Just How Far Will He Go In Calling Out The GOP?

We have a test right now of President Obama that I hope he passes with flying colors. See Senator Richard Shelby has decided to put a hold all of the administrations nominees hostage until he gets funding for one of his earmarks back home in Alabama. Yes, ALL of them.

The truth is, this couldn't be teed up any better for Obama to knock it ocmpletely out of the park, but I worry that he won't step up to the plate and give himself the victory that might actually change the dynamic of what has been happening in the Senate.

Here is what I think has been one of the central problems with the White House in terms of communications since Obama has been in office, the fact that they seem to believe that the average American understands what goes on in the Congress, more specifically the Senate, and therefore they don't need things spelled out for them. Well that's about the dumbest mindset they could have possibly adopted. Most people are too busy going along trying to make it every day to even pay attention to the details of what happens in Congress. What they see are either the results or the lack thereof and maybe just a little bit of spin by either side on why something did or didn't happen.

So here is an opportunity to both educate the American people AND put Senator Shelby ON BLAST. As it happens they don't really have to mention him by name, all they have to do is refer to his home state and that will be quite good enough. If President Obama goes on TV and tells the American people that there is a Senator who railed against earmarks last year who has now put a hold on imminently qualifed people who we need to be allowed to take their jobs for our government to work, all so he can get funding for earmarks for his state of Alabama, I predict that there will be a serious shift in public opinion both about President Obama and the two political parties.


Look this isn't the first instance of Republicans being hypocrites and it won't be the last, but its at least one of the most egregious and one of the easiest to explain where average people can understand it without having to think to hard about it. And as they hear it and process it the outrage will come.

But will President Obama actually use this as a "teachable" moment? One can only hope....

A Return To Civility

With A Rebel Yell, She Cried More, More, Mooooore

Boy, the attacks and push back from President Obama as well as his White House staff has been coming fast and furious of late. I think the light bulb has finally gone off that the only way to win a fight is to actually ENGAGE in a fight. This time its Dan Pfeiffer taking to the White House blog to point out more GOP obstructionism, this time on nominees to important governmental offices.

Nine months ago, the White House sent the nominee for GSA Administrator, Martha Johnson, to the Senate for its consideration. Today, she was finally given a vote and was overwhelmingly approved by a margin of 94-2. What happened in between was a perfect example of why Americans are so frustrated with Washington.

Martha Johnson is an ideal candidate for Administrator, which is highlighted by the unanimous vote she received in committee. And the only thing that's changed between now and then is that some in Congress found it to be politically expedient to delay her vote. This isn’t just about one person filling one job – it hampers our ability reform the way government works and save taxpayer dollars by making it more efficient and effective.

What’s worse, Martha Johnson is hardly the first nominee to fall victim to this trend of opposition for opposition’s sake. Nine of the President's nominees found themselves stuck in this same situation only to be confirmed by 70 or more votes or a voice vote. Several nominees, including two members of the Council of Economic Advisers, had cloture withdrawn and were passed by a voice vote.

Maybe votes on these nominations were delayed as a bargaining chip for someone's pet project – more likely it was part of a political strategy of opposition and obstruction at all costs. Whatever the reason, it's obvious from the margins of the final votes that it had little to do with their qualifications.

Not sure if there is a connection here, but President Obama JUST talked about Martha Johnson yesterday and how she was being held up by Republicans for no reason at all. At the least it should provide positive reinforcement that its the squeaky wheel that get's the oil. Perhaps if President Obama calls the Republicans out on more of his nominees that have been held up (cough Dawn Johnson at OLC cough) then they will ALSO get an up or down vote finally.

I swear man, after going through all the bullshit last year with the White House staying mostly silent and continuing to get their hand slapped when they reached out in "bipartisanship", I could certainly get used to this new, far more aggressive approach.

Calling Out The Right Wing Echo Chamber

Barney Frank does the autopsy of a blatant lie about him wholly propagated by the Right Wing Echo chamber on editorial pages in the mainstream media and on wing nut blogs. I'm pretty sure FoxNews won't be far behind either...

Remember, SHE'S Supposed To Be One Of The Reasonable Republicans

Great job by Rachel Maddow of pointing out all the lies Susan Collins has been telling about the underpants bomber and the investigation. Its just frustrating as hell knowing that she can go on any cable network and tell these lies without even a hint of pushback. And Collins is supposed to be one of the Republicans we expect bipartisanship from?

Give me an effing break...

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President Obama Is On A Roll

President Obama has been calling folks out of late, and today he set his sights on the Birthers. He is about make it REAL hard on some folks, and I for one am loving it!

The Central Question, What Differentiates Democrats From Republicans

President Obama went to visit with Senate Democrats today in another #questiontime session. I know quite a few people are panning it because it wasn't quite the high drama of his trip to the GOP retreat last year, but I still think he put on another great performance. Several Corporatist Democrats got up and tried to grand stand, most notably Evan Bayh and Blanche Lincoln. I mean really they sounded more like Republicans than many Republicans at times. But President Obama in albeit a polite fashion, pushed back on their self defeating premises. Maybe the best quote of the day was when he was responding to Blanche Lincoln when she tried to label members of her own party as "extremists" and inferred that Democrats shouldn't do anything to upset Wall Street and the banksters.

Well, if the agenda -- if the price of certainty is essentially for us to adopt the exact same proposals that were in place for eight years leading up to the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression -- we don't tinker with health care, let the insurance companies do what they want, we don't put in place any insurance reforms, we don't mess with the banks, let them keep on doing what they're doing now because we don't want to stir up Wall Street -- the result is going to be the same.

I don't know why we would expect a different outcome pursuing the exact same policies that got us into this fix in the first place. Michael Bennet articulated it very well. Part of the reason people are feeling anxious right now, it's not just because of this current crisis -- they've been going through this for 10 years. They've been working and not seeing a raise. Their costs have been going up, their spouses going to the workforce -- they work as hard as they can. They're barely keeping their heads above water. They're trying to figure out how to retire. They're seeing more and more of their costs on health care dumped in their lap. College tuition skyrockets.

They are more and more vulnerable, and they have been for the last decade, treading water. And if our response ends up being, because we don't want to -- we don't want to stir things up here, we're just going to do the same thing that was being done before, then I don't know what differentiates us from the other guys. And I don't know why people would say, boy, we really want to make sure that those Democrats are in Washington fighting for us.

That ladies and gentlemen is what this really all boils down to. When you have Democrats who are trying to mimic Republicans like Lincoln and Bayh et al, all they are really doing is making it easier for voters to vote for ACTUAL Republicans. The truth is when it ocmes to the Democratic Platform its the ConservaDems like Lincoln who are the extremists, running far to the right of what most mainstream Democrats both in office and out, want for the country. It was a moment that those of us on the left who haven't lost our damn mind would be wise to continue to point out and promote. Especially as this year goes on and the ConservaDems continue to be a bigger obstacle for progress than the GOP

No More Money For The DNC

Tim Kaine is obviously in over his head and or wants to try to transform the Democratic Party into his personal image. There can be no other excuse for why he would hand over $500,000 to anti health care, anti choice advocate Ben Nelson to run ads where he BRAGS about basically killing health care when he isn't up for reelection for 3 more years.

If you still give money to the DNC after this, you are basically working AGAINST the Democratic platform.

GOP Outreach FAIL

The GOP is once again trying to open up their big tiny tent just a little. This time they are trying to get more women to vote Republican. But check out WHY they think women don't already vote Republican.

"Women sometimes need a little more handholding, or they need their friends to help them make a decision. And by our going in and talking to them and recruiting and educating and training them to either get involved in a campaign or become a candidate, we're giving them the tools so that they can do that on their own," Larimer added.

SMDH

Why Does It Always Have To Be Tennessee?

The Lt. Governor from my home state of Tennessee isn't sure that President Obama is a citizen of the United States of America.

Well I AM sure that Ron Ramsey is an ASSHOLE!

"It's Like He's Seeing Their Talking Points In Bullet Time"

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Republicans Really Do Want To Cut Social Security And Medicare

But hey, don't take my word for it, just check out Congressman Hensarling, you know the guy President Obama bitch slapped last week over his bullshit comments about the deficit, on Hardball this evening.



Or you can read Ezra Klein's post on Congressman Paul Ryan's GOP budget proposal to cut the deficit.

As you all know by now, the long-term budget deficit is largely driven by health-care costs. To move us to surpluses, Ryan's budget proposes reforms that are nothing short of violent. Medicare is privatized. Seniors get a voucher to buy private insurance, and the voucher's growth is far slower than the expected growth of health-care costs. Medicaid is also privatized. The employer tax exclusion is fully eliminated, replaced by a tax credit that grows more slowly than medical costs. And beyond health care, Social Security moves to a system of private accounts that CBO says will actually cost more than the present arrangement, further underscoring how ancillary the program is to our budget problem.

snip

The proposal would shift risk from the federal government to seniors themselves. The money seniors would get to buy their own policies would grow more slowly than their health-care costs, and more slowly than their expected Medicare benefits, which means that they'd need to either cut back on how comprehensive their insurance is or how much health-care they purchase. Exacerbating the situation -- and this is important -- Medicare currently pays providers less and works more efficiently than private insurers, so seniors trying to purchase a plan equivalent to Medicare would pay more for it on the private market.

It's hard, given the constraints of our current debate, to call something "rationing" without being accused of slurring it. But this is rationing, and that's not a slur. This is the government capping its payments and moderating their growth in such a way that many seniors will not get the care they need. This is, in its simplest form, a way to limit the use of a finite resource: Money.

But here is the thing, none of this matters one whit if Democrats don't seize the day. Tomorrow every Democrat in the House should be lined up for their chance to address the body at the podium on CSPAN and point out what the Republicans are up to. And immediately following each Democrat in the House should put up a youtube online of their speech and send it out to every single email list they have. If Ryan's proposals and Hensarling's appearance are pushed into the national dialogue, the media will HAVE to cover it. And every single GOP House member that appears on CNN or MSNBC or one of the morning shows will HAVE to answer the question of if they agree with these "visionaries" in their own party.

But if not. If this is allowed to slide under the radar, well then shame on every person in any leadership position in the Democratic Party. You will have shown without a doubt that you do not deserve to lead this country.

Real talk.

Let's Try Something Unorthodox (Read Effective)

Frank Luntz is out again with a shiny new memo for the GOP. This time the veteran wordsmith and hood winker is after financial regulatory reform, specifically trying to kill it. Now one thing that was amazing about the health care reform fight is that Luntz released his memo to the GOP to the public prior to the fight and just about every talking point and cannard we heard for the next 8 or 9 months was contained in said memo. Still Democrats struggled to refute them or even to point out that they WERE talking points. Well its time out for that bullshit.

It's time to make inside baseball a little more outside.

I propose that Democratic members of Congress, particularly those up for reelection this year go on the offensive by sending a copy of the memo to their constituents right away, as well as to editorial boards of the papers that cover their home states and or districts. Point out the words that they will be hearing for the next few months and where they came from. And leave them with this advice, whenever they hear those words coming from a Republican's lips they should be reminded that they are being scammed.

This is what you call low hanging fruit ladies and gentlemen. Most folks are already fed up with the bankers. But now to show that the GOP is unequivically on THEIR side and not OUR side will put an end to all that bullshit populism rhetoric that they are trying to run on.

Time is of the essence however because if people aren't made aware of what is in that memo then once the ball starts rolling it will be hard to stop. We simply can't afford to let that happen.

The Air We Breathe

MoveOn is coming out with a series of attack ads on corporatist Dems like Senator Landrieu, for trying to block climate change legislation. This is really good stuff.

Calling Bullshit On Roger Ailes

Paul Krugman does the honors to the FoxNews executive...to his face no less!