Month: February 2010

More On The Merger

by digby

Ed Kilgore makes some interesting observations about the Republicans and their tea party faction:

It’s increasingly obvious that what passes for a “Republican Establishment” these days is focused heavily on surrendering to the most immediate ideological impulses of Tea Party and conservative movement activists (who are in fact the very same people in many places) and then coopting them for the 2010 and 2012 campaign cycles. In attempting a takeover of the GOP, the hard right is in many respects pushing on an open door. The RNC chairman, supposedly a “moderate” of sorts, never misses an opportunity to identify himself with the Tea Party Movement. Sarah Palin, who was the party’s vice presidential candidate in 2008, has called for a merger of the Movement and the GOP. Republican Sen. Jim DeMint has argued that they have already more or less merged.

In his piece Martin suggests that the longstanding Republican pedigree of Florida Tea Party hero Marco Rubio somehow proves the “establishment” is still in charge. I’d say it shows that “establishment” is in the process of rapidly surrendering to the “conservative coup” that Martin scoffs at. Charlie Crist, whom Rubio seems certain to trounce in a Republican Senate primary later this year, was without question a major “GOP establishment” figure just months ago, and Rubio was considered a nuisance candidate. Now he’s the living symbol of a “purity test” being applied to Republicans by the “grassroots” to dramatic effect.

Yes, many Tea Party activists continue to shake their fists at the “Republican establishment,” just like unambiguously Republican conservative activists have done for many decades, dating back to the Willkie Convention of 1940. But with some exceptions, they are choosing to operate politically almost exclusively through the GOP, to the “establishment’s” delight.

The emerging reality is that the Tea Party activists are the shock troops in the final conquest of the Republican Party by the most hard-core elements of the conservative movement. It’s apparent not just in Republican primaries, but in the remarkable ability of Republican politicians to repudiate as “socialism” many policy positions their party first developed and quite recently embraced (Mark Kirk’s support for cap-and-trade would have been considered relatively uncontroversial just a few years ago). You can certainly root around and find a few exceptions to this trend, but they are few and far between. And the implicit assumption of Martin’s piece–that the “adults” of the Republican “establishment” will once again tame the wild ideological beasts of their party–is actually dangerous.

I’ll say. It’s fun to make mock of the teabaggers, but the truth is that it’s p-laying with fire to allow a party in thrall to a faction like this anywhere near power during times of economic and social stress. You saw how they handled 9/11. Imagine what they’ll do if they really perceive an internal threat.

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Bowl Me Over With A Feather

by digby

Hey, has anyone see Claud Rains anywhere? Somebody’s looking for him:

A top House Republican has warned Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that unless the administration consults with Republicans on the make-up and mandate of a fiscal commission, the party won’t cooperate, an aide said Friday.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) spoke to Geithner by telephone Friday about the commission, details of which are expected to be finalized next week, an aide to Boehner said.

According to the aide, Boehner told Geithner that President Barack Obama needs to consult Republicans on who will sit on the panel. He also said that everything needs to be up for discussion, including spending cuts, and that the panel should deliver its report to Congress before the November mid-term elections.

Despite attempts by Obama to restart relations with the Republican minority, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that the party will cooperate.

Ya think?

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Coupla Black Dudes Talkin’ Bout Money

by digby

I just don’t know what to say about this:

NC Chairman Michael Steele and former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN) held a joint appearance Thursday night at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. When the debate turned to President Obama’s plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire on families making over $250,000, Steele “joke[d]” that that wasn’t very much money:

The two often traded jokes, especially when Steele panned President Barack Obama’s long-stated plan to let income tax rates return to higher levels for families making more than $250,000 a year.

“Trust me, after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money,” Steele said.

Ford later asked the audience of mostly college students, “Who in here makes a million dollars a year?”

“How many of you want to make a million dollars a year?” Steele quickly responded when no hands were raised.

Of course, to most Americans, $250,000 — let alone a million — is “a lot of money.” The median household income is about $52,000 and only two percent of Americans make $250,000 or more. Fewer than half-a-percent make more than a million dollars. “After taxes,” someone making a million dollars can still expect to keep about $675,000.

After Steele asked them if they wanted to make a million dollars a year,if he were any kind of a politician Ford would have asked if once they became millionaires if they’d be willing to pay higher taxes to make this country a better place.

Think Progress points out that a million dollar gross only leaves you with a paltry 675k (assuming you only take the standard deductions) so I can see how it’s hard to struggle through.

I think what’s most appalling about their appearance however, is that fact these two millionaires made 40k for this event. Is this going to be some kind of regular sideshow?

I’ve gotten into trouble on this blog for writing that 250k is a lot of money even for people who live in big expensive cities like mine. And it is. It doesn’t go as far as it would in Joplin Missouri or Mobile Alabama, but it goes far enough to give you a more comfortable life than 98% of the population, no matter where they live.

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Teabagging Plutocrats

by digby

I missed this final nail in the non-partisan coffin, from Dave Weigel:

In a conversation before the presser, Luke Livingston, the director of Tea Party: the Documentary Film, credited Skoda with turning around the “bad PR” and opening up the convention. When Skoda took the stage he unleashed a long monologue about the values and strength of the movement before announcing the formation of the Ensuring Liberty corporation and Ensuring Liberty PAC. It would be incorporated in “the heartland of America, Memphis, Tennessee,” and would employ a team that wasn’t yet assembled but might include “former K street people” who wanted to change the way Washington worked.

Skoda was peppered with questions on what money the PAC would accept. Corporate money? Yes. Lobbyist money? “We’ll determine that.” One thing that Skoda made crystal clear was that he and the Tea Party Convention “absolutely do not support a third party.”

Very populist of them.

Update: Do you suppose any of these tea party populists care about this:

The NYT reported that Lloyd Blankfein, the man who engineered the government’s bailout of Goldman Sach’s, will get a bonus of “only” $9 million for 2009. The use of the word “only” in the headline of this piece displays questionable judgment. Without the help of tax dollars from bus drivers and school teachers, Goldman Sachs would have collapsed in 2008 and Mr. Blankfein might well be on an unemployment line right now.

In short Mr. Blankfein took his company to the edge of bankruptcy (and caused enormous damage to the economy in the process). He was subsequently rescued by his former colleagues who occupied top positions in the government. “Only” might not be an appropriate word to describe his $9 million bonus.

I could be wrong, but somehow I just don’t think any of this came up in “negotiations” between the tea party populists and the RNC.

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Who Could Have Guessed?

by digby

In case anyone was still clinging to the idea that the teapartiers are “non-partisan” this should set it to rest once and for all:

In a bid to advance the tea party movement from holding rallies to holding office, the leaders of the anti-establishment groups announced a new political organization Friday that they say will “endorse, support and elect” conservatives across the country.

Mark Skoda, chairman of The Memphis TEA Party, made the announcement at a news conference in the middle of the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Though he said the group — Ensuring Liberty Corporation and an affiliated political action committee — is “distinct and separate” from other parts of the tea party movement, including convention organizer Tea Party Nation, the announcement was the closest thing so far to a national organizing strategy for the upcoming 2010 midterm elections.

“Let us not be naive here. The notion of us holding up signs … does not get people elected,” said Skoda, who is poised to become president of the new group. Skoda said the organization would take in small donations as well as corporate donations.

According to a written statement, the group would work to build a “sustainable coalition of elected officials” on the national level and in state and local races that might not be getting the attention of the Republican Party establishment.

The announcement came with an official platform that could help define what the multi-faceted tea party movement stands for and expects from the candidates it supports. The group’s leaders plan to support candidates who stand for a set of “First Principles.”

Those principles are: fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, less government, states’ rights and national security. Prospective political candidates will be expected to support the Republican National Committee platform. If a particular candidate meets the proposed criteria he or she would be eligible for fundraising and grassroots support.

Once elected to office, members would be expected to join a congressional caucus of “like-minded representatives” who attend regular meetings and are held accountable for the votes they cast. Those who stray from the tea party path would risk losing the new organization’s support and a possible re-election challenge.

I think that settles that.

You’ll notice that there isn’t any “populism” to be found in this little manifesto.

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Mad Max For Dummies

by digby

Sadly No compiled some interesting conservative observations of the problems in Colorado Springs since it’s tax cut zealotry has finally brought it to the brink of dystopian chaos:

About time some taxpayers said enough is enough! Bloated salaries and benefits of public employees have to be stopped and REVERSED. Simply let them go and hire private contractors at less than half the price and everything will be fine again.

All uneconomic activity has to stop sometime. And NOW is the time to stop the ludicrous situation of overpaid public employees.

And:

The ratepayers of Colorado Springs are my new heroes.

Congratulations on taking a stand to send a firm message to the politicians. Reduce the services to just the essentials. Get rid of the union jobs and start with a zero-based budget using contractors. Arm the citizens and you will need a lot fewer cops.

And of course, the obligatory racist post:

It all depends on the population. The more “diversity” they have, the worse the prospects of maintaining peace and order. But a racially homogeneous and traditionally American population will probably fare quite well with less cops and will benefit economically from a smaller tax burden.

Sounds great. If you believe  life is a comic book.

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Wrongful Shaming

by digby

Sarah Palin really isn’t ready for prime time. She hasn’t yet learned that consistency is the hobgoblin of little liberals:

On the eve of a campaign appearance in Texas for Rick Perry, Sarah Palin served notice that she’s not happy the governor’s top political adviser used the word “retarded” to describe campaign logistics.

Dave Carney, Perry’s long-time political guru, used the word several times in a conference call about arrangements for the first gubernatorial debate last month sponsored by KERA.

During the call among campaign representatives, Carney complained that one candidates’ holding room would be in a different building than the debate.

“That’s just retarded,” Carney said. “That’s the most retarded thing I’ve ever heard.”

Palin’s youngest son Trig has Down syndrome. The former vice presidential candidate has written on her Facebook page that using the word “retarded” is “a slur on all God’s children” with developmental disabilities.

When The Wall Street Journal reported that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel used the term during a closed-door meeting with liberal Democrats and others, Palin called Emanuel’s choice of words “unacceptable” and said he should be fired. Emanuel has since apologized.

Palin’s spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, condemned Carney’s remarks but did not call for the Perry consultant to lose his job.

“Gov. Palin believes crude and demeaning name-calling at the expense of others is disrespectful,” Stapleton said.

The proper professional conservative way to deal with these things is to say that Rahm Emmanuel’s use of the word was much more egregious because he didn’t apologize immediately, whereas the governor’s aide was very contrite and prayed for forgiveness once he was informed of the error of his ways, and that’s all any of God’s imperfect children can do.

But Sarah has even bigger problems:

A Texas source notes that conservative rocker Ted Nugent, who will be opening up for Perry and Palin this weekend, also throws the word around.

He told Royal Flush Magazine in December that hunting is “the last pure perfect function of mankind.

“That’s killing deer and eatin’ ‘em,” Nugent said. “It’s perfect. It’s untouchable on all levels. Unless you’re retarded.”

Now Sarah has claimed that she can field dress a moose, so she has to side with Ted on the “perfection” of hunting. But he’s not going to apologize for using that word, no matter what. Soooo, she’ll have to resort to the old, “he was just making a joke,” which isn’t exactly going to endear her to the advocates for the disabled, but will be just fine with her teabagger followers (all of whom by the way, probably use the word. In fact, according to Levi Johnston, she does too.)

Sarah has not learned a fundamental rule of wingnut sanctimony: you use military and religious correctness to shame liberals, not political correctness. Otherwise, you get tripped up by all the instances of conservative bigotry and rudeness toward the less fortunate. It’s not that hypocrisy is a problem necessarily, but it muddies the waters. Calling them traitors or godless heathens is much cleaner.

h/t to EK

Panic Artists

by digby

Krugman writes:

Why the sudden ubiquity of deficit scare stories? It isn’t being driven by any actual news. It has been obvious for at least a year that the U.S. government would face an extended period of large deficits, and projections of those deficits haven’t changed much since last summer. Yet the drumbeat of dire fiscal warnings has grown vastly louder.

To me — and I’m not alone in this — the sudden outbreak of deficit hysteria brings back memories of the groupthink that took hold during the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, as then, dubious allegations, not backed by hard evidence, are being reported as if they have been established beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now, as then, much of the political and media establishments have bought into the notion that we must take drastic action quickly, even though there hasn’t been any new information to justify this sudden urgency. Now, as then, those who challenge the prevailing narrative, no matter how strong their case and no matter how solid their background, are being marginalized.

And fear-mongering on the deficit may end up doing as much harm as the fear-mongering on weapons of mass destruction.

Read on for the economic consequences of this fear mongering.

Americans apparently don’t mind being perceived as pants-wetting panic artists rushing around hysterically from one phony crisis to another. I suspect they accept this because it displaces their real fears about social and economic change, but it should be embarrassing nonetheless. The owners all benefit, of course, but that doesn’t really help the ball team.

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The Latest Conservative Plea For Comity

by tristero

Following up on Digby’s post below, I’d like to remind everyone of a few more examples of the non-condescending, non vitriolic ways conservatives have comported themselves in the recent past.

A button from the 2008 campaign:

A bumper sticker that’s been around for quite a while:

Here’s Steve Dunleavy in the New York Post on October 2, 2001

It is amazing how liberals, whom I regard as traitors in this time of crisis, like to quote the Constitution.

That’s right: he said that within weeks of 9/11. Oh, how the nation came together back then to defeat a common enemy! Remember this moving call for unity from two of America’s most influential theologians?

JERRY FALWELL: I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen’.

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur,

And don’t kid yourself and say that even by 9/11, these guys didn’t have any real influence. Your pastor, priest, rabbi, etc. talk to the president of the United States on a regular basis? Thought not. But these guys did, both before and after this disgraceful episode.

I’ll conclude with this special message to Gerard Alexander whom Digby also linked to below:

I would like to take you seriously but to do so would affront your intelligence.

I know what you’re thinking, Mr. Alexander: Just like a liberal to behave in such a thoroughly condescending manner.

Tea Party Politicians

by digby

These are the people to whom I’m supposed to show respect:

TANCREDO: And then, something really odd happened, mostly because I think that we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country. People who could not even spell the word “vote,” or say it in English, put a committed socialist idealogue in the White House, name is Barack Hussein Obama.

The thing is, my feelings aren’t hurt by this and I don’t crave the understanding of someone like Tom Tancredo. But I do think it’s irresponsible to ignore it or pretend that it isn’t racist and disgusting. And validating the “regular folks” who cheer this garbage by saying that they are “under stress” is infantilizing them. They know very well what they are saying.

This is the ugly side of right wing populism and if anyone thinks they will be appeased or co-opted by economic appeals they are not seeing what really moves them.

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