A song for the Tea Partiers who shut the government down. Talk about whatever.
Archives for October 2013
For Emily, wherever I may find her
As you know, I hate Slate with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. Facile contrarianism is a bigger threat than teahadism, because it’s more insidious. (I realize that’s the same argument wingers made about why Osama bin Laden was more dangerous than Hitler or Stalin, but so be it.) My least favorite of the Slate rhetorical devices is the “why can’t liberals admit blah”. Could be that the debt is catastrophically large, could be that abortion is icky, could be that Islamofascism is an existential threat…you know, something obvious that all serious nonpartisan people of goodwill must surely recognize.
Atrios finds Emily Yoffe arguing that people (read: liberal college people) need to admit that women get raped at college because they drink too much (no link for Yoffe, here’s Amanda Marcotte’s Hess’s reply). For kicks, I looked up Yoffe’s presidential endorsements (Slate polls its columnists about who they voted for). I could only find the 2008. It’s beyond what I could have hoped for:
Emily Yoffe, “Dear Prudence” Columnist: Obama
Please, please, Barack, don’t become another Jimmy Carter.
President Obama’s Statement
You can watch it live here.
ETA 1:
Yay! He’s calling bullshit on the Republicans for manufacturing crises! Pointed out that shutdown was costly and damaging. Pointed out that deficits were already falling. “The only thing putting us at risk is repeated brinksmanship” — quote from credit analysts.
ETA 2:
“To all my friends in Congress, the way we do business has to change.”
“We need to stop focusing on lobbyists, bloggers [WTF?!?!–ed.], activists on talk radio, and do what we were sent here to do…that’s why we’re here.”
ETA 3:
Three things we should focus on:
1) Balanced approach to a responsible budget — “budget shouldn’t be an ideological exercise…deficit is getting smaller, not bigger now…need to close corporate tax loopholes and invest in education, research, infrastructure…”
2) Finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system — “broad coalition behind reform…Senate has a bill with strong bipartisan support…if the House has ideas on how to improve it, let’s hear them…”
3) Pass a farm bill — “One that farmers and ranchers can depend on…one that helps vulnerable children…Senate has passed bipartisan bill…if House has ideas to improve it, let’s see them…”
ETA 4:
“I hope all of us have learned that smart, effective governance is important…Americans got an idea of what government does…we’ve heard ‘government is the problem,’ but we’ve learned we rely on it in many ways…”
ETA 5:
“Don’t treat government like the enemy or make it work worse. If you don’t like a policy — or a president, win an election. Don’t break it.”
Message to returning government workers: “Thanks for your service. What you do is important. It matters…”
ETA 6:
That’s all, folks. Very strong statement that put the blame squarely where it belongs, thanked those who deserve it and called out the saboteurs.
Booker Wins
Speaking of comments, the top-rated one on the Times’ Booker story is this:
[…] Bottom line, the gay black guy won easily. On top of the other disasters of the day for the Republican party you’d expect this to be a wake up call, but I doubt it will be.
Booker won with 55% of the vote in a special election called because brave maverick Chris Christie was worried that too many blahs would turn out in a general election. The Star-Ledger story is a little more straight news than the Times, which seems to be having a hard time holding back its disdain for Booker.
Mine eye runneth down with water … my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed
Heavens, the shoodenfrooder is just dripping off the walls over in the Red State comments – a fine, heady mix of sweet sweet tears, dribble and bullshit, mixed up in a big ol’ bucket of dumb and flung all over the place.
What we need to be doing is buying voting stock in Comcast, Disney and Time/Warner. Until we have a bigger say in the MSM, and that will be done by strong-arming the boardrooms of these companies to have their news divisions actually be NEWS divisions, we could re-elect a senate full of Jesse Helms’ and a congress full of Bob Dornans, nothing will change. You cannot do that by screaming online, as most people still get their news traditionally.
What is your opinion on Paul Ryan (R-WI) as a replacement for Boehner?
NO NO NO he has proven to be a big amnesty supporter and never sticks up for conservative principles anymore. i have no idea what happened to him
144 fighters in the House and 19 in the Senate. These patriots we owe our gratitude for continuing the fight. However, the 26 Senators and 87 House RINOs must be challenged, including leadership. The same goes for anyone who continues to talk down of conservatives. The battle may have been lost, but the war is far from over.
Look at the bright side…the funding levels for the government were very low compared to what Reid and Obama wanted. Is there a way to oust Boehner from the Speaker’s chair mid-congress?
The ONLY positive to come out of this disaster is the fact we now know the true nature of the enemy within.
They must be removed by the root.
I don’t care if we lose some elections. All RINOS out. NOW!!!
This will accrue to the Republican Party brand in the future as the epic fail of Obamacare inflicts more and more pain on the middle class and the restrictions, loss of privacy and unfairness that is obamacare awakens a sleeping mass of voters who fell for the lie that you could have “free” healthcare for all with no cost to anyone.
This was a win win long term despite the Presidents strutting right now!
… and my personal favorite:
The Palin, to whom Cruz gives credit for his Primary win, is now in Iowa, I believe. A Palin Cruz ticket would float all Conservative Candidates, who had fought their way thru the Primary. The work ethic of the Palin will draw votes from all quarters.
Please proceed, wingnuts.
Open Thread: Dick Armey’s Prediction
(Jeff Danziger’s website)
Last weekend, NYMag published an interview with Repub Dick Armey, who was the House majority leader during the 1995/96 shutdown. Nobody ever accused Dick Armey of being a Great Mind, but apparently he was capable of learning from experience:
… Take me back to 1995. Why did Republican leadership think a government shutdown would be an effective tactic?
We had reason to believe we might be able to pull it off. Remember, we had had a lot of success that year. We were riding pretty high after the 100 days, and we felt that we were going to bring the Democrats to heel on our budget numbers. Newt insisted that presidents get blamed for shutdowns and that therefore we ought to develop a strategy that would take us to a shutdown. My position was that Republicans get blamed for shutdowns, because it’s incongruous to the public to think that the Democrats — who they perceive as people who love the government — would shut down the government. But Newt was just certain that he would outwit Clinton…So how will it end?
I will predict this: When they agree on a spending bill, it will speak not at all to Obamacare and it will be at budgetary numbers higher than the sequestration level. And so in the end, the Republican conference will lose ground on the budget, they will lose ground on health care, they will lose ground politically, and they’ll be in a worse position than where Boehner had them going into this process. And they’ll all blame Boehner, bless his heart.
My emphases.
Republican Horror Story: Clowns
So the insane clown posse has had their semtex vests taken away and the economy and the American people are safe for a few months, and the Teahadists got nothing:
With a deal to reopen the government apparently imminent Wednesday, it’s worth taking stock of what it was all for—the two and a half weeks without a fully functioning federal government, the nonstop chaos on Capitol Hill, the tiptoeing to the brink of default.
For Republicans, it was basically for nothing.
The GOP will actually get less out of the final deal being brokered than the party would have gotten had House conservatives never staged their revolt on Obamacare. In fact, the drama is likely to end with Republicans ceding policy concessions to Democrats.
Let’s review: Had the House passed the “clean” continuing resolution it was offered on September 30, the government would have remained open only until November 15, at the reduced funding levels determined by the “sequestration” cuts imposed by the 2011 debt-limit deal. Republicans still would have had the debt-ceiling deadline Thursday, plus another budget fight on the horizon a month later, as perceived points of leverage. (Democrats insist this leverage is illusory as the White House would refuse to negotiate, but to Republicans, that’s what these deadlines are: valuable bargaining chips.)
Instead, the House is poised to pass a measure that funds the government through January 15 and lifts the debt ceiling until February 7—taking the heat off Congress for months and eliminating three pressure points (the September 30 funding expiration, the October 17 debt-ceiling target, and the hypothetical November 15 funding expiration) in one go. The proposed deal negotiated by Senate leaders also would force the two houses to convene a budget committee, something Democrats have been demanding since the Senate passed a budget in March—and conservative Republicans have repeatedly blocked, for fear that any compromise negotiated between the two houses would mean selling out their principles.
And that’s exactly what happened. Complete and total capitulation and getting nothing for their hostage negotiations of the last month other than, well, this:
The Tea Party is less popular than ever, with even many Republicans now viewing the movement negatively. Overall, nearly half of the public (49%) has an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party, while 30% have a favorable opinion.
The balance of opinion toward the Tea Party has turned more negative since June, when 37% viewed it favorably and 45% had an unfavorable opinion. And the Tea Party’s image is much more negative today than it was three years ago, shortly after it emerged as a conservative protest movement against Barack Obama’s policies on health care and the economy.
WINNING! Of course the Republicans won’t believe this from Pew until the lardhead from Unskewed Polls gives the numbers the ok, except sadly his website is now as defunct as the Romney inaugural committee. And while this is all a good bit of fun, let’s remember the best is yet to come, because now we get to watch the only thing that Republicans are any good at- circular firing squads:
Ted Cruz and Mike Lee may not have been able to strike a death blow to Obamacare today, but they were able to fight a fight that would have been impossible before them. They have now made it less and less possible for Republicans to collaborate with Democrats to fix or stabilize Obamacare.
So we must advance. Two Republicans in the Senate caused this fight that their colleagues would have surrendered on more quickly but for them. Imagine a Senate filled with more. We have an opportunity to replace Mitch McConnell in Kentucky with a better conservative. We should do that. We have the opportunity to send a strong conservative from North Carolina and we should do that. Same in Colorado. Kansas looks to be in play. Chris McDaniel will declare his candidacy for the Senate in Mississippi. Conservatives will rally to him quickly. Tennessee could be in play too.
The establishment has given conservatives a brilliant opportunity to advance against them and then against the Democrats. As Obamacare now goes into full swing, conservatives can show that they tried to stop it while Mitch McConnell and so many others sat and watched from a cozy booth the Capitol Hill Club leaving the fighting to others while they did everything possible to undermine the fight.
***The last time the major leaders of an American political party tried to compromise their way to power, the party broke apart giving us the Republicans. This fight too will break apart the GOP. There will not necessarily be a new party from it, but there will be a fundamentally altered party of new faces fueled by a grassroots movement now able to connect with each other and independent from Wall Street and K Street funders.
Never before have the people been less dependent on a party apparatus to play in primaries. Conservatives now have groups like Heritage Action, Senate Conservatives Fund, Madison Project, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, For America, and others to fund and rely on.
Grassroots upset about this fight should be encouraged. We’d have never gotten this far with the GOP before 2010. Imagine now the possibilities in 2014 if we make examples of a GOP that refused to fight Obamacare.
The title of that post is “Advancing, always Advancing.”
Boy howdy. This is going to be fun.