbrenner – ever sweating , fat fingered beast. Indeedy.
Cruel Jest
And we all thought satire was going out of business. Losing GWB was a hit, but I think we’re gonna be ok.
John S.
This all reminds me of the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers when they perform the song "Sobbin’ Women" (them poor little dears sobbin buckets of tears).
I don’t know if anyone else has a clue what I’m referring to, but there’s probably a clip on YouTube.
Incertus
@Dave: And if it’s a wide stick, jammed into an uncomfortable place, so much the better.
CK Dexter Haven
What is a "Republican Study Committee"?
sgwhiteinfla
Just from the vulgar verbiage (which I am a fan of) I kinda figured that would be a Matt Taibbi article and wah lah. But thats damned informative so thanks. If only we had some MSM folks to provide this kind of perspective, well not EXACTLY the same kind of perspective, but you get my drift. So many clueless people out there will really believe that what the dems and the 3 republicans did today was some how unprecedented.
On another note, I know that its stupid to expect Faux Nooz to show any kind of journalistic ethics but just how many verifiably false stories do they plan on flogging about the stimulus bill? First the "its anti religious" story now the, "its gonna lead to socialized medicine" story and some how some way they still get away with it. I am not at all in favor of any kind of "fairness doctrine". But what I would like to see is any show that presents itself as a news show should have to follow some kinds of rules about truth and accuracy. Otherwise they should be stripped of all 1st amendment rights.
If only.
opium4themasses
@Incertus: Like the back of a volkswagen?
Plus it’s funny to me for someone calling themselves Incertus to be making this joke. /teen-aged boy
Stuck
@CK Dexter Haven:
Toe Tap School
John S.
Good old YouTube!
I dare anyone to listen to this song and not think of the Republicans when the chorus kicks in.
I’m not a huge fan of musicals, but Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a favorite of mine.
El Cid
No, no, no, no, no.
None of this EVER happened.
George W. Bush Jr. became President just after 9/11/2001 because Americans needed someone to keep them safe, and then Americans came together to work in bi-partisan harmony to save America and defeat TERROR and stimulate FREEDOM by cutting taxes, and then Bush Jr. came back just long enough to enact the SURGE to save Iraq and the U.S. soldiers sent there by Bill Clinton’s failure to defeat Saddam Hussein.
And then Barney Frank gave $700 billion in housing for free to black people, and then Nancy Pelosi went to Syria and when she came back the economy collapsed.
This is some fantasy by a deranged Bush hater.
pattonbt
Awww, come on John, they were just having a little frat boy fun in those days, they didnt really mean any of it. Plus we were at war (and we won with tax cuts!). They werent juvenile in any way, the Demrats, excuse me, their esteemed colleagues from the other side of the aisle just didnt know how to take a good natured joke. Come on, now!
But things today are ‘too serious’ for games, dontcha know. We must not look at the past (especially at the ideologies they espoused, thats just not fair). We all must act like adults which means making the majority (with their facts and stuff) accommodate the minority completely (no matter how factually flawed the minority may be) – bipartisanship and all, you know. I mean, its what the people want, right? I mean I think it is too much to ask that the now minority be treated as they treated others when they were in power. That would just be gosh darned unfair and all partisan and stuff.
Oh and Tax Cuts.
Also.
Wolverines!!
Brian J
It’s gotten to the point now that (a) I want to believe the opposite of what these clowns say, because what they say is usually full of lies and nonsense and easily refuted by the facts and (b) I can never imagine voting for a Republican for federal office. These assholes ram through legislation with techniques one step above the mafia for six to eight years and then have the gall to complain about anything? Give me a goddamn break.
CatStaff
But it’s going to be a whole lot longer four years for the Republicans.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
gbear
@John S.:
John, I stopped thinking about Republicans as soon as he got to the line ‘throbbin’, throbbin’, throbbin…"
I need to go throw myself under a bus now.
Joshua Norton
Easy there, Marsha. Nobody likes a cranky punching bag.
/Dr. Cox Mode
El Cid
I suspect I’ll never fall out of love with Barbara Boxer for putting dumbass global warming denialist and rude fucktard Senator James Inhofe down when he was trying to treat Al Gore like a punk:
YouTube video HERE.
agorabum
I’d have to say that the long years were when the lunatics were running the asylum, not when they just got on TV to cry about things.
Those years may not have seemed as long to John, since he was on the winger side for some of those days ;)
DougJ
That is truly a great Taibbi piece.
It makes me want to cry, though.
Why the fuck wasn’t Broder, the great champion of bipartisanship, writing about this?
Incertus
@opium4themasses: Just like the back of a Volkswagen. Wish more people got that joke, frankly.
Reverend Dennis
After the election, I started putting a few bucks at a time in the cookie jar. When mid-terms roll around I’m going to donate whatever I’ve saved up to the person or organization capable of doing the most damage to Republicans. I want to see their presence in Congress reduced to representing the eleven states of the old confederacy and I want them to go broke holding on to that much.
Fulcanelli
Great post, Mr. Tunch. Rep. John Conyers went through a similar humiliating experience you may remember, back around the time of the Plame mess, when trying to hold a meeting to discuss going forward with articles of impeachment of W. He wound up stuffed in some tiny room not much bigger than a broom closet in the basement, but he had his meeting.
I can’t wait until A.G. Holder gets settled in. The Big O has ducked and dodged and teased with hints and half answers on the subject of Bush junta prosecutions and I don’t think Leahy’s going to let it go. Obama might want to keep Gitmo open after all, just in case.
Those bastards really did believe they had their permanent majority in place. Suckers.
Zifnab25
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that Americans love whiners. Nothing turns out the votes like a 50 year old man getting up in front of a microphone and bawling his eyes out about how ever so brutally unfair everything is. Nothing screams "big manly men" like turning into a giant bitch.
2010 baby! They’re going to sob their way back into office.
John S.
@gbear:
Ah, sorry about that. I should have included a warning now that you mention it.
My sincerest apologies.
Brian J
I don’t remember where I read it, but on the second night of the Democratic convention, when Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy gave speeches and had videos about them shown, someone here mentioned that if the Republicans had two equivalents to those individuals who were being honored under similar circumstances, it would be a montage of complaints about how unfairly they have been treated. Unlike Clinton and Kennedy, who despite being two of the most reviled people in American politics by some managed to put together classy, uplifting presentations, these Republicans always try to become the victim. When something doesn’t go right, it’s the fault of the media, or the liberals in the colleges, or the unions, or, well, someone, anyone, but them.
Tsulagi
Nope, wingnut historians do too. When Sensenbrenner picked up his gavel and turned off the lights to end hearings on the Patriot Act, he was being patriotic. Patriotic in the face of today’s FDR appeasers who want to plunge the country into another depression like the one FDR started. They know their history like that. 9/11 changed everything.
Zzyzx
And then there’s the Red State comments:
Atlliberal
@Zifnab25:
Unfortunately Tom Price is my congressman, and he’s always been smarmy and he’ll probably get reelected with over 60% of the vote again in 2010. I’m beginning to think the people of Ga are beyond reason. If you’re wondering where the 21% who still like Bush are and what they’re like, come to Ga and You’ll see.
Joshua
This video has been playing on a loop in my head ever since the inauguration.
The rivers of tears cried by the Republicans will raise the sea level until Washington, New York, and Boston are all destroyed. This is their secret plan to take back America.
Fulcanelli
Does anybody know how the stimulus money for the States is divided up? Population, need, or maybe electoral votes cast for the winning candidate in the last election? Maybe, I hope, oh please…
The Cat Who Would Be Tunch
cite="">
Where x = as long as civilization exists.
I don’t mind the whining, grandstanding, and other assorted child-like behaviors (I realize I’m insulting children here, so forgive me) as long we’re governed by reasonable leaders with sane policies. In fact, having politicians like these provides great comedic relief as long as they’re in the minority.
LiberalTarian
Thanks for the memories John. I *hate* the GOP, but sometimes I forget why.
TenguPhule
It would feel a lot shorter if we fully embraced the Soviet Model Republicans wanted us to follow and had the GOP minority quietly dragged out and shot.
Reverend Dennis
@Fulcanelli:
I heard on NPR that the Senate demanded that it be distributed evenly between the states. Hopefully, that was a simplification on the news reader’s part. Otherwise, Montana will have gold plated cop cars while Californians have to reuse the plastic spoons at the soup kitchen.
TenguPhule
Hookers, Beer and Lobbiests doing a conga line.
Will
You mean eight.
demimondian
@Reverend Dennis: Between the states? Wow.
I guess that you could spend it all in Canada…that’s an area between the states.
demimondian
@Will: No, he means one and a half.
After that, the Republicans will be back in charge.
TR
Speaking of pathetic whiners, Duke is getting its ass kicked by UNC.
AnneLaurie
Well, that whole "catapulting the propaganda" thing worked so excellently in the Repubs’ favor over the last eight years, you can hardly blame them going with the tactics they know best.
Srsly, Orwell would recognize this crap for what it is: an attempt to re-frame unpleasant reality to conform with their preferred fantasies. As long as they had control over all the levers, it worked pretty well for them. And constant repetition of their favorite trophes has actually poisoned a lot of minds among the genus Nitwit Americanus. One reason we’re in so much trouble right now is that a considerable proportion of the voting population has been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to react violently against any realistic proposal to mitigate their problems politically. As a dramatic demonstration, we get to watch borderline-personality-disorder exemplars like Joe Wurtzlebacher or Rod Blagoyevich sit in front of the cameras and explain that black is white, war is peace, and we have always been at war with Eastasia.
Or, if you want to watch the genuinely crazy demonstrate where this particular kind of neurosis will take you, Nadya-Octuplet-Mom-Suleman is interviewed on tape saying that she’s "never been on welfare". And even the softballer giving the interview says, well, what about the food stamps? What about the state disability payments you’ve been collecting for three of your previous six kids? What about the fact that you’ve gotten at least $175,000 in disability settlements yourself (as the interviewer did *not* add, which is how Suleman has been able to spend the last 10 years out of the job market, paying for IVF treatments, and taking college classes paid for by government-sponsored student loans)? To which Suleman responded, with the blank expression of a feedlot cow, that all those dollars weren’t "welfare", they were "payments for various things, situations that we’ve been eligible for".
Because, in Idiocracy America, ‘welfare’ is a Bad Thing for Bad People, something quite different from patriotic Jeebus-approved "being eligible for" what the economists and other Euroweenie types call social welfare payments.
Joshua Norton
If it’s anything like my old Western Civ. study group, the chairman is in charge of ordering the pizza and a making sure a case of beer was on ice.
Reverend Dennis
@demimondian:
"Among the states."
demimondian
@Reverend Dennis: I liked the previous form better. At least it provided an excuse for the Republican pitch…
Wini
I thought that sounded familiar.. I think most of it is included in "The Great Derangement". It’s a good book.
Fulcanelli
I’ve never pinched a whole post because it was so good but this was over at Sully’s and I thought it was a good one (and I don’t even know who wrote it):
"What many do not understand is that the government is playing for time, not some brilliant economic miracle. We do not have the money or political leverage to solve this problem from the top down by divine fiat. We have to buy time — literally — for the ten-thousand smaller acts of restoration and renewal to take place. All this flow of money, this vast seemingly indiscriminate transfusion of economic blood, has one purpose: to keep the patient’s heart pumping until the systemic crisis is past — another 6-12-18 months. It is messy, sloppy, gross heroic medicine. Sure there’s tremendous waste. Get used to it. And get these people out of the operating room!
It is very interesting to watch how this crisis reveals and highlights character: the sniveling privileged Wall Street upper-crust, the semi-hysterical, uninformed punditocracy, the puerile Republican opposition — and Obama, cool as a cucumber, playing his game, five steps ahead, setting up moves that won’t come to fruition for months or years, while his opposition flails at the thin air where he used to be. I love it.
It’s the future that is calling Obama, not the present.
The Republican reaction to this stimulus package is on a par with McCain suspending his campaign during the primary to "handle" the economic crisis back in Washington. Completely clueless, cynical empty gestures. They think we’ll forget. They’re wrong. What Karl Rove wanted, and was willing to steal by any means necessary, Obama will get, handed to him as a free gift by the American people: real political power, the power to transform society for a generation or more."
Damn.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…
demimondian
@AnneLaurie: FTW
Fulcanelli
@AnneLaurie: You go girl.
Rome Again
@Brian J:
TZ and I had a discussion about this recently. Republicanism is all about victimization. Without their victimhood they got nothing.
Rome Again
@Fulcanelli:
Don’t count on it Fulcanelli. Usually money goes to those in the most need, which means the more blue northern states more often provide aid to the more red southern states. This basically means all those people screaming that we don’t need a stimulus are going to be the ultimate benefactors of such.
Gemina13
Last time I checked, the 2010 elections were only 21 months away. If we all do our part, from grassroots organizers to Mr. Obama, the Republicans will soon be as influential as your neighborhood PTA.
Rome Again
@LiberalTarian:
I never forget why, it’s just so much to remember that I can’t usually recall all of the reasons. My hatred for these asswipes is very strong.
TheHatOnMyCat
This is at the core of their entire rise to prominence going back to the sixties. They turned America, the greatest nation on earth, into Victim America, the noble little country Victimized by the awful communists and Soviets.
Their schtick became our whole country’s schtick.
TheHatOnMyCat
Your word-fu is destroying them.
Rome Again
@TheHatOnMyCat:
Ah! So…
;)
Fulcanelli
@Rome Again: True, but this cobalt blue little northern state I live in is on life support now with a half billion dollar state budget deficit, the second worst unemployment rate in the US and our Republican Governor is proposing…
Drum roll please…
Tax Cuts! He wants to eliminate state corporate taxes altogether and lo’ and behold he wants to eliminate the estate tax. The fucking estate tax.
This is after he wrangled a state income tax cut for the state’s richest people about 2 years ago while the middle class got what we usually get. A fucking goose egg. Bada bing!
Such an innovator, it’s breathtaking. Back to the future with the GOP. Next we’ll be building pyramids with the stimulus money. Public works projects you know… These fuckers really can’t help themselves.
El Cid
My neighborhood has no PTA, as far as I can see, so, yeah, if that could apply to the entire GOP I’d be fine with that.
Bubblegum Tate
@pattonbt:
Also, job creation. You’ve gotta get job creation in there.
qwerty42
@Atlliberal: re the Ga voters, I wonder how the south GA peanut farmers are doing with consumption tanking. The FDA inspects every few years? And they are
shipping contaminated product? The FDA came into existence because of fears about the food (Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle I believe), And companies have gone out of business (anyone remember/heard of Bon Vivant vichyssoise? Well, They aren’t in business anymore. For them, the problem was botulism. They were a respected brand.) I understand that funding for the State of GA’s "go fish" project has taken $$ from education and ag inspection and other things. But I would imagine the farmers have some concerns.
Church Lady
I knew this was written by Matt Taibbi just from reading the exerpt posted. He certainly has a style of his own. I wonder if he’s an asshole in real life?
El Cid
I love Matt Taibbi. Sometimes he uses bad words, but he doesn’t kill people like Republicans do.
Screamin' Demon
"Wah lah"?
Do you mean voilà, perhaps?
Oh, well…it’s closer than a version I read once in an Idaho newspaper column: "Walla." Which is funny, at least to me, because Walla Walla, Washington’s only forty miles from where I live.
Wile E. Quixote
My Barbara Boxer fantasy (thanks to El Cid for posting the link)
Feebog
Do they really think any one is listening to their whining? 80% of the country is in favor of this stimulus package. Very few of those folks really give a shit about the details. They simply want to know that their government is doing something, anything, to stop the bleeding.
If the Republican herd is thinned a little more in 2010, well so much the better for the rest of us.
Xenos
@Screamin’ Demon:
I never know if people are being facetious when they spell it that way. When people are criticizing Republicans and other ignorami I just give them the benefit of the doubt.
JL
@Atlliberal: Unfortunately he is my representative also.
grandpajohn
Well no, except for the members of the MSM, most of us remember it very well. However in the spirit of bi-partisanship
we can’t expect any major media person to actually recall or bring it up to public attention
BC
Well, they do, but then they say the Democrats complained about how they were treated then and so the Democrats should treat Republicans as they wanted the Republicans to treat them. So Republicans have a case, in the minds of the traditional media.