Not seeing a problem here:
President Obama is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind the Republican Party, setting loose top White House officials to undermine conservatives in the media, business and lobbying worlds.
With a series of private meetings and public taunts, the White House has targeted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest-spending pro-business lobbying group in the country; Rush Limbaugh, the country’s most-listened-to conservative commentator; and now, with a new volley of combative rhetoric in recent days, the insurance industry, Wall Street executives and Fox News. President Obama is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind the Republican Party, setting loose top White House officials to undermine conservatives in the media, business and lobbying worlds.
Considering Rush Limbaugh and the lunatics at Fox are unstable and dishonest and an actual threat to the country, and the Wall Street execs almost brought down the world economy, the only thing I can say about this strategy is “MORE OF THIS, PLEASE.” Even if it gives Jake Tapper and company the vapors.
Crashman06
As the Shrub once said, “Bring it on.”
Violet
Please, sir, can I have some more. Bring it on, Barack. It’s about time a president did something like this.
NobodySpecial
The poor media, what will they do for stories then? Obama will have forced them to talk to organizations that support Democrats! Unthunkable! Inconceivable!
Redshirt
Indeed! The War for logic and sanity is truly joined. Here’s to pushing back the Wingularity!
Violet
OT – John, you’ve seen James Wolcott’s post about Bitsy right? Also, hope you are doing okay this morning after Tunch’s attention-getting antics last night.
Back on topic – Go, Barack, go!
Comrade Mary
Wait — fighting WORDS with MORE WORDS!
Oh noes, will this dastardly commie government stop at nothing? I can hear the jackboots already.
slag
Yes! Yes indeed!
This is exactly what I wanted to see before they let Van Jones go (yes, I’m still bitter about that). Better late than never.
Napoleon
Ah, I see the Politico piece has more concern trolling on going after Fox News, which I personally think is one of the smartest things the Obama crew has done since the election, and that is even before seeing that the Villagers would get the vapors over it (which makes me think it must be a good thing).
Comrade Mary
(And may I just add that I love the ransom note effect of the mix of regular caps and small caps the blog produces? Note that the mix changes once again after they’re quoted.)
Mark
Robert Greenwalds’ 2004 film “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” should be required viewing for Fox defenders.
Incertus
President
ObamaBush is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind theRepublican PartyDemocratic party, setting loose top White House officials to undermineconservativesliberals in the liberalmedia,businessunion and lobbying worlds.Hmmm. Seems to me that’s what people in power do–try to undermine their opposition. This is shocking somehow?
geg6
Oh, and the concern trolling Politico is doing in that article!
Oh, lawdy! Someone might think the prezzie is political! And the media is skeptical!
That’s it. This administration is obviously a complete and total failure.
Violet
@Napoleon:
Yes, exactly. If they’re against it, it’s got to be a good thing.
Comrade Jake
Tapper is really just an incredible tool. Every once in awhile you’ll stumble across one of his concern-troll posts and wonder how anyone in the media could possibly be such a cheese dick.
Napoleon
Even though I understand that David Carr of the NY Times wrote a piece where he opined that he thought it was stupid for the WH to take on Fox and many have panned that piece, this piece of his on crossing Fox and how they respond like a Republican political campaign is instructive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/business/media/07carr.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=fox&st=cse&oref=slogin
Xanthippas
So I guess directly responding to their various idiocies is “undermining” now?
Balconesfault
One could argue that Obama might be the savior of the Republican Party if he succeeds. These various nutjobs and profiteers have dragged the GOP out into the wilderness and treated it like Warren Beatty in Deliverance … and the biggest beneficiaries of Obama’s push to delegitamize Fox et al might not be the Democrats, but the moderate Repubs (and some Conservative Dems who might be inclined to return to being Republicans if the crazies are defanged).
sloan
And it’s about damn time.
After decades of the Republican party howling like banshees about the “Liberal Media!” we finally have someone willing to push back and call out the blatantly obvious bias of Fox News.
Look at the reaction on the Right – they’re freaking out because for the first time ever they’ve gotten a small taste of their own medicine. This is really the first time they’ve been called out on their bias, and they’re so thin-skinned it’s causing mass hysteria in Republicanland. They’ve never had to defend themselves. Ever. It’s been a free ride for Fox News since day one.
What really kills me is the loudest defenders of Fox News are the same mainstream outlets who have been on the receiving end of “liberal media” bashing for the last 30 years.
NYT, WaPo, ABC and the like are deeply concerned that Fox News is being held to account. This would be the same NYT that was frozen out by Bush for his entire presidency – except when Cheney fed fake Iraqi intel to Judith Miller – who now works for Fox News.
Keep it up, White House. Make the whiny ass titty babies squirm. Squirm baby, squirm!
Kryptik
Even if it gives Jake Tapper and company the vapors?
ESPECIALLY if it gives Jake Tapper and company the vapors.
dadanarchist
You have to cruise on over to Politico’s stupid-all-the-time “Arena” and check out the “reactions” by Republican operatives Cesar Conda and Bradley Blakeman.
Conda bemoans Obama’s lack of civility by comparing Obama to the Bush White House!
Blakeman uses that classic wanker phrase: “unprecedented.”
The hackery is so strong.
Omnes Omnibus
@Balconesfault: Ned Beatty, not Warren.
Violet
@Napoleon:
Every time I see David Carr’s name, this is how my thought process works – “Wait, David Carr? He’s a football player. He’s writing for the New York Times? Well, no surprise there – they let anyone write for newspapers these days. Oh, wait, I guess that’s some other David Carr.”
Pretty much sums up my opinion of the MSM these days. They’ll let anyone write for them.
dmsilev
Sheesh. You’d think these folks in the media slept through the entire 2008 campaign cycle or something. This sort of thing is *exactly* in accordance with how Obama ran his campaign first against Hillary Clinton and then against McCain. Then, as now, the media ignores long-term strategy in favor of “who won the day” and whatever Glen Beck is gibbering about today.
If ever the definitive book on The Village is written, I think “Missing the forest for the trees” would be a good subtitle.
-dms
dadanarchist
Isn’t that about all Politico is good for?
If Richard Cohen is America’s Concern Troll, than the Politico is America’s Concern Troll Bridge.
Joel
Let me tell you about a guy who’s calm and plain
He goes by the name of Big Daddy Kane…
inkadu
Democrats aren’t supposed to fight back. This will be excellent news for John McCain.
And I don’t know what right the Obama administration has to criticize members of another political party. I mean, does he think he’s the president or something?
Just Some Fuckhead
Concern troll is concerned.
Citizen_X
Warning: pedantry ahead!
@Balconesfault:
Not Warren Beatty, Ned Beatty. The shlubby Beatty, not the matinee-idol one.
And I agree that Obama could just let the Repubs wander off into the woods and die, except that they’re on the verge of becoming actually dangerous and destructive of the country’s ability to govern itself. It’s better that they get walked back from the cliff.
On edit: Omnes is quicker than me.
feebog
Uh…
That was Ned Beatty in Deliverance…
Ok, now that I have that off my chest, allow me to opine that the White House exposing Faux Noose as a propoganda machine for the GOP is exactly the right thing to do. I would love for Rahm or Axelrod to challenge Faux to go back in their archives and pull out a single story that was complimentary to Obama. They won’t find any. Fair and Balanced my ass.
slag
Around the thirty first minute mark of this video, Obama suggests that Republicans should at least “feel a little shame”. Not gonna happen.
The Moar You Know
The old rules were that the entire right-wing and their political party, the GOP, were allowed to punch liberals in the balls repeatedly and us liberals were supposed to stand there and take it.
Now we’re objecting, and noting that they are, in fact, kicking us in the balls.
I’m not impressed by the very minimal steps towards fighting the bullies of the right that the left has taken so far. Noting that Fox is the propaganda arm of the GOP? That should have happened while Clinton was still president.
The right wing has been asking to get their asses kicked for the last couple of decades and I’d like my elected representatives to step up and at least throw a punch or two.
Fulcanelli
It should be so easy for Obama to bait the pundits and media douche nozzles on the right and their corporatist über lords into ratcheting up their rhetorical howling to the point where sane, reasonable folks run in the other direction simply to escape the crazy and shut them out. It wouldn’t be the first time, and these assholes never learn.
Perhaps then he can rightfully be revealed as the far from perfect, but reasonably level headed and somewhat inspirational President he can be, who’s – a) still getting his sea legs and needs to be left the fuck alone for a little while so he can – b) spend some time skullfucking his party’s congressional delegation into line, then he can – c) get a grip on fixing the cosmic scale economic and political clusterfuck that a generation of Republican political dominance has left in his lap.
Da Bomb
@Joel:
A mellow type of fellow that’s laid back
Back in the days, he was always like that
DanF
@Balconesfault:
That was my thought. Obama is undermining the destructive forces in the GOP – the money players which ultimately corrupts all of politics – and the the crazy, hate-merchants. I suspect he’ll have more success marginalizing the hate-merchants (as we have our share of bought and paid for congress-critters too). Eventually it will dawn on the GOP that the Beck-Limbaughs are a boat anchor.
The Southern Strategy inherently came with a day-of-reckoning clause. That day is nearly upon them and they will need to shed a chunk of the base to remain viable outside of the South.
Ash Can
She sees bridges, but that’s because she’s delusional. Sane people look at what she calls bridges and see heaps of trash. Except for the godawful stench they give off while they’re burning, why shouldn’t the administration torch them?
Trinity
@Fulcanelli: This.
geg6
@Balconesfault:
Dude! That’s Ned Beatty. NOT Warren.
Cat
When the Obama Admin fires and stops appointing execs and lobbyists from the big Wall Street firms maybe you can make a case for him trying to marginalize them.
GReynoldsCT00
@Violet:
Holy shit!
Waynski
@ The Moar You Know — I’m with you. It should be “Ow My Balls” every hour of every day for the GOP
Violet
@GReynoldsCT00:
Yeah, it’s really cool, isn’t it? I’d love it if John would front page it with a bleg. Maybe more bloggers and pundits would join in? A girl can dream….
bobbo
When I first read the Politico excerpt, I thought I was reading Michelle Malkin. “Undermine”? “Marginalize”? Seriously? Pushing back against your opponents in the political arena, criticizing them for the things they do which you think are harmful to the body politic – these are not “undermining” or “marginalizing.” Sending spies into the organization, spreading rumors, using government agencies to investigate them for nonexistent tax code violations or the like, now that would be undermining.
These people need to find their smelling salts.
cleek
i’m just waiting for the chance to title a post “Fox On The Run”
kay
Pundits all worried over the Limbaugh = Republicans strategy too, and I think that was completely effective.
Rush Limbaugh = Republican leader. They did that in 2 weeks.
He’s completely repulsive on nearly every level, women are repelled by him, and no one (now) even bothers to deny he’s the Republican Party. They’re one and the same thing.
So they “GOP” = a troika of gross, excessively dramatic unhinged men: Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity = the Republican Party.
I think it might work. It did last time.
p.a.
Actually, they have marginilized themselves, it’s just that when we DFH’s point this out, the residents of Broderworld (or is it Brookiana ?) ignore or attack us en mass. Now that someone who actually counts in their world is saying it, they’re in a tizzy. Possible ’emperor has no clothes’ moment for the MSM.
kay
@bobbo:
Media need to find a theme and stick with it. They’re all relentlessly conventional followers and no one is leading on this!
What is the Obama White House anyway? Knee-capping and ruthless, or elitist and weak?
They’ll be okay, deep breath, once they get their arms around a theme.
Seanly
I think that is a feature, not a bug.
dr. luba
From the Politico comments:
Next week: POLITICO reports that Obama plans to COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY UNDERMINE the Republican party by trying to push through his agenda, and even run for reelection, using sinister techniques honed in the 2008 campaign, like campaigning and going on TV. According to unnamed sources, this is exacerbating partisan tensions in Washington.
“What’s his problem?” Dana Perino said. “All we did was say he was a Muslim Socialist Nazi African who wasn’t born in this country and wants to kill your grandmother with his health care plan, and now he’s saying Fox isn’t legitimate news. It’s exactly what Hitler would do.”
Privately, unnamed sources agreed.
On Fox News, commentators were even more critical of Obama’s plan to criticize Fox News. “Folks, if you weren’t scared before, you should be now,” commentator Glenn Beck remarked on his show. “Oh sure, the liberal media wants you to believe that ALL presidents run for reelection. But as I can demonstrate with this whiteboard diagram, what Obama really has in mind is nothing less than a Stalinist-Marxist-Leninist-Nazist-Czarist plot to install himself as PRESIDENT FOR LIFE.” He then began breaking down into tears. “Stand with me and the News Corp Conglomerate on the side of…sniff…freedom.”
What do Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, and think of all this? Stay tuned…Mike Allen has the scoop!
liberal
@dadanarchist:
Glenn Greenwald had a funny tweet about Politico: “saying Politico added a gossip page is like saying the Washington Post added a neocon page.”
liberal
@The Moar You Know:
I agree with most of your sentiments, but Obama and Clinton aren’t “the left”; they’re the middle.
sparky
@Cat: yup. the rest of this is, sorry, just blather about blather. when, if ever, Obama or Schumer tell Wall Street to drop dead, then something may change. otherwise, this is the same strategy as with civil liberties: sing a pretty song to assuage the base and then ignore it. the only people missing the forest for the trees are the people thinking this is a meaningful change. oh, and Rupert probably thinks this is great, as controversy=ratings=(sort of) revenue.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/10/guest-post-still-the-masters-of-the-universe.html
Lex
Obama isn’t attacking “conservatives,” he’s attacking the reactionary, the delusional and the anticonstitutional. There’s a difference.
And he needs to hit ’em with the chair.
drillfork
Uh, I see a problem here. Obama wants nothing more than to make the Democrats the go-to party for corporate interests. That’s what all these confrontations are about. I know as president he’s the leader of the Democratic Party, but Obama should lead the country first.
And, seriously, has Obama’s rhetoric about Wall Street executives in particular ever meant jack shite? Ever?…
matoko_chan
umm…actually this is strategy.
Obama working systematically to glue FOX, Rush, Beck, Wallstreet, the Healthcare insurers, etc onto the GOP…..the face of the GOP.
The way conservatives have always held onto power was by misdirection….look! the niggers are gettin your wymmens/stuff!
Obama is pointing out the nasty little shortmen behind the curtain.
He isn’t containing FOX…..he is quarantining FOX….and n/e one not infected with crazypants is gettin the eff out.
Roger Moore
@Just Some Fuckhead:
They know that bridges are a favorite hiding place for concern trolls.
ksmiami
Roger Moore:
Billy Goat’s Gruff is one of my favorite kids stories. I think the bridge would collapse though if Rush Limbaugh tried to get across it ;)
Legalize
I can’t wait for the next Obama presser. You know approximately 100% of the questions will involve how mean he’s being to poor FAUX News. I’d love all of the questions to be taken by the usual cheese dicks, i.e. Tapper, Chip Reid, etc., just to watch Barack smack them around with a little grin on his face. Obama is at his best when he has fools to bitch slap for being, well, fools.
asiangrrlMN
@dadanarchist: Troll Bridge! Love it.
Divide and conquer, bitchez! As Benen (I think) said, it’s time to cut out the middleman–the Chamber of Commerce.
ruemara
I’m not sure if I understand the concerns. Aren’t your enemies supposed to be confounded, bamboozled and generally despoiled until you claw victory from their weak, ineffectual hands, then run off with their milkshake?
It’s always worked for me.
Maybe “journalists” should just sit this out, if it’s too bloody for them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet: I have a close relative named David Carr, who is neither a football player nor a writer for the NY Times (but would, I think, have enjoyed both jobs and would have been pretty good at them).
TenguPhule
They never saw anything because their heads never left John McCain’s Lap.
And then Palin flashed her tits at them and that’s all they wrote.
KC
“They won — why don’t they act like it?” said Dana Perino,
They are.
Coming from Bush’s press secretary, that’s just bizarre.
r€nato
I hope all the left-wing whiners will knock off the “Obama is no better than Bush!” crap now.
But I doubht they will.
Reason60
@Balconesfault:
“One could argue that Obama might be the savior of the Republican Party if he succeeds. These various nutjobs and profiteers have dragged the GOP out into the wilderness and treated it like Warren Beatty in Deliverance … ” While Fox News squeals like a pig.
Amen.
America needs two legitimate parties, not one party and an opposing army of kooks.
The best thing Wm. F. Buckly did for conservatism was ostracize the Bircher “kooks” and establish a respectable alternative to New Deal liberalism.
Roger Moore
@ruemara:
No. Just ask the Governator. He’ll tell you that the idea is, “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.”
Makewi
He’s failing miserably at this. In fact, he’s so bad at it that one would suspect his real intent is to increase the popularity of right leaning outlets and the overall number of people identifying as conservatives.
Groucho48
One main point I do get from the Politico article is that it explicitly acknowledges that Fox News is “a powerful force behind the Republican Party”. It does the same for the Chamber of Commerce, but, everyone kind of knew that, anyway.
JenJen
Speaking of Jake Tapper, he’s been quite the pissy little Tweeter all day. I think Media Matters got under his skin a bit.
Wile E. Quixote
@Balconesfault
That was Ned Beatty who was cornholed in Deliverance, not Warren Beatty, who from what I’ve read cornholed quite a few Hollywood starlets.
Wile E. Quixote
@Makewi
Yeah, right, face facts, the only people who identify as conservatives these days are people who like to say ni***er in public and are upset that people call them on it when they do so. The Republican party is finally starting to see the results of the “double down on the crazy” strategy and they’re finding out that it’s not too pretty.
Wile E. Quixote
@John Cole
Muah, hah, hah, hah! Suck it Jake Tapper. Suck it long and hard you candy-assed, punk of a dog-fucking concern troll.
chrome agnomen
marginalize is a relative term.
sure, a lot of media heads may suffer the usual vagaries of public acclaim, but it’s a given that the real players always operate below the radar as a matter of course. aggrandizement goes on apace, no matter where the spotlight shines.
JackieBinAZ
Only Republicans are allowed to control the narrative.