Howard Dean joins the whinefest:
Addressing a telling moment in the health care debate, when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (a frequent Dean critic) called out progressive activists for running ads against conservative Democrats, Berman asked the former DNC Chair for his reaction.
“I’m not looking to pick another fight with Rahm Emanuel, but the contempt with which he held the progressive wing of the party was devastating and incredibly demoralizing,” Dean said. “That’s basically saying to your own people — you got us here, now FU.”
Here’s what happened:
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, [progressive activists] say, is the prime obstacle to the changes they thought Mr. Obama’s election would bring.
The friction was laid bare in August when Mr. Emanuel showed up at a weekly strategy session featuring liberal groups and White House aides. Some attendees said they were planning to air ads attacking conservative Democrats who were balking at Mr. Obama’s health-care overhaul.
“F—ing retarded,” Mr. Emanuel scolded the group, according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items.
Rahm Emanuel didn’t say that progressives were retarded. He said that the decision to target Blue Dog Democrats with campaign ads was retarded. And his reasoning was that it would not convince them to support stronger health care reform, but alienate them and make it harder to pass anything at all. You can disagree with Emanuel’s assessment without walking around with wounded feelings for the rest of your life.
I can’t tell you how many times I have had this quote thrust in my face as evidence that the Obama administration doesn’t like the left. “If they want me to be enthusiastic, maybe they shouldn’t call me a retard.” I’ve seen it a thousand times, in posts, in emails, in comments, and in conversation. All I can say is, “Grow the Hell Up.”
We’ve got bigger problems that some perceived slight that is almost never accurately depicted. The president, the vice-president, and anyone who isn’t effing retarded is pointing to Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Carl Paladino, Christine O’Donnell, Mike Lee, Joe Miller, Ron Johnson, Ken Buck, Pat Toomey, and Speaker Boehner and telling you to wake the eff up.
Rahm Emanuel is leaving soon. After he’s gone, we’ll still be dealing with an administration that kept Sarah Palin from being a heartbeat away from the presidency, and that has a long list of accomplishments. And we’ll be trying to fight off a dangerous wave of seriously insane right-wing xenophobia, racism, and ultranationalism. Given the stakes, I don’t see a problem in calling people on their complacency.
Agreed. Have you sen any polls lately on Dem awareness of the threat? A few weeks ago polls indicated far too many Dems were complacent, thought we were doing fine.
Yeah, it’s something like 80% think they’ll keep Congress.
Something however, tells me that it is not the progressive online left everyone on this site loves to trash, who hold this belief.
So how do we wake up the sleeping 80%? Because they have to be sleeping.
The president, the vice-president, and anyone who isn’t effing retarded is pointing to Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Carl Paladino, Christine O’Donnell, Mike Lee, Joe Miller, Ron Johnson, Ken Buck, Pat Toomey, and Speaker Boehner and telling you to wake the eff up.
Add Boozman(sp?) to that list. And Lincoln had no chance to hold it, while Halter did. We know how that turned out.
This probably belongs two posts down, but it’ll have to do here. First, this:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/strategery-gone-awry.html
Then this:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/fine-whine
That is all.
Josh’s commenters have some interesting responses.
Where did “hurt fee fees” come from? Who was the first person or blog to describe over-sensitivity to criticism with this baby-talk put-down? I’m curious about how language evolves over the internet. We all know where Pie Wars started and can point to the person who popularized DFH (dirty fucking hippies) but does anyone know who came up with this jewel-faceted brilliance? It’s just perfect!
On Topic: Rationally, Rahm was right to assume that Democrats attacking other Democrats would be a “retarded” move. This was, of course, before Republicans attacking other Republicans succeeded in populating our nightmares with “Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Carl Paladino, Christine O’Donnell…” et al.
Wouldn’t it be fun to have a choice at the polls between a right-wing nut-case and a left-wing crazy?
On Topic: Rationally, Rahm was right to assume that Democrats attacking other Democrats would be a “retarded” move.
Rahm is to blame for that, too. After all, he recruited asshats like Bobby Bright. And other asshats that are closet Republicans.
Who popularized DFH? I personally, cro magnon that I am, remember the pie fight.
I don’t know. I assumed it was Atrios, but I really don’t know.
Digby has a diary about this several days ago. It comes out of the rightwing blogosphere where they actually mean literally punching who they call hippies. As anachronistic as that may be. Digby identifies who made it cross over as a synonym for Sister Souljahing.
thanks, I had followed the link to her diary but guess I missed tracing the history of the term. amazing that pie fight has become a real word so to speak
Not bad for a Gilligan’s Island sequel. Which is what started the original shut-your-piehole controversy.
Did you actually watch the Gilligan’s Island sequel? that’s so historical! i just saw the ads on kos.
Nope. Like you, just saw the ads.
Me either. It truly has a life of its own in the Rahm as Beelzebub mythos.
A party that rejects Howard Dean is not a party I want to belong to any more. And incredibly, the White House continues to think that the way to get Liberals out to vote is to continue insulting us.
HEY RAHM! FUCK YOU TOO!
Asking you to vote is not insulting you.
Calling a shit sandwich a feast however and expecting someone to believe it, is in fact an insult.
Grow the hell up.
What does that even mean? C’mon. Do better than hurl a canned phrase.
You’re kidding, right? You revive the phrase “shit sandwich” and then criticize someone else’s phraseology as canned?
I’ve been voting Democratic for 30 years and I swear, I’ve never seen a more self-absorbed, unrealistic bunch as I’ve seen in the blogging era.
No, it isn’t, Booman. I was referring to whatever insult he said yesterday, reported on the news today. I forget what it was, there are so many practically every day. Perhaps “whiners” perhaps something else. I am just amazed that he considers this productive. Does he think Romney would have got more votes if he had said,”Hey all you dumbass religious fanatics, forget Huckabee and vote for me.”?
Now if he had said something like,” I made mistakes. I trusted Republican’s bipartisan spirit too much. If you will rally behind the party again, in the next Congress we will try much harder to bring the real change I promised and still want”, then he would much more success than with insults and threats. Insults and threats are all that son of a bitch Emanuel knows. I fervently hope he comes here to Chicago to run for Mayor so I can fight against him full time.
Ah, I remember now. It was Biden calling us whiners. I don’t need insults from the man once known as “the Senator from Citibank”.
Speaking of missing the point…
Grow the hell up.
Go join Rahm in Hell.
And what has Rahm done to you personally?
I was on the Cegelis campaign when Rahm threatened donors with retaliation if they donated to us . Christine was a good Progressive and ran a good race against Henry Hyde. It was an open seat and we had a good chance to take it, but Rahm undermined us because she would not swear fealty to him. He made very clear that he would not tolerate an independent Suburban Democratic part. He demanded to be boss of the suburbs like Daley was boss of the city.
On the Orange Blog, I have read similar stories from other congressional districts. Losing a fair primary is one thing. Howard Dean lost and I went on to support and vote for Kerry. Edwards lost and I switched to Obama. But using muscle and intimidation to win is dirty politics and I’ll never reconcile that.
Well, a party that rejects Rahm Emmanuel is not a party that I want to belong to, so there!
Thankfully, there is room for all of us, and we can even call one another out, as long as we are respectful and not just inventing quotes to beat as straw men. You know what I mean?
Here’s the worst case. Speaker of the House John Boehner (65% probability). Majority leader of the Senate Jim DeMint (18%) probability. Minority leaders of the Senate Jim DeMint (82% probability of being in the minority x 50% probability of DeMint being the one= 41%). Minority leader Steny Hoyer (65% probability).
So the big problem is the House. Here are Nate Silver’s breakdown by seats (my rearrangement):
Here is Nate Silver’s Methodology. It is complicated model-building that builds off all of the public domain polls in recent elections, adjusts for various polling effects, adjusts to current trendlines and likely voter breakdowns, uses the PVI and other polling indexes in a regression and dropping statistically insignificant variables, creating a snapshot, and using simulation to predict election day results.
So, looking at these races, exactly which of them are imperiled by whining progressives?
I don’t see Booman’s(and mine) Congressional District on there. Manan Trivedi is a really good candidate. I’ve even seen a commercial or two from him. It’s a Democratic district(by PVI). We should have a shot at it.
It’s most likely the numbercrunching shows it as safe Republican. It’s not in Nate’s list.
is just plain silly. Had he been elected to the Presidency you can bet your ass that “change” would be much more than an empty campaign slogan.
Howard Dean was a moderate in Vermont.
And he doesn’t have a magic 60-vote pony.
And if you think DC is hostile to Obama?
And the moderate Senators from rural states all endorsed Obama, and none of the endorsed Dean.
But Dean would scream at them, I suppose.
Okay, that was a cheap shot.
YEEEEEEAAAAARRRRGH
Actually this is worse than a cheap shot from someone complaining about whiners and claiming to advocate the sensible, adult conversation. I feel sorry for Dean for worked 4 hard years for his party only to get shit on by ‘serious’ Democrats and bloggers (like you.) And then you wonder why others are angry? Wow, get real. I usually respect and agree with your opinions, but this is too much to take. Your bitching isn’t much better than the average tea bagger’s when you lower yourself to this level.
The comment is about how Dean would have a harder time with the Villagers than Obama is having, nothing against Dean, it’s against the Villagers
Well, except the scream part of the comment. The scream was a product of the mic, Dean was just speaking over the crowd – it was a directional mic, didn’t pick up the crowd noise. totally fabricated anti Dean meme,
My comment (and complaint) was about the “Yearggggggggggggggggggggh”
It seemed pretty petty and sophomoric, just like what the Booman is complaining about regarding others (e.g. Jane and Juan). I know about and remember the mic as well. Dean was hardly the enemy. How many people now defending Obama were as generous with Howard?
If this debate is all about focusing on the real problems – astroturf politics, the bad economy, obstructionism, etc., then why even bring up Dean in the first place? He’s hardly a major player after much of the democratic establishment dissed him for his 50 state strategy (before, during and after Obama’s use of it in the ’08 campaign.)
It’s kinda hard to be told that complaining about Obama is a sin, but any democrat offering rational opposition to some of his policies equals dogshit on a stick. Like I said, I usually really respect Booman, but this is pretty hypocritical. I like Obama and I like what he’s doing. And I’ll vote for dems just like I’ve been doing since 1972. But the political equivalent to spousal abuse is pretty weird IMHO. And that’s how I see what trashing the DFHers has become.
Dean is a significant player – how major I guess we’ll see. he’s running DFA, continuing a 50 state strategy, participating in the oct 2 event. I don’t see ppl dissing him in general. my impression is he more a guy who wants to get things done than a guy who wants celebrity status – if you want to show support, give some $ to DFA, he’ll really appreciate that
Why does the left insist on elevating historical figures or project some sort of better presidency than Obama’s on other candidates, especially given that our majorities were even slimmer in 2007 and nonexistent in 2005?
They’re even canonizing Clinton now which is pretty funny to a semi-lefty like me who lived through the triangulating nineties.
You are aware the current HCR plan today is more progressive than the one Dean proposed, right?
Don’t confuse me with facts, dammit.
I have a theory going — I don’t need this shit.
Aaah, proof by assertion.
No, I’m not aware of that, because it’s not true. The difference, of course, is in the details, and if we actually debate this you will make bullshit claims about what Dean was interested in along with most favorable predictions/interpretations of how Obama’s plan will turn out. [You would accuse me of similar behavior.]
So, rather than embroil myself in that pointless exercise, I will simply evaluate what did actually happen: the health care plan that was passed was authored by people with ties and loyalties to for-profit “health care” companies, and some aspects of the plan and its related components were negotiated in secret even though Obama campaigned on the idea of having a transparent administration. And those facts alone, which aren’t argued by anyone (Baucus thanked Liz Fowler publicly), are enough to know that the plan is a piece of shit.
[Two friends, men in their early twenties, meet on a city street corner. After they exchange ritual pleasantries, they begin a conversation…]
Sabir: Usman, why the long face?
Usman: Yesterday my oldest daughter was killed by an American drone attack.
Sabir: Usman, you must understand that the American government is only trying to help our country. Remember, Barak Obama is now the president!
Usman: I hate Obama with a white-hot passion.
Sabir: Usman, stop being such a baby! Just because your fee-fees are hurt doesn’t mean he’s a bad president. Besides – how is he supposed to effect change when his political party only has a sizable advantage in both houses of the American Congress.
Usman: She died in my arms as I was carrying her to the doctor.
Sabir: Usman, don’t you understand? Obama is triangulating for political advantage! He has to continue to bomb Pakistan so that he can accomplish progressive reform in the United States!
Usman: Her blood just kept draining out of the wound in her stomach. I tried to stop it, but… (he breaks down crying)
Sabir: Usman, you need to grow up. It’s not about you and your hurt fee-fees. Only crazy radicals care about stupid things like dying children, or impoverished families evicted from their homes, or runaway unemployment. I know what will cheer you up – I’ll send you some YouTube clips of Rahm Emanuel – he’s a no nonsense guy who understands that to make an omelette, you’ve got to break a few…
[fade to black]
What Dean said via Sam Stein:
“The White House began to believe that they could mobilize their supporters without hearing what their supporters really wanted in terms of specific change,” Dean is quoted as saying. “The principal problem with OFA is the same one the president’s having. You can’t dictate to your base what’s going to happen. It’s got to be a two-way deal, and it hasn’t been.”
I think that there are a bunch of commenters here who are, yes, ‘whiners’. It is pretty sad but they are like many other people I have known over many, many years who are not happy unless they are unhappy!
It is pretty sad that so many people like being unhappy so much that they will search out that unhappiness!
Being thinskinned is not a virtue!
Aren’t you just whining about the “whiners”?