The “I’m rubber and you’re glue” strategy of Obama critique has Larison completely fed up. The latest example is Heritage Foundation nitpicking about Obama’s decision to cancel his trip to Indonesia and Australia so he could lobby for HCR:
Apparently it isn’t enough that they have lost the largest policy fight of the last decade, but some of them also have to embarrass themselves with tantrums about a minor snag in Obama’s itinerary. This ranks with the reaction to the missile defense decision and the outcry against the imaginary “apology tour” as one of the most dim-witted criticisms of Obama available, so naturally it is catching on pretty fast.
In another post on the topic of Israel, Larison nails it:
The only people who seem to be “almost giddy” these days are conservative and Republican critics of Obama, who seem to think that their ludicrous obsession with demeaning Obama’s support for Israel is being vindicated by events. Of course, they cannot point to any decrease in Obama’s actual support for Israel, because there has been no decrease of any kind, so they are reduced to talking about “subtle shifts in perception,” feelings, moods, and changes in style. These shifts are so subtle that they can only be seen by the trained eye of the ideologically-motivated pundit. As I have said before, Obama’s critics were once obsessed with his supposed superficiality, and now it is they who cannot stop talking about purely superficial things when criticizing him.
Of course, I’m an anti-semite for even thinking that Larison could be right, not to mention linking to him.
Leinad
Yeah, on the trip cancellation I think I speak for the overwhelming majority of Australians when I say we really don’t give a shit and we’re quite happy to have a longer visit midyear with Michelle and the kids – especially if it means he’s used the time to get his country’s health insurance roughly on the path to getting over the next three decades where we got to in… 1973.
The Grand Panjandrum
yes. It really is silly. The concern trolling is almost overwhelming. How many times have we read or heard, “Of course, the health care system is out of control, BUT we need him working on the economy. Jobs!” Then he is almost over the hump with HCR, after a year of working on it, so he prioritizes and stays home to finish it. What do the righties whinge about?
They know if this HCR legislation does even some of what it is supposed to do, the GOP is in long term deep shit. Because now we are arguing about whether we need a public option or single payer rather than arguing about basic reform.
Life’s a bitch, and so are the righties.
Rhoda
Larison’s a sane conservative, there aren’t many.
I just read this at Politico and this stuff needs to be gotten under control.
Comrade javafascist
@Leinad: Oh yeah? Well, we have more WalMarts and guns than you Downunderers. Suck it. U-S-A! U-S-A!
Bill E Pilgrim
@Leinad: Americans have no idea how bad they have it. Trust me. Even when they think they know, most haven’t an inkling of how fully other countries take care of health matters as a matter of course, that it’s considered something you get for paying taxes, which in the US are mostly thought of as suitable to be used for war. Well by the Republicans, anyway.
This has been a monumental achievement in the scheme of things, but when I see people giving speeches about how it achieves the humanity of taking care of all of our citizens and etc etc, I want to say er, look let’s not get hysterical here, we have a loooong way to go.
Thomas
Shorter conservative nutter = Obama’s a registered Democrat therefore his actions of the last week are endangering America.
Keith G
About our support of Israel, I do not think Obama should tell the good folk in the Promised Land not to build settlements. We need to let a “market” work that out.
We need to put a $$ amount on each unit built, say $1,000,000 per. Each time a new unit of housing gets built, that amount is deducted from aid to Israel and given to the Palestinians.
Menzies
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Not to argue with the rest of your point – it’s an excellent one and I was discussing that same issue with a friend just last night – but I don’t think Republicans view taxes as the proper financing for wars.
After all, the Bush tax cuts came in 2001 and 2003, the same years U.S. troops went into Afghanistan and Iraq.
But then, as Tom DeLay once said, “Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes.”
beltane
Daniel Larison and Jon Huntsman are like the two lone survivors of the bubonic plague of crazy that destroyed the brains of every other Republican in the country.
El Cid
The right wing used to claim the power to detect which non-rightist was probably a secret Soviet agent or Communist dupe.
Religious paranoiacs and cult theorists regularly take to the airwaves and blogs (and Glenn Beck’s show) to announce that based on tiny indirect hints, etc., someone is a Communist or a jihadist, or a Reptilian alien, or who wants to use a different translation of the Bible which makes them, of course, Satan’s minions.
How is this different?
Today’s Republican Party are the militia shortwave radio nuts of the 1990s.
Napoleon
@beltane:
They are the Omega Men.
Third Eye Open
Has anyone ever seen mistermix and Larison in the same place, at the same time? Puppetry of the Pundit? Passion of the Proles? Sir, it is irresponsible not to speculate that you are in fact, Col. Mustard…
Linda Featheringill
Ah yes, the brittle defense of Israel – which is always right even when it is wrong.
I used to see that among non-observant Jews and could understand it as a manifestation of some guilt because their Moms were probably disappointed by their lack of religiosity. But now the entire Right Wing has adopted this attitude. And they don’t have the excuse of failing to please their ancestors.
Listen folks: Israel is a man-made country. It is not the Kingdom of God. It is run by humans and populated by humans. Sometimes its leaders [and citizens] are right and sometimes they are wrong. Get over it.
Some of these people are worshipping the state of Israel more than God Himself. I think that is called idolatry.
Jay C
@Thomas:
(Even) Shorter conservative nutter = Obama’s a registered Democrat therefore
his actions of the last week arehe is endangering America.Fixt.
Oh, and mistermix: are you Jewish, by any chance? If you are, you may qualify for a free upgrade to the Self-Hating Jew category: applicable on your next blogpost critical of any Israeli policy, or link thereto.
cleek
opposition to Obama is opposed
Skepticat
@Keith G: What an excellent–and elegant–idea. Please pass it on to President Obama and Sec. Clinton immediately.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@beltane:
This. Their ilk were the kind of conservatives I knew when younger, yunno, the kind you could actually have reasonable discourse with and find legislative compromise.
And who didn’t sell their soul to Jeebus, the bigots and the rest of the No Nothing fringe kooks that now make up the face of the Modern Republican Party.
slightly_peeved
The most common sentiment I’ve heard from Australians (in the paper and online) is that Obama’s job is not to visit us, but to pass law for the benefit of Americans. The general view is that Obama has his priorities straight, and good on him for doing his job.
A Mom Anon
@Rhoda: @Rhoda: I thought I read somewhere that the Gateway Pundit weasel claimed credit for this one.
This is exactly the kind of crap,the intimidation,the veiled threats that has made abortion difficult to get even though it’s perfectly legal. Women,doctors and clinic workers have been dealing with this,and MUCH worse for decades. They’re trying the same shit with healthcare and god forbid voting for anything that liberals or Dems want to see passed. If they don’t get their way then by god they’ll bully the fuck out of people til they’re too scared to exercise their rights. And WE’RE the ones who hate the country? Really?
There needs to be consequences for this shit. Bullies have been allowed to run over everything for too damned long.
media browski
I was impressed/stunned by Bibi’s chilly reception. Dinner with VP and some generals … no pomp or circumstance, no Rose Garden, just a post-Obama domination of domestic politics meeting to rub Bibi’s face in Obama’s codpiece.
I’m a pretty pro-Israel Jew most of the time, but this is needed. Too much bullshit machismo and nihilism coming from our ally.
MattR
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
And now I kinda want to track down my college roommate to see what he has become.
Ash Can
I feel sorry for Daniel Larison. He’s surrounded by unattractive naked people who insist that everyone else can see the fabulous clothes they’re wearing. It can’t make for a very easy life.
TR
Larison and I would probably not agree on much in terms of public policy or national priorities. But at least we’d be discussing things like adults and disagreeing civilly.
That used to be the norm in this country, back before conservatives turned into the Night of the Living Dead horde.
liberal
@Keith G:
Totally reasonable proposal, but I think a simpler solution would be to eliminate aid for Israel.
Comrade javafascist
@slightly_peeved: Who cares what the Australians think? The GOP has an irrelevant political point to score! You’ll also find that the GOP knows what Black people, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims, Iraqis, Women, Hippies, Europeans and everyone else not them want so why should they bother actually asking? Crazy talk.
liberal
@media browski:
My impression reading around the blogs is that Obama et al. have done nothing to penalize Bibi, except launch a bunch of rhetoric. Kinda like their treatment of the banksters.
Though re Israel, there’s not much Obama can do, because historically Congress has “supported” Israel almost unanimously and can undermine anything the Prez does.
liberal
@Comrade javafascist:
Well, as Glenn Greenwald’s pointed out, the Republicans do think that what the American public thinks (opinion polls) is important. (And that includes a lot of white males.) Except when it’s not.
cleek
@liberal:
count me in.
Cut.
Israel.
Loose.
El Cid
For many decades, “pro-Israel” has been defined as exclusively supporting the most right wing and militarist visions of Israeli policies, just as “pro-American” has been defined as supporting the most right wing and militarist of U.S. policies.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Menzies:
Uhm, well I do appreciate your collegial tone but can I ask, what do the Republicans propose using to pay for wars then?
I mean I know that we’re heading more and more toward private armies but even they get paid by the US Government which has to get the money somewhere.
liberal
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Huh? Floating more debt, doncha know?
liberal
@cleek:
YOU ANTI-SEMITE!!1!
liberal
@El Cid:
No, pro-Israel can also mean roughly pro-Labor, as Labor has for the most part been entirely supportive of settlement expansion, even if not as rabid as Likud etc.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Ash Can:
I tried everything I could to resist my brain picturing the rank and file of Republican punditry naked as it read that sentence. When I got to Tom Shales the rest of my brain started trying to claw out my occipital lobe.
Bill E Pilgrim
@liberal: Heh.
I’d love to see how easy it would be to borrow money if the US said “Oh by the way, we don’t have any tax revenue at all so can’t imagine every paying this back, or making any payments, I mean even in theory. Won’t happen, we promise. Now how much can we have again?”
Viva BrisVegas
– Joe Biden
When Obama gets to Australia he can let us know that fighting and dying alongside Americans in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf 1, Afghanistan and Iraq actually got Australia into a second best category behind a country that has done nothing to enhance American interests beyond soaking up six billion dollars in welfare each year.
I mean you can be bemused by such dissing for only so long.
Svensker
@Linda Featheringill:
A pastor I know made that same point, and also the same with respect to “Murika! Freedom!” He had got into trouble with some congregants because his denomination (Reformed Church in America aka Dutch Reformed) does not allow secular flags inside the sanctuary.
slightly_peeved
Be fair, it’s that whacky Joe Biden again. It’s like being dissed by Prince Phillip.
Though it would be nice if someone mentioned a certain draft a certain ally of theirs put in place for a war in a certain South-East Asian country once in a while.
jenniebee
@Rhoda: None of it is ok, but I have to say in the case of Stupak, this is a case of being forced to dance with the ones what brung him. It was Stupak who worked so hard to spread the lie that HCR was funding for abortion – it shouldn’t surprise him that when he voted for it anyway, the ever accomodating and rational sweethearts in the Right to Life movement wouldn’t understand that his teevee appearances saying that the bill was a baby-killer were all just political posturing and that the Hyde ammendment is still in effect and that thanks to the Nelson ammendment, HCR is actually a step forward for their cause, not a step back. He had to know when he was stirring the pot over all those months, especially after the Brown election, that he was leaving himself with no exit strategy, but he did it anyway.
Did you hear the rest of the story about the Perriello thing? It was a blogger who posted the brother’s address. When he was contacted by the press to inform him that the address he’d given out was not for the Congressman, his response was “Oh well, collateral damage.”
Violet
@Keith G:
Yeah, just imagine if our tax dollars didn’t go to support Israel. The “market” sure would take care of things.
Fern
@Viva BrisVegas: As a Canadian, I might be a little miffed by Biden’s statement as well.
Viva BrisVegas
@slightly_peeved:
Is there an American politician of any stripe who wouldn’t say exactly the same thing without a second thought?
I like Prince Phillip, he’s sort of like the crazy uncle you invite over to Christmas dinner to appall the in-laws. So you’re correct in the comparison.
El Cid
@liberal: Note that I didn’t specify “Likud”. You can be Labor and support the most right wing and militarist policies, just like plenty of Democrats can support the most right wing and militarist of foreign policies, such as the invasion and destruction of Iraq.
I’m not one of these people who separate out “Likud” as the source of all that’s bad in Israel and “Labor” as some sort of better hope. The entire Israeli political establishment has been committed to right wing, militarist policies with the Palestinians and with neighbors.
Cris
I’m not sure that Larison gets tarred with the Buchanan brush, even though he writes for Pat’s magazine.
PeakVT
@Fern: John Boehner hates Canada, too.
FWIW, at least a few of us Americans realize Canada is our most important ally.
Bonus pot-stirring from the other Cole: Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis.
b-psycho
@liberal: Here, have some more agreement.
liberal
@El Cid:
Fair enough.