Politics and Poetic Justice

[TampaYankee]

The GOP reached out to embrace the Tea Party in the summer of Health Care reform and as the 'Party Of No' on anything to help the country weather the Economic collpase during the Obama adminstration. Their last supportive action on a major legislative bill as a party was Bush's TARP, highly fractured as that was. During the last two years what little that was accomplished in the Senate on major bills counted on the lone rogue GOP senator, maybe two. That does NOT put the lie to the 'Party of No' label.

Now that embrace of the radical right Tea Partiers has resulted in the GOP establishment being eaten alive. No better deserved justice for the crass GOP Establihsment hypocrits that put their short term party goals above the needs of the country the last two years. Several of their immediate goals (establishment candidates) now lay in shambles.

That establishment now feels their chances to take over the Senate are imperiled by Angle/NV and O'Connel/DE. Let's hope so for the good of the country. But if they somehow manage to do it anyway, it is likely to be far worse for the GOP Senate and House leadership.

Watching the Dems in both houses get their acts together the last two years will be nothing compared to the GOP leaderships trying to lead their caucuses, that is if they survive the wave of new members. I'm sure the first targets for them will be that leadership.

Maybe it has finally dawned on the GOP esblishment that they really do work for Fox News and had better not cross them.

Yes, poetic justice surely.

Now we wait to see if the country as a whole will follow the Tea Partiers down the rabbit hole. I have serious doubt that the electorate at large has any sense of consequence of action. They are very good at knowing what they are unhappy with, not so much at analyzing the impact of alternatives.

[lookin]

Now we wait to see if the country as a whole will follow the Tea Partiers down the rabbit hole. I have serious doubt that the electorate at large has any sense of consequence of action. They are very good at knowing what they are unhappy with, not so much at analyzing the impact of alternatives.

So sad, but so true. I once toyed with the idea that a good campaign finance reform package would prohibit all 30-second TV and radio ads in favor of print media. Not only would sound bites be a thing of the past, but we'd get back to digging deeper into the issues. Not to mention that campaign expenditures would be a fraction of current levels, and somebody besides millionaires could afford to run.

Very thoughtful post, by the way. Thanks.

[MsGuy]

Now we wait to see if the country as a whole will follow the Tea Partiers down the rabbit hole.

Have faith in the old Republic, TY. It's seen odder things than that and emerged intact. This too shall pass.

Eventually.

[Guest Matrix]

Have faith in the old Republic, TY. It's seen odder things than that and emerged intact. This too shall pass.

Eventually.

I don't know if it HAS seen odder things, quite frankly. Ross Perot attempted to turn the apple cart upside down once, but these crazy (and I mean crazy) republicans and tea-toddlers are playing with a much more dangerous weapon than Ross Perot could have ever even envisioned.

This is almost like when the long-time school-yard bully got confronted in the school-yard for the first time by the new and improved school-yard bully. Something is going to change and where power is concerned it's never really very pretty. The difference here is that the new school-yard bully isn't really all that new.

This is indeed scary stuff because you just know that when Palin announces her intentions for 2012 a lot more bullying, posturing and positioning is going to be forced to take place and that too will divide if it does not conquer those left standing without a seat when the music stops playing. A new modern day cannibalism of the GOP from within it's very own ranks. Isn't America just great!

Maybe this will actually turn into a real modern day civil war and they'll all end up shooting and killing themselves with their stash of protected AK-47's and we can then pick up what's left afterward and start a new.

Better them than us.

[Guest Matrix]

And in her finest "Sarah Palin" like moment from the 90's - here's Christine O'Donnell's thoughts on masturbation:

Be afraid - be very, very afraid of these people.

[MsGuy]

I don't know if it HAS seen odder things, quite frankly.

The Klan/nativist movement got quite frisky in the teens and 20's, yes?

Red Scare in the late 40's & 50's?

Civil war inside the Demo party from '68 to '72?

Ever so often Americans grab their pitchforks and torches and get it on. Just part of who we are.

Better them than us.

With them and us living in the same boarding house, the rukus over who holds the remote should get interesting.

[MsGuy]

An interesting point came up on Charlie Rose tonight.

One conservative analyst says the Tea Party movement may be a big bonus for the Republicans this November but will make it extremely difficult for the GOP to do the work of a governing party if it takes power. His point was that the movement is so adamantly anti-spending that the Republicans will find it hard to vote forward a realistic budget. It's not so much the possible numbers of actual tea party identified candidates who may be elected as that the movement has put the Fear of God into party regulars by challenging incumbants in primaries with well financed "crazies" and have ended the careers of more than a few.

Most of the pols who have gone down say they were demonized for voting for necessary funding bills. The Partiers apparently aren't willing to accept "compromise" votes on spending issues. It's one thing to run on a slogan of cutting spending; it another thing altogether to have to actually chop the budget to pieces.

For a couple of generations Republicans have run one way and governed another. This analyst at least was saying that option may not be open to them come January. The professional pols of the GOP may be too terrified of grassroots activists back home that are actually keeping tract of what the pols get up to in Washington and have the proven capacity to put boots on the ground and flood local TV with attack ads if they stray from the straight and narrow.

Well, as Matrix said, "Better them than us."

And as I said, "Yeah, but..."

[TampaYankee]

An interesting point came up on Charlie Rose tonight.

This discussion was the undercurrent of my opening post. Even if the GOP leaders survive their leadership posts they wont be able to fashion any reasonable consensus on spending bills and a lot of other stuff either. The best thing those leaders have to look forward too, should they take over, is two years of hell and black eyes, and that from their own. Does offer Obama a chance for reelection once the middle voters see the train wreck.

I suspect we are in for a government shutdown. It will sorely test Obama to see if he has the balls to let the train wreck happen or surrenders the reigns of government. This is really contingent on them taking the Senate. I doubt the tea partiers are of sufficient number to drive the House to paralysis. They will cause a definite swing to the right though.

If Dems remain in charge in both houses then an even chance Obama goes home to Chicago in '13. That is unless he picks up his selling of his initiatives. To date he has sucked at it, along with the Dem Congress.

Here is one simple example: Instead of using class warfare arguments on the Bush Tax Cuts, make the argument that everyone gets treated equally. Period. Everyone keeps tax cuts on first $250k of income. We wish it could be more but we cannot afford because it is deficit exploding which is also of great concern. EVERYONE gets equal treatment.

Have you heard anyone make that simple argument? It would sell to the middle which is about fair play and deficit concerns. The problems with Democrats is they cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. They all chew gum all the time it seems.

As for the argument: 'this will pass too', history supports that as you point out. But there is passing and there is passing. IMO we are in for a bad decade, economy wise. That is what history and economists tell me.

We have a job hole that will take us the better part of a decade to dig out of. China and India are booming now and likely to continue over the next decade. They are moving ahead in green energy and manufacturing. We are lagging with no sign that there is or will be a consensus to get moving on green energy or renewed manufacturing base.

We 'had' an economy primarily driven by consumerism. Those consumers are no longer consuming as before. They are not flipping houses or even buying new houses for personal use. The unemployed count between 15 million and 22 million depending upon who you believe. However many there are, they wont be consuming a hell of alot.

We are not going to fall into a black hole but we are not going to bounce back overnight or in one year to three. Look for a lackluster decade. With that lack of luster comes an inability to shrink the deficit. Afterall, we can only do that by taking in tax receipts which the GOP wants to give the rich or we can print money which has a terrible down side.

Yes, it will pass. I'm just not sure when or how pleasantly. The Great Depression passed too but it wasn't a fun ride.

[JKane]

I suspect we are in for a government shutdown. It will sorely test Obama to see if he has the balls to let the train wreck happen or surrenders the reigns of government. This is really contingent on them taking the Senate. I doubt the tea partiers are of sufficient number to drive the House to paralysis. They will cause a definite swing to the right though.

If Dems remain in charge in both houses then an even chance Obama goes home to Chicago in '13. That is unless he picks up his selling of his initiatives. To date he has sucked at it, along with the Dem Congress.

Here is one simple example: Instead of using class warfare arguments on the Bush Tax Cuts, make the argument that everyone gets treated equally. Period. Everyone keeps tax cuts on first $250k of income. We wish it could be more but we cannot afford because it is deficit exploding which is also of great concern. EVERYONE gets equal treatment.

I do worry about tea partiers and any increase in the number of Republicans in congress worsening federal gridlock to California levels, but on the other hand maybe teabaggers will break the Republican caucus and the remaining moderates will be more likely to vote with Dems, at least for cloture. I think that Republican leadership may now be more afraid of the teabaggers than the bed-wettingest liberal, it was amazing seeing Rove *on Hannity on Fox* pretty much saying the Delaware candidate was unelectable and she really hurts their chances of taking control.

Those tea party victories the other day gave me hope for the Dems for the first time in many months. If they manage to get out the word on who these people are and what they really believe I think Dems can maintain control. Though Jon Stewart had a great panel of three, each with a different idea of "how the Democrats will fuck this up".

But at the moment the Democrats are finally moving towards a promising track. Pointing out the hypocrisy on the deficit, the radical positions of the teabaggers, the things Dems have actually accomplished, and even making a move on DADT which may help improve the morale of the base. Hopefully they've also realized that while it does work on the base, talking about Bush and where all the years of Republican leadership got us doesn't work that well on the apparently terminally Alzheimer's afflicted general electorate.

I feel Obama did exactly what you describe in his Rose Garden press conference. 'WE want tax cuts on first $250k for all, THEY are holding those hostage in order to also get tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% which we simply can not afford.' I don't understand why some Dems are afraid of that particular tack, the right has been doing bullshit class warfare against 98% of Americans for at least 20 years now *while somehow* maintaining a bullshit "populist" image! Call them on that shit, once and for all. And then Biden did a pretty good job of talking to the base on Maddow last night. Hopefully he keeps that up with no more than his usual level of gaffs.

And things seem to be going pretty well in California too (well, if we're counting maintaining the status quo as pretty good). I know the polls may be mixed, but I saw a great Boxer ad last night and I don't think the pollsters can account for the people who are going to turn out to vote for Marijuana legalization.

[MsGuy]

As if Sarah and the Tea Party weren't enough to ruin Mitch McConnell's digestion, Sen. Tom "Better 30 stalwart conservatives than 60 squishy Republicans" DeMint is riding high in the saddle too.

"[DeMint's] group first took aim at Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who often voted with Democrats. DeMint endorsed Specter's primary opponent, Pat Toomey, a former congressman known as a tax-cutter and fiscal hawk. Specter left the Republican Party a few days later to run as a Democrat, and lost.

"That victory emboldened DeMint to take on more of the Republican Establishment, starting with Florida Governor Charlie Crist, a moderate seeking a U.S. Senate seat. DeMint raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote the former state speaker, Marco Rubio. In April, as polls showed Rubio running away with the race, Crist left the party. "Republicans would not have the wind at our backs if we stood up for candidates like Arlen Specter and Charlie Crist," DeMint says.

"Since then, DeMint's money and manpower have upset Senate Republican primaries in Colorado, Utah, Kentucky, and Delaware. Of the 13 candidates he's endorsed, only three have lost. Last year he raised $1.3 million. This year his PAC has pulled in more than $4 million."

Full Article

No doubt Sen. McConnell is comforted by DeMint's denial that he is after the job of minority leader (unless, perhaps, McConnell gets in the way of privatizing Social Security ).

----

It's hard for me to judge how bad things are getting for the Dems nationwide, but down here we're about to get steam-rolled big time. The only reason the Dem Party will survive here is we hold state and local races in off years from national elections. It's that bad.