I found a transcript of the proceedings at the Democratic Senate Conference today. I wanted to read it because Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh both used their opportunity to ask the president a question to bash their own party and its activists. Now, I want to set this up, so the context started when Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado asked the president what the Democrats should do differently since the Senate isn’t functioning properly. And as part of his response, Obama made the following tribute to Arthur Gilroy.
“You know what I think would actually make a difference, Michael — I think if everybody here — excuse all the members of the press who are here — if everybody here turned off your CNN, your Fox, your — just turn off the TV — MSNBC, blogs — and just go talk to folks out there, instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics — the topic is politics.”
Seems like a variation of NEWSTRIKE!!! MEDIASTRIKE!!! CULTURESTRIKE!!! to me, but why pick on the bloggers 😉
In any case, this led Harry Reid to remark that he’d been following the president’s advice. And then Blanche Lincoln got to ask her question. Now, presumably, Lincoln designed this question to make herself look good to the people back home in Arkansas. I say that not just because she’s a politician, but because she didn’t ask a real question. She just made a pitch for herself and asked the president to join her in some hippie punching.
She opened with a nice combo. She got to praise the first lady while plugging her campaign against childhood obesity and at the same time slip that ‘bipartisan’ word in there.
SENATOR LINCOLN: Me, neither, Mr. President. I stay away from the TVs and everything else. But thank you so much for being here with us today. And I want to thank you also — I had an opportunity with several of my colleagues from the House and Senate to have a bipartisan meeting yesterday with the First Lady on childhood obesity. It was a great meeting and we look forward to working with her and you and your administration to really tackle that problem on behalf of our children and the future of our country.
Then she segued into some biography that the president couldn’t give two shits about and called herself ‘independent-minded.’
Mr. President, I come from a seventh-generation Arkansas family. My dad was a good Democrat, and he was a great Arkansan, and he was very typical of Arkansans in that he was very independent-minded, as am I, and as most of my constituents. And he used to tell me early on when I ran for Congress, he said it’s really results that count.
Next, Sen. Lincoln divulged that she talked to a constituent who thinks no one in the Obama administration has ever had to meet a payroll (and she makes it sound like a credible accusation).
And as I look at what’s going on in my state and among my constituents — I visited with a constituent yesterday, good Democrat, small business owner, who was extremely frustrated — extremely frustrated because there was a lack of certainty and predictability from his government for him to be able to run his businesses. He’s — he and his father have worked hard, they’ve built three or four different small businesses, and he fears that there’s no one in your administration that understands what it means to go to work on Monday and have to make a payroll on Friday. He wants results. He wants predictability.
Who knows what the hell this is supposed to mean. From the greater context, it appears to mean that we aren’t getting results because dangerous extremists are demanding too much change. Obama obliterates this argument during his response to Lincoln.
And I think that you’re exactly right. People out there watching us, they see us nothing more than Democrats and Republicans up here fighting, fighting only to win a few political points, not to get the problem solved. And so I just — I want to echo I guess some of what my colleague, Michael Bennet from Colorado, mentioned, but also to ask you, in terms of where we are going, what can we tell the people in terms of predictability and certainty in getting this economy back on track? How are we going to do that?
She seriously just used her time to ask the president how to get more predictability in the wake of the biggest financial tsunami since 1929. How about passing the president’s agenda on health care and financial reform? How would that be?
And are we willing as Democrats not only to reach out to Republicans but to push back in our own party for people who want extremes, and look for the common ground that’s going to get us the success that we need not only for our constituents but for our country in this global community, in this global economy? Are we willing as Democrats to also push back on our own party and look for that common ground that we need to work with Republicans and to get the answers? And it’s really the results that are going to count to our constituents. And we appreciate the hard work that you put into it.
That’s it. That’s her entire question. How do we get more predictability and how do we push back on our own party’s extremists so we can reach out to the lunatics from the party that created this big fucking mess in the first place.
And she wonders why her reelect numbers are in the low-thirties!!!
Obama gave her an excellent response, but I want to move on to look at Evan Bayh’s stellar performance. This exchange started with the president busting Bayh’s chops for wearing sneakers with his suit.
THE PRESIDENT: We can get you a mic. Nice sneakers, by the way, Evan. (Laughter.)
SENATOR BAYH: Oh, thank you. You’ve got to stay light on your feet around here, right? (Laughter.) Mr. President, you’ve already addressed this in part, and several of the other questioners have raised this, but I’d like to present it in a little bit different way that I think is on the minds of people in my state, and perhaps in the minds of independents and moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats around the country — and that’s this issue of the deficit and rising debt, and restoring the fiscal health of this country to a position where it ought to be.
Right. No progressive or mainstream Democrats are concerned about the deficit and rising debt. Nice framing, asshole.
Bayh then goes on a meandering rant about people thinking Democrats just want to tax and spend and won’t give up their precious earmarks or make any sacrifices. I’ll pick him up again, here:
“Now, to your credit, you’ve called for some things that aren’t always popular in our party. The first thing I noticed when you put into effect that non-security discretionary spending freeze is you got kicked in the shins by some of the left-wing blogs. And you called for more restraint on earmarks. That’s not always popular among our group, but to your credit, you’ve called for those things.
So my question to you, Mr. President, is speaking to independents, conservative Democrats, moderate Republicans — people who know we have to do this — why should the Democratic Party be trusted? And are we willing to make some of the tough decisions to actually head this country in a better direction?”
It wasn’t only left-wing blogs who kicked the president in the shins for announcing his stupid non-military discretionary spending freeze. It was every reputable economist in the known universe. But, whatever. The point is that the Democratic Party can’t be trusted to govern the country the way that moderate Republicans would like. This is rocket science.
I think it’s safe to say that Blanche Lincoln’s father understood the problem better than his daughter or this foolish doughboy from the Hoosier State. People want results, not wasted time and failed efforts to pass badly needed reforms. And who killed health care and made it unpopular even on the left? Jackasses like Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh, that’s who. They’re the same idiots who are going to make it impossible to tackle climate change, and they’ll probably look to screw us on immigration, too. They think their constituents want unavailable bipartisan solutions more than they want solutions. There’s no helping them. They’re criminally stupid.
To survive as a Democrat you have to make the case for the president’s policies to your constituents. You aren’t going to win a midterm election by killing the president’s agenda, you morons. You don’t make your party more popular by buying into every canard spewed about it by the right. This is Politics 101.
I feel sorry for Evan Bayh’s father, who deserved a better son. Birch Bayh was a far better Senator.
Yeah, I guess that being squishy bipartisan is what got Evan Bayh elected in the year of the Clenis. And again in 2004, the year of the purple heart bandaid.
Ack!!! First Quayle and then republi-lite Bayh. Its becoming more and more difficult to be a Hoosier:(
Well, at least the Colts made it to the Superbowl. <sigh>
This isn’t rocket science…
No, apparently it is rocket science.
It’s amazing to me how people like Sen. Bayh and Sen. Lincoln could possibly believe that totally screwing over the President’s agenda is a good political move. Even if their constituents DIDN’T like the proposals being offered…it would be 100x better to just work to convince those constituents that it was the right thing to do, than it would be to totally screw up everything and make yourself and your entire party look incompetent – and it would probably be easier to pull off too.
Bayh, Lincoln, and Ben Nelson have to be the most politically stupid Democrats in DC.
They know how to win in red states when the GOP is in power. It’s easy – they just punch hippies and get away with it because the hippie bills won’t pass anyway.
But they have no idea how to operate with the Dems in power. They think they can still punch hippies and stand up for their right-leaning constituents.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way (or at least, not with the filibuster in place). When the Dems are in power, you want to keep them in power. Which means you need to keep them popular. Which means you need to ACTUALLY PASS GOOD LEGISLATION.
Otherwise, voters will see you as part of the problem, not part of the solution. And every punch that Bayh/Lincoln/Nelson land on Obama and the Dems and the lefties, that same punch ricochets right back onto themselves.
They are self-immolating and don’t know why. They think it’s the lefties hurting them, when in fact they are hurting themselves. If these people studied 1994 they would know this, it’s elementary politics.
Help Obama and you help yourself. Hurt Obama and you hurt yourself. It’s that simple.
Bayh, Lincoln, and Ben Nelson have to be the most politically stupid Democrats in DC.
And they have something in common. Do you know what that is?
It’s amazing to me how people like Sen. Bayh and Sen. Lincoln could possibly believe that totally screwing over the President’s agenda is a good political move.
What’s more amazing is that they think it’s a good idea to fuck over a fellow DLC’er.
I know Obama isn’t the biggest liberal in the world, but didn’t he once have his name removed from the DLC website?
He might have asked(and they might have taken it down from the main DLC site) but there are still DLC sites that have his picture on them. Actually .. in the middle of writing this .. I Googled .. and
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251658&kaid=104&subid=210
But that’s not the site I was talking about .. unless they moved everything to the main site now
It’s the frigging first Google result of “Obama/DLC.”
link
is Lincoln jealous of Palin or something? Gah!
she makes just a tad more sense.
Seven generations of in-breeding?
Personally I don’t give two shits whether our politicians know what it’s like to go to work on Monday and meet a payroll on Friday. I do give two shits whether they know what it’s like to go to work on Monday and get a tiny paycheck on Friday that doesn’t even cover your bills, let alone let you save for the future.
Whether they understand what it means to not have enough to buy shoes or decent food or a safe vehicle. John Edwards understood that like Bill Clinton did and that’s why I supported them even with their evident character flaws.
And exactly how much does Blanche Dubois….oops, I mean Lincoln….know about going to work on Monday and make a payroll on Friday? Probably nothing, since most working people get a payroll check on Friday.
How can one become a Senator without understanding this? Unless one is about to pull a Lieberman.
The president’s response to Lincoln (with my translation):
Jesus, do I really have to answer this stupid question? I guess I do. Look, it’s completely asinine to ask me about predictibility in markets. I just stabilized the most fucked up market conditions in the last eighty years. Tell your dumb constituent that!
And if you didn’t notice, things would have completely fucked if we didn’t intervene in a major way. How about you tell your stupid constituent that?
Now, Blanche, you act like doing what the Republicans will accept is some kind of solution. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
I know you’d like to vote for enormous tax breaks for Tyson Foods executives, Blanche, but that ain’t fixing a thing. Maybe you and President Bayh can team up and kill the Estate Tax.
I’d have to criminally insane to follow your stupid advice, Blanche.
Why are you even a Democrat if you are so stupid as to ask me this question I am answering like you are two-year old.
Oh shit. I think I was too harsh. I will make up for this by telling her she is exactly right and we can’t use all these New Deal solutions that her daddy loved so well. Sometimes we’re too wedded to the past. I will say a couple more things that the DLC loves. Have I kissed her ass enough to makeup for the beatdown I delivered? Maybe not.
Okay, that’s enough buttkissing. Let me tell her off again one more time.
So, no, your entire fucking idea is idiotic. We’re not passing over the responsibility for governing to the Republicans or giving them veto power over everything just to make you even less popular.
this is great. I’ll bet ppl in DC are reading it and laughing. and ps the only thing Blanche has going for herself is her last name and I’ll bet the real Lincoln is rolling over in his grave. he should ask for his name back
you’re killin’ me.
holy shit. i am laughing so hard i’m CRYING.
yeah, Lincoln ought to have learned a lesson from the Republicans. Ask Obama a stupid question and he will make you look really stupid.
Yeah pretty much. Obama made her look stupid then did some hippie punching of his own because well, that’s how Democrats roll. Where’s the base? Base! Hello there! Meet my boot!
Do they think Democrats just lucked out winning blowouts in 2006 and 2008? Could Bush’s low approval ratings have had anything to do with it, ya think?
The economy was doing okay in 2006. But Dems swept the election because the Republican president was hated. If the Dems want to avoid the same thing, their best shot is to get Obama’s approval rating above 60%.
You do that by passing health care, passing real job creation bills, and do something to punish banks and rich people.
Bayh and Lincoln, of course, are the same people who think the estate tax should be repealed. They are idiots.
How do you think opposition parties get in power? You get in power when the people in power screw up and get hated. That’s how it works.
That said, nothing I have seen has dissuaded me from the position that 2006 was won because for once, for once, the blogosphere was involved in the campaign as something more than mindless footsoldiers or an ATM.
I know this is a worn out illustration from one of those motivational speakers: Bayh and Lincoln are just like those spoilers on the train struggling up a steep incline. When they get to the top the engineer, exhausted says, “it’s been a tough slog, but we finally made it.” To which the worrywart says, “And it’s a good thing I’ve had the brakes on the whole way or we might have slid backwards.”
I thought Sen.Lincoln & Bayh were a disgrace to the Democratic Party. I cannot understand why Sen.Lincoln finds the need to have Republican cooperation so important. I was waiting for her to ask about death panels and socialism.
When you have a choice between a Republican and a faux Republican what do you think people are going to buy?
What, Gilroy’s head isn’t big enough?
I dunno. Never met him.
Every time Biden says something that I cringe over I console myself with the fact that Bayh wasn’t chosen as VP. I think he was high on Hillary’s shortlist also. How did this s.o.b. rise so high in the Democratic Party to be thought of by both candidates? Lieberman part freaking two! I guess Ben Nelson is up next in six and a half years.