Obama and company learned:
“How did it take them three weeks (and two days) to offer nothing but President Obama’s budget?” A GOP leadership aide asked me rhetorically.
We’re seeing two things here. One is that the negotiations aren’t going well. When one side begins leaking the other side’s proposals, that’s typically a bad sign. The other is that Republicans are frustrated at the new Obama they’re facing: The Obama who refuses to negotiate with himself.
That’s what you’re really seeing in this “proposal.” Previously, Obama’s pattern had been to offer plans that roughly tracked where he thought the compromise should end up. The White House’s belief was that by being solicitous in their policy proposals, they would win goodwill on the other side, and even if they didn’t, the media would side with them, realizing they’d sought compromise and been rebuffed. They don’t believe that anymore.
Meanwhile, McConnell thinks the old rules still apply:
So this afternoon, Mitch McConnell made the most specific “fiscal cliff” offer we’ve seen thus far from Republicans. Here it is:
In an interview in his Capitol Hill office, Mr. McConnell said if the White House agrees to changes such as higher Medicare premiums for the wealthy, an increase in the Medicare eligibility age and a slowing of cost-of-living increases for programs like Social Security, Republicans would agree to include more tax revenue in the deal, though not from higher tax rates. […]
Mr. McConnell offered his ideas as examples of the structural changes Republicans are looking for. “The nexus for us is: revenue equals genuine entitlement eligibility changes,” Mr. McConnell said.
McConnell’s offer is this: We’ll give you increased revenues via the closing of loopholes — and in exchange, you give us the entitlement reforms we want, plus the tax rates we want.
That’s not much of a compromise. Indeed, it’s not new. As Steve Benen noted recently, that essential arrangement is what Lindsey Graham offered last Sunday.
What is funny is that McConnell actually thinks what he wants matters. It doesn’t, because whatever Obama can negotiate with the House will pass the Senate, no matter what Mitch wants.
rikyrah
Go Mr. President.
Go Mr. President.
Fuck Turtle Lips.
schrodinger's cat
John Cole@top
We can has a picture of the tabbeh kitteh with an aftermarket tail, plz? After all we are a Tunch worshiping website, the politics is incidental.
BGinCHI
The more the GOP part of the Senate slides toward irrelevancy, the louder they screech.
Keep screeching, assholes.
And wait til filibuster reform: then they’ll have to talk for many hours and can you imagine what will come out of their mouths?
Finally people can hear what they believe.
JustRuss
Is anyone really buying the “close the loopholes” BS? Those loopholes exist because of lobbyists who carry big check books. Until K Street is boarded up they’re not going anywhere. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot or a liar.
MattF
And no filibuster reform, and take back Obamacare, and make Susan Rice go away, and stop being popular with Asians, and Bengazi Bengazi Bengazi, and… and… and…
demkat620
I am sure Mitch is sooooooooo thankful Mourdock and Akin and the rest of that delightful teaparty crowd made sure he will not get to be Majority Leader.
I hope dealing with these Tea Party clowns gives every single republican agita.
Keep fucking that chicken boys.
Tonal Crow
You’re assuming that Udall, Reid, et al will really reform the filibuster.
schrodinger's cat
They sound like kids throwing a tantrum.
lol
It’s because Obama has leverage. He gets most of what he wants if nothing happens and anything bad will be blamed on the GOP.
And unlike the lame duck session in 2010, he doesn’t have any high priority legislation (DADT Repeal, START, Unemployment, etc) being held hostage by this.
Different circumstances require different negotiation tactics.
Marty
You gave the wrong link for the first quote. What’s the right link?
Southern Beale
Unrelated but the Romney face tattoo guy said he wants to have that stupid tattoo on his face removed. Shocker.
Tonal Crow
@BGinCHI:
I hadn’t considered that argument for filibuster reform. It’s a good one, ‘cuz it’ll be all Akin, all the time when Republicans are filibustering.
ranchandsyrup
Oh man teh facebooks is blowing up with this. We put mortgage deduction on the table! Show us entitlement cutz! This has to be bipartisan!
Those are desperation moves.
Zifnab25
Which is why the filibuster is so important to the GOP. If McConnell can’t filibuster, then Obama won’t be negotiating with the 60th most liberal Senator, he’ll be negotiating with the 218th most liberal House Rep.
And given the noise Republicans have been making about how incredibly non-binding Norquist’s tax pledge is, rendering the Republicans in the Senate irrelevant is going to hurt McConnell’s political clout tremendously.
demkat620
I don’t know what makes me happier. The fact that McConnell will not get the big office he wanted or this next Senate will not include Joe Lieberman.
Cause both of those things are good.
Culture of Truth
A historic victory usually requires 2 weeks of touchdown dancing, minimum, plus a week for recovery.
Abe himself took 12 days off to handwrite “IN THY FACE, LOSERS!” to every confederate leader after he was reelected.
gogol's wife
@demkat620:
Neither Lieberman NOR Linda McMahon. Two actual Democrats from Connecticut, for the first time in a very long time.
danimal
It’s time to play “CALL THAT BLUFF!”. Today we have Sen. McTurtle.
“Senator McTurtle, what specific loopholes do you intend to close, and how much revenue will closing these loopholes generate? You have all the time in the world, senator, but your party’s tax legacy expires in 31 days. Go ahead, senator.”
What comes next? Is there a loophole without a lobby??? Pass the popcorn and watch the next episode of “CALL THAT BLUFF!”.
The Thin Black Duke
This new reality that the GOP is trapped in must be absolutely terrifying for them. They’re existing in a Star Trek universe where Obama has a beard. And he’s smiling.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
@JustRuss: No. It’s a transparent bait and switch. They say they’re for closing loopholes to string the Dems along, but they’d just say no to any loophole the Dems proposed closing. The Dems aren’t playing that game this time around.
General Stuck
Republicans hate change they didn’t orchestrate. Now Obama has planted his flag square atop Mount Wingnut and is proceeding to dine on their livers.
MikeJ
@Tonal Crow:
When you have the floor in the US Senate you aren’t required to speak. They may change the rule and require them to stay on the floor (although I doubt it), but they will not require people to speak.
JWL
The White House should re-release GW’s infamously truthful remark that the rich will figure out the tax loopholes, come what may.
demkat620
@General Stuck: with fava beans and a nice chianti
Had to be said
MikeBoyScout
Cole said: What is funny is that McConnell actually thinks what he wants matters. It doesn’t, because whatever Obama can negotiate with the House will pass the Senate, no matter what Mitch wants.
Jed Lewison over at the GOS makes it pee your pants funny:
Poor sad clown turtle.
Culture of Truth
Peter Cushing voice:
“You would prefer another target, that I close a loophole instead? Then NAME THE LOOPHOLE!”
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
Because this time he’s telling you how it’s gonna be, not asking, asshole.
demkat620
This.
Culture of Truth
Guess what the offer will be in another 3 weeks? You’ll love it!
? Martin
@JustRuss:
They know something has to give. The lobbyists have given way to the billionaires, so the power structure has changed a bit.
But acceding on tax rates really cuts deep into the GOP ideology – loopholes don’t. They’re going to lose one political backer, but they don’t need to rewrite the party rulebook.
BGinCHI
@Tonal Crow: I await a Jim DeMint filibuster with much anticipation.
Or that Ted Cruz idiot.
Thoughtcrime
@Culture of Truth:
Senator? You can have my answer now, if you like. My final offer is this: nothing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPmTp9up26w
'Niques
@Culture of Truth: NAME THAT LOOPHOLE
They can’t. Because that loophole is the mortgage interest deduction that they don’t care about anyway.
Princess
I don’t know. How did it take the Republicans 48 hours to put forth Mitt Romney’s budget proposal?
Even though it was less of a budget proposal than an outline in crayon, I am still tired of hearing about it. He lost. His plan was rejected. Shut up, GOP.
joeyess
Looney Noonan is at it again with the TipnRonnie canoe…..
Yeah! Except for when this happened:
The Dolphin Queen can’t step out of her own bubble long enough to remember when the President stepped into it.
Fucking pundits. I was watching ESPN’s Around The Horn earlier and I think the networks should do all political shows in exactly the same fashion; arbitrary scoring and muting the idiots.
Tonal Crow
@MikeJ:
I don’t know enough about the Senate rules to speak authoritatively about this. I would expect that you can hold the floor only by speaking. Perhaps you can show us which rule allows a Senator to hold the floor without speaking.
sylvan
Streiff at RedState:
Muh freedoms.
MikeBoyScout
Proposed New Negotiating Position:
Close the loopholes? STFU and close your piehole!
Culture of Truth
@Thoughtcrime: Not even the fee for the gaming license… That reminds of this:
Nov. 30 – “Health insurers that want to sell plans in states that refuse to enact the U.S. health-care overhaul will have to pay fees for the federal government to regulate them.”
slag
Qoi? People changing their beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Inconceivable!
About damned time.
Mike in NC
Rhetorical question to GOP: Is our assholes learning?
joeyess
OMG. Tweety just said that the American public voted WAY more liberal this time around and he’s not sure what’s happening.
face/palm
Bulworth
Hahahahahahahah
IowaOldLady
@joeyess: Peggy Noonan is a silly woman. I laugh at her and then ignore her.
Lev
How many House votes can Mitch McConnell deliver?
You have to love people who just can’t stop talking even if they have nothing worthwhile to say. That guy Reince Priebus annoys the shit out of me because he has no power and nobody voted for him, yet he’s always giving a quote to someone. Oh, for the days when National Committee chairs were people even political junkies weren’t even aware of.
Brachiator
@JustRuss:
And the language framing is typical BS. As far as I’m concerned, the preferential tax rates for the wealthy is a big freaking loophole.
And as a gesture of good faith, let Romney release all his tax returns, and let’s see what loopholes he used, and may need to be closed.
Goddamn, I know that Obama’s stubbornly tied to the idea of compromise and consensus building, but I wish he would stop with “the rich should pay their fair share, let’s compromise” and offer two essential nuggets:
The Bush tax cuts were always designed to be temporary. Their time has passed. They’re done. They are no longer on the table as an item of negotiation. Done. Move on.
Talking about any other version of these cuts is not productive. The tax cuts did not sufficiently stimulate the economy or bring new jobs when they were first tried. And extended. And they are not a drag on the economy.
The old approach recommended by the Republicans failed, and it was a gesture of goodwill to try some of them one last time. Now it’s time to fucking move on.
I think that the supposed fiscal cliff might bring more pain than people realize if this crap drags out too long. On the other hand, the remnants of the Bush tax cuts would be a pointless, more destructive drag on the economy.
The Republicans can only lose on this one. If they want to be stubborn, screw ’em.
quannlace
The inability to speak in specifics seems to be a Republican disease. They don’t like Obama’s budget? And it’s obvious they don’t . Fine. Propose your own. You’ll close tax loopholes? Which ones? Changes to Medicare funding and eligibility? Exactly what? Trying to get the Republican side of Congress to be specific is like trying to nail oatmeal to the wall.
joeyess
@Bulworth: It is funny. They want to enact Mitt Romney’s plan…….. even though Mitt and the GOP got their asses handed to them.
Citizen_X
@MikeJ:
Then I look forward to Ted Cruz’s interpretive dance on the dangers of Agenda 21.
KCIvey
I really don’t understand how anyone whose job is supposedly real news can report that the “concession” the Republicans are offering as part of the deal is to allow Obama to enact Mitt Romney’s tax plan, without in some way reacting to the utter insanity of it. But no, it’s just treated as if it were an actual concession.
MikeBoyScout
How stupid are Republicans?
[NRO, so no linky]
Guess what numb nuts? You already voted for increased rates. They become effective in January 2013.
Felonius Monk
Elections have consequences, but assholes are still assholes! Is anyone surprised?
Democrats, liberals, progressives — all of us who live in the real world — need to hammer home the fact that low tax rates on the wealthy does not create jobs.
The “so called job creators” need to create jobs first and prove it, then they can receive a tax break. The tail has been wagging the dog too long on this “job creator” bullshit.
Mike in NC
@Lev:
Damn. Why hasn’t he announced that he’s stepping down from the RNC to spend more time with his family?
Jay in Oregon
Too bad we’re not talking about John Boehner, because this clip would fit nicely:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wuH81O7stXc#t=392s
Suffern ACE
@JustRuss: the loopholes they want to close are the ones you use. The reason their plan didn’t add up is that they wanted to deny that they were broadening the tax base such that the lower and middle classes paid for the tax cut for the wealthy.
Higgs Boson's Mate
How about this; write a new tax code with no deductions and base the tax rates on the projected revenue? That would definitely close the loopholes.
sylvan
@joeyess:
Chris Mathews hails from the Rizzocrat era of Philly politics, as does Michael Smerconish.
They treat politics like sports writers.
Mike in NC
@Brachiator:
In other words, Dubya is the freakin’ gift that just keeps on giving!
Lol
@Tonal Crow:
You don’t have to hold the floor. You just have to object and the Senate will be tied up for days EVEN IF THE MAJORITY HAS 60 VOTES. that’s the real broken thing in my view and why holds are so powerful. Holds are just indications that the Senator plans to object. It doesn’t matter for big legislation but a slew of low level nominees? The Senate can’t afford to spend months doing nothing.
If they can get rid of that, I’ll settle for the 60 vote threshold hanging around for the time being.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
So Mitch McTurtle, the majority leader of Big Nothingburger, is now negotiating on behalf of the Republicans in the House, a chamber of Congress that he doesn’t even control. This is all getting so ridiculous that I may need Fiscal Cliff Notes to keep track of it all before it is over.
joeyess
@sylvan: Back to the point of my post here: @joeyess:
Villago Delenda Est
@JustRuss:
Paging Mr. Huge Turtle Faced Asswipe Mitch McConnell to the white courtesy phone.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Felonius Monk:
This is precisely why the GOP is so utterly desperate to prevent tax increases from going thru. Because the economy is now primed to expand and create jobs and they (the GOP) have just about used up all of their levers of sabotage and economic treason, so there is fuckall they can do to stop it from happening. The only thing the GOP can control is the MSM narrative 4 years from now regarding why the expansion happened and why the jobs came back. Bad enough for them that “it happened under Obama”, but how much worse if “it happened after Obama raised taxes on the rich”. If people get the idea that raising taxes on the rich = economic prosperity, the current incarnation of the GOP will be deader than Jimmy Hoffa.
MikeBoyScout
BoBo is on NPR with his sad.
MikeJ
@Tonal Crow:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/23/the-myth-of-the-filibuste_n_169117.html
related, but not on the talk or no talk issue:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/02/21/838268/-What-stands-in-the-way-of-forcing-a-filibuster
Uncle Cosmo
@Thoughtcrime:
And Senator Yertle wakes up the next morning with a horse’s ass in his bed–just like he does every morning…
? Martin
@Mike in NC:
You know, it might help if someone on the teevees would point out that the reason that the Bush tax cuts are expiring is that they didn’t have the votes to make them permanent even in 2001 when we were running a surplus. It wasn’t even a hugely popular idea back when it passed.
sylvan
@joeyess:
Well, Smerconish admitted he voted for Obama and survived the shitstorm.
He has since replaced Rush 12-3 on WPHT.
muddy
@schrodinger’s cat:
I think it should be a rule that all 3 animals must be shown once a week.
debbie
I listened for a bit to Glenn Beck today, hoping to hear his rationalization for having drowned the American flag in his own piss, when I heard an ad for a Web site dedicated to fighting the plot that Obama is now weaving to get himself a third term. The clown car still spins.
Ash Can
So lemme get this straight — Obama makes a proposal that basically outlines everything he wants, to get negotiations started. Of course he’s not going to get everything he wants, and of course he’ll leave big gaping holes for the Republicans to fill in. Instead of making a counteroffer using that as the baseline, the House Republicans go crying to the press with the offer, thus blowing their own cover in the negotiations, and the counteroffer that does get made comes from someone with no power to draft actual budgetary legislation. all we’re missing now is Casey Stengel standing in the middle of the Republicans yelling “Can anybody here play this game?”
muddy
@MikeJ:
As though those full-of-themselves assholes could refrain from stupid blathering.
Bobby Thomson
@Culture of Truth: as opposed to the three weeks and two days for them to offer the Romney economic plan?
danimal
How’s this for an idea? Let’s negotiate with the GOP and offer to save money from Obamacare implementation. We can chop entitlement spending and avoid painful service cuts. And not in a small way, I’m talking $500B over 10 years.
I can’t take credit for this idea, but I think it is the greatest negotiating gambit the White House can play. A big middle finger to the GOP, a way to promote the liberal agenda and a real solution to a policy quandary. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to reintroduce the public option.
Gawd, I love this idea, especially at this time while everyone is paying attention and Obama just won reelection. Let’s make this happen!
Comrade Mary
Charlie Pierce for the motherfucking win:
joeyess
@sylvan: But that’s Philly. It’s still good news, but I’d sorely wish for that to happen in my neck of the woods. Alas…….
peorgietirebiter
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Unfortunately, voodoo economics has become an article of faith and impervious to facts.
If the pope cancled Easter because they found the body, Christainity would take at least a hundred years to wind down it’s operation and start closing franchises. I think we’re years away from the GOP flirting with sanity.
Narcissus
Standard negotiation methods are wrong when Democrats use them
Roger Moore
@peorgietirebiter:
Among the GOP true believers that may be true. But there are a lot of people out there who believe that cutting taxes leads to prosperity because it makes a kind of intuitive sense. If there are enough counterveiling facts, though, they may be willing to accept that taxing the rich is good for the economy. You don’t have to convince every hard core Republican to win this one; just enough persuadable people that the Republicans can’t win a majority anymore.
Baud
Um…up till the election, the GOP was saying Obama never put forward a plan to reduce the deficit. Only Paul Ryan had the guts to do that.
I can’t believe they were lying.
Uncle Cosmo
You really want to change the Senate rules for maximum effect? Instead of requiring 3/5 of the Senate to vote in favor, a motion for cloture automatically passes unless 2/5 of the entire Senate plus 1 is present and votes against it.
You have 41 Senators who want to filibuster? Fine. Make them stay on the floor for days on end while the majority sends in one Senator at a time to move for cloture. Let ’em bring in pizzas & bedpans & see how long the fuckers last.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@peorgietirebiter:
I’m not so sure of that. The Dems just haven’t had a strong enough and simple enough story to kill it, up till now. But consider what happens if taxes on the rich go up just in time for the Obama Recovery. That will make it twice in a row, first under Clinton and then again under Obama, that a Democrat in the WH has presided over both rising taxes and an economic recovery, with George W Bush and his tax cuts for the rich which caused the Great Crash of 2008 sandwiched in between, to ram home the message.
We don’t have to convince the GOP, we just have to convince enough of the remaining swingable electorate, say another 3-5% beyond what we got this year, to turn voodoo economics into an electoral boat anchor. I think that is do-able.
Joel
@sylvan: I actually agree with the cons on the AMT inflation indexing. It’s a fair idea. But they probably won’t like my idea that capital gains taxes should be rolled into income.
Roger Moore
@Uncle Cosmo:
My understanding is that requiring a specific minority to oppose cloture instead of a majority to support it is part of the filibuster reform that’s under discussion. I think that would be enough to reduce the filibuster to an exceptional event instead of the rule as it is today.
moops
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
and THAT is the horror that hides behind their eyes.
Taxes are GOING to go up on the rich, and the economy is going to recover and create jobs.
except nobody in the bubble will believe it or even hear about it. There might be more people that finally decide to leave the bubble though. That would be nice.
moops
You can see a GOP Grinch muttering “I’ve got to keep this recovery from coming…but how?”
Brachiator
Good summary of the tax items actually on the table can be found here
Senate Proposals to Extend the 2001-2010 Tax Cuts
Felonius Monk
@JohnCole
MikeJ
@Uncle Cosmo: Is despise “upvoting” or “like” systems, but if those abominations existed here I would use them like a motherfucker on that comment.
peorgietirebiter
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: From your lips to God’s ear. Back in 2008 I assumed most people would connect the dots between the Wall Street meltdown and the S&L collapse and quit buying the crazy. 2010 said otherwise. But I sincerely hope you’re right.
sylvan
@Joel:
Nah, they probably won’t.
They’re not even all that fond of the Enlightenment.
Gravenstone
@joeyess:
The problem, Lady Nooners, is that the President does “understand the other guys’ real position”. He’s had quite enough of their lies and bullshit and their clear intent to never bargain in good faith. So yeah, go crawl into the spirit container of your choice and bother us no further you useless fucking hack.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@sylvan:
They’re not taking the Endarkenment very well either.
magurakurin
@Thoughtcrime:
Outstanding Red Team. Outstanding. Get you a case of beer for that one.
danimal
@Gravenstone: Exactly! The GOP’s real position has been “not that” (whatever ‘that’ is that Obama proposed) for way too long. Make them come out with real, scorable proposals that impact real constituencies and then we can bargain. Their real position is governing by bumpersticker, and that dog don’t hunt anymore.
muddy
I have on the CBS evening news, Scott Pelley starts out saying, If you thought there would be a statesman to bring people together in a compromise in Washington, there isn’t one.
The top of my head blew off. Yes, there is a motherfucking statesman trying to work things out, his name is President Obama and he was just re-elected by a huge margin. He went on telling us what the Republicans had to say about it, and did not say that they were intransigent or anything.
I went to the website and wanted to send him an email, but I couldn’t find it. What an asshole.
Tonal Crow
@Suffern ACE:
“Broadening the base” is exactly a nice-sounding term for that very thing. You’ve got to hand it to Republicans: they excel in propaganda.
Tony J
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
‘Endarkenment’ made me laugh while pissing envy.
Magnificently succinct and, obviously, so very stolen.
Tonal Crow
@Lol: We weren’t discussing the current (ridiculous) filibuster rules, but whether the Udall et al revisions would require senators to speak in order to maintain a filibuster.
TG Chicago
As I mentioned in another thread, Sullivan is whining that Obama, having just won an election, has the nerve to actually try to accomplish the things he campaigned on. He said that after you win an election, you should be magnanimous enough to give in to everything the loser wants.
Obama gave Boehner a shot at the better deal before the election. Boehner didn’t bite. Thus, having won the election with these issues front and center, Obama has every right to expect things to work out better for him than last time around. That’s the way democracy works.
It’s truly one of the more daft things Sullivan has written, and that’s covering quite a bit of ground.
TG Chicago
As I mentioned in another thread, Sullivan is whining that Obama, having just won an election, has the nerve to actually try to accomplish the things he campaigned on. He said that after you win an election, you should be magnanimous enough to give in to everything the loser wants.
Obama gave Boehner a shot at the better deal before the election. Boehner didn’t bite. Thus, having won the election with these issues front and center, Obama has every right to expect things to work out better for him than last time around. That’s the way democracy works.
It’s truly one of the more daft things Sullivan has written, and that’s covering quite a bit of ground.
Roger Moore
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
LOL.
Tonal Crow
@MikeJ: That concerns the current filibuster rules. The topic I was discussing is whether Sen. Udall et al’s rule changes — proposed to be enacted by a majority vote when the Senate reconvenes in January — would require a senator to speak in order to hold the floor during a filibuster. I have heard that they will:
MazeDancer
Media working with Republicans to make Republicans defending no tax hikes for rich – an issue on which the election was decided – as “reasonable” and the President as unreasonable for not giving GOP what they want (See Joe, Morning, and his hired hack posse) is so disgusting and so exhausting, I can only say “Go POTUS! Smack ’em hard!”.
Sick of Democracy being hostage to idiot media and ridiculous, entrenched, supercilious white guy, over-privileged fools.
Whatever it takes, Mr. President, you do it.
TaMara (BHF)
@Culture of Truth: Whole thread is full of win, but that comment stole the show.
Jason
Great, but how can Obama’s team be so dumb as to take a whole four years to figure out what an ambit claim is?
Frankensteinbeck
I don’t think Obama learned anything. I don’t think there was much to learn. Only circumstances have changed. He doesn’t have to appear to be the adult in the room to the public now, but talking nice in public is a good negotiation strategy, so he’ll likely continue. When the GOP had something he absolutely had to have – like a debt limit extension – he negotiated, and consistently got deals they realized afterwards weren’t at all what they thought. At this point, they have things he wants but doesn’t need, and he has things they absolutely need. The process will be very different, but at least some negotiation will happen. Demanding your own way 100% is a really, really lousy negotiation tactic – it only feels satisfying.
burnspbesq
Fuck McConnell. He should be bound, gagged, stuffed in the trunk of the Thelma-and-Louise-Mobile, and driven off the cliff. And then anonymous stories should be leaked to the Lexington and Louisville papers that he made hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on Duke in the Blue Devils’ recent wins over UK and Louisville.
Why, yes, I carry in my soul a great deal of enmity toward Sen. Turtle-Face. Why do you ask?
Uncle Cosmo
@Roger Moore: Well, yah-fuckin’-hoo! Hope yer right!@MikeJ: Thankyuh. Thankyuhvermuch. Thankyuh.
catclub
@muddy: “I think it should be a rule that all 3 animals must be shown once a week.”
Proof of life.
AA+ Bonds
It’s actually Romney’s 2012 platform.
The press is dumb as a box of rocks.
Tonal Crow
@AA+ Bonds:
…when they aren’t knowingly pushing GOPaganda.
AxelFoley
@lol:
It’s almost…11th dimensional, ain’t it?
Matt McIrvin
@Culture of Truth:
I… don’t think that’s an analogy I’d like to think about for very long.
AxelFoley
@The Thin Black Duke:
I’m done with this thread. You already won it.
AxelFoley
@General Stuck:
With a bottle of chianti?
AxelFoley
@demkat620:
I should have known someone would be me to this.
AxelFoley
@Culture of Truth:
Thin Black Duke, bro, you gonna have to share your internets with Culture.
Ted & Hellen
If it REALLY took four years for Obama to figure out the Republicans are bad-faith low lifes who want him to fail and don’t care how they help that happen, then he is incompetent on the face of it.
Jeremy
@Ted & Hellen: Your deliberately obtuse posture is so transparently obvious. And your contention that you can see the perfectly obvious, while President Obama (a truely remarkable man who will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents ever), is astonishing in it’s arrogance. He knew the Republicans were bad faith low lifes who want him to fail before you ever even knew the name “Obama”, you self-righteos arrogant prick.
You, and all the other carping emoprogs like you, are totally fucking useless.
AxelFoley
@Jeremy:
Well said, man.
Or, as we used to say, PWN’D!