File Under: They're Not Going to Let You in the Car

By Wade

Politico has posted what may be the first official Obama recognition that he will never be let in the car:

“The day has passed when I expected this to be a full partnership.”

There is hardly any “room for cooperation” in the Republican Party, Obama said.

I'm amazed he tried for as long as he did.

No! It's My Senate! You Can't Have Any!

By Wade

This is just wonderful. More BS akin to Ben Nelson holding the health care bill hostage so he could make sure his state and only his state never had to pay for it.

Well, here's the meat of the article:

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put an extraordinary "blanket hold" on at least 70 nominations President Obama has sent to the Senate, according to multiple reports this evening. The hold means no nominations can move forward unless Senate Democrats can secure a 60-member cloture vote to break it, or until Shelby lifts the hold.

Bam. It's like he wanted to give me and the rest of the world the perfect example for why the Republicans don't give a crap what happens to this country, and will take any excuse to make Obama look bad.

Democrats, take note. Listen to Jon Stewart. They're not going to let you in the car! You're being played for fools.

Here's a video of Shelby talking about his thoughts on earmarks in general. I especially like where he says that if you're not proud of it, if you're not willing to openly defend it, you shouldn't do it, as well as when he says that he wouldn't do it for dubious purposes.

Sen. Richard Shelby on earmarks

From TPM again:

Shelby has been tight-lipped about the holds, offering only an unnamed spokesperson to reporters today to explain them.

What's the matter? Not so proud right now?

Republicans Unanimously Vote Against Fiscal Responsibility

By Dave

Hypocrisy truly knows no bounds.

Today the Senate voted 60-40 to enact PAYGO rules. These rules are among the first steps needed to force fiscal discipline on the government and they are responsible for the budget surpluses inherited by the Bush Administration in 2000. But EVERY SINGLE Republican voted against it. Not one Republican Senator voted yes. Not Olympia Snowe, not John McCain, not Susan Collins, not one. This is truly the Party of No.

For the last decade, Republicans have worked tirelessly to put this country into debt and financial ruin. They destroyed the country's budget with cut taxes for the wealthy, giant unfunded entitlement programs, and two wars. Yet they have the audacity to insist that they are the Party of Fiscal responsibility, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Wake up, people. Let know one ever insist to me that Congressional Republicans have ideas or favor deficit reduction. They couldn't care less about the deficit. Today's vote proves it. These people are power hungry narcissists who have no interest in making government more efficient or more productive. They just want the power. They will say or do anything to get it.

Dear Dems...

By Wade

This letter's specifically for those Democrats and other folks who consider themselves left-leaning and have reached the top-tiers of our national government.

Firstly, please point the guns away from your feet, stop pulling the triggers, and set them down.

It is amazing to me the reaction that the past week has garnered from the lot of you. Dave and I were discussing this, and here's something important to think about: When you all won in 2006, remember how the Republicans all immediately hung their heads in defeat, shuffled across the aisle to you, and admitted in penitent voices that, "you guys were right all along."? No? THEN WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS ABOUT THEM!?

The Republicans have proven over and over again that they don't care how much the country suffers as long as they're able to deny your legislation and make you look bad in the process. They are unwilling to cooperate or compromise. Every single play they make is a running-out-the-clock move. In the upcoming elections, they don't want you to be able to proudly say that you helped thirty million (30,000,000, look at all those pretty zeros) Americans achieve better health. They don't want you to be able to say that you helped tear down the Berlin Wall of pre-existing conditions. You are playing brilliantly into their hands with every in-fight, with every concession, every back-room deal that you think will maintain the favor of your constituents. I say look to Ben Nelson's example. Look at how his political game-playing has served him. Do you think he has a chance at re-election after the stunt he pulled with the health care bill?

The Republicans broadcasted their intent long ago: Waterloo. This entire thing has been their campaign against your collective re-election. You think the party of Strom Thurmond likes seeing President Barack Obama sitting in the Oval Office? How many times do they have to spit in your eye when you reach out for a handshake for you to realize what they're about?

Yes, this last week has been bad. Yes, the Fox Propaganda (and we have propagandists on the left as well, it is not in and of itself a bad thing) network has been your own personal Nostradamus, predicting doom, doom, DOOoooOOOoooOOOM! Don't lose sight of your strengths, your diversity of support, and the overwhelming mandates you've received in the last four years from your country. That should tell you, "Yes, we do support you." "Yes, we want you to succeed." "Yes, we believe that you can make our beloved country even greater."

Most of all: "Yes we can."

Krugman Sez: Obama Shoulda Blamed Bush More

By Wade

If you've overheard Fox News at all in the past year, it's likely that you've been treated to kvetching about Obama putting too much blame on Bush, and that he ought to live in the present, etc. etc. (a rhetoric notoriously absent when Bush said similar things about Clinton). However, Krugman disagrees(emphasis mine):

The Obama administration’s troubles are the result not of excessive ambition, but of policy and political misjudgments. The stimulus was too small; policy toward the banks wasn’t tough enough; and Mr. Obama didn’t do what Ronald Reagan, who also faced a poor economy early in his administration, did — namely, shelter himself from criticism with a narrative that placed the blame on previous administrations.

And because it tickles me in relation to my previous post about the WSJ, here's another good Krugman quote:

It’s often forgotten now, but unemployment actually soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cut. Reagan, however, had a ready answer for critics: everything going wrong was the result of the failed policies of the past. In effect, Reagan spent his first few years in office continuing to run against Jimmy Carter.

I simultaneously agree and disagree with the rest of Krugman's sentiments. On the one hand, he talks about how Obama hasn't really accomplished that much, and how he needs to focus on two remaining options: pushing financial and health care reform. He's right; these are things that must happen. Krugman says that "not passing a bill would surely be [Democrats'] political doom." And he's right.

On the other hand, Dave's had two different posts detailing Obama's accomplishments and effectiveness. Let's not be giving aid and comfort to the enemy now. Make sure the Republicans know that we still want the same things we wanted when we overwhelmingly elected President Obama, and that we're still willing to back him and fight for what Krugman himself calls "the right thing to do."

One of the key strengths of the Party of No is their ability to remain unified while preying on the fractiousness of the left. It's like the Democrats are constantly trying to prevent a big game of rock paper scissors Hippies who hate pollution protest the Union workers who are against Immigrants taking their jobs who are against the Supporters of Gay Marriage and so on down the line (this is obviously not an accurate representation, but you get the point).

What we have to realize is what the right realized long ago: we are stronger than the sum of our parts. Every election they win is a representation of this. Most polls in the past few years put the amount of left-leaning Americans anywhere from five to twenty-five percent above the amount of right-leaning Americans. We have the power, and we need to remember that. It was proven a year ago when we chose Hope and Change over those who sought to continue the downward spiral of the Bush years. Compromising and taking the good with the bad is always better than refusing to accept anything but 100% goodness. Obama knows this well.

Andrew Sullivan: Insightful and Right

By Wade

I'm not even surprised that things look so grim for Coakley. Sad, not surprised.

The first full paragraph sums up the major BS of the last year so succinctly it's beautiful:

I can see no alternative scenario but a huge - staggeringly huge - victory for the FNC/RNC machine tomorrow. They crafted a strategy of total oppositionism to anything Obama proposed a year ago. Remember they gave him zero votes on even the stimulus in his first weeks. They saw health insurance reform as Obama's Waterloo, and, thanks in part to the dithering Democrats, they beat him on that hill. They have successfully channeled all the rage at the massive debt and recession the president inherited on Obama after just one year.

Congratulations, Republicans. Your quagmire in this country is nearly as ugly as the quagmires you've created across the Atlantic.

Massachusetts, I'm talking to you now. I know we've had at least a couple readers from your neck of the woods (and anyone who knows any swing voters there, pass this on).

Don't think of Coakley as a replacement for a beloved figure from a political dynasty. Don't think of her even as the sub-par candidate she is. Think of her as the least objectionable alternative. Think of her as the stop-gap measure to keep Republicans from succeeding in their goal as the "Party of No." Think of her, as we so often must in politics, as a means to an end. Think of her as the instrument that will help enact the health care policies we need in this country, that Ted Kennedy fought for the majority of his political career. Think of her as, at the very least, better than the guy who seems pleased by the idea of violating her back door with a hot metal rod.

I know she's not who we want. All she can be now is who we've got.