Month: February 2009
Republicans Have Hijacked the Stimulus Message
Joan Walsh at Salon says Republicans are winning the media war over the economic stimulus package.
This had merely been a stupid GOP talking point until 10 minutes ago; now it’s becoming a stupid media talking point. Funny how that works.
…the stimulus fight is tougher than it should be for Democrats. Clearly the best ally the Republicans have is the economic illiteracy of the pundit class in America. I’m watching NBC’s Chuck Todd say the Democrats have lost the “message war” over the stimulus, because it’s now just seen as a “spending bill.” There’s no way for a stimulus bill not to be a spending bill…This had merely been a stupid GOP talking point until 10 minutes ago; now it’s becoming a stupid media talking point. Funny how that works.
Walsh says timing is bad for Democrats, with the failures of the TARP bailout all over the news. The question is, why isn’t this bad for the Republicans? That bill was passed under Bush and managed by his Republican administration. It was their idea to take away taxpayer oversight of how the funds were distributed.
It’s not good that we’re debating how to spend the second “tranche” of the awful TARP program at the same time as we’re having the stimulus debate; I think the inequities and inefficiencies of TARP are smogging the atmosphere for the as-yet-unfinished stimulus bill. We all heard about a desperately needed $700 billion bailout bill a few months ago — it rewarded bad behavior and, worst of all, it didn’t work. So why should Americans be any more optimistic about the separate (and it’s hard to keep straight that it is separate) stimulus bill Obama has championed?
Walsh offers a good suggestion on how to salvage the media battle and get the right message to the citizenry.
…Obama and the Democrats need to break three or four categories of spending out of the bill, and crusade for them daily, in real-life, real-job, real-money terms. This mess is complicated, and I’m not suggesting that Obama demagogue or exaggerate, but what the plan will accomplish is getting lost in debate over tax cuts and tax credits, shovel-ready vs. forward-looking projects, and confusion over the stimulative role of direct grants to the states. There is so much confusion and ignorance at work here, only some of it willful. Obama has an enormous educational and not merely political task in front of him this week, and he can’t expect much help from most of the media.
Palin Prevaricates to Her Party
Remember back during the late presidential campaign when Sen. John McCain stiffed David Letterman, claiming that he was needed in Washington to straighten out the economy, but he was really in another studio at CBS in New York doing an interview with Katie Couric?
Well, apparently lying runs on the ticket. McCain’s veep candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin pulled a McCain-like move last week when she declined to address the Republican congressional delegation at its winter retreat. She claimed that she could give the keynote address because she couldn’t leave Alaska because of pressing state business. Instead, she was in Washington, D.C., for the Alfalfa Dinner on Saturday.
“She lied to us,” said a Republican at the retreat.
Asked why Palin told the Republicans she could not leave Alaska this weekend, Palin spokesman Bill McAllister offered this non-responsive answer:
“My understanding is that the governor has not scheduled any partisan events on her current trip to D.C.,” McAllister told ABC News.
The House Republicans seemed to do just fine without Palin. Their list of speakers included Republican stars Michael Steele, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich.
Asked about Palin’s no-show, House Republican leader John Boehner shrugged.
“Whatever,” Boehner said.
That universally dismissive comment hits about the right note when it comes to how much attention the GOP should give Ms. Palin.
Begala Calls GOP’s Dear Leader a ‘Corpulent Drug Addict’
On CNN on Friday, Paul Begala described the head of the Republican Party as a “corpulent drug addict with a AM radio talk show.” He wasn’t referring to Michael Steele, the recently elected chair of the GOP who is already being marginalized, of course. He was describing the party’s real leader, Rush Limbaugh.
Clearance Sale Predicted
The bumper sticker, left, and the button
If you’re that one American who wishes Bush could have run for a third term, here’s some good news. You can send the former president a message, via your own bumper or breast, showing your gratitude for his ineptitude — all eight years of it.
For only $1.50 you can slap this “Thank you” sticker on your car. Or for $1.75 you can take that thought with you wherever you go, with a “Thank you” button. The Republican National Committee is selling both, along with commemorative golf balls, low-boy tumblers (fitting, eh?), and t-shirts at the George W. Bush Store.
We’d really love to know how many they’ve sold so far.
How’s That Identity Politics Working for You, Republicans?
RNC Chair Michael SteeleThe last time Republicans tried to show they were as broad-minded as Democrats, the country got Sarah Palin. Introduced as the Republican answer to Hillary Clinton, Palin was expected to syphon off the votes of all those disgruntled Hillary-heads and prove Republicans value women more than Democrats do. Instead, it was almost immediately evident they had selected one of the most anti-choice, anti-feminist, anti-“vagina-Americans”* ever to crawl out from under an oil pipeline.
So what have they done this time? Trotted out former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, an African American, to lead their party. And as Wattree at epluribusmedia notes, it’s the same old Republican stuff.
What I would personally like to see is a Republican Party that INCLUDES minorities, not use them…[A]nyone with an ounce of sense can see that this is a gimmick. Republicans were defeated so badly in the last election, and Obama is so popular, that they figure Black must be the political flavor of the season, so they went out and “got them one”–it didn’t matter who, just long as his skin was dark…
The American people didn’t elect President Obama because he’s Black, they elected him because he demonstrated that he was an intelligent, competent, statesman. He was also elected so overwhelmingly because for the past eight years the Republican Party has clearly demonstrated that it was overflowing with corruption, incompetence, and greed. So while it’s hard for the RNC to believe, for the very first time, we had an election that was based strictly on the issues and relative competence, and not race.
Their election, on the other hand, was all about race. One contender, former Tennessee GOP Chair Chip Saltsman, made it crystal clear with his Christmas gift. The audio CD contained the now-famous “Barack the Magic Negro” as well as “Ivory and Ebony†and “The Star Spanglish Banner.†It was satire, we were told, not racism. What better way to prove it than to select a black man to lead them? That Steele, unlike their other candidates, has no party-building experience is secondary.
I don’t yet know Steele’s opinions or views but this move seems almost as good as choosing a female misogynist to run as vice president. And we all know how that worked out.
* In the words of The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee
Quote du Jour
I am seriously glad to be here tonight at the annual Alfalfa dinner. I know that many you are aware that this dinner began almost one hundred years ago as a way to celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. If he were here with us tonight, the general would be 202 years old. And very confused.
— President Barack Obama, in remarks Saturday night.
Stunning Hypocrisy on Display in Florida Rep’s Budget Grab
The E-2D Advanced HawkeyeIt’s commonly accepted that the definition of “pork” in a legislative budget is any spending that benefits somebody else’s constituents. But never has pork been so elevated and hypocrisy so exalted as in U.S. Rep. John Mica’s (R-Fla.) vow to save one plane in the Navy’s E-2D advanced Hawkeye fleet.
Remember, Mica recently voted with every other Republican representative to reject the economic stimulus plan, protesting such profligate spending.
With a significant portion of the proposed economic stimulus package directed to job creation through infrastructure projects, our efforts continue to keep the measure from being a spending free-for-all…Having been disappointed with both bailout measures, I believe my vote in opposition was appropriate.
I hate to confuse a Republican with the facts but the decision to manufacture one less E-2D was made under Bush
The E-2D, with its huge radar disk, is a familiar site in the skies above my home town. Manufactured by Northrup Grumman at its St. Augustine facility and others, the plane is “able to pick those elusive flying targets out of a background of rough terrain and urban sprawl, a far different mission than the overwater detection capability of earlier Navy airborne early-warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.” It’s also built in Mica’s district. And Mica loves the smell of pork, as long as it’s his own.
Mica said there may be a chance to restore funding tucked somewhere in the Omnibus Spending Bill, scheduled to be heard March 1.
“(But) there’s almost nothing in the $820 billion Economic Stimulus Bill devoted to shoring up our military,” he said. “We’re going to try and save the jobs. Until the (Omnibus Bill) goes to Obama’s desk, we’re not giving up.”
Instead of acknowledging that he is soliciting funding “tucked somewhere” for a pet project, in true partisan fashion Mica took a shot at Obama.
Mica…said the new Obama administration “does not appear to be defense-oriented. We’re not going to give up the fight, but right now it’s an uphill battle.”
I hate to confuse a Republican with the facts but the plan to cut one E-2D was put in place under Bush.
The sea service included the cuts in its FY-08 long-term budget, which was submitted to the Office of the Secretary of Defense [in August, 2006]. This proposed budget is being kept under wraps because it has not been finalized. The changes are relative to the Bush administration’s FY-07 long-term budget, which looks ahead five years and was submitted to Congress in February [2006].
At the time Mica made his comments, the only thing Obama had a chance to do yet to show he’s not “defense-oriented” was be a Democrat. That doesn’t stop Mica from not only painting the president as soft on defense but from making himself out to be a selfless crusader in the process. In fact, he’s a Republican hack who votes in lockstep with the GOP and tries to pass off partisanship as honor. It’s not.
As Mormon Church Admits Illegally Unreported Prop 8 Expenditures, It Lets Gay Rights Bill Die in Utah
Late on Friday, the Mormon Church in Utah dumped a report that showed that it had hidden nearly $200,000 in expenditures on the campaign for Proposition 8, the California amendment that repealed gay people’s right to marry. This spending was not included in an earlier report, and failure to disclose campaign spending is illegal.
It has to be pointed out that lying — which the church apparently did in its earlier filing — is a much more heinous sin than being gay. Bearing false witness is prohibited in the Ten Commandments, whereas the prohibition against being gay is listed in Leviticus along with rules against eating ham and shrimp and women wearing pants.
If the news dump on the Friday night before the Super Bowl was timed to suppress coverage of the church’s apparently illegal activities, it was successful. The story was reported in newspapers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, but not on cable or broadcast news.
But while the church allegedly illegally meddled in California politics last year, it more recently signaled its support of the Common Ground Initiative, a set of bills that would offer a modicum of protection for gays’ rights in its home state of Utah.
Currently, in Utah and other states, gays can be fired or evicted simply because of their status as sinners based on obscure references in the Christian Bible. This is unfair on its face because no corresponding laws or traditions countenance the eviction and firing of adulterers or unmarried heterosexuals who have sex, which the Bible calls “fornication” — nor are there any laws that prevent cheating spouses and unmarried sexually active couples from marrying — because of their status as sinners.
Now — despite a poll released two weeks ago showing that 63 percent of Utah residents are in favor of protecting the basic rights of gay people — and despite outreach by gays toward leaders of the state’s homophobia agenda — the church is doing nothing while its representatives in the legislature are effectively killing the Common Ground Initiative.
Here is commentary on the actions by Republicans in the Legislature from the Salt Lake City Tribune:
