While we’re hating on Boehner, Obama and Joe Walsh (the Teabagger not the Eagle), I’ll just point out that this kind of transgression is just catnip to the DC media, so we’re going to see a shitload more of it. It’s a guaranteed quick media hit to violate some supposedly venerated norm. By the time Obama’s SOTU rolls around, the gallery will probably be half-empty as every minor teabagger back-bencher decides to stage his own mini-walkout to show his independence or make whatever stupid point he thinks he’s making. His real intention — to get a story in his local paper — won’t be mentioned. Instead, we’ll have a hundred different villagers telling us this town just ain’t what it used to be.
And, fuck yes, there’s a racial undertone to it, and that makes it even more sexy to the beltway media. A story that requires no research and lets them talk about race without really talking about race? That Christmas tree is going to be coming out of the basement regularly.
Comrade Javamanphil
If Obama hadn’t been born half-black, Joe Walsh wouldn’t need to boycott the speech so I conclude both sides are to blame. I can haz TV gig now?
MattF
You’re dead-on about the sheer laziness of the political press corps. Now everyone knows who Walsh is, and that’s the perfect bit of information that everyone really needed to know. Bah.
General Stuck
Obama being president, is like an expedition for exploring the darker corners of the American closet.
It is going to get worse, then who knows what comes next.
ET
And Rep. Walsh thinks Obama will care? Boy does he have an overinflated sense of his own importance – even amongst Congress critters.
Blue Galangal
What I want to know is why Boehner didn’t call his damn caucus together and say, look, we’re already getting hammered for being immature. I want you all to show up, on time, sit on your hands if you want, but keep your damn mouths shut. And that includes you, Joe. The penalty for noncompliance – you won’t be considered for any committees while I’m Speaker.
arguingwithsignposts
@General Stuck:
Someone will call the sheriff “near.”
Hopefully, that’s the farthest it will go.
arguingwithsignposts
@Blue Galangal: You assume Boehner has any control over that thing he calls a “caucus.”
KCinDC
@Blue Galangal, why? Because he wouldn’t be speaker for long if he went against the prevailing idiocy in his party.
nevsky42
@Blue Galangal: The 2010 results seem to illustrate that little pissypants gestures like this get rewarded with (re)election…
Blue Galangal
@arguing with signposts and KCinDC – yeah, sorry, that must be the crazy in me, expecting a semblance of maturity. Cantor’s really in charge anyway, I forgot.
geg6
I thought this was a pretty damn smart take from a TPM reader:
talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/09/another_perspective.php?ref=fpblg
RossInDetroit
Boehner is only the leader because he’s managed to stay out in front of the stampede. They’re not actually following him and haven’t been for a long time.
IMO this is a significant change. The GOP always had party cohesion before and could accomplish things when in the minority that the fractious Dems couldn’t when they were in the majority. Now the GOP can’t reliably be herded by the leaders because the TP-ers won’t fall in line. Assuming an Obama win in 2012 that’s only going to get worse for them.
kth
Walsh is a deadbeat dad, also.
Baud
I think a lot of the criticism of the DC press corp is spot on, but it loses some of its punch when the critics themselves get caught up in the same inanity (ScheduleGate, for example). If there is one thing I admire about the right, it’s their ability to shrug off distractions.
Will Reks
Walsh’s district is quite winnable for a Democrat. Hope there’s a decent candidate running.
scav
Speaking of Monkeys with bylines and/or pulpits with microphones, when do we get the dissertation on just what the Aleutians are always doing to piss off god so much? At least he called off the tsunami watch so this must have only been a venial sin. Given the population density in that part of the world, we should be able to narrow it down to who’s humpday was especially good.
ETA: I like that: RIng of Sin. It has possibilities. . .
RossInDetroit
The way I look at political reporting is that there’s actually very little of it going on. Most of the media coverage of politics is just entertainment. It’s intended to hold eyeballs until the next ad. If you cherrypick out the 5% of the political coverage that’s actually reporting relevant events and providing analysis you can get a good idea of what’s going on. But in the mass media the signal is drowned out by noise.
someguy
I can’t recall another instance of Congress blowing off the President when he directed them to convene in joint session. It’s the clearest example of racism I’ve seen from this Congress yet, but I’m sure it’s not the last of it, or the worst of it.
pamelabrown
@Baud: I agree with most of your statement. However, the right doesn’t need to shrug off distractions when they spend most of their time creating them.
Culture of Truth
You are dead on, as the above commenter said, and there will be Villagers whining that Obama promised to unite DC but HASN’T DONE IT and wingnuts crying that because other winguts did show up for the speech that proves Obama FAILED TO LEAD !!11!!
shortstop
It’s hard to fully express how worthless a human being Joe Walsh is. He really is an amalgam of every objectionable characteristic and trait. My recovering-Republican mom (cleanly and soberly Democratic since 2000!) is looking forward to working the phones against him next year. He’s going to have a tough time winning the primary against Hultgren, who’s also a primo asshole; the redistricting has put them up against each other.
John PM
Walsh better enjoy this while he can, because he is going to get his ass handed to him in 2012, no matter what the Congressional map looks like. He wins his district in a low turnout election by 300 votes and thinks that he is the man. As someone else said, Walsh is a deadbeat, in many different ways.
iriedc
Joe Walsh:
Walks out on his wife, abandons his kids. Walks out on his President, abandons his country.
The political ads write themselves. If his opponents can’t beat him shame on them and on his electorate.
Villago Delenda Est
@Blue Galangal:
Boner would never do such a thing, because it would create a movement to make Eric Cantor Speaker.
Culture of Truth
“Obama should stop making speeches and go out and talk to people!”
JGabriel
I think the behavior of the media here is even more disappointing than the Republicans.
These are petty, self-interested insults to the presidency and all Americans. Yet, instead of reporting it that way, the press is rewarding the GOP — by reporting it as a contest of wills between the House Republicans and a President the media characterizes as weak (per the GOP’s memos), instead of as the belligerent, bratty, unacceptable behavior of a GOP placing partisan interest above country that it really is.
Disgusting.
.
OzoneR
@General Stuck:
Which is why I think ultimately the country will decide “Sorry Obama, we like you and we think you’re ok, but we just can’t deal with the ugliness anymore, so we’re just going to give them what they want”
Culture of Truth
It’s beyond racism. It’s Assholism.
cleek
wait, aren’t we still at war? doesn’t this kind of disrespect project weakness and instability, which emboldens our enemies and endangers our troops?
oh, that’s right: 1/20/2008 changed everything.
japa21
Walsh isn’t even going to be running in the same district next year. He is probably going to try to out TP another TPer who won in 2010. His current district has been reconfigured and there are two quite good Dems contesting for the primary. Either one would be great. And either one should win easily.
Walsh is trying to position himself for the primary and he probably feels this ups his credentials. If anything, it does the opposite.
singfoom
Drama queen congressman creates drama, village misunderstand and square the drama, the American people….don’t even notice.
arguingwithsignposts
@Culture of Truth:
Wait, assholism is beyond racism?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@General Stuck:
And for everyone even marginally to the left of Ben Nelson, this is not only enough reason to support and campaign for his reelection, but to cover his back. We will not be able to tackle anything like poverty in this country until we handle the issue of race and sex.
Culture of Truth
@JGabriel:
And if Obama changes his tone of voice, Mark Halperin will call him a “dick.”
Zifnab
@RossInDetroit:
Lulwhut? I think the current popular Boehner quote after the last debt ceiling debate was “I got 98% of what I asked for”.
Boehner doesn’t have his caucus in hand, but he doesn’t really need to when his policy boils down to “Say ‘no’ repeatedly to everything the President offers”.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
It’s the Tea Party. Racism and assholism on steroids.
RobertB
No surprises here, this is Bitch Slap Politics 101.
Baud
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
That’s what normal people would do. Apparently, we are not normal people.
Sam Houston
@Villago Delenda Est: Systemic Assholism? Sounds like a public health crisis!
RossInDetroit
@Zifnab:
It’s significant because that’s all they can do. The only wide support he can muster is for doing nothing. Now, if you’re the President and you want to do SOMETHING this is a problem. But I don’t think Boehner can raise support for any initiatives of their own because the GOP is now divided between old style party unity machine politicians and the new crazy TP-ers who have no obligation to go along.
I may be wrong but I don’t see Boehner being able to herd that heterogenous bunch in any meaningful positive direction.
Culture of Truth
@arguingwithsignposts: Yes because Walsh is seemingly an asshole to everyone, even his kids.
General Stuck
@OzoneR:
I’ve been saying this for a couple of years now. It is the wingnut’s number one political tactic for regaining power. I call it the Lizard Brain Solution. A sometimes outright, but mostly Subliminal drone with a single message to the primitive brain of voters. “If you think we are crazy now, vote for Obama and watch us get really crazy” May well work, also too. We shall see.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@geg6: It’s an absolutely spot-on take.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Baud: I’m not sure normal people would do it. It requires a lot of confrontation with people that you won’t agree with. It’s the right thing to do, but that’s not always easy.
Zifnab
@RossInDetroit:
I think you’re assuming he wants to. Boehner just wants power, and that means claiming the White House and Senate for the GOP in ’12. Once he’s got a rubber stamp, it’ll be party like 2002 all over again.
The Tea Party will be more than happy to abolish the EPA, gut Medicare and Social Security, cut corporate taxes and raise taxes on “those people who aren’t paying anything”. I’m sure there are a few things – like bank bailouts and immigration – he’ll have trouble with. But who gives a shit? They’ll all be so busy raping the economy for the last bloody red cents in the couch cushions that no one will mind.
Linda Featheringill
@geg6: #11
I followed your link and read that comment. Very interesting.
I am not AA but even I can see the racism in the lack of respect shown to the prez.
demz taters
@Will Reks: Someone in the comments mentioned Tammy Duckworth.
Davis X. Machina
@General Stuck:
@Baud:
Classic tantrum-and-response behavior. On the left and right. Make the noise stop. Screw justice, the hell with equity, never mind even if it makes sense. Just make the noise stop.
We’re a nation of bad parents, and with the GOP — and their mirror-image — we have the children we deserve.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Villago Delenda Est: It’s the fucking Confederacy. I know you guys would like to not accept that, but trust me, black folks recognize them from a long ways off.
“They are who we thought they were,” period full stop.
Emma
@OzoneR: And then they will wonder why there’s going to be hell to pay sooner or later. The kind that will make the civil rights movement “troubles” (as they see it) seem tame.
kindness
(The other Joe Walsh) I first started to dig Joe Walsh when he was in James Gang. From there I went on to buy all his solo albums and then the Eagles albums. In honesty I was buying the Eagles before Joe so I’m not sure that made much a difference.
When Joe joined the Eagles, me & several friends discussed, more than once, whether the Eagles were going to be Joe’s back up band or if Joe was going to sublime himself into the group. Eh…. doesn’t matter now. Glad Joe’s kicked his drug habit and has a good life once again. Life’s Been Good after all.
OzoneR
@Emma:
Then you’ll understand why I couldn’t give two shits if Republicans get rid of Medicare.
Jay in Oregon
@kth:
In a just world, every mention of Joe Walsh in the media would be preceded by the words “deadbeat dad”.
“Deadbeat dad and House Republican Joe Walsh of Illinois…”
Baud
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I can’t see any group of people taking the venom that the GOP has given to liberals for over 40 years now and not doing whatever it takes to strike back when they have the opportunity. For some reason, the left doesn’t seem to be able to sustain that reaction.
arguingwithsignposts
@Baud: You don’t know the freedom riders, then. Seriously, people have been taking shit for a lot longer than 40 years.
Baud
@arguingwithsignposts: I know of the freedom riders, but not much of the details, I admit.
You’re right that people have been taking shit for over 40 years. 40 years is really the time period in which, IMHO, liberals stopped fighting back effectively.
shortstop
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko: And it makes the lily-white “Weyull, I think black people really feel that Obama has let them down; I don’t know if they’re going to come out for him” stuff even more hilariously tin-eared.
General Stuck
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
What I’ve been preaching for years now. The reality is that we do have our first black president in office, and that is not business as usual for independent thinking liberals and dems.
It is a challenge unto itself, providing a solid left base of support for Obama, in the face of all he is facing from non dems and liberals, trying to undermine his presidency via race baiting, rejectionist posturing, and defaulting of responsibilities for governing with a black president, that is beyond just disagreement over policy with the republicans.
It should be obvious to liberals, this need to close ranks, more than usual, to create a bulwark of support for this particular president, and the challenges of race, that an Obama POTUS brings. Or at least, if dissenting, be more diligent to make it respectful and clear that support remains beyond the dissent. What we have now, are a bunch of tea baggers from the left, closing ranks with the wingnuts against the president of their own party. Sad
And highly counterproductive, with apparent complete ignorance or lack of care, to the fact that a president’s power to enact his agenda through congress, is primarily the perception of support that equals power in a democracy, especially from democrats and liberals. It is a feedback loop, that is certain to fail from its own devices.
Davis X. Machina
@General Stuck:
One half the politically engagé people in this country are pissed because Obama’s one of Them, and the other half are pissed because they assumed, since he’s one of Them, that he’s automatically one of them.
I noticed Obama’s hair’s going gray. The wonder is why it’s not already Mandela-white.
AlphaLiberal
Deficits!
Mnemosyne
Is DennisSGGM around? He had something interesting in one of the dead threads before it turned into a WP/Stuck slapfight:
I think this is interesting, because 90 percent of the time, the defense Republicans use for saying something despicable is that it was a joke. That’s always the defense for Limbaugh and Coulter — oh, they didn’t mean it, it was a joke, why are you taking things so seriously? That’s probably going to be the defense for the Glock auction in Arizona, too.
I do think the Democrats should be taking lessons from Sen. Franken, not necessarily to have him write jokes for them (delivering someone else’s jokes can be deadly dull if you don’t know what you’re doing) but because Franken is able to apply the setup-joke-punchline structure even when he’s talking about serious things.
AlphaLiberal
Obama could bust on the SEC corruption. That would be good for his poll numbers and, goshdarnit, good for America!
He would not need Congress to do so. It would fuck up the GOP, who would be defending the banksters.
Then he could recess appoint the new head of the consumer financial protection agency.
See? Can do! Fight back, Mr President!
OzoneR
@AlphaLiberal:
and here I thought people wanted jobs
FlipYrWhig
@AlphaLiberal:
Congress refuses to recess, specifically to thwart recess appointments.
Davis X. Machina
@OzoneR: They want armbullyfiresideLBJchatspulpittwisting.
The jobs are negotiable.
Wait, you said ‘people’ — not ‘people on the part of the internet that I read’.
Sorry.
FlipYrWhig
@Baud:
The answer isn’t that interesting. It’s that the left isn’t very big. For the left to get things to be anywhere left of center, they need to team up with people somewhere to their right, and those people don’t much like aggressive, angry lefties. So, because the alternative is sound and fury signifying nothing, people who are _temperamentally_ aggressive, angry lefties learn to grit their teeth and work out soul-deadening compromises with moderates and conservatives and gun-shy careerists for the sake of minimal progress.
FlipYrWhig
@Davis X. Machina: It doesn’t bother me that people who call themselves liberals and lefties want to hear more of the language of their tribe. It bothers me when they imagine that their language is the dominant language, and that their tribe is the dominant tribe.
ETA: Would that it were so. But it ain’t.
AlphaLiberal
Obama pulls back proposed smog standards, in victory for business
This clearly means teh liberals suk.
OzoneR
@AlphaLiberal:
you know, I like clean air as much as the next guy, but you’d have to be completely clueless to not know businesses cut jobs to pay EPA penalties. The answer isn’t to fine them for polluting, its something else (cap and trade) because they’ll just pollute, pay the fine and fire someone, which means you get A.) dirty air and B.) unemployed people.
AlphaLiberal
@FlipYrWhig:
You poor person. To be so hounded by fictitious phantasms!
That is not what liberals are saying. Liberals are saying “grow a pair” and “fight back!”
And “you can’t beat something with nothing.”
Obama has capitulated to the rhetoric of the right wing – DEFICITS! AUSTERITY! We want him to, instead, enunciate a DIFFERENT economic plan. One that actually fucking works.
But you know that. You’re just dishonestly misrepresenting what we say.
See today’s jobs report. Obama pivoted to deficits, thinking that would be political salvation. How did that work in 2010? Voters don’t give a rat’s ass about deficits. We want JOBS!
After spending binge, White House says it will focus on deficits
This was bad economic policy and bad politics. But, hey, if you think it’s so fucking brilliant, defend it!
OzoneR
@AlphaLiberal:
So why in HELL did they vote for candidates who said “We’ll create jobs by cutting the deficit?”
Because they care about jobs, and think cutting the deficit creates them, and did long before Obama was in office.
I also notice you said “voters don’t” followed by “we” as if you speak for the voters of America.
AlphaLiberal
@OzoneR:
Thank you for channeling the Chamber of Commerce. Please provide evidence to back your claim. Really, it’s absurd. There are many ways to pay fines and layoffs are not among them.
Really, this is the stuff of brainwashing.
Also, do you think there are any costs associated with pollution? Hm’kay? Like maybe health costs? Maybe economic costs? Lost work time and productivity? Increased health care costs?
Pollution is not some great economic bonanza. Pollution is a drag on the economy and is waste made manifest and harmful.
FlipYrWhig
@AlphaLiberal:
That’s not “liberal.” That’s just misbegotten pop-psych bullshit about masculinity.
Blatantly false. Again. Try to read some actual statements of Obama’s, not the ones you imagine he must have said. It’s like every morning you pick out a pair of tinted glasses and then complain that everything you see has a funny color.
Marc
@AlphaLiberal:
I read this a bit more in depth, and it’s not an obvious call. First, the difference between the proposed levels and the current ones isn’t that large. But there can be technical difficulties associated with dropping pollution levels below some thresholds – which can cause drastic cost increases. Sometimes these are needed, but other times the science doesn’t obviously distinguish between, say, 70 and 75 parts per billion. And that’s exactly where economic, as opposed to environmental, concerns become relevant.
Obama has actually been very good on environmental issues, especially where he has control. See for example the EPA pressing ahead with CO2 rules, or changes in required light truck mileage standards. The fact that there was never even majority support for climate change legislation in the Senate doesn’t change that.
(I’m aware of the recent pipeline issue. I agree that the tar sands are a climate change disaster, but if that is your objection you should say precisely that, not use technical pipeline siting issues as a fig leaf.)
FlipYrWhig
@AlphaLiberal:
Voters don’t understand that for the government to create jobs means worsening the deficit. They “want jobs” but don’t want those jobs to be created with “government spending.” They’re confused and a bit dim. But that’s who votes. Kind of an issue. One not solved with codpiece-stuffing antics.
OzoneR
@AlphaLiberal:
If, maybe, you stopped attacking for a few seconds and fucking listen, you’ll see that I agree with you.
But businesses need to beat regulations and the best way to do it is make common people suffer because of them, so they blame people like you, and that’s why these stupid fines, while done for a good reason, don’t fucking work.
They don’t care. Gives businesses a good reason to force workers to pay more for their healthcare, or not offer any at all. Whose gonna stop them? unions?
It’s also cheap.
Marc
The comments over at Daily Kos are a good illustration of the hive mind at work there. I’d hope to see some discussion of whether this is a sound decision or not – you know, talking about how sound the science is in establishing the threshold; what the relevant costs are as a function of threshold; what the nature of the upcoming review is.
Maybe the new regulations are technically sensible, maybe they needed to be looked at again. As a scientist the difference isn’t obvious.
But the hive mind on the left has a story about Obama, damn it, and they’re not going to stop and establish whether this change is actually harmful. It’s about taking sides, and any action like this is showing incorrect tribal sensibilities.
FlipYrWhig
@Marc: Yup. There are many genuine complaints about Obama policies, and then there’s the overarching meta-complaint, which is “He should sound like us more.”
les
@AlphaLiberal:
Ah, you’re that fake liberal guy who hasn’t listened to Obama speak in the last 4 years. Good work–consistency in error will take you far.
les
@les:
fucking paragraph blockquotes, how do they work?
BDeevDad
A clever person is now posting on Twitter as TheJoeWalshKids
dogwood
@FlipYrWhig:
Don’t introduce facts into the discussion; it’s a waste of time.
Bruce S
Frankly, if I thought President Obama was someone this little weasel respected or thought worth listening to, I’d worry. Walsh is desperate to maintain some sort of coherence, and has been exposed as a total hypocrite. If this is the game the GOP wants to play, fine. It shaves points off of their credibility at the “not totally in the tank, but mostly dazed and confused” margin of support. And it pisses off liberals, African-Americans and folks who have any investment in the BS about an inherent virtue of “bipartisanship” – all of which are good things for Obama in 2012.
We can argue all day about whether Obama’s strategy is all it might be, but the reality is that the ascendance of cranks and crazies like Walsh into a highly-leveraged position within the GOP signals how far off the rails our political discourse has gone, and it severely constrains Obama’s options. This is a problem that goes beyond the GOP and into the ranks of conservative Democrats. The President can only attempt to manage this pig-fuck – he can’t transform it. And unless alternatives to Obama’s left can show grass-roots movement on the ground and clear shifts in public opinion, rather than blog posts and column inches, the critiques don’t much matter.
Given that they’re a Beltway presence, I welcome this kind of rank idiocy and reaction by sitting GOP congresstards. Any moves toward transparency are actually helpful.
Mnemosyne
@AlphaLiberal:
Wow, the WP isn’t even pretending to not be shilling for the right wing anymore, are they?
Of course, we already know that you have a tendency to pick up right-wing bullshit and broadcast it from the left. You should probably watch that.
Elie
@geg6:
Absolutely.
And its probably why when I see/read the disrespect for him on this blog and other blogs — I just go crazy. That so many of our own folks who are supposedly progressives/lefties, are so unaware of their tone in their comments and then get upset when they are not appreciated… I feel that I am being called “nigger”, everytime the President is disrespected.
Its beyond amazing these times that we are in….
Elie
I will also add that unlike many other Presidents, when there are administration decisions, they are usually directly atributed to Obama — personally. Everything his administration does or decides, whether he has any hand in it directly, is announced to the world as “Obama” dies so and so, or “Obama” fails to do so and so — like he personally does everything from scheduling his own appointments to every single decision put out by every agency….
johnsmith1882
Posted this in the other Walsh thread that seems to have died, and think it needs repeating:
I live in Illinois, and would just like to point out a few things about this Walsh guy. First of all, he has a very slim chance of getting reelected. He was one of the few teabag types to ride the wave into office in IL, defeating a blue dog, Melissa Bean, in a district that always goes republican. The district, made up of wealthy outer suburbs like Barrington and even further away places that are nice places to go fishing and camping, is 95% white. Bean voted for healthcare. So, basically, Walsh is in office because healthcare is socialism multiplied by satan.
The district has been split in half, and isn’t solely comprised of wealthy outer-burbs and nice places to go fishing any longer. Walsh will have to decide which district he will run in the next time, and is one of the plaintiffs in the suit against the redistricting done in IL.
Oh, did I mention that Walsh defeated Bean by a robust 290 votes?
So, he barely squeaked by a conservative democrat in a consistently conservative district, riding the wave of anti-healthcare sentiment, and now his district has been cut in half.
All his bluster is an attempt at earning street cred with the National right wing. A tale. Told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.
Whichever district he opts to run in, he won’t pass the sniff test. He will be primaried, he will have to explain his extremism and his deadbeat dad status and why he lost his driver’s license this year for letting his insurance lapse, and he will likely lose. Not that a republican won’t still be in the house representing that IL district, it just won’t be Walsh.
Which is a long way of saying: don’t let this idiot get in your head, just point at him and laugh. This thread got hijacked by Obama this and Obama that, when it has got nothing to do with him or the joint session he called that Walsh won’t be attending. A fool like Walsh can do some foolishness and that gets us fighting amongst ourselves? Don’t take the bait. Look at Walsh, give him the pffft that he deserves, and move on.
Bruce S
This is not helpful – there is a huge reservoir of racial resentment and overt racism that drives the Tea Partiers, Limbaugh, a bunch of the GOP congressional morons, etc. etc.
But to ascribe harsh political criticism of Obama from his left as part of the onslaught of racial attacks on the President is to go the route of attempting to put a halo around the office that doesn’t make any sense, in terms of Obama’s actual performance in office or historically. There was a lot of criticism of Clinton from the left that was hardly “respectful” but pretty much had the tone of typical angry political arguments. If Hillary were in office, every criticism of her wouldn’t be “sexist” although that was the tack taken by her political operatives and hard-core supporters against…Obama.
Maximally personalizing this stuff, one way or the other, doesn’t make any sense. It’s not helpful. Political fights are and always have been rough. Obama has proven himself able to deal with this stuff and put it in context. Of course, he’s taken some hits that are unprecedented, because he’s the first black man in office. But the attacks on Clinton were also unprecedented in their time. Just as the attacks on JFK were unprecedented because of his religion. But these guys weren’t in politics because they can’t handle tough criticism, some of which has a personal tone.
The thing that’s ironic is how personal the tone of the attacks here on anyone who doesn’t follow what I’ll indelicately call “the ABL Line” take. I can’t stand Jane Hamsher, but I don’t think she’s in it as a “grifter” for the money – and the suggestion insults my intelligence as much as it insults her. I’ve been called a “Firebagger” by a couple of insufferable assholes because I’m don’t worship at the feet of folks who assert that the President can do no wrong, or who lie about impacts of certain suggested policies such as changing the indexing of Social Security benefits (like The People’s View has done.)
This stuff is childish bullshit. It’s not a sign that you’re the “adult in the room” to ascribe the worst motives to people who disagree on issues – and often have the better arguments on matters of policy, even if the politics are more problematic – or who suggest that not advocating best policy might be an indication that one doesn’t actually believe in the best policy, or that constant advocacy of “compromise” as a principle might mean that your negotiating strategy isn’t optimal. The reality is that the President always and ever becomes the embodiment of his failures as well as his successes. It’s a unique position and rancor and hard hits come with the territory.
Also, the most prominent, newsworthy, “name-recognition” critics of the President that have couched their attacks in personalized and even bizarrely racialized terms happen to be African-American. Smiley and West are characters who have some significant following beyond relatively obscure blogs. I can’t stand either of these smarmy guys at this point, but their antics have far more impact than the “netroots” ranters. Which makes a bit of a hash of your attempt to turn every harsh critique of the President on the left into some sort of racial epithet that warrants a personal affront as a black person.
I see an awful lot of folks – both the knee-jerk critical and the knee-jerk defensive – as totally losing perspective, overly-personalizing political issues and tuning their POV into a hobby-horse they can’t come off of. To some extent, the loudest voices on either side are like mirror images of each other. None of this crap is actually helpful to the Democratic Party or strengthening a credible liberal agenda, which are my main concerns.
Bruce S
In the line about “the most prominent…critics” – the adjective, “left” should have been added. I was talking about critics grouped on what would be considered “the left” of the administration.
fuckwit
If the teabagger tantrum is about race, then Obama is following exactly in Dr. King’s footsteps in the way he’s handling it.
Keep your head high. Maintain dignity. Don’t get petty and NEVER whine. Take the beating! Take the fire-hosing! Take the dog-attack! Take the abuse with pride and dignity. Never return the violence. Come back for more and more. Never hit back. Never get defeatist either. Remain calm, reasonable, and positive. And keep marching, always keep marching.
That’s what Obama is doing. As for the people who keep calling Obama a “wimp”, would they have called Dr. King a wimp? Probably. Back in the day, plenty considered King’s methods wimpy.
Maybe they’d have preferred Brother Malcom instead.
I think there is a very good reason why Obama had the famous Norman Rockwell portrait of Ruby Bridges put up on the WH wall. He and his family and friends know goddammed well what the teabaggers are about.
That said, I’m tired of having to explain this at all. I am sick and tired of the media’s– and blogosphere’s– obsession with turning everything into horserace and “optics”. Don’t we have a fucking country to run? Why does every story have to be about whether this helps/hurts some politician or party, and who’s going to win or lose, who is up or down? Fucking A. We’ve got way too many sportscasters covering politics and too many sports fans following it as if it were a sport. It’s not a fucking game. This isn’t a reality show. It’s ACTUAL REALITY. Policy matters, substance matters. Doing the prudent, practical, necessary thing– even if it is unpleasant or even ideologically repugnant– because it is the prudent and practical and necessary thing, not because of its optics or how it affects the horserace or someone’s “base” or “independents” or whatever, matters.
I am very close to overdosing on politics. Our media is a cauldron of shit. I need another break. This shit is not fun or even interesting anymore. It’s just pissing me off.
Donut
I’m sorry, responding to the initial post, I am gonna hate on Joe Walsh of the Eagles. Your mileage may vary, but while not untalented, I find him to be kinda hack-ish and boring. That’s just me. ktxbai.
Bruce S
Please let’s not compare political attacks on the President of the United States – no matter how misguided or harsh – to being beaten or set upon by dogs or going to jail.
Obama is NOT in a position comparable to Dr. King or folks involved in radical social movements against governments or social oppression, as he himself noted in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
And yes, Malcolm X himself rather famously called out King for acting nonviolently, but he also had moments where he acknowledged they were both freedom fighters and that his role as an outsider and firebrand complemented and lent urgency – and legitimacy – to King’s own mission. Are we to choose between MLK and Malcolm X – is one a “wimp” or the other a “hater”? Or is political struggle – like most of life – complex and not easily reduced to single dimensions or bromides?
Also, policy does indeed matter, which is why it’s important to argue out differences over policy. You don’t always win the argument, but there’s no virtue in simply assuming that the White House – which has a very complex set of political and policy motives in any given situation, and brokers some very complicated interest groups – will advance the optimal agenda and that whatever comes out of a particular compromise or strategy was absolutely inevitable. Policy matters, but so does politics and we should see ourselves as agents in that process beyond cheer-leading for the President.
Don’t give Larry Summers and Tim Geithner the best seats in the executive house regarding economic policy and then compare the Chief Executive to Martin Luther King or assume that the agenda advanced was inherently “the best of all possible worlds.”
Elie
Well Bruce and whoever:
I do not consider the disrespect that Obama has been shown by some of you “principled critics” (ha!), to be particularly “helpful” either.
Take care of your own behavior and allusions Bruce and you will have no problem with me. Unless you are prepared to vouch for the behavior and language of your sidekicks, however, I would recommend that you stop. Anyone reading comments here lately will call you either unable to read or dishonest.
It IS personal to me what happens to Obama and the rest of the country. I live here. My fate is tied to whether we can bring sanity and meaning to our political existence in the United States.
My ancestors were drug here, humiliated and literally terrorized and imprisoned for a couple of hundred years or so. Our love of this country is a complex thing… we have laid our lives down for its principles, but know how fragile our wellbeing is in the hands of the majority and we always keep one eye open.
It was extremely jarring to me to read the comments from lefty and PUMA bloggers that profoundly disrespected Obama starting just days after this swearing in to office. For weeks and weeks I just could not believe it or understand why. I still don’t completely understand why, but it really doesnt matter. I am past that and just want y’all — whoever you are – to know, that I am totally fine with respectful and substantiated criticism of the President, but if I read the crap that I have read, laced with downright lies or inaccuracies, I am going to treat that commenter with a very personal and pointed, confrontational, nasty response.
If you are not doing that, and unless you are the appointed “spokesperson” for the professional Anti-Obama task force at BJ, tend to your own business.
OzoneR
@Bruce S:
I don’t know but you just did with this
that’s exactly the argument Malcolm X types would have used against Dr. King, that he was co-opted by forces he didn’t trust.
Comrade Kevin
@Zifnab:
and you take him at his word about that? Why would you believe anything he says, at all?
Bruce S
Ozone R – you’re scraping pretty hard. That was a remarkably stupid comment. Frankly, it was so off-the-wall in it’s tortured analogizing and twisty-turny “logic”, that I don’t know that there’s a response other than to point out it doesn’t make any sense.
You need to read up on both Martin and Malcolm.
Bruce S
Ellie – you’ve merely upped the bullshit ante. I don’t have any “sidekicks” and you are the one who in another thread conjured some “resentment” on my part toward Dr. King that was a figment of your imagination, at best. So, yes, Stop! Take care of your comments and you won’t have any problems from me. Meanwhile, my critique of your broad swipes stand.
Elie
@Bruce S:
You are right — I reread your comment and it did not refer to any others but yourself.
My apologies.
Been a hard 6 months and my frustration sometimes spills over.
Elie
Mnemosyne
@Bruce S:
You may want to read the link geg6 posted, if you haven’t already:
talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/09/another_perspective.php?ref=fpblg
I think that, unfortunately, you’re underestimating the amount of latent racism on the Democratic side. We had a whole batch of supposed liberals here the other day running around calling the president “Barry” and claiming that their imitation of Rush Limbaugh was the most lefty position they could take. So, yes, a lot of people — especially, but not only, African-Americans — are suspicious of a lot of the criticism of him that’s personal (he’s weak, he’s a closet Republican, etc.) because there does seem to be a racial edge to it.