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So it has come to this.  Senate Minority Leader McConnell just declined the invitation of Majority Leader Reid, his “friend,” to an up-and-down vote on the Reid amendments.  No surprises there.  But how the hell did we get to this kind of unforced error in the first place?:


It has become commonplace to call the tea party faction in the House “hostage takers.” But they have now become full-blown terrorists.

They have joined the villains of American history who have been sufficiently craven to inflict massive harm on innocent victims to achieve their political goals. A strong America has always stood firm in the face of terrorism. That tradition is in jeopardy, as Congress and President Barack careen toward an uncertain outcome in the tea party-manufactured debt crisis.

William Yeomans – The tea party’s terrorist tactics Politico 29 Jul 11

Harsh words.  Frum, less polemic if perhaps more damningly, also offers criticism:


The original Republican plan was to threaten to tip the country into default unless the GOP got everything it wanted. That threat is proving empty, as Republicans’ business constituencies mutiny against their party’s dangerous tactics.

If blackmail won’t work — and negotiation is not allowed by the party’s own taboos — then the party that asked for everything is on its way to becoming the party that got nothing. Only it’s not just the GOP that is the loser. It’s the whole country.

David Frum – GOP wants Obama’s unconditional surrender CNN 18 July 11

The inflexible brinkmanship demonstrated by Republicans since Obama’s inauguration, while tactically successful in strangling progress and the economy, has reached a climax which may threaten to divide their historic coalition.  How is this a successful or sustainable strategy?


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/ 44 Comments

44 comments

  2. janicket

    Depends what the ultimate aim is of the intransigence.  P.M. Carpenter, among others, sees it as a means to Obama’s impeachment:

    http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p…

    Force Obama to go the 14th Amendment route, then tie the President up for the next year with the grand circus of impeachment hearings, while nothing gets done in Washington and the country slides back into brutal recession, then sweep to victory in Congress and the White House in the 2012 elections on the backs of an enraged electorate desperate to throw the rascals out — that’s the ticket!  What could possibly go wrong?

  3. DTOzone

    ok, they’re terrorists, so what do we do? Send them to Gitmo?

    I mean if these people are really this bad, then maybe it’s time to get a gun and take them out. Otherwise, we’re just going to have to deal with it.  

  4. Jjc2008

    inauguration.   At least not in my experience.  

    This constantly shifting to the right started back in 1980.

    When a country consistently goes in one direction, no surprise that 30 years of moving right gets one to the extreme right.

    Clinton was a centrist.  Obama is a centrist.  I knew this about both when I voted for them.  Neither were my first choice but I am aware enough to know that until and unless we start pushing left, centrist is the best we can do.

    Some here and other places like the center.  I have no problem with the center, when the center is actually in the center and not way too one side.  

    But the inflexibility of the right showed up during the Reagan administration.  Not as blatant but it was there.   The use of dog whistles for racism and sexism and anti gay and anti immigrant has always been there, but for a while in the 60s and 70s people were pushing back.  Then came “rah rah, Ronnie Reagan” the savior.  Dems were fooled and spun easily……as the anti immigrant, anti woman, anti minority stuff took off.   That was when the evangelical mega churches were planted and took off, growing politically active armies to demonize everything from public schools, to social programs, to anything foreign.

    Bill Clinton was a centrist who was only able to stall the right.  He messed up but the full story was he was dealing with crazies like the Newt, like Phil Gramm, like Richard Mellon Scaife.

    The crazy extreme right grew under W and with the help of corporatists.  

    Fighting them will take an angry left who finally says ENOUGH.  Compromise is not possible with the tea party as most are low info dolts or crazy evangelicals.

    None of them play nice in the sandbox.

    If I had all the answers I would be running for president but I don’t.  I don’t blame Obama for this mess but I fault him for naively buying into and using right wing talking points.  

    I also fault Harry Reid and some dems for not being loud enough.

    Give me a Nancy Pelosi any day.  She is despised by the right because she is loud and says it like it is and speaks for the left…not the center.  

    I just listened to the president using the false equivalencies of “both” parties have to give in.  Sheesh…how the hell much more does the left have to give before the right has to give.

  5. Kysen

    especially coming from Joe Scarborough. I am no fan of his (that’s putting it lightly) and tend to think of him as one who is quick to provide cover to Republicans whenever able.

    Most have seen the comparisons of the Tea Party to terrorists. Most have seen the media slooooooowly begin to present the truth (Brian Williams the other night flatly called Tea Partiers insane). We have recently begun to see even Republicans speak out.

    Here is Scarborough’s fictional account of what a failure to raise the debt limit will bring:

    The morning after

    Here are a couple snippets:

    The threat of exploding interest rates on home mortgages, cars, student loans and credit cards caused growing concerns. But it was the gutting of 401(k)’s and pension programs that would soon stir panic. Camera shots of citizens lined up outside banks, credit unions and Social Security offices caused commodity prices to collapse less than 30 minutes after those images began flickering on CNBC – and more than a few news commentators drew parallels between the chaos of this day and the early morning hours after the Sept. 11 attacks.

    Boehner glanced over Bernanke’s shoulder to see breaking news on a bank riot in St. Louis. Another screen showed a late-night protest at a Richmond Social Security office. The image of a burning LAPD squad car seemed to be running on an endless loop on Headline News while a commentator was shouting about the “riots caused by the Republicans.”

    And he closes with:

    The $4 trillion deal that the speaker had once hoped for was now nothing more than an opportunity lost. His party could have had a historic deal to reduce the national debt. His caucus could have made a real difference. Instead, their intransigence crippled America’s economy and clinched the reelection of Barack Obama.

    Interesting read, imo.

    Photobucket

    Methinks the (very) few (semi) sane members of the Republican Party are soiling their britches at this point.

    They have let the looniest of their lunatic fringe take over the Republican Asylum…and in the process have allowed themselves to become a Party of terrorists. Terrorists seemingly intent upon bombing our nation’s economy (and credibility in the global community).

    Barring the chance of a fully clean bill making it to Obama’s desk…I don’t see any outcome to this Republican created crisis that does not harm us all in the long run.

    I really have no idea how it is gonna turn out. I have to admit, though, that I am far from optimistic.

    /frustrated

  9. Shaun Appleby

    If the current  debt negotiation deal becomes history:


    To me, there are two big downsides. The first is that we’ve now established a precedent that we will negotiate with terrorists, so we’re going to be living with this bullshit for a long time. It’s easier to let them shoot the hostage when the result is the National Zoo is closed than when it destroys the global economy, so expect more pushback over the budget.

    The second downside is that we couldn’t extract any stimulus at all, as far as I can tell. So, this won’t hurt the economy much, but it certainly isn’t going to help it.

    Politically, we came out far ahead in this battle.

    Booman – It’s Not the End of the World Booman Tribune 31 Jul 11

    Seem sensible views.  It was the “negotiate with terrorists” remark that grabbed me in relation to this diary.  As for the politics, well…  We’ll see.  If you were a Republican senator would you filibuster this last minute remedy?

  10. janicket

    Here:

    http://www.boomantribune.com/s…

    Concerning the yammer by some on the left for Obama to seize the day by ordering the Treasury to print more money or coin a trillion-dollar platinum coin, or some such brilliant scheme for unilaterally getting around the debt ceiling:

    Then let’s look at the argument.  The Congress, composed of a Democratically-controlled Senate and a Republican-controlled Senate couldn’t agree on something so I’m going to break the law and take over their responsibilities.  It’s not like the House refused to raise the debt ceiling.  The Senate just refused to agree to their solution.  This is not a solid legal basis to break the law.

    You know what’s going on?  A lot of liberals are in denial about the consequences of bashing the president for a year and a half leading up to the midterms and what it meant for turnout, motivation, enthusiasm.  And they’re in denial about how much power the Republicans have.  They know how evil they are, but they care more about the only force blocking their schemes from taking full fruition.  

    It’s as if England spent all of 1941 bitching about what a shitty ally France turned out to be instead of killing Nazis.  

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