Once again, Republicans confirm Cleek’s thesis:
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) revealed that some members of his party opposed expanding background checks for gun sales recently because they didn’t want to “be seen helping the president.”
Two weeks ago, only three Republican senators voted for the bipartisan background checks amendment sponsored by Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), despite overwhelming popular support for such a measure.
“In the end it didn’t pass because we’re so politicized. There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to do it,” Toomey admitted on Tuesday in an interview with Digital First Media editors in the offices of the Times Herald newspaper in Norristown, Pa.
Has there ever been a more accurate assessment of the current nature of today’s politics than “Whatever Democrats are for, Republicans are against?”
scav
Linked for sheer irony of timing: ‘Proof’ First Americans, Jamestown settlers, turned to cannibalism.
Michele C
I wonder if so-called “reverse psychology” would work and the President could claim to be pro-gun and anti-women?
El Cid
@scav: At least they were driven to this due to starvation and hardship; today’s conservatives seek to reproduce these ideal conditions of having to eat one’s neighbor out of a combination of spite, hatred, bitterness, confusion, fantasy, nostalgia, unrestrained pseudo-primitivism, and repressed curiosity.
Michele C
Could someone please explain why the ad on this thread (for me, at least) is for “Christian & Single? … ChristianMingle”?
Elie
They hate O because he has them nailed down to their extremist identities with no opportunity to move to reasonability without agreeing with him. They would have preferred for Obama to tack to more leftward stances, which would have vacated a nice, reasonable middle to them, and allowed them to more seriously point out how socialist he is. Instead, they are staked to the right and their only message has to be extreme and right — otherwise they are saying “me too” to Obama. And he isn’t budging off that center. He is also forcing to destroy themselves. In my opinion, THAT is why they hate him.. Oh sure, some number of them don’t like that he is black, or Democratic, or whatever. The main thing though is that he won’t allow them to escape their trap, and they resent the hell out of that..
belieber
And what were firebaggers/kostards doing in 2010?
Yelling SINGLE PAYER SINGLE PAYER SINGLE PAYER SINGLE PAYER SINGLE PAYER SINGLE PAYER SINGLE PAYER SINGLE PAYER SINGLE PAYER IM NOT VOTING IM NOT VOTING IM NOT VOTING IM NOT VOTING IM NOT VOTING.
So both sides to blame.
Wapiti
@Michele C: You might have mumbled something like “Christ, I hate these fuckers,” and it was picked up by your computer’s microphone.
dmsilev
I’ve been advocating for a while that Obama should introduce the “Don’t Drink Bleach and Lick 3-phase Power Outlets” Act. I feel confident that the DDBL3POA and the companion legislation of the “Banning Conga Line Dancing On Interstate Highways” act will result in an immediate and significant improvement in the national political environment.
Randy P
I hate with a burning passion that Toomey is my senator, but his repeated reasonable statements on this bill and this issue are probably going to go a long way to ensuring his re-election, no matter how blue this part of PA goes.
Trollhattan
Zombie Lee Atwater anti-Busch Colbert push-polling in SC.
This is good news for John McCain’s illegitimate black child.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/05/01/1945751/south-carolina-push-poll/
Villago Delenda Est
John…
Counsel for the Petulant Children of America on line two. Something about “defamatory comparison”.
Villago Delenda Est
@Trollhattan:
“What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if she gave Mark Sanford a blow job in the back seat of a ’57 Chevy?”
scav
@El Cid: True. Seems to be a hobby, delicacy, lifestyle choice for our lot.
Comrade Jake
Here’s a much-needed mental health break (I know, Sully, my apologies) for you all who have seen the online Dove ad about women and their perception of their faces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qzDUbUQ-qjg#!
Hint: it’s the male analog, except not the one where they describe their faces.
Michele C
@Wapiti: That is a frickin’ good guess! Because it’s very, very possible that I did, indeed, mumble something of the sort.
Now that I’ve seen that push-poll from SC, I’m positive I would have said something like that loudly if I hadn’t been sitting at my non-cubicle in the middle of the room at work.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
danimal
@Elie: I concur. They also hate that they won’t have Obama to oppose in 2016, but they will have an extremist record to defend. Their craziness won’t be so appealing when they are running against a less-pigmented American (most likely).
@dmsilev: If only Michelle Obama could initiate a “Don’t Drink Bleach!” initiative…Wait, where do I go to create a White House petition?
MomSense
Please Democrats–be for breathing! Endorse it. Campaign on it. Pound the bully pulpit for it!
Arclite
It’s over. He won the election. He beat you fucks. Now you can quit with your childish obstruction and get down to the job people elected you to do: enact sensible legislation.
God, why the fuck are these people even elected?
rikyrah
@Elie:
and yet, they still won’t admit that he’s smart as hell.
nemesis
They have been elected to do exactly as they are doing.
The House has gerrymandered into oblivion. No matter who has the majority, the fools in the House and the filibuster in the Senate ensures max pain will be inflicted upon this country. Oh, in all honesty some responsibility rests with our Dems who cower at their own shadows.
cleek
somebody ought to put my little thesis in the Lexicon.
hint hint.
Elizabelle
@cleek:
true that.
Ben Cisco
@Trollhattan: They may as well have asked, “If I told you she had wheels, would you think she was a milk wagon?”
Un-frelling believable.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
Well, they can’t, because they’re discerning individuals.
I mean, really, how can you call a blah named “Obongo,” who has been seen parading around with a bone through his nose (pictures of which were obtained by Teabag Central), who was born in Kenya to a white wimmins, and whose father was Malcolm X, who’s married to a harpy who runs around shrieking “Whitey!” (and we ain’t talking Jimmy Bulger here), and who’s a Moooslim Boshulist Fascist, smart?
If he were so smart, he wouldn’t have needed to steal the election through intimidation, using the Super-De-Duper NEW! Blah Panthers to hold doors for old white wimmins (as a pretext so they could rape them, of course).
And so on.
I swear, there ain’t enough Owsley in the world to make my brain melt enough to become as fucked up as they are.
Now, if only Obama would try the dmsilev tactic – there might be hope. And change.
SFAW
@Ben Cisco:
See, I was kinda hoping for “If I told you she had a good body, would she hold it against me?”
But that was old before I was born, and I’m no whippersnapper like Cole.
Hawes
This is why Obama embraced Chained CPI. Eleventy dimensional chess.
Ben Cisco
@SFAW: Awesome.
Bill Arnold
They are still working on the Republican project to make B. Obama a one-term president.
Some apparent confusion; causality, how does it work?
JWL
It has been obvious for years that the GOP is the Party of Rule or Ruin.
Equally obvious has been the democratic party’s refusal to acknowledge that simple fact, much less utter it aloud. To them, as with the president, republicans remain “the honorable opposition”.
They look worse than silly for it. Even their rhetoric is craven.
Gex
Someday there will be an entire polysci course on this era using Cleek’s blog post as the text.
Gex
@Elie: Great point, it reminded me of the corporate structure. Corporations have one goal, money. Individuals have emotional preferences. The GOP exists in opposition to the Dems, so that is the course being selected.
Their tactics are selected from the individual emotional deficiencies of their constituents.
danimal
@Hawes: Obama saved Social Security with his eleventy dimensions of Chained CPI!
(I actually believe this to be true)
SFAW
@Gex:
OK, I admit I’m unlettered. Which post is that?
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah:
It’s not possible that he’s as smart a hell. He’s a ni*CLANG*, for the love of Jeebus!
MC Simon Milligan
80 years ago it was comedy. Now its policy. Isn’t history supposed to evolve into farce, not FROM it!?!?
Rekster
In other surprising news today:
Water is Wet!
cleek
@SFAW:
this is the one. specifically, this part:
SFAW
@cleek:
Thanks.
I wish it were only hyperbole. Reality keeps denying that wish, with “extreme prejudice.”
Montarvillois
Plagiarized from a Washington Post commentator:
“If wingnuts wish real hard, maybe they can limit Obama to only being a two-term president.”