E. J. Dionne says that Boehner will use the craziness of newly elected teatards as a bargaining chip:
House Republicans are pursuing their own madman theory in budget negotiations, with a clever twist: Speaker John Boehner is casting himself as the reasonable man fully prepared to reach a deal to avoid a government shutdown. But he also has to satisfy a band of “wild-eyed bomb-throwing freshmen,” as he characterized new House members in a Wall Street Journal interview last week by way of comparing them fondly to his younger self.
I don’t know how the negotiations will go, but I believe that the main Republican ploy for the next two years will be sane cop, crazy cop. Every Republican-friendly deal the House cuts will be portrayed as a masterpiece of compromise on the part of Boehner.
The Republican presidential nominee will be portrayed as a sane, serious alternative to Palinism. His victory will prove that Republican voters are wise Burkean adults, etc. etc.
The crazier Michelle Bachmann and Mike Huckabee act, the saner Tim Pawlenty and John Boehner will look by comparison.
That’s what the Village narrative will be for the next few years.
M. Bouffant
There’s something going on w/ J.B.’s eyes, ‘though I’m not sure “wild-eyed” is exactly the description.
That, by the way, is the official photo.
JPL
Below I wrote about NBC’s Dateline on bullying and it was eye opening. As long as you give bullies a forum, they win. That is what MSM is doing and Boehner can play it to it if he wants but that is not the solution. The real winner in tonight’s show was a gal name Lily (same name as John’s dog btw) who at one point said WTF and finally mocked the overlords. The tea party members are bullies who want it all and they need to shouted down. MSM gives them the media. We need to stand up and say enough is enough.
Scott Alloway
Crazy is crazy.
Telling people that the GOP is our crazy uncle at the family reunion is a winning strategy.
JPL
BTW..I have only watched Dateline maybe five or six times since it has been on but the show tonight was powerful. Watch it for Lily.
agrippa
That may be a good game for Boehner to play. he is walking a tight rope. He has the fire eaters, such as Bachmann to deal with; and he has to be ‘responsible’. Good cop, bad cop may be his best move.
kdaug
Heapin’ helpin’ of “well, duh”. How the hell else are you going to play the teabaggers?
Phoenician in a time of Romans
If the Democrats had any balls (hah!), they’d call the bluff. LET the teabaggers drive the Republicans to some sort of crazy public position (“no abortions, even for rape victims!”) and pick up on the backlash.
But they won’t, because the role of the Democrats is to give the illusion of a two party system.
The Republic of Stupidity Everlasting
@M. Bouffant:
I would describe that as the ‘drunk on power’ look…
I noticed it too recently… talk about creepy…
Like it or not, John Boehner is now one of the most powerful people in the country, and therefore the world, at least for the next two years…
I can’t believe I just said that… I even threw up in my mouth a little…
JPL
@Phoenician in a time of Romans: In Wisconsin they are standing up to the overlords. Maybe the elected officials need a push.
The Republic of Stupidity
@M. Bouffant:
I would describe that as the ‘drunk on power’ look…
I noticed it too recently… talk about creepy…
Like it or not, John Boehner is now one of the most powerful people in the country, and therefore the world, at least for the next two years…
I can’t believe I just said that… I even threw up in my mouth a little…
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Not that it applies to too many people here, or even at GOS but: There’s obviously no difference between Democrats and Republicans, so you should only vote for Democrats when they make you happy. (This is meant to be completely distilled, refined, and concentrated sarcasm.)
andy
Feyd-Rautha Boehner?
James E Powell
For the next two years? That’s been the Republican game since 1992.
The Republic of Stupidity
I agree completely…
I’ve kinda believed for quite some time that there’s something more than a little artificial about Bachmann’s schtick, and cunning, to boot… it’s like they all got together behind closed doors and asked, “Okay, who wants to be the Designated Party Crazyperson” and she agreed to do it…
I recently saw a commentary somewhere – maybe here – about Fox working the same contrast w/ Beck and O’Reilly… first they throw Beck out there, who’s clearly foaming at the mouth, and then when they follow up w/ O’Reilly, he just comes across as all that much more palatable by comparison…
The phrase ‘shock troops’ comes to mind… send in the killer clowns first…
JAHILL10
I don’t think Boehner, good cop or no, is a match for his crazy Tea Party caucus. The tail started wagging the dog as soon as his giant gavel fell. He is riding a tiger straight to ineffectual irrelevancy.
Which is good, because it is finally starting to penetrate the American consciousness that loonies are in charge of the congressional asylum. I mean look at Bachmann today!
robertdsc-PowerBook
And yet our esteemed President and Senate will continually bow down to these bastards at every opportunity. Fuck.
JPL
Bachmann was on TV today stating that the President stole 105 billion dollars that she did not know was in a bill that she voted against. If she read the bill, she still would have voted against it. She was given a forum to spill her lies. Boehner is not the most powerful person. The most powerful person is the one that our media decides is worthy. NBC supports bullies.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Why do you keep pimping Pawlenty? They aren’t going to nominate someone who looks like one of those 60s-70s sitcom dads who later turns out to have been gay. Palin or Bachmann are mainlining more testosterone than this guy.
Doug Hill
@Shoemaker-Levy 9:
I think it will Romney, T-Paw, or Daniels.
Breezeblock
Let Boner be primaried by a bat fucking shit insane piece of crap.
Breezeblock
I should clarify: FORCE Boner to be primaried. It’s being talked about, make Boner wet his pants.
Um. Heehee
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
As a lazy narrative for village journalists, it’s gold.
But I don’t see this appealing to independents or Paulistas. And I don’t see how this gets Rs to 50% +1.
Nick
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
This has been another example of “Faulting the Democrats for not doing something they’re actually doing”
Yutsano
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): I also love how this implies that Boehner is smarter than Pelosi. I know for a fact that ain’t true. Plus that woman knows how to call a bluff.
Xecky Gilchrist
I believe that the main Republican ploy for the next two years will be sane cop, crazy cop.
As may be, but it won’t work very well if the sane cop and the crazy cop are pushing the same policies.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Yutsano: Word. We’ll see who’s a better cat wrangler here too. Pelosi had to keep progressives and blue dogs corralled. Boehner has to keep raging teatards and raging assholes pretending to be serious on the same page. I know who I’d rather have on my team.
kdaug
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Diebold.
BerkeleyMom
Just watched a very sad segment on 60 Minutes tonight about the legions of homeless families living in cars and cheap motels. Crying kids with not enough to eat, teenagers dropping out to find work, depression and on and on. The budget cuts have huge long-term ramifications tot his country that will affect us for a generation. We are better than this. Or maybe not.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Moderated? Por que? Lemme try again:
@Yutsano: Word. We’ll see who’s a better cat wrangler here too. Pelosi had to keep progressives and blue dogs corralled. Boehner has to keep raging teatards and raging assholes pretending to be serious on the same page. I know who I’d rather have on my team.
EARLOFSCRUGGS
Vote Republican: Only half of us are psychopaths.
Ash Can
Let’s see — the “good cop” is a sleazy, shiftless huckster and the “bad cops” are a gaggle of foaming-at-the-mouth lunatics. The Village will eat it up and yell for more, but coming on the heels of the Great Lakes GOP governors’ shitfests, and on top of an already dismal approval rate for Congress, I’m not putting any money on such a ploy playing well with the public. The masses may be asses, but we’ve already seen that there’s a limit to the crap they’ll put up with. The solid-red districts are lost causes, of course, but close races in 2012 are a different story.
General Stuck
I don’t think there is any central strategy within the GOP, other than the tail wagging the dog kind, and generally starving the liberal beast they see as government. The tea tards and the standard wingnut that almost completely inhabit the goopers in public service right now, are the reps of a real and major split within the center right community, with a few exceptions. With large constituencies and actual voters who are not going to be playing any pre conceived good cop, bad cop, at least for very long.
But at least having a semi sane speaker, might keep the worst from happening and the tea tards destroying the country and maybe the world with their special brand of survival of the fittest society.
I do think the tea tards are going to contract in their electoral power, which I think reached it’s zenith in 2010, and they will likely contract into a southern insurgency mostly, loosely associated with the GOP, and will have influence with them, but not dominate as they are now. But they will get crazier, and more rebellious as time goes on, the more GOP proper tells them it is not good politics to do full frontal assaults on the poor and middle class.
But the entire center right population is serious about cudgeling the dem party and liberals, and doing some pretty awful shit to stop, or slow down, the steady tide of minority voting power in this country. I think that is what CU was about, and killing HCR is about, and they will over reach out of desperation, and when that fails, they will likely have Alito and Scalia interpret the constitution, distilled down to originalist text of two words. White Rule/snark, sort of
I’m rambling again. sorry.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@kdaug: Diebold.
<>
Why are you and Doug Hill trying to harsh my mellow?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@The Republic of Stupidity Everlasting:
Actually just drunk will suffice. The AOS* probably has a maintenance BAC of about .14g/210L; he’s been known as a womanizing boozer since his days in the OH general assembly.
I agree with Doug’s version of the Village narrative. But there’s more wignuts, and they are bullies, so it is apt to be a bumpy road.
*Actual Orange Satan, as I call the Speaker
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Yutsano:
It sure ain’t true. Nancy SMASH v. Boehner smashed is more like it. Heh.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@Doug Hill:
I have a hard time seeing them going with Darren Stevens or Verne Troyer. Romney’s got a square jaw and an empty suit. IOW he’s perfect. It’s either him or somebody we haven’t thought of yet.
jwb
@Nick: Nothing that buying a major media network wouldn’t solve. How much does one of those thingees run these days anyway?
The Republic of Stupidity
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Boehner has always looked like a drunk to me, too… but now, there’s a little… something extra… in his eyes… he’s always looked slightly stunned, and now he appears almost unhinged, like his head’s about to rotate 180 ala Linda Blair in the Exorcist…
They have hip hop in Idaho?
Who knew?
Ben
Sully says he is starting to really like Boehner.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
And we’re the only ones who don’t think this is a winning strategy. asiangrrlMN and that shitheel who lost to David Duke are the only two folks I can think of who have declared their candidacy.
jwb
@Ben: And this is a surprise exactly how?
Yutsano
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): I thought Roemer was challenging Obama. Maybe I r missing something.
Jenny
@Doug Hill: 4 years ago, who did you think would win the nominations?
Anya
Who said Tim Pawlenty was sane? He held his whole state hostage to woo the crazy wing of his party. Also, too, is this not the same Pawlenty who said he will repeal the repeal of DAD or some other crazy thing. He’s crazy plenty but he’s so bland that even when he’s trying to out wingnut the crazy eye, he does not register.
Ash Can
@Shoemaker-Levy 9: Actually, despite the fact that the right-wing fundies are no fans of Romney’s religion, I can envision a scenario that gets him the nomination — the same scenario that got McCain the nomination in 2008. Recall that as the various factions of GOP primary voters voted for their favorite candidates from state to state, the vote got scattered all over the map, and thanks to winner-take-all delegate elections, McCain essentially defaulted into the nomination. If Romney can present himself as non-scary and semi-rational, he just might be able to end up backing into the nomination in similar fashion.
Lolis
This is the narrative Sully has been pushing the last couple weeks.
jinxtigr
That’s the look of a guy smiling in the gunsights. Somehow he believes he can get through all this. I think he’s fooling himself.
Anya
@Ben: Fuck Sully. I lost all respect for him after that moronic statement.
fraught
@The Republic of Stupidity: Yeah, he’s always had that William Holden drunk at work look. But I agree there’s something new. I think he cries a lot because his own story moves him but that sad look says to me that he won’t stay in this job for long, either because he fails politically or he just loses his drive and really wants to drink more. I think he feels his job is done and that he really doesn’t give a fuck what happens in the congress.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Yutsano: From Wiki:
In January 2011, Roemer publicly stated that he was considering a bid for the U.S. presidency in 2012.[1][2][3] On March 3, 2011, he announced the formation of an exploratory committee to prepare for a possible run for the 2012 presidential nomination of the Republican Party.[4] Roemer stressed that campaign finance reform would be a key issue in his campaign.[5]
Does he pronounce his name “Romer?” Cause if he does, he should use that “Roam” song. Was that the B52s or that group that Belinda Carlisle was in?
Omnes Omnibus
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): B-52s. From Cosmic Thing.
Yutsano
@fraught: Or he has no fucking clue what he’s doing and the gravitas of his new position is hitting him in the face.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Ben:
Oh sweet baby jeebus…
I just didn’t throw up a little when I read that…
I flat out hurled..
I need a new keyboard…
DougJ
@Jenny:
Hillary and McCain.
The Republic of Stupidity
@fraught:
I don’t think he’s ever given a fuck what happens in Congress, or the country…
Only his wallet and his pants…
Quite the constituency, there…
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Omnes Omnibus: that’s what I thought but I had a moment of doubt.
Yutsano
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Yeah. Cuz the Republicans are all about cutting off their wingnut welfare. Stop the planet I want off the ride now.
The Republic of Stupidity
I first saw that picture of Boehner mebbe two days ago and it immediately gave me the creeps… and it also reminded me of someone else…
***snaps fingers…***
This guy, right here…
The same feverish glint in the eyes…
The smug, impish, self satisfied smirk…
Separated at birth?
Omnes Omnibus
@The Republic of Stupidity: How do you account for the color difference?
Omnes Omnibus
Redundant and deleted.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Omnes Omnibus:
A recessive gene somewhere in the mix…
Yutsano
@The Republic of Stupidity: Or long tanning sessions on the part of the AOS.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano:Carrots?
The Republic of Stupidity
@Yutsano:
Plus that too…
And I think Boehner uses make up… too…
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Omnes Omnibus: Drink preference. Boehner is the color of whiskey. The Grinch preferred apple Pucker
The Republic of Stupidity
@Omnes Omnibus:
Also a distinct possibility… or jaundice…
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: That’d have to be at WWII pilot consumption levels. However I cannot discount your theory.
The Republic of Stupidity
Oh good Gaaaaaaawd…
I just looked at that photo, of John, again and realized…
He’s perfectly color coordinated…
The orange of his neck tie matches the hue of his skin…
And the blue dots on the tie are same same shade as his shirt and his eyes…
Jenny
I’m reading the transcript of Bachmann on MTP and it’s hilarious.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41906285/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts
She completely ignored every question, every question. And like a broken record, she repeated one talking point, over and over and over again.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
I must confess that I was a little unfair earlier when I reminisced about Ayn Rand calling David Brooks “Davey Davey Pissy Pants” until he wet himself.
I omitted to mention that as he was scampering off, urine squirting down his leg and onto the floor of Hutchinson Hall with every step, he did manage to stammer back that she was a bitch.
Of course, the hypocritical old harridan didn’t hear him because she was elbow deep in the shrimp buffet by that point.
I think it’s only fair to note that little Davey did get the last word. Sort of.
Not that any of that means that Ayn Rand wasn’t a dried up evil old snake with the morals of a bandicoot on crystal meth.
asiangrrlMN
I know this is a very serious topic, but I just have to say, it will be pure, living hell for me if Bachmann and/or Pawlenty run for president in 2012.
You know who else is running? Me.
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): I gave you a h/t in my latest post at ABL’s place.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
Good Lord… what poetry… and in motion… too…
J. Michael Neal
@Anya: Pawlenty isn’t crazy. He’s doing his best to convince the nuts that he’s crazy, but he isn’t. I personally find his attempts to be only slightly more persuasive than Mitt’s, but your mileage may vary.
Yutsano
@Sarah, Proud and Tall:
I take offense to this good madam. Bandicoots are perfectly fine upstanding marsupials. Meth addled I cannot testify to.
Socraticsilence
While I agree with this strategically, tactically its suicidal for a Republican with hopes in 2012- how do win the nomination as the sane alternative to Palin- when the majority of the base views Palin’s problem as a lack of gravitas not insanity– they like her views. I mean how on Earth does a guy like Tim Pawlenty triangulate within the closed primary structure and not get his ass handed to him as an apostate.
asiangrrlMN
@Anya: He’s not crazy; he’s evil. There is a difference this time. OK, evil may not be the right word, but he’s definitely a whore for power. He’ll do whatever it takes to get it.
Nick
@jwb:
About 4-5 million votes for Republicans
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Yutsano:
They may be cute and fluffy, and I would certainly rather have a bandicoot living in my bedroom than either Ayn Rand or David Brooks.
The worst the bandicoot would do is poo on the rug, which is more than I can say for those other two. Certainly, no bandicoot every expected anyone to pay for the privilege of reading its turgid scribblings.
However, I would submit that if one in fact procured a bandicoot, and if one was then to give said bandicoot a soupçon or seven of crystal meth, the result would be a spitting, hissing, biting, yowling ball of fur that engaged in scads of frenetic pleasureless humping interspersed with much sullen moping in corners.
Very much like having Ayn Rand or David Brooks living in your bedroom, I suspect.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@asiangrrlMN: whaat? ¤blushes¤ I will inspect when I get home (on my phone rt now)
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: You keep cranking out the hits, lady.
You know, your prose style is familiar. Mainly clear. Lyrical at times. Florid but not turgid.
morzer?
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
I’m a 92 year old woman who lives in a home for the violently senile in Spokane. The internet is the only outlet that stops me sticking a pencil quite hard into some orderly’s ear some days.
I don’t think I am this Morzer you people keep harping on about, but I’m batty as a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide so what the hell do I know?
Maybe I’m Matoko_chan.
ETA: I take that back as too horrible for even my Amitriptyline addled brain to contemplate.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@asiangrrlMN: Hee!
Good boy!
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8oBQ9uGehSz_P1sJ7aA6S5gLh5J0eNs9ZG97Z37-nFgIv6a6A
asiangrrlMN
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): For your David Duke and a dog whistle that is an actual DOG!
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: You’re morzer. Confess. Remember this?
asiangrrlMN
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Perfect! I’m getting one.
ETA: Oh, and I want your band to play for my wedding. Something appropriately patriotic.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Thankyou, by the way. Even if you people are sinners and swearers and sodomites, you are a polite bunch. Let no one say I’m not a nice old lady when my meds are stabilized.
I’ve practiced over 50 years of ranting at servants. They like a bit of lyricism when you’re instructing them to sweep out a florid cess pit with a toothbrush in return for a non-collectively bargained $3 a week plus slops.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@asiangrrlMN: Got it. Clik my link @ 81. (it’s a personalized bowl! your first wedding gift)
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: You could easily prove you’re not morzer. Go ahead and say something nice about Anne Laurie.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@asiangrrlMN:
I swear I’m not morzer. I checked my records at the end of my bed and, while reading through the notations they don’t think I understand, I established that my name is definitely Sarah, not morzer.
“DNAARSB” took me a while to work out.
“Do not administer anything rectally. She bites.”
What a bunch of pansies.
FLOL
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
I like Anne Laurie. She let my first posts out of moderation.
asiangrrlMN
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Yep! Saw it. But, you better get it in red. (Blue is a liberal color, doncha know). And, you play dirty (with S,PaT). I approve!
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Very nicely done. This post did not have the morzer ring to it, but some of your others have.
Gustopher
Good cop, crazy cop is nice in theory, but when the crazy cops are true believers and it’s not all part of a game, will it work?
I think crazy cop is just going to end up going after good cop.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@asiangrrlMN: Our “hit” is Truculent. With the refrain “nice truck, asshole.” Not so good for the reception.
I wrote a mean song about the president. In 2004. I felt like I was being patriotic.
Anne Laurie
@Doug Hill:
Hell, if those are the choices, then the glint in Boehner’s eye is the dawning hope that a “Draft Our Speaker” movement will arise no later than this September!
But we mustn’t leave Donald Trump’s hair out of the electoral calculations!
I, personally, look forward to the debate during which Romney and Gingrich trap The Donald in a corner and pummel him mercilessly with economy-sized cans of the finest professional hair products.
Just watching The Newt and The Trump go mano-a-mano… make that ego-a-ego… would be almost too much entertainment for primetime family hour.
asiangrrlMN
@Gustopher: Let’s hope so. I do agree that the ‘good cops’ are not in control of their party.
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): I want you to play both. I feel they will both be sufficiently patriotic for my wedding.
Anne Laurie
Also, we’re cruelly overlooking Herman Cain, former CEO for Pillsbury’s pizza chain. The Repubs are bound to nominate a Person of Color (other than Orange) someday, why not as a sacrificial offering against Obama?
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Hmm. How about you say something vicious about the Dolphins?
Wait, that could prove either case…
TenguPhule
Sadly, yes.
Lucy’s football is too irresistable for Charlie Reid.
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
After the ass kicking that Alan Keyes got in 2006, I think they’d be hard pressed to find any Republican of color willing to humiliate himself that way again. Except possibly Keyes, but that’s because he’s clinically insane.
asiangrrlMN
@Anne Laurie: ME. I’m running for the Republican primary, and I’m going to WIN. I have a PLAN (that includes lots of capital letters, apparently).
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Jenny:
I actually went to see what she said and you are right, she sounds like a broken record. Someone should call Stephen Colbert because Bachmann says that bears have been up to no good:
“I think that’s beared out statistically on everything from anemic job creation to the out of control spending and deficits.”
Bears! Oh noes!!
Bachmann has her head so far up her ass that it came back out her mouth and went right back up her ass again.
She’s fucking nuts and so are the people who voted for her.
Tom65
I think Boehner’s putting a brave face on this, because he knows that if the economy keeps improving, he’ll be forced to make the case that passing show-pony legislation that keeps the batshit crazies at bay has somehow helped the process.
Silver Owl
Far too many of the adults in power of this era are of such low quality and standards that if the U.S. and the american people survive to rebuild and clean up what they have destroyed it will indeed be a miracle.
One of my few consolations from this utter failure of the “me generation” era is that the myth that the rich white conservative is superior will have been totally destroyed.
MarkJ
If this happens it’s the final fail for the Village (well not really, they’ll probably go on failing). You shouldn’t get credit for being a statesmanlike compromiser when you’re negotiating with your own crazy base.
Whether he can negotiate with the democrats in good faith (they’re the other side that needs to be negotiated with after all) that should be the measure. Giving the dorito asshat (that’s my new nickname for Boehner because he’s orange like a dorito and I trust Roseanne Cash to know an asshat when she sees one) credit for negotiating with the teabaggers is like giving Pelosi credit for negotiating with Dennis Kucinich. Since when has that happened?
Neo
We’ve seen this before …
chopper
@Ben:
tee hee!
ruemara
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
Yes, Democrats are exactly the same, this is proven because when Democrats, even corporacrats, where in power, they did the same thing as Republicans. Awesome. Next election, we are going to go more progressive, for sure.