The White House is demanding that Congress come back from their vacations and pass a bill that will keep the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operating through August. They sent Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood out on the morning news programs to make their points. Yet, this is but one hostage situation of many that are about to come down the pike. In this case, it’s more complicated than a simple kidnapping of the FAA’s budget. The Republicans are destroying unprofitable rural airports that rely on federal subsidies to survive, and they’re doing it in Majority Leader Harry Reid and Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller’s home states. They aren’t offering to fund those airports if the Democrats do something. They’re saying that the FAA will stay closed in August unless Reid and Rockefeller’s airports are destroyed. That’s their demand on the short-term extension. For a permanent reauthorization, their demand is that Delta Airlines be able to count employees who don’t vote in any unionization election as ‘no’ votes. So, you know, regardless of price never fly on Delta Airlines.
Once this frustrating and ridiculous fight over the FAA is resolved, we’ll have to deal with a bunch of outrageous riders the House Republicans are going to put in all their appropriations bills: banning money for Planned Parenthood, gutting public broadcasting, etc. Then we’ll have the showdown on the SuperCommittee: will they raise taxes, or will the triggers get pulled?
If the SuperCommittee manages to agree to sweeping tax reform, the debate over the Bush tax cuts will go away, but if it does not, we’ll have another hostage situation next year. Will the Republicans agree to rewrite the tax code or will Obama let all of Bush’s tax cuts expire, raising taxes on everyone who pays income tax?
So, get used to having the Republicans make everything a hostage situation. It’s easy for them to do because they don’t care about anything but screwing people. The more people hate them, the more they hate government, too. Ironically, this works for them.
Your conclusion paragraph almost gets to the real point. Let’s go a bit further, Boo.
Why does this work for them? If their intransigence get rewarded time and again by the WH, why should they join you and Obama to become the “adults” in the sitch?
This post reminds of this:
You’re not exactly motivating me to get other people to the polls. “Come to vote for Obama! We won’t get anything passed, and we won’t be able to fix employment…but do it!”
I have nothing to sell.
That’s why the Republicans do these things…to frustrate and divide Democrats who wonder why we can’t do anything but play defense or pass watered-down corporate-friendly bills.
They’ll simply wave Michelle Bachmann’s or Sarah Palin’s photoshopped pictures around to scare all those “sensible adults” to the polls.
That tactic didn’t work in 2010 and it will fail miserably in 2012. But Obama will be rolling in that dough regardless.
No, no, no. Obama is a great campaigner. He’ll convince everyone that it’s the GOPs fault.
Won’t he?
Those plummeting poll ratings for Obama amongst independents in the last week are temporary. Aren’t they?
I actually think they are temporary. What the polls have shown me is that Americans hate politics, and due to the internet and technology, they have access to how government works than at any point in history. And they don’t like what they see just the same as they don’t like it when you refuse to say “both sides do it.”
Now because we’re never going to be out of crisis mode with these fucks, the drop could become permanent.
I quibble with one thing. The Repukeliscum play politics. Obama wants to play adult. When one side attacks you, and you refuse to put up your dukes, you lose in the public eye. He looks weak and feckless.
When you go to a movie about a kid being bullied, and you see the bully knock the kid over and rub his face in the dirt, you feel sympathy for the kid. The first time. But, if it happens again and again and again and again and again, you begin to think “Why doesn’t that kid get a stick and whack the crap out of the bully?”
When is Obama gonna get a stick?
Sorry, the scary black man can’t use a stick. (He has to use a stiletto…but only after it’s clear to bystanders that he did nothing to provoke the fight, tried to avoid it, and was jumped in a dark alley anyway by a bunch of ruthless thugs—and even at that he has to use the stiletto so skillfully that the fight is over before most people realize what happened.)
I’m getting tired of people using the president’s race to excuse him for not sticking it to the Republicans. I’m also getting tired of people ignoring it everytime he sticks it to the Republicans, as if it never happened.
Also, when Obama constantly says “Washington,” he’s killing himself. HE IS A PART OF WASHINGTON! All that does is make the Republican who’s never been to Washington — Perry, Romney — have an outsider appeal.
no no, seabe. We must never leverage partisanship. IT NEVER WORKS.
just look at the wisconsin democrats, totally losing the recall because of their partisanship.
you just don’t understand the politics of hope and change. You can never identify who the culprit is, especially if it’s republicans. better to say “washington” so everyone gets the blame.
hope and change, my friend, hope and change.
Yes. Isn’t this one of the most stupid inanities he can say, a really, truly hard-core repugnant talking point. The man evidently doesn’t know where he lives (1200? Penn. Ave., by the way) and doesn’t know what job he has: to lead the federal government in Washington, the capital of the USA. This is not nitpicking. He can’t shape the nation, grab and keep the initiative, he can’t lead. And it always comes down to the same thing with him: either this or he’s pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. He is Mr. Opaque in my book. He has set his party adrift.
seabe, I’m not wild about the way Obama talks about “Washington” either. On the other hand, I remember that Reagan got away with it all the time, plus he’d spent 8 years as governor of our largest state.
(Hey, if it works…)
You need to consider the basic logic of the parties. Democrats are the party of “government that works”. Repukeliscum are the party of “the government is trying to kill me.” When Reagan said that about Washington, it was the Repukeliscum message. When Obama says it, is it his party’s message?
What is his party, anyway?
At least Reagan was a Washington insider before his presidency. Obama has no such excuse. They should put Obama’s face on teh $2 bill.
It’s easy for them to do because . .
. . . elections have consequences. I’m getting a huge kick out of the way the Republicans seem able to maintain control over both houses of Congress, paint the President as “weak”, and get more press coverage for more superfluous bullshit than the Democrats have ever done. And the possibility the Democrats will regain majorities in the next cycle? Zero.
It’s disgusting, isn’t it?
The phrase “pitiful helpless giant” is appropriate.
Obama will not pull out the Bully Pulpit, because he would have to BLAME the REPUKELISCUM. And, in the Brave New World of Happy Bipartisanshit, we are all working together on the New 5-Year Plan.
Even after the Repukeliscum kicked his butt, called him names, rubbed his face in the dirt (Boehner: “I got 98% of what I wanted”), Obama is enough of a moron to come out and say “We passed a bipartisan bill to raise the debt ceiling”.
He’s a fool.
He has repeatedly called out the Republicans, time and again. He was the only one last year talking about the consequences of giving them power back. He has repeatedly talked about them holding the country and economy hostage.
He is the one who arranged for the budget cuts to be mostly smoke and mirrors, even these last ones.
2010 was the result of Dems running absolutely horrible campaigns, Dems refusing to campaign on their accomplishments, and a small but statistically significant number of Dems deciding to either a0 not vote or b0 vote for the 3rd party candidate just to show Obama what happens if you don’t give them 100% of what they want.
You are incorrect. “We all need to work together.”
Let me deconstruct this statement for you.
We = the President and Congress, a Congress that only for 4 months did the Democrats have a filibuster-proof nominal majority. (nominal = 60 votes minus Lieberman, Bayh, Warner, Landrieu, Nelson, Nelson, Lincoln, Baucus, Feinstein, Carper…depending on the vote)
“all need to work together.” = True statement. If Congress doesn’t work together with the President, nothing gets done.
BTW, the debt deal = “You all wanted bipartisanship (and especially you David Brooks. Well, folks, here it is bipartisanship as pure as you will ever see it in Congress. (Are you happy, Bobo?)” Bobo is in fact ecstatic. Wait for that to sink in with the public.
“Dems refusing to campaign on their accomplishments”
Are you reading what you are writing?
Obama has refused, from Day 1 of his presidency, to call out the financial industry, which is a Repukeliscum backbone. He did not call them out for their insane “no regulations” shit. Nope. “we got here by mistakes on both sides”. Bipartisanshit means NEVER telling the truth about the Repukeliscum. And that is his problem. He never calls them out, they call him out all the time, and what that does in the public mind is shift the blame to Obama. Shifting the blame by constant harping on “Obama is a socialist” is their strategy.
He won’t call them out because he is the bipartisanshit president.
McIntyre, Kissell, and Shuler in NC voted against the stimulus, healthcare reform, and other policies of the President. They campaigned by running away to the right from the President. Etheridge voted for healthcare reform; he lost (barely) to a Teabagger crazy.
If you thought the media carpet bombing smearing Democrats was bad in 2010, just imagine what would have happened had Obama not only passed the financial reform act with the CFPB but also called out the financial industry. He never calls them out, but as a result of the debt deal, he is getting their donations. Which means that the GOP, usually a sure match, is not.
He won’t call them out because it is much more fun to hear them squeal when even mild legislation passes. The power to deliver results speaks louder than pontificating all the time from the “bully pulpit”. There hasn’t been a President in history, not even George W. Bush, who doesn’t know that.
The fact that they call him out is a sign of Republican weakness on the issues and on popular support. They have to lie, conduct media carpet bombing, and suppress voters in order to win — even in supposed strongholds. Explain why Alabama and South Carolina passed voter ID laws if the Republicans weren’t scared. (And yes I know it was an ALEC priority.)
One HUGE thing in the 2010 elections was the failure of Obama’s Justice Department to indict even a single thief in the Banking industry. People were losing their homes, and bankers were banking billion-dollar bonuses. Where are the indictments? I heard a lot of comments about the unfairness of that. Where are the indictments, even now?
Leaving aside the issue of Obama’s rhetoric, I’d argue that 2010 was mostly the result of:
*the usual minority party gains in an off-year election;
*as a result of the 2006 and 2008 “wave” elections, the Democrats having an unusually large number of vulnerable incumbents.
*the majority party losing votes when unemployment is high.
What gives Democrats a fighting chance in 2012, despite the bad economy, is that the electorate will be larger, younger, darker, poorer and more liberal than the 2010 electorate.
Why do you absolutely absolve Obama from any blame. The buck doesn’t stop with the president anymore, I guess. But buck now stops anywhere but there (professional left, liberals, children, hostage-takers, ad nauseum).
I’ll play your game, though. Why did a “statistically significant number” of Dems decide not to vote or vote 3rd party? Survey said: “Because we didn’t get what we wanted.” That is such a nonsequitor (and tossed off so cavalierly here at Obama HQ) that it should be banned. The base stayed home because no bankers were taken down (opposite, they got bonuses!), the wars blistered on (Obama’s only been in office x months. Give him time!), the health INSURANCE reform debacle (yeah, let’s blame “death panels”), Guantanamo remaining open for business and the expansion of black sites (you can believe that Obama isn’t torturing if you insist), and to top it all off we were seeing the writing on the wall with the soon-to-be-passed Obama nee Bush wealth tax cuts.
Nonsequitor and whack canard alert: “give them 100% of what they want.” No one is asking for 100% and that’s only red meat for those “sensible adults” who are getting their asses kicked in the polls and with the real sensible adults.
The possibility of regaining control of the actual houses of government is much better than “zero.” But regaining control in the eyes of the media is far less than zero. It won’t happen. The rules are just so different when Democrats are in charge.
I disagree. We have a good chance of retaking the House.
And losing the Senate. That’s the problem. We need to control both chambers to get anything done.
Even if you live in Atlanta and think it’s your only real choice, don’t fly Delta. Fly United from the “T” gates to a connecting flight at one of their hubs. You will be much happier bypassing the awful Soviet airport known as Hartsfield-Jackson altogether and may actually enjoy your travels.
Delta sucks! They are the worst airline and they recently absorbed our second worst airline, Northwest. Together they are the dysfunctional bastard step-child you would expect as a result of a bad merger. Just avoid them. Really. And those frequent flier miles? Good luck ever getting them to honor them. You could have to book a free trip at a premium rate and still have to book it a year or so in advance – with 3 connections. Been there, done that. Fuck Delta. They are the worst.
My mother lives outside Atlanta. I live in Seattle. The past four trips I have flown into Charlotte, Orlando, Nashville, and Birmingham and rented cars. I hate that airport, and I won’t fly Delta. And I get to see a lot of the Southeast. (I take back roads, too.)
These are rural, red-state airports. These are the constituants of the Repukeliscum. My city, Sioux Falls, is in the middle of a huge project, which is shelved for now. We have 2.5 months before snow, and 4 months of construction to fit in.
Why is the White House NOT on the phone to these rural airports, Chambers of Commerce, mayors and governors?
Obama is such a fucking patsy. PUT SOME FUCKING PRESSURE ON. CALL OUT THE REPUKELISCUM!! Or we lose AGAIN.
You have evidence that he isn’t? Most likely such calls would not be publicized.
You’ve got a full slate of Republicans in Congress. Surely the public in Sioux Falls is upset. Or are they just complacently taking it? Why are you expecting the President to do what local people should be doing?
Reply describing what it is about the public there that is different from the public in any previous controversy. It is a request for information.
Why would such calls not be publicized? That makes NO sense, none at all. What is needed here is PUBLIC PRESSURE. The Dems need to put the screws to the Repukes.
They ain’t doing it.
dataguy, with all due respect, what do you mean “they”? Are you aware of or involved in any local efforts to organize around this issue? Or not? (serious questions, genuinely interested in your answers)
I’m just wondering how you think political pressure is brought by the Repukes. You know about the Wed meeting, right? In Norquist’s office? With Fox News and so forth.
They use the conservative media to do this.
We don’t have such a media. The Dems need to exert pressure in other ways. This needs to be partisan.
I am wondering why you see such a requirement for Dems, but not for Repukeliscum?
I’m not sure where we disagree here. Absent a Fox-News-of-the-left, what tactics should progressives in the Sioux Falls area use (in your view) to raise the profile of this issue? What tactics are they using (if any)?
(I’m just looking for information here. That, and maybe a few ideas for what to do if our local airport gets affected.)
I’m starting by calling the mayor. He is a buddy (an advantage of living in Sioux Falls is that it takes about 2 months to meet most of the Democrats). I bought him a beer on the night he won election.
I’m going to ask him if he has called Kristi Noem (HoR) and John Thune (S). Both repukeliscum.
Thanks. I wish you luck. Maybe you can ask him what else is happening, and whether he has suggestions for what non-office holders can do. (Sometimes mayors like to have “plausible deniability” about the actions of their political base.)
The public in question are in Sioux Falls. If you live there, do you ever see them. The public? Why is it that they are so complacent?
This explains a lot. I’ve felt that the Tea Party was a bunch of crazies. Now I see what is really happening. They are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Huh?
via Wikipedia:
That might explain the Tea Party voters, but not the Tea Party members of Congress.
Because…to oppose the folks who have really taken the economy hostage is to be…..[shock and horror]…a socialist or even worse…a communist.
Actually, it’s Obama who has Stockholm Syndrome.
It is because the public has been made cynical about all politicians and consequently drops out of participation. Lower participation always favors Republican candidates; ergo, the difference between 2008 and 2010.
Booman, excellent post, thanks.
Do you (or does anyone else) have thoughts about how to flip this back on the Republicans?
There’s an old organizing maxim to the effect of, “take a negative, push it far enough and it becomes a positive” (and vice versa). Is there a way to take the Republicans’ current strength in hostage-taking situations and flip it so that it becomes a weakness for them?
Well, the DNC needs to take money from their bank account and do some political ads in every district affected by these layoffs.
GET some of the workers on camera, talking about not having employment in the middle of CONSTRUCTION SEASON.
Call this what it is – this IS A GOP JOBS PLAN. This is what they think about it.
They should run this EVERY DAMN DAY THAT CONGRESS IS ON VACATION, with the end being the telephone number of the local Congressman.
EVERY Democrat who goes on any tv show should bring up these LAYOFFS and the right-wing assault on WORKERS is costing this country.
THIS is a message for 2012.
And, the President is incorrect: This is NOT a ` Washington-inflicted wound’. This is a REPUBLICAN -inflicted wound.
PERIOD
The laughable thing is that, as someone told me in a comment here, this FAA thing is over 16.7 million on subsidies. This is literally chump change. Especially compared to the amount of money red states suck down to balance their books from the Feberal Goverment. Its certainly not a massive crises
Therefore, one has to wonder WHY the Republicans are fighting on this issue with little or no savings attacked. Its certainly not about the money. The Obvious guess is that its really about good old fashioned Union busting, and that’s the core of it.
Nice to see Reid saying “Not a chance in hell is this getting caved on” and Obama calling everyone back to sort this out.
union busting and hurting the rural economies of states with Dem senators