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This sums up the President’s masterful performance perfectly.
“Barack Obama is a lot smarter and better-informed than his antagonists. A lot. He very calmly and coolly dismantled them.”
Love it.
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How good was the President at today’s Q&A with Republicans?
…Fox News cut away from the broadcast 20 minutes before it ended.
“Obama’s Q&A with the House Republicans is the most compelling political television I’ve seen…maybe ever.”
If you missed it, you can catch the entire encounter here.
Obama at his best.
“I don’t believe the American people want us to focus on our job security. They want us to focus on their job security. I don’t think they want more gridlock. I don’t think they want more partisanship. I don’t think they want more obstruction. They didn’t send us to Washington to fight each other in some sort of steel-cage match to see who comes out alive.”
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The Party of Truth & Honor does its thing..
This weekend, Republican leaders will convene at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore to plot strategy, socialize, and plan both legislative and campaign themes for the year. Yesterday morning, ThinkProgress caught up with House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who confirmed that the Congressional Institute — a nonprofit run by Republican corporate lobbyists — is sponsoring the retreat. Normally, such lobbyist-sponsored soirées would be illegal under House ethics rules. But by forming an ostensibly nonpartisan educational front called the Congressional Institute, lobbyists are able to skirt any such oversight. However, Boehner told ThinkProgress that he did not know if any lobbyists would be present at the retreat.
Boehner is wrong when he claims that the Congressional Institute sponsors Democratic retreats. According to the Politico, House Democratic retreats are not paid for by any special interest funds or the lobbyist-run Congressional Institute.
Who is attending the Republican policy making get-together? Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, JP Morgan Chase, the health insurance giant WellPoint, BP, Goldman Sachs, HealthNet, AHIP – the umbrella trade group for the health insurance industry and American Express among others…and Boehner was not aware that any of them were present. Wonderful.
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Justice done…
It took jurors 37 minutes on Friday to convict Scott Roeder, an abortion opponent, of first-degree murder in the death of George R. Tiller, one of the few doctors in the country to perform late-term abortions.
[...]
Mr. Roeder told jurors that he had a growing sense of his own faith and opposition to abortion in the 1990s after watching “The 700 Club,” the evangelist Pat Robertson’s television talk show. Mr. Roeder’s views on religion and abortion, he said, went “hand in hand.”
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Stating what most of us already know…
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) on Thursday admitted the “general feeling on the Democratic side” was that Republicans have so far been able to cast controversial protest votes and stall important legislation “with impunity.”
He consequently seemed to suggest Republicans’ behavior in Congress over the past year as hypocritical, as Democrats could never vote against important legislation and emerge unscathed.
“Some of the votes [Republicans] cast — we would be on trial for treason if we had voted against defense appropriations in the midst of a war,” he told reporters on his way to the Senate chamber. Durbin was referring to GOP members who tried to block the defense bill out of concern that a hate crimes bill was attached to it.
“They did it with impunity,” Durbin lamented.
Alright. Durbin is correct about everything here but to hell with lamented feelings. The bigger point is what Democrats are going to do about it all. They have massive majorities in both chambers of Congress and Obama in the White House and Republicans are going to continue doing what works for them, not the country. So what to do?
Political Animal offers this suggestion.
They [Republicans] do so because they’re pretty confident that Democrats won’t effectively raise a fuss, the media won’t care, and the public won’t know. And they’re right.
Let’s look at this in a different light by imagining a hypothetical. Let’s say Democrats ran the government for several years, and ran the country into a ditch. Disgusted, voters elected a Republican president with a huge mandate, gave Republicans the biggest House majority either party has had in 20 years, and the biggest Senate majority either party has had in 30 years.
Then imagine that, despite the overwhelming edge, Democrats decided — during times of foreign and domestic crises — that they simply would not allow the GOP majority to govern. Dems ignored the election results and reflexively opposed literally every bill, initiative, and nominee of any consequence, blocking anything and everything.
[...]
Now, in this hypothetical, what do you suppose the political climate would look like? Would the huge Republican majority simply wring its hands? Would GOP officials decide it’s time to try “bipartisan” governing? Would Republicans shrink from pursing their policy agenda?
Or would every single day be another opportunity for Republicans to be apoplectic about Democratic obstructionism? How many marches on Washington would Fox News organize, demanding that Democrats allow the governing majority to function?
Put simply, I’d like Democratic leaders to think about what Republicans would do if the situations were completely reversed. Then they should do that.
The question is whether Democrats could ever muster up the fortitude to act like the majority they are. Whining about Republican obstructionism has gotten them nowhere. Conservatives are winning the PR battle and it’s time for Dems to try a different approach.
End of story.
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