Why the hell are we still having this fucking debate:
The more we find out about the House Republican caucus, the more obvious it becomes that they’re not just trying to maximize their leverage by pretending to be crazy. They’re crazy.
Of course they are crazy. Ross Douthat is just a hack who does his best to run cover for his dumber compadres, but they are all crazy. There is really no reason to debate this anymore. They deny evolution, many of them think the earth is only several thousand years old, they don’t believe in global climate change and adamantly don’t believe humans have anything to do with it, they think being gay is a choice and I guaran-god-damned-tee that at least half of them think you can pray it away, they think stem cells are tiny babies, they think Saddam Hussein had a role in 9/11, they think you can cut taxes indefinitely and government revenues will always increase, they think Sarah Palin is qualified to be President and Joe the Plumber has keen political insights, they think Obama may be a Muslim and might not be a citizen, they think the solution to gun violence is more guns, and that dijon mustard and arugula are elitist, that the President who appointed half of Goldman Sachs to his administration is a socialist, and so on. And I’m not attributing to the GOP made up stuff, these are things in their fucking platform or that they state regularly on camera and in print. Michelle Bachmann was just on tv all wild-eyed asserting that even if we default, seniors will still get their social security checks and that Obama is a big meanie for suggesting otherwise. How will we pay them? Who the fuck knows? They aren’t dealing with reality and haven’t been for a long, long time.
There simply is no reason on earth to have this debate any more, except that it serves the needs of assholes like Ross Douthat and David Brooks and other members of the conservative “intelligentsia.” If we all recognize that the conservatives are nuts and their ideas are disastrous, they would lose their respectable media/beltway credibility, and you can’t have that happening. So they spin all this bullshit and pretend that it is just another conservative viewpoint when what it actually is is batshit crazy being normalized by sociopaths like the aforementioned Times columnists.
So yes. They are crazy. Batshit, bugfuck crazy. Anyone who treats them as a serious party is either a wingnut welfare recipient or just plain stupid.
gbear
I blame Obama.
Jim C.
“Press accounts reported that Obama, distressingly, proposed to make future revenue increases from the Bush tax cuts’ expiration—the tax hike Douthat warns will happen later—the source of the revenue in the deal. In other words, he was willing to bargain to get something he could have gotten by doing nothing if he wins reelection. What’s more, Obama offered to prevent any increase in upper-bracket tax rates in 2013, as long as Republicans agreed to close tax loopholes to make up the revenue. That is the deal Republicans refused—a deal to lock in the top-level Bush tax rates, while raising more revenue from a cleaner tax code, while getting Obama’s sign-off on large-scale cuts to entitlements.”
Yeesh. I sure hope that this isn’t true. Anyone still want to claim that Obama wasn’t getting absolutely rolled in the negotiations and it was Pelosi and others who vetoed his plans?
Redshirt
AMEN! Question is: How do you fight the Crazy? It’s so adaptable and can accommodate any manner of dissonance or contradiction.
BGinCHI
“Crazy” isn’t the right word.
It’s Ignorance plus Arrogance.
This is the dangerous cocktail of American decline.
Cris (without an H)
in before scolding over ableist language
Paul M
Testify, Brother Cole.
Mike Goetz
Scratch a Republican, find a Gohmert.
PaminBB
John, no need to sugar-coat it, tell us how you really feel.
Nice rant.
beltane
Brooks, Douthat and the rest are just the paid PR representatives of a creepy and dangerous death cult. That’s why I really don’t understand all the energy invested in deconstructing their “arguments”. Instead of arguing with them, we should be de-legitimizing them as independent thinkers.
jl
But not wild eyes rolled back into their heads, sumersaults on the roof, frothing at the mouth, baying at the moon crazy, huh Cole?
The crypto glibertarian Cole always pulls his punches.
demkat620
Yes but its a celebration of ignorance that’s terrifying.
Violet
They are owned by the 27%. Any of the remaining slightly-less-crazy Republicans should be prepared to be teabagged out in a primary.
As for Bachmann, I never thought anyone could make Palin look more sane, but there you go.
bkny
it’s not just the crazy members of congress; it’s the inability of the washington dc press corps to purge itself of people who were catastrophically wrong in their policy pronunciations be it economics or the invasion of iraq or any other issue of the past ten years.
bobo and douhat shouldn’t even have columns at the nyt; and why the hell is michael ohanlon making a comeback as opininator…
they protect their own.
Calouste
@Jim C. (2):
You still believe unattributed stuff in the press?
Sucker.
sashlal
the best rant of the month
SiubhanDuinne
Not unrelated: I’m sorry to say I read the transcript of Grover Fucking Norquist’s Q&A in the Kaplan digital fish wrap today. What a horrible man. Nasty, sarcastic — the anger is palpable in his every response.
No, I’m not providing a link. If I go back there my head will asplode.
snarkypsice
This is why I always read this blog :)
Mike Goetz
@Jim C:
I love it when stories like this come out. It points up in stark relief how mind-boggling it is that Republicans walked away. He bet that they would choke on the poison pill, and they did. Now every time the Republicans say the word “deficit” he can laugh in their faces.
Chris
Lethal Weapon 1 moment for whoever just wrote that.
Jim C.
@Calouste
As John Cole pointed out a couple of days ago, is that report materially different than the words that came out of Obama’s own mouth on the subject?
https://balloon-juice.com/2011/07/12/bad-politics/
4tehlulz
Here we go.
Moody’s puts U.S. ratings on review for downgrade
Jim C.
@Mike Goetz
That’s the amazing thing. TPM is right. The Republicans had basically won the “Starve The Beast” battle as of about three days ago. They were offered just about everything they’d spent the last several decades fighting for.
I don’t know if our president KNEW they’d reject the offer or if he needs to book a trip to Vegas because he’s the luckiest guy in the world, but I can’t believe that the Republicans didn’t take that offer and run.
stuckinred
overlord
masters
see, that solved it
Svensker
I heard this over and over today from various wingnuts. He’s lying about being able to stop SS checks because they come from a different fund! He’s just trying to scare people, isn’t that awful!
Apparently that’s the take away from this whole thing on the Right — Obama was mean and lied about SS payments. Therefore, there is no global warming and Saddam really DID have WMDs. Or something.
scav
They’ve certainly managed to elect an entire stableful of Incitatuses to the Congress. There’s a certain amount of interest growing in the darkened theater as to which one of same will find his severed head in somebody else’s bed as a warning. These are deep waters.
Dennis SGMM
As long as the media practices the false equivalency game we may as well stock up on canned goods and bottled water.
“Well, we’ve heard from Al Gore. Now, with an opposing viewpoint, is Senator James Inhofe…”
General Stuck
I will tell you how crazy they are. Before yesterday, I thought it not possible to feel anything like sympathy for hideous creature that goes by the name of Mitch McConnell, and was bliss in that state of cold comfort.
That is all gone now, and I curse the heavens above and the Redstate below, for ruining the unbroken decades of possessing nothing more than pure contempt for the tortoise from my home state of Kentucky. Unpossible, I would have told you, to think anything more of Mitch, than the sniveling worm he is, and still is. But now with something like the status of victim when considering his putrid rotting chinless soul.
I gotta walk the dog, and maybe it will all make sense again.
Bludger
Another epic rant, I love it.
Bulworth
Also, too:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll563.xml
This is the roll call for the vote on the light bulbs. A small number of Dems and GOPers switched sides. Mostly partly line vote.
pluege
nice rant!
now what?
Chris
Godwin Alert;
It’s not the racism that reminds me of latter-century fascists when I look at the teabaggers. It’s the crazy. Any honest idiot could hate Jews just because. It took a completely different class of bloody lunatic to believe society was controlled by the Jews.
And it’s that class of bullshit that’s become conventional wisdom for more or less half the nation.
t jasper parnell
Svensker:
If they think that
Doesn’t that mean that SS is solvent and thus off the table?
Han's Solo
@BGinCHI:
You know I could handle that, if that were all there was to it. The really galling thing to me is that they are proud of their ignorance. When you point out that they are factually incorrect they attack the facts, they think anything, and I mean anything, that doesn’t agree with their ignorance is obviously “liberal” and therefore ignorable.
My stepfather is like this. He’s one of those teabaggers that complains about government while sucking oxygen out of a government provided oxygen tank.
Suffern ACE
@Svensker-Alan West is telling the same lie. Ron Johnson was on the TV telling the same lie on Sunday. Coincidence that the seniors and soldiers are going to be disappointed if they don’t recieve everything they’re “owed” because they’ve been told lies?
Cris (without an H)
That paragraph really is epic. It’s a greatest hits of Republican lies and delusions, and I bet you that John came up with it all off the top of his head in less than the time it takes to type.
Calouste
@Jim C (2)
You don’t even link to anything in your original post.
Anyway, what was it about? I just saw “press reports” and “Douthat” in one sentence, which means it is as closely related to reality as any sentence that includes “Bristol Palin” and “abstinence”.
NamelessGenXer
Brilliant, John. You possess the snarkalicious truth-telling genius that I only aspire to.
Trollenschlongen
These people are not crazy. That lets them off the hook far too easily.
How about willfully ignorant, bigoted, anti-intellectual, arrogant, and in some cases evil?
Danny
@John Cole
When you’re right, you’re right. In this country, the elephant in the room is the republican party.
James E. Powell
Although I do despise the crazies, my hatred with the passion of a thousand burning suns is directed at the Masters of our Universe who finance, promote, and protect the crazies just to make sure the federal government doesn’t raise their income tax rate a few percentage points. Or anything else that might cost them a dollar or two. The Masters are already rich and powerful. For some reason I cannot fathom, it isn’t enough.
Rick Taylor
I really wish I could believe the Republicans are masters of brinkmanship and that their leaders will back from the abyss at the last possible moment, that McConnell will save us all. But I have a sinking feeling John is right. We’ll all find out soon enough.
To add to John’s list, these are people who think recommending checking your tire pressure is hilarious, that the use of incandescent light bulbs is amongst are most precious freedoms, and that when Obama uses a teleprompter to give a speech it shows how he’s in over his head, but when Palin writes notes on the back of her hand, it’s proof of how gifted she is that she needs so little in the way of notes to speak so well.
kindness
I’m goin’ with both batshit crazy AND stupid.
Mustang Bobby
Okay, I just cut and pasted this whole post as my Quote of the Day.
Bulworth
SS is solvent until after the debt ceiling vote at which point it becomes an immoral, bankrupt Ponzi scheme.
gex
@34 – well now. That doesn’t seem like a good long term plan for the GOP does it? Did I say long term? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. They don’t give a shit about that.
kerFuFFler
Unfortunately the tea party wing-nuts are oblivious to the obvious contradictions of their position. On the one hand they are refusing to raise the debt ceiling to gain leverage by threatening the US (and global!) economy. Then they turn around and insist to their ignorant rabble that failure to raise the ceiling will have no dire consequences for the economy. So what is it? The notion that missing the August 2 deadline will not cause serious damage to the economy is belied by the fact that they used the ceiling issue hostage style to begin with.
RalfW
An entire political establishment in need of a massive psychiatric intervention.
It’s time for us all as the impacted family members to stop being codependent and sit these asswipes down on couches and just give it to ’em straight.
And then sell your stocks, buy a one way plane ticket, and get the fuck out of the USofA, because the insane-27% family, addicted to the crack of GOP lies, is gonna go on the shock-and-awe bender of all time.
zmulls
What amazes me is how quickly the whole thing is unravelling.
As I’ve said before, I don’t believe in the 11-dimension chess game, but I do believe Obama has enough nerve and patience to wait it out, way beyond the point that most of us are willing to, and strike quickly and decisively.
Everyone kept yelling that he needs to do a press conference, and when he finally did people yelled it was too little too late. But damn, the air is going out of the GOP balloon at a very alarming rate.
I bet Obama is watching FOX News right now, brandy in one hand, cigarette in the other…
t jasper parnell
Do you mean that the Republicans and Conservatives more generally don’t care in the slightest about reasonable argument and will say anything in the hopes of ruining all our nice things?
Inconceivable, or rather the opposite.
Jim C.
@Calouste
The link goes to a previous blog post by Cole on the subject that quotes the president directly talking about pretty much the exact deal the TNR link in Cole’s new blog post above claims was on table.
Which is more or less the exact deal that sources like TPM have reported.
Look, I know folks don’t want to believe it, but that Obama put an incredibly lopsided deal on the table for Republicans has been reported in LOTS of places by now and more or less confirmed by Obama’s own public statements.
Now maybe he was playing the “Good cop” to Pelosi’s “bad cop” or maybe it was some grand negotiating-fu where he knew the Republicans wouldn’t take the offer and he could look like the grown up in the room or maybe there’s some other reason such as drug reimportation from Canada allowing for “cuts” in Medicare in terms of total cost to taxpayers without sacrificing benefits, but it is pretty damn hard to deny by this point that a VERY lopsided 85% cuts 15% taxes offer was put out there and the cuts DID include big changes to Entitlements.
soyaki
Crazy is a flawed reading, I think. The “shut’r down” crowd isn’t generally crazy (though it is perhaps generally a bit daft.)
You have a group of people that hates America. I know, I know–they say they love it. But in reality, they love some fictitious ideal state that does not and did never exist.
Actual, current-day, diverse, modern America? Not the Obama government, but the America that elected Obama? This crew hates that country. With blood-boiling passion. They just haven’t generally figured that out yet (well, some have).
It’s not crazy people. It’s people who see their fellow Americans as enemies.
bobbo
Jim C:
My current thinking (subject to hourly revision) is that he was absolutely rolling the dice. Kinda like he did with that Bin Laden guy.
Svensker
@ t jasper parnell
You are assuming there’s logic involved.
Han's Solo
@James E. Powell:
James has a decent point here. It is no surprise that the GOP relies on rubes for their votes. They look for the dumb, the racist, the hardcore religious nuts and they pander to them. Of course the rubes are crazy, and not smart, that is what makes them the perfect target demographic for the Masters of the Universe.
The difference is that the rubes have slipped their leashes and are no longer walking in lock step where the Masters tell them to.
I remember during the Bush years Jon Stewart did a piece about some large group of Christians who were having a rally in front of the White House. These are people Dubya supported and counted amongst his best allies. Even though he was in the White House, and could have walked the 100 yards to meet with them, he literally phoned it in instead. They just weren’t important enough to meet with in person.
metricpenny
Batshit crazy, stupid and they vote religiously.
It’s the last one that’s bad for the rest of us.
Nellcote
@#22
Prez Obama has been saying for months that the goopers are backing themselves into a corner with the teabaggers. And that the goopers persist on voting against things if he supports them even when the goopers supported them up to the minute he came out in support.
It’s not like he didn’t warn them.
ornery
no reason on earth to have this debate any more, except that it serves the needs of assholes like Ross Douthat and David Brooks and other members of the conservative “intelligentsia.”
Close: it’s really about serving the ‘needs’ of corporate power. Maybe the implications of that are too scary, or risk Godwinning the thread.
Jim C.
Pivoting off of Obama and onto the actual subject for discussion…
It’s a sad day when we have to pray that the “cynical and evil” part of the Republican party wins out over the “blatantly ignorant and stupid” part to avoid destroying the entire global economy.
I…don’t know what to say when I find myself having to openly root for Mitch Fucking McConnell!
Calouste
@Jim C. (50):
I said you didn’t provide a link in your original post.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you just can’t fucking read.
John O
Need a cigarette after that one, John.
It’s true. I have this argument with my conservative friends all the time. At some point I always wind up saying, “It isn’t true that all conservatives are stupid, but it sure is true that most stupid people are conservative.”
J
Yes, yes and again yes, but (but, and again but) the great mystery is why people vote for them–not just a few people, and not just the famous 27%, but lots and lots of people, enough to them to give the Republicans a majority in one house of the legislature and close to it in the other (esp. when one takes into account the useless Ben Nelsons & Joe Liebermann’s); and all this shortly after eight years of the most appalling misrule, which in a sane country would have guaranteed that the Republicans spent a generation in the wilderness.
Why, why why?
kdaug
And you have to sign an oath that you agree with the listed points before you’re allowed in the club. An oath to whom, I’m not sure, but an oath nonetheless.
danimal
Epic rant.
BTW, yes Obama put a huge deal out there for the GOP. Huge enough that one could say it was the high-water mark for conservatism. Their refusal to take the deal will taste bitter for years to come, especially after they settle for some symbolic mush instead.
Yes, I’m saying it: Peak Wingnut has just come and gone.
Jim C.
@Calouste
What the hell’s your problem dick weed? How’d I piss in your corn flakes that I deserved that? I went on to read and reply to the REST of your post that asked a question.
“Anyway, what was it about? I just saw “press reports” and “Douthat” in one sentence, which means it is as closely related to reality as any sentence that includes “Bristol Palin” and “abstinence”.”
Which I then proceeded to answer: what my link was about. Or maybe you’re too busy being a jackass that you forgot you even ASKED a question? I’ll just give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re an asshole instead of an idiot.
Nellcote
And Rick Scott of Florida hit the magic 27% favorable number today.
Han's Solo
@Jim C.:
You know why Obama never pushed hard for the public option? Because he knew he didn’t have the votes to get it. There was no way Lieberman, Nelson, Bayh, ect were going to vote for a public option. It wasn’t going to happen.
Understanding what can, and can’t, pass Congress allows one to make offers in a compromise that are, well, “maximalist.” The real question you should be asking is if Obama was making offers he knew couldn’t get through Congress, and if so why.
Calouste
@Jim C.:
“Rethorical question” is apparently also an unknown concept to you.
Ash Can
@Jim C.:
I believe that very comment thread effectively established that two vague, isolated phrases do not carry more weight than several years of specific, detailed and consistent pronouncements do.
He works cheek-by-jowl with them on a daily basis, and is more intelligent than the vast majority of people on the planet. OF COURSE he knew they’d reject the offer. It’s not a matter of luck, it’s a matter of observation.
Today’s Republicans can’t concede anything to any Democrats — especially to Obama — without putting their political lives in jeopardy. That’s the whole point of John’s post here. They’ll blow up the nation, themselves included, before they’ll do anything that can be perceived as giving the Dems any victories.
Nellcote
@#61
Because they lie, lie, lie. Remember the big lie in 2010 was that the goopers wanted to create JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! Of course once they got to DC the amnesia kicked in.
Jim C.
@Han’s Solo
Excellent analysis. Two real questions there:
1. DID he know in advance that offer was going to be rejected?
2. If so, why’d he make the offer? To appear reasonable? To frame the narrative in the media? To drive my blood pressure up?
2b. If NOT, then that opens up additional questions of why he’d be making those offers if he wasn’t certain they’d fail.
John O
In terms of simple scandal power, The Clenis would have to rank as #1 in my lifetime of compelling political theater, but I think this tops the two most expensive orgasms in history because, well, you know, it’s actually about something important.
Jim C.
@Calouste
Whatever. Go away troll. I’m going to spend the rest of my time discussing things with people who have something worthwhile and interesting to say and aren’t just here to try and piss on people that believe, more or less, the same thing they do.
John O
Nonsense, Nellcote. You create jobs by cutting taxes for rich people. Haven’t your very own eyes beheld the fabulous job growth we’ve had under Bush’s budgets?
t jasper parnell
Svensker:
Not really; it’s more a case of being constantly amazed at the flippity floppity nature of the Republicans and Conservatives more generally and their surprising inability to think ahead. Why it’s almost like they are semi-articulate three year olds.
PreservedKillick
Exactly. The amount of power that they’ve ceded to Obama by doing this is…mind boggling. Sure, Obama implied he’d maybe cut SS and medicare. He know for shit-sure the republicans would say no, and split their party in half doing it.
And in the meanwhile, anyone not in the 27%, anyone on wall street, anyone retired, is watching the republicans fuck with their livelihood. Wonder how they’ll vote next year? Wonder how they’ll donate?
McConnell knows this, and he’s trying to find a path, ANY path, out. And look what that got him.
Linda Featheringill
As a propaganda ploy, Obama’s remarks on SS were really quite effective. I also suspect that SS and some other stuff would be paid until the Fed was really up against the wall. However, as Obama said, the govt “cannot guarantee” that these will be paid.
I understand Bachmann trying to calm her supporters and constituents but it may be a futile effort. The more the Republicans say “Nothing is going to happen to your SS check” the more people are going to think about it. And at some point in their fretting and worrying, they will likely venture past the point marked by “It’s all Obama’s fault” and go up to the point of “What can we do about it?”
Then they will put pressure on somebody, probably everybody, including Republicans.
Calouste
@Jim C (71):
I just got a message from my buddy Barry, and he said he did it explicitly to drive up your blodd pressure.
Oh, and he also did it so you could say that the black dude almost gave it away but was luckily pulled back by the white people.
Jim C.
@Ash Can
Obama’s own comments plus reporting from more than one very liberal news source, including Talking Points Memo and The Nation, in addition to places like TNR that are a bit more middle of the road, lead me to believe that he did indeed put those offers on the table.
WHY he did is open to interpretation, to Han’s Solo’s point. But I have a hard time thinking he didn’t make the offers at some point.
I’m open to the viewpoint that he made them knowing full well that they wouldn’t be taken up and he’d be proven to be the more “reasonable” person in the media. I’m also open to the viewpoint that he made them in seriousness because he truly believes that Entitlement Cuts are needed or inevitable.
I have not made up my mind on this other than I’m pretty sure the offer was made.
Sasha
There is one more option: In utterly blind denial and welding the scales to their eyes to prevent themselves from seeing.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Chris #31:
IIRC Hannah Arendt wrote the same thing, almost word for word, in her preface to The Origins of Totalitarianism.
And reading the post and comments I too was thinking along Godwin-like lines. A democratic society that willingly hands vast power over to truly crazy people is in deep trouble. We aren’t there yet, but we are definitely standing on the edge of the abyss, kicking at the rocks on the lip and watching them fall into the void beneath.
Berial
I believe you meant to type; “If we all recognize that the conservatives are nuts and their ideas are disastrous,”
Just a heads up on a typo. It stood out to me.
John O
I’m not at all sure what Obama believes about entitlement cuts, but I sure do see this the same way otherwise.
Calouste
We already knew you are a troll, you don’t have to put it up in neon lights.
bemused
Nellcote@70,
The next question is why so many still believe, believe, believe the lies. Beaten spouse syndrome? Fickle voters pissed that Dems can’t kiss their booboos all better? Born with authoritarian (Bob Altemeyer, “The Authoritarians”) DNA? It’s still a mystery to me.
What a strange couple of days. The GOP imploding every few hours and the behemoth Murdoch empire burning down. Is this really happening? Is it possible that the thumb in the dike can’t hold back the water anymore?
NamelessGenXer
@Jim C.
Dude, I can feel your blood pressure rising right through your words. Going forward, do you think it’s healthy to get so pissed off over the Kabuki? Politics is not for the faint-hearted.
Jim C.
@bemused
Indoctrination? Worked in Mass Effect.
I’m going to chalk it up to Republicans beating Democrats to the punch a few times over the past decades in terms of messaging. Whether it was talk radio or the creation and implementation of Fox News, the right has, generally, done a better overall job of seeing the “next big thing” in terms of media and beating the left to the punch.
Hopefully seeing that change with the current generation. Left seems to be doing quite well in terms of the Internet Age news sources.
Rome Again
Small nitpick, John (Great rant, the best I’ve seen from you, I think):
I think you meant to say they ARE disastrous. Otherwise, perfectly stated. :)
I see Berial at 82 got it too. Thanks!
Ash Can
@Jim C.: And you’ll notice that, in those remarks about spending cuts, Obama never said anything about benefit cuts. Furthermore, he’s always taken a hard line against benefit cuts. Spending cuts are not the same as benefit cuts (or, to use your own words, entitlement cuts). That was the whole point of the arguments in the comment thread on the post you cited.
General Stuck
Yes, and no doubt in hopes that some sanity would break out before it finally did, even if wrapped in panic – from senate wingers who are attached at the hips with folks like the Koch brothers, and all the other plutocrats.
Sanity did not prevail, and with the fervor of street corner preachers, folks like Cantor, led the flock into the corral, and Obama closed the gate, coming off the sidelines with. Okay dudes, you want to tackle the debt now, then fair is fair, as then he uttered the magic words of “tax increases” also too. It was over after that, and Mitch knew it, and threw in the towel.
That does nothing to solve the bub fuck crazy running the House of Reps, however, and we will repeat this nonsense more as the election nears.
Slowbama
They are not technically crazy at all, they just seem that way to people who don’t understand that a significant minority of white Americans will happily eat tree bark and shoe leather as long as the black family down the street has less tree bark and shoe leather.
As a reference point I refer you to the unpleasantness of 1861-65 and the century of largely self-imposed economic and cultural depression which followed.
Once you understand this it all becomes much much clearer.
JPL
On one of the news channels last night, Alan Simpson indicated that the some Republicans were not acting as patriots. Well, just duh, you think.
Jim C.
@Ash Can
I’m aware of that. Is why I said this earlier:
“or maybe there’s some other reason such as drug reimportation from Canada allowing for “cuts” in Medicare in terms of total cost to taxpayers without sacrificing benefits” (Comment#50)
I don’t, on the other hand, understand how you can get a $4 trillion dollar deficit reduction deal over 10 years with only 15% being increased tax revenues and find the rest of the $3.4 trillion in savings WITHOUT benefit cuts.
Making programs more efficient (such as by finding cheaper drug options) only will take you so far. Personally I kind of lean towards the “he knew it wouldn’t pass” thing, but I think people here are being a bit stubbornly closed minded in assuming WITHOUT QUESTION that Obama wasn’t the one really willing and wanting to do actual cuts to these programs.
bemused
Jim C.
I think the old, white conservatives are definitely losing ground on social issues, environment, energy & more.
Jim C.
@bemused
Without a doubt. Progress made on things like, for example, acceptance of gays and bisexuals has been pretty damn fast by historical standards. In 2004 it was a huge liability, potentially costing Kerry the election.
Six years later and now it’s Republicans running away from the issue as fast as they can. Makes me smile.
Linda Featheringill
danimal #64
I think that the turning point came when the administration, with Biden hosting the negotiations, was offering something like 85/15, and then Cantor walked out. He walked out on Biden. He dissed Biden. And nobody in the Republican party gave Cantor heck for that.
I suspect that you can get away with dissing Obama but you can’t get away with treating his people like shit.
So at about that time, Obama’s position hardened.
Cantor’s actions were, of course, rude and childish. But nobody in the Republican party stood up and gave him heck for it. So phooey on the whole bunch.
RossinDetroit
I think it’s this simple: BHO or someone in the WH Political Office determined that if the GOP agreed to a deal with one iota of tax the Taxed Enough Already Party would primary the fuck out of their already weak asses. So he offered them a deal they wanted so bad knowing they didn’t dare touch it.
To make them his bitches.
Anyway, that’s the explanation that’s going to make me smile as I go to sleep tonight.
bemused
Jim C.
Hence the frantic push to get as many of their agendas into law as fast and hard as they can. They’ve got to know on some level, even those who truly believe the majority of the country is with them, that time is not on their side.
Jim C.
@Linda Featheringill
I think you may be onto something there.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/debt-talks-show-growing-gap-between-white-house-gop/2011/07/12/gIQAbKuiAI_story_1.html
“The two sides then sparred over the advantages of a mid-size deal that would reduce borrowing by roughly $2.4 trillion over the next decade vs. a grander, $4 trillion debt-reduction compromise Obama and Boehner had been trying to forge in private last week.
Since pulling the plug on the deal, Boehner has been largely silent in the meetings, leaving House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to present details of the House’s position. On Tuesday, people in both parties said, Obama tried to reestablish Boehner’s primacy.
Cantor, who is advocating a smaller deal, at one point demanded that Obama offer the details of his vision for a “grand bargain.”
“Where’s your paper?” he asked angrily.
Obama snapped back: “Frankly, your speaker has it. Am I dealing with him, or am I dealing with you?””
I think Obama thinks, for whatever reason, that he can work with Boehner to find some sort of workable solution and not with Cantor. Hard to tell for certain, but I get the impression that Obama REALLY detests Cantor. Hell, I think BOEHNER detests Cantor.
Georgia Pig
I understand the outrage at the masters of the universe, but I wonder if, in many ways, they are the audience that matters right now. I guess the 2008 panic didn’t get through to them, but it happened a short enough time ago that this debt ceiling crisis may be dredging up unpleasant memories and, this time, Uncle Sam won’t be able to ride to the rescue. Is it too much to hope that, if Obama prevails here and pulls their nuts from the fire, the “Job Creators” might start creating some fucking jobs and leave the politics to the politicians? Or are things so fucking fractured at the top that it’s hopeless, i.e., all of them are just like Rupert Murdoch and will do anything for a short-term power trip, no matter how nihilistic or degrading? The juxtaposition of these events is fascinating.
KS in MA
Slowbama 91:
Well said.
Jim C.
@bemused #98
And THAT’S the thought that will make ME smile as I go to sleep tonight. As the demographics continue to move against them, as minorities continue becoming a larger and larger share of the voting electorate, Republicans may well lose this war permanently.
Rome Again
James E Powell @ 40:
Greed is a never-ending quest.
FlipYrWhig
@ Jim C.:
Jim, it would make our discussion a whole lot easier if you could adopt the phrasing of “benefit cuts” rather than just “cuts.”
Also, this, from the quote —
— just totally ignores that there is, in fact, complicated politics around the implications of “doing nothing” with regard to the further continuation of the Bush tax rates, which, lest we forget, had already created major fissures _among Democrats_ the last time it came up.
On the other hand, the passage you quoted sure makes it sound like Obama’s offers were rather akin to key areas of the Simpson-Bowles recommendations.
WereBear
Just FYI, Rick Perry’s stadium event was covered by Rachel Maddow. In your wildest dreams you likely couldn’t make this stuff up.
So any speculation about their reality handlng probably underestimates just how whacked they are.
elftx
had to post to my fb page..if you want me to remove..well tuff…I want certain idjuts to see this..
oh and thanks for my lol of the day..as scary truthfull your post is
FlipYrWhig
@ Jim C.:
Who doesn’t detest Cantor? He’s obviously a weasel, yet just as obviously he thinks he’s both a badass and hot shit. That’s a terrible combination.
Danny
I think a measure of caution about what concessions actually were made by Obama, Biden et al would be prudent. Now that we all know what game the president has been playing we should acknowledge that it has been in his best interest all along not to contradict reports of him conceding stuff to the GOP, even if those reports were not entirely accurate.
All figures thrown around are unconfirmed stuff, mostly by anonymous sources with their own agendas.
As a counter balance, here’s what the conservatives at the NRO have been writing today:
Jonah Goldberg:
Rich Lowry:
Yuval Levin:
So Obama basically managed to stick to his “balanced approach” from the deficit speech in april but get everyone to report it as him having offered the republicans the country and them walking away out of intransigence. Neat trick.
A little faith in the president. Sorely lacking.
Jim C.
@FlipYrWhig
Apologies. I’ll clean up my terminology a bit in future posting to make it clearer what I’m referring to.
I agree that the politics around doing nothing and just letting the Bush tax cuts expire are difficult. After all, Obama ended up giving an extension on all of them last time when he campaigned on ending the ones to those making more than $250K per year.
However I think the politics work a little better for when they come up for extension again. All of the focus on the deficit issue over the months since the Republicans came to power is going to make it harder for them to argue against that “reasonable middle ground” of only extending them for people making less than $250K per year.
Polling I’ve seen seems to support that the electorate is supportive of letting the Bush tax cuts expire on those making more than that. Heck, Obama thought that position was popular enough that he ran on it last time.
My guess? I think that he kicked the can down the road a bit last time those Bush tax cuts came up because he knew he’d have to run for reelection, but once he’s won reelection and doesn’t have to worry about it anymore, he’s going to be very happy to let AT LEAST the Bush Tax Cuts on the upper-income brackets expire and maybe even veto an extension if it comes to it.
Cat Lady
It’s been remarkable to watch the country go through a nervous breakdown after electing Obama in a landslide, and it’s remarkable watching him calmly preside over it like he’s been expecting it all along, which I suspect he has. His demeanor on election night I will never forget – it foreshadowed his understanding that an unmooring, the likes of which hadn’t been seen by these generations had just happened, and he was now the captain of a ship that was going to have a lot of passengers blowing holes in the hull. He’s remarkable, and like ThymeZone said yesterday, there isn’t anyone else I would rather have as captain of our ship right now.
General Stuck
John Boehner continues his mission to talk and act like an idiot, raising the projection threat level to a fashionable Burnt Orange.
Jeebus, Boehner and Cantor both have each others footprints on their backsides from all the walking out shit, and reneges from their own proposals, often from the day before. And Obama lacks resolve. I sense a hint of the white man small dick syndrome, whinging about his lack of package delivery stamina.
For my part, sometimes I hate having the libtard bleedy heart, when I start to feel sorry for these assholes and their pitiful posturing.
harlana
Calling republicans “crazy” is an insult to sociopaths.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@ Jim C
@ Calouste
Y’all ought to get married.
harlana
Next meme which occurred to me this morning (I’m a little slow) just got played out on Hardball a few hours ago: America = Greece and Obama did it.
Chris
@ ThatLeftTurnInABQ,
I didn’t know that, and I’ve read some of her stuff. Maybe I just picked up the general subtext from there – I do remember thinking that a lot of what she was describing had echoes in the Tea Party Movement (this was back in 2009).
bemused
Cat Lady,
Well said.
harlana
Calling republicans “crazy” is an insult to all other sociopaths.
fixed
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Are we to understand that this is why President Obama negotiates with them and sometimes[sic] capitulates to them?
.
.
NamelessGenXer
@Jim C.
(shhh, don’t tell the repugs about generational dynamics)
Every day, another hateful Jim Crow throwback in a Free Medicaid scooter kicks it and is replaced by a freshly-minted 18 year-old, full of hope for his future, and his generation, which is indeed the most racially diverse ever.
OK, OK so only 73% of the young adults are hopeful, that’s enough. The spawn of the 27%ers have been raised without hope, and are doomed to live in paralyzing fear every second of their lives.
Jim C.
@Uncle Clarence Thomas
When you don’t have majorities in both houses of Congress anymore, then it’s kind of impossible to pass anything WITHOUT negotiating with them. And if you want to get something, then you usually need to give something back.
Whether you LIKE somebody or not, Obama can’t wave a magic wand and change the number of Democrats in the House of Representatives.
boss bitch
@Jim C.:
No Jim. You are just one of those people who refuse to let go of the lie(s) that Obama is stupid or a secret Republican or in some all out battle with Nancy Pelosi.
jazzgurl
Methinks they are still in the primal stages. They have not evolved!
NamelessGenXer
@WereBear
That is some fucked up shit that comes out of those “good Christians” mouths, init? FFRF filed a Federal Suit today to block this blatantly Unconstitutional bullshit.
http://ffrf.org/news/releases/federal-lawsuit-calls-gov.-perrys-prayer-association-illegal/
harlana
Tweety is flipping out
boss bitch
TPM is reporting another walk out.
Jim C.
@121
Talking Points Memo
The Nation
Nate Silver
Ezra Klein
Jonathon Chait
Keith Olbermann
Huffington Post
Sources that reported the exact same thing: Obama made a very, VERY slanted offer towards the Republicans. These are NOT right-wingers claiming that the offer happened.
That many sources I, more or less, trust and I’m going to come to the conclusion that such an offer took place and move onto WHY Obama made the offer.
Just a few links from a very quick search.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-budget-deals-of-reagan-bush-clinton-and-obama-in-one-chart/2011/07/06/gIQA98w11H_blog.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/obama-medicare-eligibility-age_n_894833.html
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/house-republicans-no-tax-stance-far-outside-political-mainstream/
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/sources-house-dems-stunned-by-white-house-proposal-read-obama-the-riot-act.php
http://www.thenation.com/blog/161846/entitlements-table-obama-plans-go-big-budget-deal
Jeffro
I like how the Republicans are quickly shifting to “well, he really wasn’t offering anything big or new”, as if $4T in cuts or 85/15 cuts/tax increases wasn’t big or new.
And of course, if he really wasn’t offering anything big or new, if the $4T was a mirage, then they have to admit they’re even dumber for not calling his bluff.
Either way, I think the 11-dimensional chess metaphor probably overstates the whole thing. It’s poker, pure and simple. Insert your own comment about the GOP’s constant, 100% reliable ‘tells’ here.
Ruckus
So yes. They are crazy. Batshit, bugfuck crazy. Anyone who treats them as a serious party is either a wingnut welfare recipient or just plain stupid.
I see my long held position is gaining ground. Hopefully the delta is getting bigger by the day.
Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill
TPM is reporting that the talks “ended abruptly” today.
My political blog feed is full of “Eric Cantor is an ass” stories today; apparently sharp boy took the proposals on the table weeks ago, and presented them to the GOP House side as agreed-upon cuts. This riled them up by presenting, in point of fact, a lie — that Biden (Obama wasn’t in these negotiations) had agreed to these cuts, when in fact:
1) He had offered them, not said “we’ll lock these cuts down”, and
2) He offered them in the context of increasing revenue, as Obama would do later. As Ezra Klein puts it:
When normally mellow political observers like James Fallows and Jonathan Bernstein are calling you out, you know you’ve fucked up good.
I suspect we’ll find the two above points are connected.
birthmarker
Jim C.-
Cantor reminds me of the kid in elementary school who always begged to be the name-taker when the teacher had to leave the room.
Batocchio
Home run. Thanks.
John O
LOL, birthmarker. Yes, the man’s entire persona seems to be built around a spanking.
demz taters
Medical supplies right to your front door is the new tyranny.
dollared
https://balloon-juice.com/2011/07/13/of-course-theyre-crazy/#comment-2669882
This. I don’t care about Bachmann, or 21% of the 27%. It the Kochs and the Hedge Fund guys. If it all comes apart, the Kochs will be fine, because people can’t live without gasoline and toilet paper. And the Hedge Fund guys will short the T Bill and make $10B while seniors die of starvation alone in their apartments.
And they created this monster, artificially. Gave it money, buses and an endless supply of PR flacks to drive the CNNs to cover it and make it live. All for the fucking carried interest exemption and for three points less on marginal rates. Fuck them. They are traitors to our nation.
The Dangerman
Bats And Bugs United Press Release
13/July/2011
For Immediate Release
As a spokesman for bats that shit and bugs that fuck, I would ask for you to immediately cease and desist comparing those crazy fuckers in DC to my clients. Thank you kindly.
Dr. Loveless
Han’s Solo @54:
Every time I’m reminded of that, I think of this:
“You still think you can control them?”
SnarkyShark
I have pondered this and know the answer.
They have come to realize that in spite of their great fortune they can still never be happy.
Therefore it becomes imperative that they spend their wealth making the rest of us as miserable as they are.
RossInDetroit
I’ll take a shot at that.
It is not enough to win. All others must lose.
harlana
Remember the 90’s (before they developed their persecution complex) when it was “cool” to be a republican?
mr. whipple
Cantor ate his boogers and got beat up on the playground for being a dick.
ABL
I think I love you.
::lights cigarette::
Linda
Yes, RossinDetroit, it’s not enough that they win. All others must lose, and must do so in a humiliating fashion that doesn’t leave a fig leaf of dignity. And that is their undoing. The offer Obama put up would have been a huge, real victory for them. The president would have been vilified by the left, the taxes would have been less than their overlords hand out in hotel tips, and huge economic losses for the poor and middle class would have been theirs. All they had to do was say yes. And they couldn’t do it. They believe that they aren’t winning unless their opponents are crushed.
Regarding the press’s take on them. Matt Taibbi was scolded for saying, way back in January, that teabaggers were crazy, and the pundit who did it said, in effect, that you couldn’t say that about a powerful group. In other words, you can say that about impotent groups, but can’t speak truth to power, when it would really matter. That’s why the media are a force for nothing worthwhile.
mikefromArlington
I think this is your best post yet.
Linda
BTW, here’s a link about my previous posting on Matt Taibbi:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/david-gergen-clutches-pearls-over-mat
slag
Let the eagle soar, John! Just let it soar.
metalgirl
@General Stuck #27 – well said. You and me both are from there and it’s hard to claim :)
dead existentialist
https://balloon-juice.com/2011/07/13/of-course-theyre-crazy/#comment-2669971
Slow, that was sweet! Ding, ding and all that. (Yeah, I’m late to the thread, but I want to stand in solidarity with your statement,)
GoodOl'WhatsisFace
Spot-on, Mr. Cole.
As to your conclusion, blogger Driftglass has been cranking out several columns/week for the past numerous years, addressing this very theme (and targeting Bobo in particular).
Thanks for the good writing & keep up the great work!
Cheers –