The same metaphor, it seems to me, might apply to the G.O.P. pursuit of the White House next year. If the dog actually catches the car — the actual job of running the U.S. government — it will have no idea what to do, because the realities of government in the 21st century bear no resemblance to the mythology all ambitious Republican politicians must pretend to believe. And what will happen then?
Maybe we need to update the stupid/evil bit and add cynical?
YoohooCthulhu
This already happened. Has anyone looked at the Republican congress lately? Kevin McCarthy basically is running a frat out of Capitol Hill, and that’s the extent of the seriousness.
No One of Consequence
Why, what will happen then should be obvious to anyone paying a modicum of attention. Private interests will stand to gain a considerable amount of ground, at the expense of the public. Big government will be shown to be demonstrably incapable of handling the misery and malfeasance, and the rest of the World will stop paying attention and buying our debt.
The logical fallacy of alleged Citizens running for the highest position in the land with the express and stated purpose of *NOT* doing the job for which they would like for us to award them. (boggle)
If we leave things entirely to the states, then the richer and more well-run states will end up paying the costs of the foolishness and folly that are the poorer and more poorly-run states.
– NOoC
No One of Consequence
oh, and Mr. Cole and any other Little Feat heads out there, dunno if you are all aware of:
http://bt.etree.org/
You can get some pretty sweet bootlegs there, from bands that allow taping of shows, etc.
There is a pretty sweet 1978-09-19 concert that I am listening to right now.
“… time loves a hero…”
– NOoC
sukabi
“what will happen then?”
Ummmm, Krugman needs to revisit the period between Jan 20, 2001 and Jan 19, 2009 and multiply the outcome of that fu^king incompetent criminality by a factor of 10.
General Stuck
They will do what they did last time, set about to deregulate and get us into another dumbass foreign war, to distract long enough for the Cadillacs to drive away with the loot.
jrg
One of two things will happen:
1) In the “cynical and evil” scenario, the GOP leadership will cut taxes and spend like mad on everything from defense to entitlements, running up the debt even higher while the GOP base shove their fingers in their ears howling “LALALALA”, much like they did under the 8 years of Dubya.
2) In the “stupid” scenario, they will do exactly what they promise to do, and when granny McTeabagger stops getting the Medicaid payment for her nursing home, they’ll blame the fact she’s living under a bridge on thuh libruls.
Biff Longbotham
I don’t let my four year old son drive my car, in part, because he doesn’t understand the rules of the road and has a limited concept of actions/consequences. Likewise, the GOPsters need to have their grasping fingers kept away from what they would ruin through ignorance, malice, or magical thinking.
Biff Longbotham
@No One of Consequence:
Sounds like you’re describing Europe. ;-)
Villago Delenda Est
@General Stuck:
Yup, that’s pretty much it.
The deserting coward malassministration is the template for Rethug “governance” now.
carpeduum
and every day talking heads like Krugman undermine the current administration. So basically their musings about a GOPer administration combined with their (often illogical) attacks on the current administration becomes a self fullfillng prophecy.
I’m sure if Kthug endorsed Gingrich through a momentary lapes of sanity, lemming voters like Cole would obediently follow along.
middlewest
Republicans know exactly what to do when they take control of government: rob the place blind. It’s what they always do, and they do it well. They don’t have any plan for governance because the subject doesn’t interest them.
“Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity” is the favorite axiom of con men everywhere. Makes the marks so much easier to fool.
General Stuck
@carpeduum:
Dummest comment of the young day, well done!
Montysano
Why would anyone want to inherit the White House at this particular time in history? All the good shit has already been looted; all that’s left is to rip the wire out of the walls.
ed drone
@carpeduum:
Your first sentence is counter-factual, so the whole of your argument fails. That there are talking heads aiming to undermine the administration is true, but that Krugman is among them is not.
Ed
PurpleGirl
@General Stuck:
I think this is a little out of date. It would have to be a Mercedes or a BMW. Cadillacs are for poorer people. I don’t think any of the pundits and banksters would be caught driving a Cady anymore (or for the last few decades).
RP
Not sure I agree with the basic premise of this column. He starts by arguing that (a) the economy sucks, and that therefore (b) the GOP should be favored to win. But the economy, while extremely weak, isn’t as bad as Krugman often makes it out to be, and there’s no reason to assume the republican candidate should be favored unless we have an extreme double dip recession. That’s a big reason why the GOP candidates stink — a lot of candidates and their supporters realized a while ago that they were facing an uphill battle and decided to sit out.
That said, there’s no question that the GOP as a general matter is batsh*t crazy, but that’s not exactly a revelation.
IrishGirl
@YoohooCthulhu: Agreed, it has happened repeatedly in recent memory. Here’s just one example. When Pres. Shrub came into office he ignored the intelligence given to him by Pres. Clinton’s administration about Al Qaeda. The evidence (from many different sources, both pro and anti Bush, have indicated that the reason was that the threat didn’t fit into his worldview. In fact, Pres. Bush and his administration were guessing that their biggest threat would be Russia and potentially China and that we were likely to enter another Cold War. That’s one of the reasons he hired Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State.
So if any of the GOP get into office, with MAYBE the exception of Huntsman (although I am seeing his extreme views now), they will come in with a worldview that has nothing to do with reality and they will act accordingly. The result will be a disaster much worse than what happened under Pres. Shrub. At least we were in a stronger position when Bush took over the office. Now we’re so vulnerable its a little frightening. I honestly wonder if we’ll survive an Republican presidency.
artem1s
OT but interesting piece in Forbes on the health care act
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/12/02/the-bomb-buried-in-obamacare-explodes-today-halleluja/
weird that someone at Forbes thinks this is a good idea
PurpleGirl
@Biff Longbotham: No, we already do that… nice Red states already get much from the Federal government than their residents pay in taxes to the Feds.
(Don’t get me wrong, I want to help in emergencies and with programs to help people, but I’d like it if the taker states would at least be a little appreciative of my help to them and thank us once in a while.)
Judas Escargot
@middlewest:
Why “Govern” when you can profit? Carve up the pieces, and sell them off to the highest bidders, be they foreign or domestic.
Any existing counterexamples of working public infrastructure (USPS, Amtrak, Social Security, Medicare, the VA system, the Interstate highways, eventually the military itself) are counter-revolutionary, and therefore must be destroyed.
Benjamin Franklin
Carp;
The Tribe you meant to describe give lemmings a bad name. Rock-headed intransigence, notwithstanding.
The Republic of Stupidity
George Costanza: Jerry, just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it.
Great… a Seinfeld character wants to be POTUS…
bemused
@artem1s:
Rick Ungar has been writing non-rightwing stuff at Forbes for awhile and engages in the comments. He wrote a lot about the Wisconsin protests. I thought he was leaving Forbes to write at Mother Jones or some place like that.
General Stuck
@PurpleGirl:
LOL, I stand corrected:)
Benjamin Franklin
What a quandary for corn-fed conservatives. They have to choose between those two qualities?
burnspbesq
Kay and her friends in Ohio have another referendum fight to overturn legislation on their hands, it would appear.
http://nyti.ms/rJYjIj
El Cid
I’m thinking more of a “smash & grab” operation than “amusing sitcom situation of it being difficult to govern properly” situation.
daveNYC
@IrishGirl:
National Security Advisor, actually. Personally I wouldn’t even trust her to be able to convert oxygen to carbon dioxide.
Yankee Buzzard
“There are old time procedures: take over the government and loot the Treasury.” Hunter Thompson.
EconWatcher
I just looked it up, and almost every Republican then in the House (all but 26) voted for the censure and $300,000 fine against Gingrich in 1997, along with virtually all Democrats (all but 2). http://tech.mit.edu/V116/N68/house.68w.html
Peter Hoekstra was quoted at the time as saying that Gingrich had embarrassed the House, and “voters will question our judgment” if decisive action is not taken.
My question is this: Why have the intraparty, GOP knives not come out yet for Gingrich? I don’t mean this as some kind of rhetorical comment on the sorry state of the current GOP.
I think you can accept all that and still say, as a practical matter, that the party simply cannot let this guy be their standard-bearer for president, after overwhelmingly voting to disgrace him in the leadership position that he now claims as his primary qualification. As crazy as things are, I just don’t see how this can happen.
Mike in NC
@PurpleGirl:
Needs more Gingrich, as in: “Cadillacs are purchased on government-issued credit cards by strapping young bucks who have no jobs to go to, so instead they drive to the airport and buy tickets to Hawaii.”
El Cid
@EconWatcher: I’m not sure that the legislative and related records of right wing Republicans exists any more; 1997 certainly is too far back to exist. Perhaps 3 months ago, but 1997 is another millennium.
El Cid
@Mike in NC: NANCY PELOSI is trying to make banks pay for airlines to fly welfare Cadillacs to Hawaii for FREE! I heard it!
Brachiator
Based on how the Republican Congress was willing to let the government’s credit rating collapse with a threat of a government shutdown, the GOP has already had their crossing the Rubicon moment. The Tea Party People and Republican zealots would be happy to see a Republican administration continue to roll the country back to the 19th century.
Yeah, they will try to cut entitlements and increase defense spending. But the biggest fish would be attempts to dismantle health care reform. They would make noise to roll back abortion rights and re-establish anti gay military policies.
Global financial markets would shudder as the US either throws its weight around or refuses to participate in deals to stabilize the Euro or deal with other financial issues. Note here that even British PM Cameron had to back off of unrealistic Conservative policies, and even here Germany and France had to tell him to shut up and stop wading in late with lame proposals. GOP America(tm) would show them wussy Europeans what’s what.
The greatest amount of mischief would be stumbling to re establish American exceptionalism in the Middle East. I can easily see the GOP jumping at the chance to support an authoritarian tyrant and spoiling for a war to get into.
Hell, I think that even Granpa McCain would have been smart enough to avoid insane military adventures. But the current crop of GOP contenders are fools who desperate need to prove that America’s got balls. And a dope like Bachmann probably has delusions in which she hears angelic voices directing her to wage a holy war somewhere.
The only question would be whether Democrats found the courage to oppose this, or fall back into quisling compliance like they did during the Bush Administration.
daveNYC
@EconWatcher:
Because if Gingrich takes a metaphorical knife in the back, who is going to replace him? The GOP is loco, but not quite so loco that they are going to take down the flavor-of-the-month without having a replacement on hand.
Also too, there is the fact that the GOP likes what Newt is selling.
Raven
Ole George Tirebiter!
PeakVT
Cynical (in this context) fits quite neatly into the evil category.
Waldo
After crying about deficits for years, I’d like to think they’d have exhausted W’s “spend big, tax low, borrow like there’s no tomorrow” strategy. But of course they’d find a way to replay all that.
I’m guessing war with Iran would give them more than enough cover to conduct business as usual.
Villago Delenda Est
@Waldo:
By “after crying about deficits for years” you mean the last three, then yes, they’ve been crying.
The joke about the teabagger movement is that not one of these fucktards complained at all about the deserting coward’s borrow and spend policies. Furthermore, go back, and they didn’t complain about Reagan’s similar policies, either. As long as the money borrowed is being spent on bullets and bombs for killing as many brown people as possible, they have no objections.
Suddenly, around 8PM PST on 4 November 2008, federal deficits became the most important issue, ever!
Larry the Greek
Isn’t Paul Krugman married to Emma Thompson? Or maybe it was Allison Janney… Anyway, why can’t we have him for President of something?
Waldo
@Villago Delenda Est: Agreed.
Benjamin Franklin
@Villago Delenda Est:
Huzzah ! The Tea Party waited until their nemesis was in the WH before publicly objecting to spending. Obama ‘spending’ was the actual object, and not the black democrat.
Zifnab
@EconWatcher:
Why knife the sacrificial cow before he’s on the alter? Gingrich is the new Not Romney. He’s the 4th (5th?) in his line of failed GOP Not Romney nominees. Yeah, he’s polling well now. But this time last month Herman Cain was polling well too. What on earth do you have to gain from picking a fight with another in a long line of has-been or never-was candidates?
Besides, it’s not Hoekstra’s job to sink Gingrich. He’s not running for President. Let Romney take a few stabs at the nominee. Or let him lean back and watch Gingrich crater during the actual election when a non-existent campaign staff fails to rally an apathetic voter base.
I don’t think the GOP has high hopes for this Presidential race. And its not worth risking your political carrier to piss off a currently-powerful and popular Presidential candidate when there is already so much blood in the water.
Benjamin Franklin
“not the black democrat?”
carpeduum
@General Stuck: You are too kind. Taking time out of your busy schedule in moms basement to make such a comment. My little furry groupies are highly motivated to be sure.
carpeduum
@ed drone: BAhahahaha. So basically you are saying Kthug does not have a history of critisizing the Obama administration. Not just “oh I wish they tried a bit harder” critisizing. But the sort of illogical impossibly high bar setting the likes of which is only seen on sites like dkos and fluffington puff.
What universe have you been in? I can’t be bothered to waste my time googling ALL the past kthug articles to prove my point. Maybe you should get a clue and do it yourself.
catclub
@burnspbesq: So, with no heartbeat, is Dick Cheney eligible to be aborted?
Barry
@Montysano: “Why would anyone want to inherit the White House at this particular time in history? All the good shit has already been looted; all that’s left is to rip the wire out of the walls.”
No, there are still a couple trillion $$ left, not to mention the sheer rewards of power and sadism.
catclub
@IrishGirl: “I honestly wonder if we’ll survive an Republican presidency.”
Replace Republican with Democrat and you have what the rightwing crazies say right now. The country will survive in either case. How well it survives is up for debate.
28 Percent
@PurpleGirl: I don’t care that they aren’t thankful but I do wish the taker Red states would stop blocking the paying Blue states from enacting the kinds of Federal regulations and tax structures that make the Blue money engines run. Montana takes money from Massachussets and then runs a political campaign against Massachussets and its “crippling economic policies.” I’ll tell you what’s crippling Massachussetts, it’s sending all those damned checks to Montana, that’s what’s crippling Massachussetts…
carpeduum
@catclub: Urrrum, Bush went halfway to bankrupting the US. Not even close what you are trying to say which is that another GOPer in the WH wouldn’t be so bad. IrishGirl has the right idea….unfortunately.
burnspbesq
@catclub:
Alas, I rather doubt it.
Barry
@artem1s: “weird that someone at Forbes thinks this is a good idea”
I’ve not read the article, ’cause it’s Forbes, but the whole point of Forbes is appealing to Randian GaltLord wannabes.
burnspbesq
@Barry:
Then why are you opening your silly pie-hole? The article is a good, solid piece of reporting on the final HHS regulations implementing the medical loss ratio.
Your kind of willful ignorance is as bad as anything we see from the Tea Party.
carpeduum
@burnspbesq: He was stating the FACT Forbes has a history of Tealiban sympathizing. Not just minor fringe gas baggery, but the “Obama is Hitler” type flatulating that would make Murdoch blush.
Judas Escargot
@Brachiator:
This.
The GOP candidates have been pretty candid in these debates about how Iran must be “dealt with”, and Bibi’s cabinet has been just as candid about how they think of Obama as a one-termer, there to keep the seat warm until a more compliant VSP gets elected to the office.
Among other things, 2012 will be a referendum on war with Iran. If the GOP gets the WH/House/Senate trifecta, expect the bombs to start dropping in 2013 before the Summer Solstice.
trollhattan
@PurpleGirl:
In a very memorable “The Wire” scene, Snoop was telling Chris Partlow about buying a fancy new nail gun for nailing up brownstone doors after they’d murdered somebody inside. “The man in the store said it was the Cadillac, but he meant the Lexus.”
eemom
@No One of Consequence:
did you model your nym after that nasty Aussie woman who shows up in the middle of the night for no purpose other than to sling shit at Anne Laurie and me?
eyelessgame
@EconWatcher:
Because if they take down Gingrich, they will have to nominate Romney.
eemom
This didn’t get much traction, but I heard Tweety-bird and someone else on his show a while back saying that “establishment” conservatives may quietly have given up the WH for lost next year and are focusing their, um, resources on alternative means of destroying the country.
Thoughts?
Brachiator
@Judas Escargot:
Yep. A GOP administration would also likely try to strong arm Iraq into allowing US troops to stay, reversing Obama’s decision to withdraw troops.
Foreign policy towards Pakistan, already poor, would likely go all to hell, with GOP US attempting to either coerce cooperation or seeking to install a more US friendly government.
Yutsano
@eemom: I’m not sure about that. The best way to ensure your down ticket races do well is get your folks out to vote. And a lot of initiative deadlines have already passed, so that trick is dwindling for them. If they just throw in the towel they virtually guarantee Democratic control until ACA is fully kicked in. Then they’re REALLY in trouble.
Donut
Another civil war?
Half kidding. Okay. Maybe a quarter kidding.
trollhattan
@eemom:
I think their chances at the WH are poor, and they know it, given the shabby crew of potiential nominees. But, they really, really want the senate and to protect their house majority, and the only way to make either happen is to run an aggressive presidential campaign.
I don’t think Newscorp’s ongoing troubles are irrelevant to the ’12 election, as the Republicans need to marshall the entire machine, of which Fox, WSJ, et al are huge components.
catclub
@Judas Escargot: Sorry, I feel certain that if George Bush blanched at that opportunity, while being egged on by Dick Cheney, it won’t happen. Between the certainty of an oil crisis due to shipping cutoffs, and the fact that Iran has three times as many people than Iraq, and the sanity of the generals who would be involved; it is not happening.
carpeduum
@catclub: That is far too reasonable a comment to be made on BJ. I hope you spend time on places where more intelligent people hang out. Like thepeoplesview.net
Judas Escargot
@catclub:
One catch: Most of the potential GOP nominees appear to be Cheneyites (unless they’re just lying about what they’d do in Iran, which is of course possible). Had Cheney been President, the US would have bombed and possibly invaded Iran: So, who will play the role of GWB this time around?
Your certainty and $3.25 will get you a decaf latte at Starbuck’s.
IrishGirl
@catclub: I didn’t mean the US wouldn’t exist but that it would be so damaged that it would be a shadow of it’s former self. That is VERY likely if ANY of the Republicans get elected. And I know the other side feels that way, but obviously, I think they’re wrong.
eemom
@Yutsano:
@trollhattan:
True….but if — as now appears inevitable — their top o’ the ticket is a guy that hard-line conservatives and teatards fucking HATE, might that not have the effect of depressing their voter turnout?
Giggle. Man, I am LOVING this.
Maude
We aren’t in the same place today as we were in 2001. We are far down with economy gasping for breath.
If a Rep in 2013 did what Bush did, we’d go down the tubes.
They can’t gin up another war. The occupation of Iraq kind of put the kabash on the quick and easy war story.
None of the current candidates would know what to do. What a mess.
Edit, spell fail.
r€nato
@Benjamin Franklin: lemmings were given a bad name by that bullshit BBC nature documentary.
trollhattan
@eemom:
They’re in quite a box of their own making and it will be interesting, if not pleasant, to watch them try and break their way out. I remain convinced the hardcores would flock to the polls and vote for the dining room table, just to oust the Kenyan mooselum, but the less doctrinaire might not.
The monied Republican puppet masters knew this back in the last election when they sold their souls to the baggers, but that was a deal they deemed worth making at the time. I wonder how they’re liking their ROI now?
SRW1
@eemom:
The strategic issue that is candidate Romney in one question.
Newt may not have much of a chance of winning the White House, but he sure as hell would be capable of enough fire breathing to keep the base motivated.
Chris
@catclub:
To me, it comes down to two things. One, do they think they can win an Iran war (or at least accomplish their goals) without too many really bad repercussions – remember, Iran owns the entire north side of the Persian Gulf, and that has unpleasant implications for the oil flow if we’re going to war with them.
Two, do they think they’d be able to get a war-hysteria-boost out of it the way they did from 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq, or do they think that would backfire. Iraq, IMHO, was about leveraging war hysteria for political advantage at least as much as it was about those no-bid contracts for Halliburton. If they think they can do the same here, great – if not, we may have a chance.
In 2008, I would have agreed with your “it’s too much even for them” assessment. Three years later, having seen the rise of the teabaggers, the current crop of candidates, and the extremes to which their politicians are willing to go for political advantage, I’m no longer ready to do that.
Brachiator
@Chris:
Here’s Newt on Iran.
This shit is clearly delusional.
Chris
@Brachiator:
Yep, sure is. Thanks for the link.
We’ll find out one way or another, I guess, if it’s all just empty posturing and red meat for the base or if they actually want to go through with it.
Rome Again
@eemom:
The Not Romney vs. the Not Newt! They’re getting stuck with running a contest of two guys they can’t stand. This is going to be a great show. :)
Barry
@burnspbesq: “Your kind of willful ignorance is as bad as anything we see from the Tea Party.”
Criticism from you doesn’t have the credibility to actually sting.