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May 22, 2013
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 Partisan Politics Wait in the WingsPosted on Jan 26, 2009Beneath the warm pledges of bipartisanship and the earnest calls for cooperation in the midst of a grave crisis lurks an unpleasant fact: From the moment it loses power, the opposition party turns to the task of getting it back. Party politics have not been suspended. They have just become more subtle. Republicans are already busy testing lines of attack against President Barack Obama and laying down markers that will allow them to say they warned us—if Obama fails. In the meantime, Obama is already countering with quiet moves to broaden his own political coalition. When opponents of abortion rallied in Washington’s streets last week, Obama did not offer a simple restatement of his support for abortion rights. Instead, his first response to the subject as president coupled his support for legal abortion with a call for “common ground.” He urged action “to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make.” The consensual tone on a divisive issue reflected intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by religious supporters of Obama who urged him to avoid a direct rebuke to social conservatives. His willingness to do so suggests that he intends to continue his campaign’s efforts to poach on once reliably Republican constituencies. Advertisement It was easier to discount Clinton’s 1992 victory, based on 43 percent of the popular vote, than it is to deny the import of Obama’s solid majority. Republicans actually gained ground in Congress the year Clinton was first elected. Now, they are coming off stinging congressional defeats in two consecutive elections. On Friday, Gallup released a report that’s devastating to the GOP. The survey, based on 30,000 interviews over the course of the year, found that in 2008 an average of 36 percent of Americans identified themselves as Democrats and only 28 percent called themselves Republicans. Gallup noted that this was the largest advantage of the Democratic Party in more than two decades. For some Republicans, these numbers counsel short-term prudence and suggest the need for at least a semblance of cooperation with Obama, whose personal popularity is soaring. Former Rep. J.C. Watts, once a member of the House Republican leadership, cautions his party: “Be careful how you throw eggs at this parade.” In Congress, this approach is reflected in the efforts of some Republicans to alter but not oppose Obama’s economic stimulus package. But in what might be seen as a GOP good cop/bad cop division of labor, others in the party are already savaging Obama and his plans. The most insidious line of attack involves laying the groundwork for blaming the new president in the event of a terrorist attack. In a remarkably partisan Op-Ed piece in The Washington Post last Thursday, Marc A. Thiessen, who was a speechwriter for George W. Bush, declared flatly: “If Obama weakens any of the defenses Bush put in place and terrorists strike our country again, Americans will hold Obama responsible—and the Democratic Party could find itself unelectable for a generation.” This is dangerous, both substantively and politically, and it suggests that some of Bush’s loyalists will continue to politicize issues related to terrorism in their efforts to vindicate the former president’s legacy. Less controversial are criticisms of the stimulus package, still taking shape. Here, Republicans are torn between those focused on making the plan more palatable to conservative sensibilities and those offering root-and-branch criticisms of its emphasis on new spending. Typical of the second approach was a recent assault by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, on the proposal. “This isn’t a bill to help the economy,” Hensarling said recently on CNBC. “It’s a bill to help big government,” a response to “14 years of pent-up demand for big government programs.” He warned that the package would simply mimic a flawed stimulus strategy pursued by Japan a decade ago. Both Thiessen and Hensarling reflect an important undercurrent in Republican thinking: that the GOP should place its bets on the prospect that Obama’s policies will fail, knowing that if the president succeeds, he and the Democrats are likely to gain ground no matter what Republicans do. This is hardly in keeping with the bipartisan spirit the White House seeks to foster. But it’s a lot easier than coming up with new ideas. E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is postchat(at)aol.com. © 2009, Washington Post Writers Group  TAGS:
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By KDelphi, January 27, 2009 at 4:11 pm Link to this comment
David Sirota explains it so much better than I could…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7pyf0FfTr4
(it is a clip from Rachel Maddo’ws show last night—didnt see the show)
Yes, it is a set-up.
Yes, not paying for kids health care, staying in Iraq, etc. is all so mature…
The GOP doesnt have “new ideas”!! It is samo/samo! Tax cuts, tax cuts—-been there , done that!
As Rep Cummings put it, lets not be schmucks.
Report thisBy Louise, January 27, 2009 at 3:30 pm Link to this comment
” - Republican thinking: that the GOP should place its bets on the prospect that Obama’s policies will fail.”
~~~
Thinking? Republicans WANT Obama’s policies to fail! To that end, they will lie, cheat, misrepresent, back-stab, use every dirty trick in the book and make up a few new ones along the way!
Being bullies, they’ll try to trip Obama! Try to de-rail anything Obama does! Even if that means sending the nation over a cliff! Being bullies, they cant understand, eventually the picked on kids turn on the bully and mash him into a whimpering little brat!
Oh! That’s kinda what we’re seeing, isn’t it.
Repub bullies don’t care what their behavior might do to the security of their constituents! That after all is how to define their loyal constituents!
Duh…
“Lay down so I can walk on you!” Say’s Senator golden tan Boner. [I know I spelled it wrong] And comes the loyal answer, “OK.”
“Pay no attention to what I said back then!” Say’s Senator didn’t win McCain. [Who could use a tan] Listen only to what I say today!”
“That’s easy,” answer the loyal. “We cant remember what you said back then.”
Meanwhile the “Market” hiccups and burps, business continues shutting doors, lines at the “help me!” Office double and quadruple. And the republican loyal, who can’t remember who got us into this mess, grumble if they have to get in the line! They cant stop to stand in line! So many lies to pass around - so little time!
Maybe we’re close to when President Obama has to accept what many in his party have already accepted. The Republican minority has no intention of co-operating! Believing they will step in and regain control, they will only get in the way! And if Republican Control doesn’t scare the crap out of thinking people everywhere, they must not be thinking. Ooops! I mean they must be Republican!
“Thinking” and “Republican” cancel each other out.
Maybe the president needs to say to the repubs. “If you are not going to help, please get out of the way.” Besides, since the people made Obama the winner, I think WE The PEOPLE should demand Repubs co-operate [OK, impossible] or get out of the way! Never mind “coming up with new ideas.” They don’t know how!
And for those who might complain I imply the repub loyal are dumb, I can only say - I don’t imply, I say it straight up! DUMB!
Case in point: “You do not have my permission, or anyone else’s permission to use the TARP money to buy condoms.” Clearly having never read the proposed rescue package, they repeat a mis-statement of fact because Senator Golden Tan said so!
Dumb.
Or how about: “Between 2000 and 2006 the Democrats were the losing party. They did nothing to regain power. Bush gave then a cheap present in 2006 which, once again, they did not use.”
Dumb.
Bush has never given a Democrat anything! Bush has never given ANYONE anything! Except for more WELFARE for the very rich! The repubs lost control of the House of Representatives in 2006 because the CHEAT didn’t work! Rove didn’t realize how many of the party faithful had seen the light and lost the
faith!
The Democrat controlled House of Representatives couldn’t turn things around because the Republicans still controlled the Senate, and Bush still controlled the VETO! These poor repub loyal don’t even understand how it works!
On the “thank goodness for people who know how to think” side of the ledger, Kudos to konnie!
“Everytime a repub opens his mouth, sets pen to paper, or strikes a key on a keyboard, they should be ridiculed, reminded of their past failures, and relegated to the “you lost” and “you are always wrong” piles. EVERYTIME FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS!”
Maybe we need to make that 8 years at least. I know how long it takes for a snake to shed his skin, but how long does it take for a Plankton to grow a brain?
Report thisBy P. T., January 26, 2009 at 11:35 pm Link to this comment
“won’t we be ashamed of our holocausts”
Report thisGlad to hear you oppose the war on Iraq.
By Margaret Currey, January 26, 2009 at 10:46 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The Bush administration was anti woman from the beginning, first there was the pledge to be a virgin until marriage, then there was the conscience thing that pharmacists could deniy women birth control pills because it bothered them.
Now there is the complaint by Republicians about how do condoms help.
They help unwanted pregencies which could affect states that give welfare.
The Republicians think that all woman want is abortions, would even abort a nine month child.
What woman in her right mind would carry a child for nine months, feel the movements of that child and then want an abortion.
Makes no sense but why do the right to life people always go to the extreme. I think a woman has the right to choose because she cannot allways have control over the man who could care less if a woman gets pregnent.
My daughter married a great man she had three children and had them after the age of 32, she was tired of babies and the fact that older woman can have Down’s syndrome babies (not every one can afford the care of these children). Her husband decided that three was enough and he had his tubes tied. As did his brother. Some men are responsible about making too many babies.
And in Gaza making babies is a political tool. As in woman who are as young as 34 allready having ten children and could have at least three more.
Report thisBy wildflower, January 26, 2009 at 9:39 pm Link to this comment
Re Reid Reasor Post: “You do not have my permission, or anyone else’s permission to use the TARP money to buy condoms.”
Maybe every U.S. taxpayer should have the right to say where his or her tax dollars can and cannot be spent. Sort of like the “right of conscience” rule that Bush developed for medical professionals during his final hours as President.
I can think of a lot of things that would be on my “right of conscience” refusal list like supporting Bush’s costly immoral invasion of Iraq or providing aid to countries like Israel that use banned chemical weapons on civilians in situations like this:
“Israelis take comfort in the belief that the IDF does all it can to spare civilians, but its shelling of Gaza calls that belief into question. Two kinds of artillery shells selected for use in Gaza - one as an “obscurant,” the other as a weapon - were utterly inappropriate for the densely populated areas where the IDF deployed them. Their use violated the IDF’s obligations under the laws of war.
The first was white phosphorous. A typical shell releases 116 phosphorus-soaked wedges which, upon contact with oxygen, burn intensely, releasing a distinctive plume of smoke. That smoke can be used legitimately to obscure troop movements, but white phosphorous can be devastating when used in urban areas, igniting civilian structures and causing people horrific burns. Its use violated the legal requirement to take all feasible precautions during military operations to avoid harming civilians. The IDF never should have used it in densely populated sections of Gaza.” (K Roth/Human Rights Watch)
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2009/01/bill_moyers_reflects_on_middle.html#c165341
Report thisBy Reid Reasor, January 26, 2009 at 4:48 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The first few days scorecard:
1. Your tax dollars are now being spent in other countries to use motorized vacuum hoses on 9 month old unborn children.
Logic check – if you are against capital punishment, and want to protect unborn eagle eggs then you cannot be for abortion. When science finally detects that the life force, the spirit, or the soul of humanity is inserted into the child prior to birth, won’t we be ashamed or our holocausts.
2. Let the Getmo prisoners go.
Logic check – If over 63 of the current released prisoner have gone right back to terrorism (source CIA) and we have spent over 570 billion to get these guys and keep us safe for 7.5 years, why let them go when they confess and promise more violence against the US? Here comes the 5/10 or the 3/12.
3. Alienate everyone who asks you anything in just the first two weeks.
Campaign promise- Build a bridge and work with all Americans. You don’t build anything when you tell people to shut up with “Hey, I won.”
4. You do not have my permission, or anyone else’s permission to use the TARP money to buy condoms. Your spending is packed full of far left projects that does not stimulate the economy, but unethically promotes a liberal agenda.
Morality check – Why is the federal government invading our homes and our families by buying our children condoms, without our permission, with our money?
5. In the next three weeks, your children in the military will be forced to be naked in group showers, bunkers, barracks and submarine hot bunks with no choice to ensure sexual privacy of unwanted gay and lesbian members’ eyes. This is a violation of the strait men and women’s civil rights. If we are going to opening declare gay and lesbian men and women in the military, then we must provide the military the means to ensure sexual privacy. Every single building, ship, sub, bunker will need to be redesigned to accommodate for four genders. That will take trillions.
Logic check – The gays right now, are already violating the strait peoples civil rights by secretly being in showers, bunkers, submarines and close quarters. Do the gays really want to be declared and then separated? Maybe right now they have everything they want in “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
The Obama presidency so far is about letting prisoners go, pet spending, abortion and bullying the Senate and Congressional opposition into doing it his way or the highway.
Don’t blame me, I voted for McCain.
REID REASOR
Report thisBy woody, January 26, 2009 at 4:02 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
By dihey, January 26 at 10:09 am #
Whaaaat? Between 2000 and 2006 the Democrats were the losing party. They did nothing to regain power. Bush gave then a cheap present in 2006 which, once again, they did not use. Mr. Dionne is quickly becoming a laughing stock of minuscule consequences.
I think you are mistaken.
Everything the Dims did between losing the congress in 2002 and retaking it in 2006, then lying dormant til 2008, was designed according to the strategy of not pissing of people so they would have a slightly easier road to power in 2008.
The Dims played along with alBoosh and the Pukes, the whole way.
Report thisBy Folktruther, January 26, 2009 at 1:08 pm Link to this comment
The political function of pseudo-progressives like Dionne in the power system is to induce rank and file progressives to support conservative policies. He is therefore for Bipatisan policies and against Partisan policies, since partisan policies is the only way that porgressive issues can be promoted.
Here he defines the danger as Gop partisanship, which always exists, since the US ruling class is largely Republican. But the implicit message, the subtext, is that progressive shouldn’t be partisan either. And he is of course writing primarily for progressives.
It is surprising that this kind of thing still fools people, but it doesn so because the mainstream progressives don’t point it out, because if they did, they would no longer be mainstream. No major paper, zine, or TV show would have them. They prefer the bland leading the bland, to neutralize progrressives.
It is consequently not possible to tell what Michael Parenti called the DIRTY TRUTH about power in the mainstream truth. Too partisan. So it is sanized out and what we have instead are Dionne and Boyarsky.
Report thisBy SteveK, January 26, 2009 at 12:46 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
There is nothing wrong with TRYING to get some Republican support—-there are a couple that are not mindless. But, the likelihood is that Obama will have to go on without them. If so, so be it. The Republicans and America in general, have been so immersed in Reagonite ideology, for so long, many can no longer think rationally and no amount of discussion can change their mind.
Report thisBy P. T., January 26, 2009 at 11:20 am Link to this comment
In trying to work on things with Republicans, the first question on their minds is this: What’s in it for our rich campaign contributors?
Report thisBy dihey, January 26, 2009 at 11:09 am Link to this comment
Whaaaat? Between 2000 and 2006 the Democrats were the losing party. They did nothing to regain power. Bush gave then a cheap present in 2006 which, once again, they did not use. Mr. Dionne is quickly becoming a laughing stock of minuscule consequences.
Report thisBy Tahut, January 26, 2009 at 10:07 am Link to this comment
The Republicans need to be reminded the reason for the high price of the stimulus. It’s because of their lack of oversight and dismantling of regulatory agencies during the Bu$h years. They had their hands on the tiller, not the Democrats, and steered the economy onto the reef of economic despair. In fact, one cannot find anything in this economic turmoil that doesn’t have their signature handwriting all over it. So the last thing I want to hear from them is lamenting the high cost of bailing out the economy that they personally sacked for personal and political gains.
Report thisBy wildflower, January 26, 2009 at 9:21 am Link to this comment
Obama should tell it like it is. During the past eight years, the Republicans have made a mess of things economically, and now they don’t want to help clean it up. The only thing these people care about is more tax breaks for the super rich.
Obama should also point out the Republicans were the loudest supporters of Bush/Cheney’s costly and incompetent war in Iraq, which everyone knows has only created more unwanted terrorists. If only the Republicans had practiced abstinence when it came to Iraq.
Report thisBy Stephen Smoliar, January 26, 2009 at 9:00 am Link to this comment
It seems to me that the more important part of the Gallup poll is that 36% that does not identify with EITHER Democrats or Republicans. I read this as an indicator of just how fed up the electorate is with the STATUS QUO of our political system. It may even indicate that the “change” for which that segment voted was a change in that STATUS QUO, seeing (or hoping) an Obama who would bring new “rules of the game” to that system.
We need to learn more of the usual demographic details about this segment of the Gallup sample space. When times are good, those without preference figure that it does not matter very much whether Tweedledee or Tweedledee is in power; and they are probably right. However, in a time of crisis (particularly a crisis of personal cash flow), that indifference indicates the feeling that NEITHER side is going to get us out of the mess. One way to combat that indifference is with those skills of community organizing of which Obama is so proud. However, on the basis of yesterday’s attempts to survey the past week, I did not see any indicators to change the opinion of those who believe that neither political party is showing any signs of advancing economic recovery.
Report thisBy konnie, January 26, 2009 at 9:00 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
unless and until the powers that be, a.k.a. msm, realize whose side they better be buttering they
Report thiswill continue to lose advertizing, and readership/viewership. holding the feet of the Obama administration to the fire after letting Bush
get away with “burning rome” for 8 years will also
get them nowhere. everytime a repub opens his mouth,sets pen to paper, or strikes a key on a keyboard, they should be ridiculed, reminded of their
past failures, and relegated to the “you lost” and “you are always wrong” piles. EVERYTIME FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS!
By Miko, January 26, 2009 at 7:49 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Translation: Why can’t those Republicans stop being so partisan and just agree to redefine ‘bipartisan’ to mean ‘doing everything the Democrats want’?
Report thisBy M.B.S.S., January 26, 2009 at 4:49 am Link to this comment
“In the meantime, Obama is already countering with quiet moves to broaden his own political coalition.”
something is telling me that ill hear this sentence again in 2012…let the permanent campaign recommence!
Report thisBy Verne Arnold, January 26, 2009 at 4:44 am Link to this comment
Until and unless we can truly be moderate and stop pushing personal values on everyone we don’t agree with we’re sunk. It’s going to be us against them and the constant struggle for domination. This will surely keep us divided. Time to grow up America.
http://iauthorbooks.blogspot.com/
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