Strange Bedfellows

By Dave

Strange bedfellows indeed. Jane Hamsher at FireDogLake recently joined forces with Grover Norquist to call on Eric Holder to investigate Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Let me repeat: super-"progressive" blogger Jane Hamsher has joined forces with Grover Motherf%$king Norquist to attack Obama’s Chief of Staff.

Now I already don't care much for Hamsher because for her asinine, misleading, and frankly idiotic 10 Reasons to kill the Health Care Bill. Every reason seems designed to completely misrepresent what this bill does. It's almost as bad as talking to a teabagger! Anyways, Ezra Klein offers a solid rebuttal.

So what's this petition about? According to ABC, accounting fraud took place at Fannie Mae from about 1998-2002. Here's the SEC complaint. Rahm Emanuel served on the board of Fannie Mae from 2000-2001.  The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report was very critical of the Board of Directors but also said, "the terms of the presidentially appointed Directors are far too short, averaging just over 14 months, for them to play a meaningful role on the Board." Although a number of people were charged, Emanuel was not. So should Rahm be investigated again? I don't know. Hamsher thinks there is still something there, so whatever, I've really got no beef with this.

What I can't get over is that she's teamed up with Grover Norquist. You remember him. The same guy who called bipartisanship a form of date rape. The same guy who was College Republic pals with Karl Rove. The same guy who said Democrats will only be acceptable once they “are comfortable in their minority status. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate.” The same guy who wants to drown the government in a bathtub. The guy who said Obama was "John Kerry, with a tan." Perhaps you remember this little gem: ""Our goal is to inflict pain. It is not good enough to win; it has to be a painful and devastating defeat. We're sending a message here. It is like when the king would take his opponent's head and spike it on a pole for everyone to see."

This is not 'politics make strange bedfellows', this is just stupid. And suicidal. Do you remember the Clinton years? Guys like Norquist wage politics as war. They take no prisoners. They will take any and every opportunity to destroy the progressive agenda and return us to the Bush years. You may find confluence on an issue, but they will leverage that means to a different ends. Don't give them credibility, don't give them a platform, don't give them an audience.

I'm sorry but Hamsher is out of her mind. This is like teaming up with Dick Cheney because you don't like the President's Afghan policy or cowriting Facebook pages with Sarah Palin because you don't like the President's Energy Policy. Maybe she'll cowrite an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with Karl Rove next.

(Picture from Spiegel Online: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,grossbild-1488841-618181,00.html)