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You are here: Home / Like Small, Wet, Salty Badges of Emotional Truth

Like Small, Wet, Salty Badges of Emotional Truth

by John Cole|  August 12, 20108:30 am| 95 Comments

This post is in: Manic Progressive

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Day three of America being held hostage by hurt feelings- checked memeorandum, and sure enough, fee-fees lead the day. I’ve obtained this insider video of the professional left visiting the beach:

I’m swamped today so I figured I would fire shit up right off the bat.

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Previous Post: « Early Morning Open Thread
Next Post: More Ageist Talk »

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    BR

    August 12, 2010 at 8:34 am

    Meanwhile…

    “Jobless Claims Deterioration Continues – Print At 484K Versus Expectation Of 465K, Prior 479K”

  2. 2.

    mr. whipple

    August 12, 2010 at 8:44 am

    Feeeeelings,
    Wo wo wo
    Feeeeelings

  3. 3.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 8:45 am

    troll

  4. 4.

    IndyLib

    August 12, 2010 at 8:48 am

    My fee-fees are hurted cuz the linky no worky.

  5. 5.

    demo woman

    August 12, 2010 at 8:50 am

    John, Batocchio (comment 2) on the thread below developed an advisory system for you to use. Tom Ridge would be impressed.

  6. 6.

    Chyron HR

    August 12, 2010 at 8:51 am

    You taste these tears! Taste my sad, Michael John!

  7. 7.

    BR

    August 12, 2010 at 8:55 am

    TPM has a great article on the new tea party nuts now running for office in CO:

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/meet-the-co-gops-nominees.php

    In the gubernatorial race, Maes ran as a Tea Party-friendly business candidate, arguing that the state needed a governor with executive experience — like himself. His campaign bio touts how his “natural leadership always led him to management roles” and how he graduated college “in just 4 years.” So it was a surprise when he released his tax returns to a Tea Party website (not to The Denver Post, though, which had asked for them), and they revealed not a titan of industry, but a guy struggling to earn an income above the poverty line.
    __
    What’s more, Maes has a problem with paperwork. A few weeks ago he was slapped with $17,500 in fines for campaign finance violations (including allegations that’d he’d inappropriately paid himself $42,000 in mileage reimbursements). Last week, the Post compiled a list of fines and infractions Maes has accrued in his personal and short political life. The Post reported that, among other things, the Colorado Secretary of State “listed him as delinquent on filing the paperwork for a business he owned that produced educational videos on how to maintain good credit.”
    __
    And Maes has been revealing a Crazy (TM) side in recent days. He’s made national headlines for his suggestion that a Denver public bicycling program is some kind of UN plot — and that Democrat John Hickenlooper is somehow complicit in it. And at a campaign event last week, Maes pledged that, if elected, he’d save money by firing 2,000 state employees “just like that.” Except it’s not even clear he’d have the authority to do so.

  8. 8.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    August 12, 2010 at 8:58 am

    Feelings

  9. 9.

    NobodySpecial

    August 12, 2010 at 9:05 am

    I’m swamped today

    And yet, he still had time to build that bridge and sit under it! Amazing!

  10. 10.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    August 12, 2010 at 9:30 am

    Good grief, is it just me who hates that expression? Somehow I had hoped that “fee fees” was a passing fad, but it’s not passing fast enough if so. If I have to read that juvenile moronic phrase one more time my fee fees are going to be hurt.

    So let’s see if I have this straight.

    John Cole and a lot of his readers having their sensibilities terribly (not to mention constantly) offended by the political stances of certain people on the progressive blogosphere = mature, adult, righteous outrage.

    Progressives in the media being outraged by what John admits was an idiotic smear directly aimed at them by the White House that to them signals political abandonment = “hurt fee-fees”.

    After careful consideration I think the only actual difference is which one you give the infantile nickname to.

    Really though I just hate the expression “fee fees” so that’s going to bias me against anyone who uses it.

  11. 11.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 12, 2010 at 9:36 am

    Thank you John for railing against the folks that are railing against Gibbs’ comments that you have railed against in three front page posts and about a dozen comments. It is obvious they lack your perspective and rationality as indicated by their lack of perspective and rationality.

  12. 12.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    August 12, 2010 at 9:37 am

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    What about the Dolphins? Think of the Dolphins, dude.

    They ain’t fish, but nobody’s perfect.

  13. 13.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 9:49 am

    @Bill E Pilgrim:
    you are not alone.

    it’s pretty wild to see people try to deny, or mock the idea that emotions and subjective assessments play a huge role in how people vote. as if nobody ever voted out of fear, or distrust, or spite, or hope. as if the people ranting and screaming here all day long are expressing only cold, objective Truth. nope, no ‘fee-fees’ here – only Spock-like consideration of facts.

    it’s whistling past the voting booth.

    Really though I just hate the expression “fee fees” so that’s going to bias me against anyone who uses it.

    yup. welcome to the club!

  14. 14.

    david mizner

    August 12, 2010 at 9:52 am

    Good job not talking about it, Cole.

    But hey, the White House clearly wants us to keep talking about it (as opposed to say the tanking economy), so as a loyal, dewey-eyed bot, I will play my part in O’s triangulation, and keep calling Gibbs an asshole.

  15. 15.

    Bobby Thomson

    August 12, 2010 at 9:53 am

    Given that there doesn’t seem to be any immediate payoff to Gibbs’ statements, and given that he has been reaffirming them after his non-apology, I have to think there’s a long game in play here.

    I guess if you were looking at polling data showing some really bad shit coming down the pike, and wanted to be able to use the elections as an excuse to move to the right (rather than doing something to fix the economy, which is going to be the ultimate cause of Democratic losses), you’d want to start setting up the narrative that it’s all the fault of the Jane Hamshers of the left for sitting this one out.

    And the Jane Hamshers of the left are certainly taking the bait.

  16. 16.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    August 12, 2010 at 9:58 am

    @cleek: I don’t disagree with your assessment that feelings are an essential component of the voting process. I think the larger concern is that those outraged by Gibbs are still chucking fuel on this fire when we could be discussing “”Bikes are a UN plot” candidates. Surely there has to be a better method for handling this intramural disagreements. (And getting into a debate over who started it is not aforementioned better method, btw.)

  17. 17.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    August 12, 2010 at 9:59 am

    Really though I just hate the expression “fee fees” so that’s going to bias me against anyone who uses it.

    It’s a fee country/

  18. 18.

    Marc

    August 12, 2010 at 10:02 am

    here’s a thought, Billy/cleek: maybe reading people who complain and complain – and then call you a cultist or robot when you disagree with them – really starts to get on my nerves. At this point the endless sniping from so-called progressives reminds me of the idiotic way that Democrats treated Carter, and I’m afraid that the results of the posturing will be the same.

    But, seriously, have the Obama-skeptics on the left ever paused to reflect on how non-stop hostility directed at a Democratic president might come across to, you know, Democrats?

  19. 19.

    Alien-Radio

    August 12, 2010 at 10:11 am

    Do not feed the troll. Especially when it’s the guy who runs the site.

  20. 20.

    joe from Lowell

    August 12, 2010 at 10:11 am

    Dear John,

    You don’t want to eat the Professional Left. He’s so puny and scrawny. His big brother will be coming down the road soon; you should eat him.

  21. 21.

    p.a.

    August 12, 2010 at 10:13 am

    The answer of course, instead of whining, is to (ahem) ELECT BETTER DEMOCRATS. If that can’t be done through the primary process, rather than go cuckoo like the teatards, maybe we should admit there are other points of view within the Democratic party that carry more electoral weight. I’m not ready to admit that at this point in history; the re-energized progressive organizations that really began with outrage over the fraudulent Clinton impeachment need more time to mature. The problem is that those of us on the left have a basic sense of self-awareness. Unlike much of the forced birth movement, which has been used by the Republicans as a dray horse since Roe v. Wade, we realize when our $$$, efforts and votes are being used with minimal payback.

  22. 22.

    eemom

    August 12, 2010 at 10:18 am

    @mr. whipple:

    Feeeeelings,
    Wo wo wo
    Feeeeelings

    For The Lose

  23. 23.

    eemom

    August 12, 2010 at 10:25 am

    If only a timely little catastrophe would happen to hurl Feefeegate off the news cycle.

    Just a little bitty catastrophe, nothing terrible. No casualties, no injuries, not even any more — ahem — hurt feefees. Just enough to give all the sheep something new to bleat about.

    How about someone besides Gibbs says something really fucking stoopid?? Fer gawds sake, THAT can’t be too much to ask.

  24. 24.

    cat48

    August 12, 2010 at 10:29 am

    I don’t mind people ranting & raving but they have totally distorted what actually happened. Ed Show did an intv w/the Hill which makes it clear he was only referring to folks on cable. Of course that doesnt keep Ed from continuing to distort it again the next night. This was on Tuesday:

    For more, let me bring in the journalist who got the interview on this. Sam Youngman, White House correspondent for “The Hill.” Sam, you cover the White House. This was not an unusual one-on-one with him, is that correct?
    SAM YOUNGMAN, “THE HILL” WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, it‘s not. I mean, I‘m there every day, and I try to check in with Robert and his office. I‘d say once every couple of months saying, I‘ve got to tell you. Just the point you were making, you know, the White House thinks that the progressives are whiners. I fell I‘d be remiss if I didn‘t point out that Gibbs was actually making a distinction between progressives who organized, who sent in those small dollar contributions and in order to be quite frank, folks like you, Ed, who are on TV every night saying they are not moving fast enough to get some of these things done.
    SCHULTZ: Well, I think a lot of people in the progressive community think that they didn‘t fight hard enough for the public option and we only find out later that there was a deal cut. That‘s not what was stated early on. But in this interview with him, what was his demeanor because within 24 hours, he came back to the “Huffington Post,” your competitor and said something different.
    YOUNGMAN: Well, I mean, it was a friendly conversation that‘s not unlike the ones he had many times before. We were discussing his beloved Auburn Tigers making it in the top 25. But I think, the more he discussed this, the more I asked him about the frustration and the White House not getting credit for some of the things they‘ve accomplished. The more agitated he got, I think we live in a city, in an area where we see some much manufactured anger and so much false frustrations that this was truly an honest moment of somebody who‘s probably working about 80 hours a week and instead of getting a pat on the back, this White House is being criticized for not doing enough.
    SCHULTZ: What is their main complaint? Is it cable?
    YOUNGMAN: Yes, yes, it‘s cable, and it‘s like you mentioned earlier
    in the statement. Gibbs says he‘s guilty of watching too much
    SCHULTZ: I think he‘s guilty of not being on enough. I mean, that‘s what I think. I mean, all he‘s got to do is come on and talk about the agenda. If he doesn‘t like what is being said, make yourself accessible to all the shows, and I think the White House does a fairly good job of that, but when the Bush administration had this country by the neck, they were over on FOX whenever they felt like it and just pounding the message, and I think that‘s a frustration of the progressive base in this country.

    YOUNGMAN: Well, I think it‘s part of the m.o. of this White House though is to not get dragged down. Using the health care debate as an example. I think they purposefully tried to avoid some of the minutia, some of the skirmishes along the way to try and claim credit for the big picture when it was done. I think just by getting bogged down in some of these daily fights, they feel that they might be a loser.
    SCHULTZ: Sam, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.
    YOUNGMAN: Thanks, Ed.

  25. 25.

    MaryJane

    August 12, 2010 at 10:33 am

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    I’ve only been reading this site for a year so I don’t know everyone well. Hi.

    Ok, now that that’s out of the way.

    Mr. Pilgrim, I do hope you never use the phrase “hippie punching”. Cus really though, I just hate that expression.

  26. 26.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    August 12, 2010 at 10:39 am

    @MaryJane: Hi.

    I hate that one almost more than fee-fees.

    Actually, a caveat: It’s meant entirely ironically. That is, Atrios or Digby do not, actually, see themselves as hippies. What amazes me is people not seeming to understand that who use it entirely literally, as if they do.

    “Triangulation” is a perfectly strong, existing, plain-English substitute for the same concept, and the word I prefer.

  27. 27.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 10:45 am

    @Marc:

    have the Obama-skeptics on the left ever paused to reflect on how non-stop hostility directed at a Democratic president might come across to, you know, Democrats?

    from that argument it’s a short skip to: My President, Right Or Wrong. and i don’t want to belong to a cheerleading team. do you ?

  28. 28.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    August 12, 2010 at 10:45 am

    @Marc:

    But, seriously, have the Obama-skeptics on the left ever paused to reflect on how non-stop hostility directed at a Democratic president might come across to, you know, Democrats?

    Well yes. And Brittany Spears also was terribly offended that anyone would criticize our last President and not just trust him to do the right thing. So what?

    I don’t come here to read that, I come here to read sharp intelligent criticism and commentary, not one subject that’s suddenly taboo.

    I’m sorry if people are offended by criticism of the President, but really it’s not going to stop most people from having some. Nor should it. And sneering that they have “hurt fee-fees” isn’t going to shame anyone into censoring themselves either.

  29. 29.

    Jacquelyn

    August 12, 2010 at 10:47 am

    John, btw and OT, I too killed the battery in my car yesterday by leaving the dome light on all night the night before. Of course, I have a 9 year old battery….

  30. 30.

    DC10

    August 12, 2010 at 10:48 am

    @cat48: Rachel Maddow later did the same distortion last night talking to Gail Collins from NY Times when she claimed that Gibbs criticized “the base.” Since when is Obama’s or the Democratic Party’s base the “PROFESSIONAL Left” talking heads or guest commentators on TV?

  31. 31.

    PTirebiter

    August 12, 2010 at 10:49 am

    Is it too soon to speculate that Mr. Cole is a GOP plant? Talk about playing the long game, I know all my normal defenses were completely neutralized with his acquisition of Lily.

  32. 32.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    August 12, 2010 at 10:58 am

    I come here to read sharp intelligent criticism

    LOLwut? No wonder you’re disappointed.

  33. 33.

    K. Grant

    August 12, 2010 at 11:01 am

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Criticism is good and healthy. I don’t really think anybody is complaining about actual constructive criticism (or even the periodic not-so-constructive criticism). What is objectionable is the fact that nothing, and I mean nothing, is ever good enough for some. There is a significant difference.

    Prodding Obama to do more is a good thing, continually thrashing him even after a good thing has been accomplished, screaming ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’ is not.

  34. 34.

    ruemara

    August 12, 2010 at 11:08 am

    After watching my beloved Rachel last night, I’ve now stopped thinking Gibbs was being tactless and not acting professionally and now wish to apologize to him for the way how the truth is a liability. It’s not the criticism-that’s warranted-it’s the hyperbolic framing. I’ve always been progressive, but do you have to immediately take things personally and then actively do what you’re being, or think you’re being criticized for? But go on, keep shouting about it just being an attempt to push things left. I know saying the President is firing gays in the military is winning me over. He’s a corporatist sellout? Not using the bully pulpit for single payer? Keep it coming, I feel that Overton shift. Then bring up Nader, because that’s not fuel to the fire. Then blame me or anyone you perceive as moderate, call us cheerleaders, because you’re right, not much good has happened. It’s working! Groundswell of liberal powers happening. Then, once Obama has turned into Liberal Hulk, he will smash Senate into being more liberal by issuing signing statements and executive orders. And even more bully pulpiting, because that’s really all Obama had to do. It’s fabulous, all this circular firing because we can’t get to the goals fast enough.

  35. 35.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 11:13 am

    i am sorry for criticizing Obama.
    i am sorry i have made so many people hate Obama.
    i am sorry i hurt the feefees of the Reasonable People.
    i am sorry my lack of unity will hand the election to the Republicans.
    i am sorry i can’t find ways to convince myself that he is always on my side, for your sake.
    i am sorry.
    so sorry.
    here’s my ass.
    spank it.

  36. 36.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 11:18 am

    @Comrade Javamanphil:
    IFAICT, disagreement is part of being a liberal. always has been.

    sucks. but, oh well.

    but hell, even the traditionally-lockstep GOP can’t manage a unified front these days. maybe disagreement is in the air.

  37. 37.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    August 12, 2010 at 11:24 am

    @K. Grant:

    I don’t really think anybody is complaining about actual constructive criticism (or even the periodic not-so-constructive criticism).

    Yeah I hear that said a lot here. Sandwiched right between the screaming out of control name-calling diatribes at someone who made one, single, not-very-harsh criticism of Barack Obama or Rahm Emanuel.

    Not everyone, obviously.

  38. 38.

    August J. Pollak

    August 12, 2010 at 11:28 am

    Really though I just hate the expression “fee fees” so that’s going to bias me against anyone who uses it.

    It’s gotten tiresome, but still nowhere near “haters” and “blogosphere” among the two words I not only hate but literally refuse to use in any conversation. Even if said to me first.

    (Ironically, I know lots of people hate abuse of “literally,” but I didn’t here.)

  39. 39.

    K. Grant

    August 12, 2010 at 11:33 am

    @cleek: Again, criticism is not the issue. It has never been the issue. The frustration stems from the fact that nothing is good enough. Nothing. No matter what takes place this administration is flayed for it.

    Likewise, you will note that a great many folks who are casually castigated as ‘Obots’ are not saying the guy is perfect, but that he has actually gotten some decent stuff done whilst in office.

    Some of the loudest voices on left on cable and the web will never admit that anything of note has been accomplished.

    After a while, that is rather wearying.

    So save the mock martyr bit, you know that honest to goodness criticism has never been the issue.

  40. 40.

    Allison W.

    August 12, 2010 at 11:44 am

    @cat48:

    I don’t see why the writer had to clarify anything. It was perfectly clear who Gibbs was referring to. How much clearer can “professional left” get? What happened however, is that the “professional left” convinced their audience that whatever the WH says about them is aimed at their viewers/readers also. I’m not surprised they did that. It fits right in with their narrative that Obama is personally out to destroy the progressive movement. That the WH violently and publicly (like anyone outside the bubble gives a shit) goes after progressives.

  41. 41.

    Cathie from Canada

    August 12, 2010 at 11:44 am

    Yes, I check Memeorandum too.
    But just about the only time Memeorandum highlights stories from the progressive blogs is when someone is criticizing Obama, Reid or Pelosi, or when Democrats are forming a circular firing squad. The Gibbs vs Left story is a natural for them — look! look! Dems fighting!
    But you will almost never see other major stories of progressive blogs highlighted or linked on this site. Just about nothing that Kos runs on their front page is ever listed, for example, regardless of how widely it is being commented on. Or Greenwald (unless he is criticizing Obama) or FDL (ditto) or Krugman or TPM.
    But anything the right-wing blogs say about anything is front and centre. Anything Briebart writes seems to be featured prominently, for example, and the British tabloid newspapers. Today, Malkin is talking about female comedians and it gets a link on Meme.
    So, something to keep in mind ….

  42. 42.

    Allison W.

    August 12, 2010 at 11:52 am

    Again, criticism is not the issue. It has never been the issue. The frustration stems from the fact that nothing is good enough. Nothing. No matter what takes place this administration is flayed for it.

    Very true. OR if the admin does something that no one can argue with, it gets buried or ignored. I used to read Huffpo daily and I noticed that when a story broke that wasn’t in Obama’s favor, it would be blasted all over a quarter of the front page with 5000 comments in 2 hours. Now if it turns out that the story was false or misleading, the update would be at the far bottom right with about 30 comments in one day.

  43. 43.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    August 12, 2010 at 11:55 am

    @Allison W.:

    We got 11 comments on the Obama reduction of Pentagon contracting thread, that was an open thread also to, I think. And one of those was Mclaren being Mclaren,

    General Crackpot Fake Name

    BTW. The Funhouse is open.

  44. 44.

    BDR

    August 12, 2010 at 11:57 am

    John, maybe you wouldn’t be so swamped if your stopped this shit:

    http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2010/08/the-mystery-of-west-virginias-midnight-poet/

  45. 45.

    NR

    August 12, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    @ruemara:

    all this circular firing because we can’t get to the goals fast enough.

    This meme is just as bad as the “fee-fees” meme. A major source of the left’s dissatisfaction with Obama is not that he is accomplishing progressive change too slowly, but rather that he is, on issue after issue, actively taking us in the wrong direction. Some examples:

    – Escalating the war in Afghanistan.

    – Claiming the right to imprison people indefinitely without trial.

    – Ordering the assassination of American citizens without due process of law.

    – Prosecuting whistleblowers at a record rate.

    – Refusing to prosecute lawbreakers from the Bush administration.

    – Appointing Wall Street flacks Geithner and Summers to set his economic policy.

    – Caving in to the right-wing noise machine instead of confronting it (Sherrod is but one example of this).

    – Forming a cat food commission on Social Security and stacking it with people who have been wanting for decades to cut/privatize it.

    – Defending DOMA in court using language that lumps homosexuals in with people who commit incest and molest children.

    I could go on. And on. And on. But the point is, none of these things can be blamed on the Senate. None of these things are complaining about Obama accomplishing progressive change too slowly. It’s not that he isn’t moving us in the right direction fast enough – it’s that, on so many issues, he’s actively moving us in the wrong direction.

    Oh, but never mind that. It’s all about hurt fee-fees.

  46. 46.

    Allison W.

    August 12, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    I agree with Gibbs completely, but I don’t think it was a gaffe or a mistake. Never did. I think there is a “long game” here. Maybe its to turn us Obots completely against the “professional left”? maybe it was done to assure moderates and conservadems? maybe it was done so that the “professional left” can really show their ass – which they have.

    Or maybe the WH is just fucking sick and tired of having their accomplishments diminished, dismissed and lied about every fucking day and want some g-damn attention. Good news gets no play. Only complainers make it on TV. Obama has said this time and time again. So maybe Gibbs stirred up this shit storm so that maybe, just maybe people will talk about what they’ve accomplished. Who knows? risky move indeed, but those who felt offended by Gibb’s statement already gave up on Obama long ago.

    I also think this is a great opportunity to discuss who really makes up the base. Apparently the “base” and the “professional left” – even the very smart ones haven’t a clue.

  47. 47.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    @K. Grant:

    Again, criticism is not the issue.

    it kindof is. it’s what a lot of people on this thread have been talking about.

    The frustration stems from the fact that nothing is good enough. Nothing. No matter what takes place this administration is flayed for it.

    there are people for whom that’s a valid criticism – rage addicts like Hamsher or Greenwald are ridiculous. no doubt. but i’m not talking about them. i’m talking about BJ’s comments.

    @K. Grant:

    So save the mock martyr bit, you know that honest to goodness criticism has never been the issue.

    ah, but the trick is that there is no arbiter of what constitutes “honest to goodness criticism”.

  48. 48.

    eemom

    August 12, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    Even KRUGMAN has now officially cast his lot with the feefee’ers.

    We iz phuqued.

  49. 49.

    xephyr

    August 12, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    @Stuck in the Funhouse:

    Exactly. What about the freakin dolphins? Criminy…

  50. 50.

    eemom

    August 12, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    ah, but the trick is that there is no arbiter of what constitutes “honest to goodness criticism”.

    It’s one of those “know it when you see it” kinda things, like pronography.

  51. 51.

    Nellcote

    August 12, 2010 at 12:08 pm

    @cat48:

    SCHULTZ: What is their main complaint? Is it cable?
    YOUNGMAN: Yes, yes, it‘s cable, and it‘s like you mentioned earlier
    in the statement. Gibbs says he‘s guilty of watching too much

    Thanks for posting the transcript. I stopped watching BigEd after the third time he had Tancredo on so I missed this conversation. I can’t imagine that anyone finds BigEd’s pronouncement that he was staying home in Nov. to be helpful to anyone except the goopers.

  52. 52.

    Allison W.

    August 12, 2010 at 12:09 pm

    @Stuck in the Funhouse:

    tsk. tsk. tsk. for shame.

  53. 53.

    R. Porrofatto

    August 12, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Fee-fees. Christ. This name-calling crap is practically textbook as to why even in the majority Democrats fall apart. “Professional left” aside, can you imagine, for one nanosecond, Ari Fleischer coming out and criticizing the “professional right” in any manner similar to Gibbs? Shit, James Dobson would have personally hauled his ass into the shower to show him whose dick was bigger and that would have been the end of it. Please, find an instance where the Bush administration ever, ever publicly criticized its right-wing base like this. And then tell us about hurt fee-fees.

    Damn.

  54. 54.

    lawnorder

    August 12, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    Well it hurts being told in no uncertain terms you are irrelevant. Which is basically what Gibbs said. But that is not why I am sad.

    Is very sad to realize that corporations own our political system so thoroughly that politicians don’t even have to respect their voters anymore. They don’t need us “Professional Left”. They also don’t need you John. They have sweet corporate cash now. And 100% guaranteed vote from us.

    The WH knows we can’t vote for insane. Everyone knows. Including Corporate America. Before “Citizens United” at least our money counted for something, now there is no need for us. You, me, hippies and realists alike are captured. We have to vote against GOP, no matter how badly Dems govern.

    There will never be another Obama. No grassroots candidate will ever succeed against corporate funded candidates. The disillusionment with Obama’s undelivered promises will also prevent people from giving another unknown a chance.

    So yes, my salty bitter tears of butthurt are streaking down my face. But they will pass and I will still be weeping for the state of affairs in US. We are captive of a greedy corporate class and I see no way out.

  55. 55.

    PTirebiter

    August 12, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    @K. Grant:

    Likewise, you will note that a great many folks who are casually castigated as ‘Obots’ are not saying the guy is perfect, but that he has actually gotten some decent stuff done whilst in office.

    The castigation wasn’t always all that casual.

    @cleek:

    disagreement is part of being a liberal. always has been.

    I’m guessing you never attempted slightly disagree with one of Hamsher’s takes on the health care betrayal over at FDL?

    Where anyone not in lockstep with the sisterhood of the travelling angst was immediately dismissed as a collaborator
    while the moderator discovered rules applicable only to you.

  56. 56.

    Allison W.

    August 12, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    @cleek:

    ah, but the trick is that there is no arbiter of what constitutes “honest to goodness criticism”.

    Er, huh, businesses, relationship experts, teachers, coaches, parents (sometimes) seem to know how to do this “honest to goodness criticism”.

  57. 57.

    DC10

    August 12, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    The funny thing is that the Gibbs quote didn’t include any specific names of the “PROFESSIONAL Left” talking heads/commentators, who have relentlessly bashed the Administration for not doing things how/when these highly paid critics/entertainers with no governing experience declared they should be done. Yet all the parties who fit into what he was saying are so narcissistic that they have essentially identified themselves by becoming instantly defensive, protesting way too much, and claiming he insulted “the base,” which they are convinced is comprised of them and their relatively small group of viewers/readers.

  58. 58.

    Allison W.

    August 12, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    I see that some on this thread can’t help but fall into the victim role – usual default position of some on the left. And when I say some I mean the ones who think Gibbs was talking personally to them even though he said “professional left” and even though the AUTHOR of the article clarified who Gibbs was talking about.

  59. 59.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    @PTirebiter:

    I’m guessing you never attempted slightly disagree with one of Hamsher’s takes on the health care betrayal over at FDL?

    don’t read Hamsher, never have, never will.

    “blackface Lieberman” is all i ever needed to know about her.

  60. 60.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    @Allison W.:

    Er, huh, businesses, relationship experts, teachers, coaches, parents (sometimes) seem to know how to do this “honest to goodness criticism”.

    “Er, huh” right back at ya.
    ?

  61. 61.

    eemom

    August 12, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    @PTirebiter:

    Where anyone not in lockstep with the sisterhood of the travelling angst was immediately dismissed as a collaborator
    while the moderator discovered rules applicable only to you.

    Truer words ain’t never been spoke……at least since Lady Jane hit the big time.

    Once upon a time, it was a cool place. Lots of folks here are refugees.

  62. 62.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 12, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    @cleek: Just confess to your secret firebaggery, promise to never question the Obama administration again and all will be forgiven.

  63. 63.

    PTirebiter

    August 12, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    @cleek: Good for you, I’m a slow learner. I guess I was saying my anger was never meant for anyone who expressed disagreement or disappointment, it was meant for the self-righteous true believers in our ranks.

    Here’s what pissed me off the most: There may have never been a better time to finally start exposing the bankruptcy of Reagan economics and the shining big government lie, than there was right after the inauguration. Obama had barely broached the subject before the incessant, scattershot bitching started. We immediately conceded the most important message and handed media their preferred storyline on a platter.
    I think it may also have given Republicans the courage for their full-on assault on Obama. By all reports, they were’t sure how to attack the new, wildly popular and black President. We showed them just how figgin’ easy it could be.
    Our general ineptitude is largely to blame, but the intensity of the friendly fire guaranteed that we’d pull defeat from the jaws of victory.

  64. 64.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:
    i wish i could.

    the thing is, for all he disappoints me, i like the guy. when he shows up on my TV and talks about this or that, he sounds so fucking smart and mature and levelheaded and reasonable. and i’m all like “hey, why isn’t he on my TV all the time ? he can really sell this shit! get back on my TV and sell us some more shit! we’ll buy it! we want to buy it! from you!”

    but then he goes away and we don’t hear from him for months and months. so many missed sales.

  65. 65.

    lethargytartare

    August 12, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    @cleek:

    but then he goes away and we don’t hear from him for months and months.

    maybe there’s a reason for that…

  66. 66.

    LT

    August 12, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    John, is this going to become the blog where the blogger obsessively reports on all the bad things he found Liberals doing? It’s actually pretty fucking boring.

    And the link goes to something that was reported on yesterday morning. So it’s not Day 3, it’s your endless Day 2. Maybe you can keep it going for the “months” you’re prayed incessantly for predicted.

  67. 67.

    LT

    August 12, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    God damn it. In comment 66 the “prayed incessantly for” was supposed to be struck through.

  68. 68.

    cleek

    August 12, 2010 at 1:56 pm

    @lethargytartare:
    maybe they should grow a pair and do it anyway.

  69. 69.

    MikeMc

    August 12, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    This whole situation has taught me that the professional left is pretty thin-skinned. They don’t take criticism well. What a bunch of completely self-involved, infantile, ego maniacs. Big Ed says he’s going to sit out the midterms, but also thinks Gibbs should come on his cable show more often. That makes sense. Also, how does someone get a talk show about politics, yet, refuses to take part in the political process?

  70. 70.

    Citizen Alan

    August 12, 2010 at 2:07 pm

    @PTirebiter:

    There may have never been a better time to finally start exposing the bankruptcy of Reagan economics and the shining big government lie, than there was right after the inauguration. Obama had barely broached the subject before the incessant, scattershot bitching started. We immediately conceded the most important message and handed media their preferred storyline on a platter.

    Are you seriously suggesting that Obama was prepared to seriously challenge Reaganomics, rampant corporatism, and “drown it in the bathtub” dogma, but then some people on the Left were mean and so he just gave up and decided to be a pro-business hyper-moderate sometime after the inauguration? Wow. Just … wow.

  71. 71.

    LT

    August 12, 2010 at 2:11 pm

    This whole situation has taught me that the professional left is pretty thin-skinned.

    And so a new phrase – and a new reality – is born. There really is such a thing as a “professional left,” and all their criticisms – even if you agree with the substance of every single one, such as detention policy, the admin’s actions on DADT, civilian drone killings, et-fucking-c. – are now completely and utterly invalid.

    Thank you Robert Gibbs, thank you you scanners of the horizons of the internet for anyone criticizing the administration in ways that were not approved of by you, thank you all. We are now safe from DFHs and their Canadian healthcare horrors for a few more decades.

  72. 72.

    PTirebiter

    August 12, 2010 at 2:29 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Are you seriously saying that you actually read, and then attempted to comprehend what I actually wrote? Zowie. Just…zow…ie

  73. 73.

    Paula

    August 12, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    @Stuck in the Funhouse:

    People come here for intelligent commentary? I came for the hippie punching.

  74. 74.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    August 12, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    @Paula:

    I came for the hippie punching.

    Yes, then there’s that

  75. 75.

    4jkb4ia

    August 12, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    I have only now crystallized the entry in the Ta-Nehisi Coates Bad Analogy Sweepstakes between Gibbs’s comments and those of Brandon Phillips which started the brawl since Baker and LaRussa were suspended today over it.

    (Papelbon blew the save)

    (Cueto was also suspended since he only kicked LaRue in the head. No big deal)

  76. 76.

    4jkb4ia

    August 12, 2010 at 3:39 pm

    (I am stone disgusted. The Red Sox needed that game so badly because Texas is coming in this weekend and the Yankees have Kansas City) (Do not say the Red Sox are out of it already. It isn’t Labor Day yet.)

  77. 77.

    mapaghimagisk

    August 12, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    So when people ask me about the Obama administration, I try to accentuate the positive, and note how a few more things need to be done. I like to talk issues, not personalities. That’s how I try to move the Overton Window.

    However, when the DNC called asking for money because I gave last election season, I politely explained that I wanted to see more done, considered myself part of said “Professional Left” and that I wouldn’t be giving this time around.

    I’ll focus on the candidates I like, and cut the DNC out.

  78. 78.

    AxelFoley

    August 12, 2010 at 5:02 pm

    @R. Porrofatto:

    Please, find an instance where the Bush administration ever, ever publicly criticized its right-wing base like this. And then tell us about hurt fee-fees.
    Damn.

    Please, find an instance where the Bush administration’s base ever, ever publicly criticized Bush like this. And then tell us about hurt fee-fees.

    Fuck.

  79. 79.

    R. Porrofatto

    August 12, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    @AxelFoley:
    Harriet Miers.

  80. 80.

    AxelFoley

    August 12, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    @R. Porrofatto:

    Shit, they had no choice. Even the media blasted them for that.

  81. 81.

    LT

    August 12, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    @AxelFoley:

    Please, find an instance where the Bush administration’s base ever, ever publicly criticized Bush like this.

    This is what this has come to. someone is on the blog of a (now) Dem deriding criticism of a president. Just wonderul.

  82. 82.

    Kerry Reid

    August 12, 2010 at 5:43 pm

    I don’t mind honest criticism of Obama. What I object to on the part of the “professional left” (and again, I think that Gibbs is talking about the Schultzes and Hamshers and Sirotas of the world — not “every left-leaning person who voted/donated/volunteered for Obama”) is the uncharitable, unwarranted, and automatic assumption of bad faith on Obama’s part.

    Hence “not enough Senate votes to pass a public option” (and any time one of the professional lefties wants to lay out how those votes could have materialized, without resorting to empty-calorie phrases like “bully pulpit,” I’d love to hear it, truly) transforms into the cries of “He was never serious about doing healthcare reform at all! He’s a fraud! A sell-out!”

    I mean – if he seriously didn’t want to tackle that issue, Obama had a gold-plated excuse to avoid it in the form of the shit-tastic Bush economy he inherited. In fact, Emanuel (you know, that guy who, according to the Firebaggers, does the real wirepulling anyway), begged him not to stick with it. He could easily have said “Hey, I know I campaigned on this, but that was before the economy went over the falls in a barrel so we’re just gonna have to back-burner that in order to focus on jobs.”

    Which wouldn’t have won him any friends on the left, either. If anything, I think Obama can be faulted for trying to move forward on too many fronts (including Afghanistan — which he promised to pursue, but I had hoped he might actually be bluffing a bit there during the campaign) — healthcare, fin reg, the stimulus, fighting the AZ immigration law despite pleas from Dem governors to let it ride.

    I fully understand that what he and Congress have done isn’t adequate for the scope of the problems, and I understand frustration that they haven’t done a better job trumpeting what they have accomplished in the face of the most insane opposition any president has ever had in order to close the enthusiasm gap for the midterms.

    What I don’t understand are the paranoid conspiracy-mongerers of the left who continue to claim that he has no intention of really helping anyone and that every single damn thing he does is a “corporate giveaway” (which, again, for those of you waking up from your Rip Van Winkle nap, isn’t unusual for an imperialist/capitalist/corporatist nation, which is what the United States is — first, foremost, and always).

    Seriously — if he wanted to be “just like Bush,” there are a metric fucktons of ways to do it that are a lot easier than the skin he and the Congressional Dems (not including the Blue Dogs — but until we get more boots on the ground in red states to change the game from the grassroots up, we’re stuck with them and their diva antics) have put in the game.

    So criticize the policies all you want. But when you start tossing around baseless character assassination (like, oh, say, suggesting that the first black president is the hapless tool of Evil Banker Jew Rahm Emanuel), well — at that point, you pretty much deserve to be hippie-punched, kicked in the ass, tossed under the bus, or whatever.

    And if the above doesn’t describe you, then I don’t think there is any cause to get your feelings hurt.

  83. 83.

    lawnorder

    August 12, 2010 at 5:57 pm

    I think it is deliberate. Is a little “show and tell” aimed at showing big Pharma and other corporate donors where Obama’s WH allegiances are. And “who is the boss”, since as Gibbs relishes in pointing out, “who else are you going to vote for” ?

    If Dems do reasonably well in 2010 after punching hippies just 3 months prior to it, they will tack right even more because they have proven they can do whatever they want as long as they are a little bit saner than teabaggers.

    And the worst part of it is that Gibbs is right. The WH can sell us up to Big Insurance, Big Oil and Big Pharma and we have no choice but to vote for them.

  84. 84.

    lethargytartare

    August 12, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    @cleek:

    maybe they should grow a pair and do it anyway.

    what good does it do to keep hammering your message out in the media if the media transforms your message into a story about you spending too much time in the spotlight?

    I’m sympathetic to the desire to see a more agrressive advocate for our policy hopes, but the moderated advocates we’ve got aren’t solely the product of a lack of balls.

  85. 85.

    Kerry Reid

    August 12, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    @lawnorder:
    And yet Big Oil and Big Insurance and Big Finance have been some of the biggest voices screaming against Obama’s administration and their reforms. Funny, that.

    Seriously, did some of you not realize what country you live in until the last couple of years? Are you really so shocked that corporate/business interests predominate in our political system, and have since, oh, forever? Why else did we have it written into our founding documents that African Americans are only 3/5ths of a human being — that was a sop to keep the southern agrarian/business interests in the union. And for those keeping score — that “compromise” is a bit more of a “sell-out” and an outrage than not passing a watered-down public option.

    As was FDR shelving anti-lynching legislation to get New Deal legislation past southern Dems. But I guess the only outrages that count are those suffered by white progressives. Black people killed, tortured, castrated? Oh well, we can turn a blind eye (uh, sorry — bad word choice) to that for a while in the name of pragmatism. White progressive bloggers denied their chance to go “neener neener neener” to health insurance companies via that aforementioned weak-tea public option? WORSE THAN BUSH!!!!

    And do you honestly believe that less than two years is an adequate amount of time to undo the damages of decades?

    If anything, Obama faces tougher challenges than FDR, and not just because he has an even less friendly Congress and darker skin. FDR didn’t have the dual doomsday clock of nuclear weapons and global warming hanging over his head along with a tanking economy.

  86. 86.

    eemom

    August 12, 2010 at 6:13 pm

    @Kerry Reid:

    I think you’re exactly right. However, you’re wasting your time trying to explain it to these head up the ass “purity” trolls.

    What I don’t get is why they are wasting their time here. Why not go over to FDL and fellate Jane Hamsher like all the rest of their ilk?

    And she’s got lots of nice rat holes in which they can pour the money they won’t be using to help keep Congress from going to the republicans this fall, and lots of stupid shit they can do with the time they’ll spend not voting for all those sellout “corporatist” Democrats.

  87. 87.

    Kerry Reid

    August 12, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    @eemom:
    Well, I’ve already suggested that they get their asses in gear trying to win over voters in red states/districts, so maybe we can get rid of some of those heinous Blue Dogs who are screwing shit up. That didn’t go over so well. Some people hate work like the lord hates St. Louis (to paraphrase Wilson Mizner).

  88. 88.

    Kerry Reid

    August 12, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    Actually, Mr. Booman called my attention (well, not me personally, of course) to this pretty good diary over at Kos comparing liberal reactions to FDR to those Obama faces.

  89. 89.

    Marc

    August 12, 2010 at 8:47 pm

    LT: look up “fallacy of the excluded middle” and get back to us when you understand it.

  90. 90.

    lawnorder

    August 12, 2010 at 10:43 pm

    It’s been about 4-5 years since I posted on firedoglake. They did a lot of good reporting about Able Danger and have real good writers but I mostly go there for Tbogg. The rest of the stuff just depresses me.

    As for posting here, I like reading the stuff here and have mostly commented about pets over the years. Recently I grew more vocal but I have never said I want to end with the Pentagon or that Obama is just like Bush. I don’t really understand why some posters here want to offend me and call me names, instead of blaming the real culprits – the right wing.

    And yes, this capture by corporate has been the same for hundreds of years. I dared to dream it was different, but I was just dreaming.

    And here comes the crux of the intensity gap: why should I go out of my way to change something that hasn’t changed in centuries ? Why give my hard earned money – in a big recession – to someone who won’t change things ? Why make myself target of insults and vitriol from people who can barely breath without getting lost (right wingers) ?

    Is a tough economy out there and no one knows what tomorrow will bring. Gibbs and others who think they can call me retarded and I will still give money can take a hike. They obviously don’t need me or my money. How can I compete with Aetna or Pffizer ? I can’t. And won’t. Sure I’ll go vote, if my boss gives me some time off. Otherwise I’ll take care of me and mine. Not like is worth letting down my friends and family for the next bought and sold Ben Nelson.

    You guys seem pretty fired up, eager to exchange insults and work your butts off for the O-man. Go for it. To each his own.

  91. 91.

    Johnny Pez

    August 12, 2010 at 11:13 pm

    It has to be said that deliberately pissing off your own base voters three months before an election is certainly a bold campaign strategy. And so obvious, too! It’s a wonder the Republicans haven’t picked up on it.

  92. 92.

    Kerry Reid

    August 13, 2010 at 1:04 am

    @Johnny Pez:

    Who died and made you — or any white leftie bloggers — “the base?” As has been explained exhaustively, the most loyal “base” the Democrats have had for generations are African Americans. Without black voters, the Democratic presidential candidate loses. Period.

    And as has also been explained exhaustively, that is also the demographic that has suffered the most real betrayals when it came time to compromise (being shut out of the original Social Security Act, for instance). Yet a few butt-hurt folks insist on ignoring the historical record for the sake of self-serving pettishness. Jesus squeezus, it’s a fucking vote. Nobody is asking you to take a bullet, get clubbed, or face police dogs and firehoses.

    Again I say: thank god that the professional left wasn’t in charge of the civil rights movement. The first time some southern sheriff insulted them — let alone threatened their lives — they would have run off in a pants-wetting sniffling tantrum to their fainting couches.

  93. 93.

    Kerry Reid

    August 13, 2010 at 2:55 am

    @lawnorder:

    The world was never meant for one as beautiful as you, dude.

  94. 94.

    lawnorder

    August 13, 2010 at 11:43 am

    @Kerry Reid:
    I’ll take that as a compliment

    My larger point is that I come here and bother to write about how demotivated I feel, and why. A lot of other Obama voters will not. Why bother ?

    “Anyone but Bush” did not get rid of GW. HOPE that things would change and a bad economy did.

    The economy is still bad and that “hopey changey thing” met reality in a dysfunctional Congress. Instead of re-inspiring the base Gibbs and the WH are going for “we’re not as bad as them” strategy. That does not get people out of bed early to vote, in a bad economy where you can not risk arriving late at work. It doesn’t get people to forgo a timely dinner with their kids after working overtime to vote for more of the same shitty economy.

    Most of us won’t bother to write on blogs. We will just give up and try to get on with our own lives as best as we can.

  95. 95.

    Kerry Reid

    August 14, 2010 at 3:04 am

    @lawnorder:
    Suicide is painless, dude. And the upside is we don’t have to hear your self-serving victim-victim-victim whining anymore.

    To quote Denis Leary: “Life sucks. Wear a helmet.”

    I’m guessing that you are A) Male and B) White. In other words — you are hardwired to expect to get what you want in life, when you want it, on your own timetable. Well, Wake the Fuck Up, Little Susie. Not everything happens quickly, you can’t always get what you want, and you and your pwecious-wecious instant-gratification fee-fees may just have to take a back seat as the grown-ups in the room try to fix some of this bullshit.

    Black Americans and other hardier types than you have had to put up with delayed gratification for a long time. Grow the fuck up, already.

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