Greenwald is really losing it. According to him, Obama is a loser because Dick Armey is from Texas. Yes, I know, that does not make sense. Nonetheless, that’s the logical construction that Greenwald lays out.
See, Dick Armey said something extremely rude to Joan Walsh on yesterday’s edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews. We shouldn’t be surprised by this however, which you would know if only you had read the platform of the Texas Republican Party (which must have something in it about being rude while appearing on cable television news programs). In any case, this Dick Armey is a bad dude and he has beliefs just like all of the 175-or-so Republicans in the House (yes, even those from New Jersey!!). And Barack Obama moved a teensy bit in their direction on this stimulus package which means he is beginning to resemble these evil-doers and perhaps even do their bidding.
Obama is a fool to have changed the legislation in any way to make it more palatable to people like Dick Armey, who hates gay people (did I mention that, yet?). In fact, if you look at the polls, you’ll realize that support for the stimulus has moved southward (within the margin of error) since the last survey. That’s the kind of reward Obama gets for looking reasonable. And Mark Halperin blames him, so he must be at fault.
I’m making fun, but Greenwald’s argument really boils down to a parody of reason.
When the House votes on final passage of the stimulus bill, somewhere near two dozen Republicans are going to vote for it. That was the point, despite the fact that no one gives a shit what the House Republicans think. We care about what the public thinks. And Obama is already talking to the people by blasting Republicans with ads in their districts. Yesterday’s vote was not the final vote.
But Dick Armey was mean to Joan Walsh, so this whole effort was self-defeating. See what I mean?
