How Republicans Get Away With Pretending To Be Human
by digby
The 9/11 Responder’s health care bill is passed, thank goodness. America is not heartless after all.
Unfortunately, I watched Politico’s Jeanne Cummings this morning giving credit for it to Jon Stewart and FOX News.While it’s certainly true that The Daily Show segment was powerful and influential and Shep Smith did admonish the congress, here’s how FOX presented the story:
Barb at DailyKos notes:
Watch as the media arm of the Republican Party blatantly lies about Republican obstruction of the 9/11 health care bill, with the GOP lapdogs not only ignoring that all forty-two Senate Republicans blocked the bill less than two weeks ago, but saying that the “Democratically-controlled House killed it back in July,” not mentioning that it was House Republicans who voted against it en masse.
Sadly, these lies and airbrushing gives Republicans and the opportunity to pretend to be human beings instead of what they are:
Unfortunately, the Times, like so many Beltway outlets, simply refuses to address the rather obvious answer to what Republicans did with regards to the 9-11 bill, and what they’ve been practicing since Obama was inaugurated: Obstructionism.
And not just everyday obstructionism, but truly radical, unprecedented obstructionism designed to oppose virtually every Democratic initiative. That’s how Republicans ended up against the 9-11 bill: Democrats were for it, therefore the GOP opposed it.
It’s telling that several Times readers immediately sniffed out the real answer in their posted comments:
Here’s the bottom line: If a Democrat supports it, Mitch McConnell has given orders to his Republicans caucus to oppose it.
And:
Republicans are against it because Obama is for it. Simple as that.
But instead, the Times reported the story like this [emphasis added]:
The legislation took a back seat in the lame-duck session as lawmakers struggled with other issues — the Bush-era tax cuts, the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, budget bills. Democratic efforts to bring it up for a vote in the Senate two weeks ago failed by three votes.
That’s not quite the whole story. When Democrats tried to bring the 9-11 bill up two weeks ago it was unanimously opposed by Republicans who had signed a pledge not to let any legislation proceed (regardless of its content) until they were allowed to vote on giving tax cuts to the rich.
See the difference between that and simply claiming the bill “took a back seat.”
As I’ve noted before, Republicans have been practicing an unprecedented brand of obstructionism since Obama’s inauguration, but the press has been treating it as normal. It’s not. It’s radical.
However, Mitch McConnell has told us how Obama can get more of this Village media love when the new, even more radical, congress comes in next month:
“If the president is willing to do things that we believe in, I don’t think we’re going to say, ‘No, Mr. President, we’re not going to do this any longer because you’re now with us,’” McConnell told POLITICO in his ornate office across from the old Senate chamber. “Any time the president is willing to do what we think is in the best interest of the American people, we have something to talk about.”
I’m fairly sure that’s how the vaunted tax “compromise” worked, so there’s no reason to think it can’t happen gain. Obama himself just told us that “this lame duck shows that we are not doomed to gridlock.” Let’s hope his definition is better than McConnell’s.
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