Posted on 09/13/2011 1:18:33 PM PDT by upchuck
If the 2012 election were held today, Republicans could very well have their heads handed to them. I do not think this alone. Their debt-ceiling high jinks were no doubt immensely amusing to the tea party fringe, but to those of us not getting the joke, they were an appalling attack on a fragile economy.
The tea party is turning from the voice of anger to its target, and Republicans have it hanging around their neck. The first trumpet blast of wrath came in labor leader James Hoffa's intemperate call at a Democratic rally to -- and I tone him down considerably -- turn its candidates out of office.
We've reached the part of the Western where the townsfolk, long intimidated by a gang of bullies, suddenly find their courage and fight back. A snowballing of suppressed rage bodes ill for the Grand Old Party.
Riding high on the empowering results of the 2010 midterm election, Republicans apparently imagined that despair over the economy equaled love for them. President Obama's falling approval numbers may also give them solace, but his ratings soar next to House Republicans'. And bear in mind that the new critics include liberals incensed by the president's lack of fervor -- but who would not vote for a GOP hothead if hell froze over (in the ultimate refutation of global warming).
The baddest sign of all is that the townsfolk are being joined by traditional Republicans (and we assume Republican-leaning independents) who can no longer hold their tongues. For example, former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel told the Financial Times that he was "disgusted" by the campaign against raising the debt ceiling.
"It was an astounding lack of responsible leadership by many in the Republican Party, and I say that as a Republican," Hagel said. He characterized much of the recent stock market convulsions as "the complete direct result of the lack of confidence that came out of that folly."
Hagel held out the possibility that the Republican Party could "go down" in 2012 and that it would have to rebuild as it did after 1964. In that year, Democrats gained the largest House majority held by any party since 1936.
Next in line are the Chamber of Commerce types who feel that the tea party politicians they supported in the 2010 elections double-crossed them by willfully hurting America's standing in world financial markets. In early June, U.S. Chamber President Thomas Donohue bluntly warned House Republicans that if they voted against raising the debt ceiling, "We'll get rid of you."
Many disobeyed, and their circus act helped push a U.S. debt downgrade. That unleashed a collapse of consumer confidence, further punishing businesses in an already tough economy.
Holding America's credit rating hostage goes along the same anarchic lines as the Republicans' 1995 shutdown of the federal government, led by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich. That stunt also turned popular distaste toward Republicans.
It was against that sour public mood that Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican, tried in 1996 to prevent the re-election of Bill Clinton. He lost. Note recent polls showing that twice as many Americans blame congressional Republicans for the lowered debt rating as they blame Democrats.
And remember America's most famous political upset in 1948. Almost no one thought Democratic President Harry Truman would get a second term. But after railing against the "do-nothing" Republican Congress, he won the election -- and Democrats took majority control of both the House and Senate besides.
The Republicans may still hear loud clapping, but they should observe how many have left the theater. To win, their opponents don't have to be liked. They just have to be liked more than them.
Froma! Put........the crack pipe..........down
She’s fantasizing
Wow. I thought the MoveOn.org emails I get every week were written by angsty teenage girls, but this article beats them! How can anyone live in that much of a fantasy world and not walk off the tops of buildings believing that a flying unicorn will save them?
All the raghead lovers are having this kind of wet dream...they’re on their last gasp and looking like a bunch of fish going ‘ope...’ope...’ope...’ope...
I never seem to get these clowns close enough to have them lay down a twenty on this sort of claptrap. I’d be wealthy today.
Remember this when you see obama's disapproval numbers. Many disapprove because he's not liberal enough for them, yet they will still vote for him.
Remember Bush's disapproval numbers on handling the economy and his fiscal policies, many of us right here disapproved, that didn't mean that we would ever vote for a democrat.
They aren't rags, they are sheets.
Umm, I know Chuck Hegel , and he's a Republican like David Frum is a Republican. Surely you can do better than that, Froma.
But the Republicans held the House until 06; not that the facts should get in the way of a good story.
The people are going to vote for the town idiot?
Still, in terms of self-awareness he's way ahead of fellow Rhode Islander Froma Harrop, the Baroness Catherine Ashton doppelgänger whose ludicrously hypocritical writings on "civility" we skewered last Wednesday and Friday. But blogger Edward Morrissey notes an aspect of Harrop's hypocrisy that we missed.
In denying that it was uncivil of her to liken the Tea party to terrorists, Harrop offered a novel definition of incivility: "not letting other people speak their piece." Morrissey notes that she got some pushback from readers of her blog:
By this afternoon, Harrop's post had thirty-nine comments, all of them castigating her hypocrisy and self-serving shifting definitions of civility. . . .
After getting an avalanche of criticism, Harrop deleted all of the comments and closed the post for any future comments. . . .
However, I happened to have opened the post on my browser . . . and hadn't closed the tab until . . . readers Bob T and Ken M alerted me to the change--and so I saved it from my browser and uploaded to to my server, complete with the comments.
Remember Harrop's definition of incivility? "I see incivility as not letting other people speak their piece." Looks like it's pretty uncivil at Harrop's blog today, doesn't it?
Maybe the [National Conference of Editorial Writers, which Harrop heads] should rethink its leadership, or else take down its sanctimonious "Restore Civility" project. Their leader is the person most in need of the lecture. Addendum: Be sure to follow that link to read the comments Harrop sent down the rabbit hole. They are remarkably . . . civil.
In yet another follow-up post, Harrop informs readers she has now removed all comments from the blog: "Problem is that I have to go through every comment to weed out those containing obscenities or attacks on my late mother. The volume became such that I didn't have the time to do that. I do have a day job--actually, more than one."
But a look at the 39 comments Morrissey preserved showed no obscenities or attacks on Harrop's mother, who we're sure was a lovely woman notwithstanding her failure to teach young Froma Thomas Friedman's rules of holes.
The entire article is at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904007304576496210107745664.html
And in a really delicious development someone has added parts of Taranto's column to Harrop's Wikipedia entry. LOL
Anyone who believes failure to raise the debt celing without stringent requirements caused problems for our economy is smoking pot.
The problem with the republicans in the house is they sold out, they let the Democrat’s lie stand upon faith unchallenged.
The Federal Government has, beleive it or not, shut down before, and the economy boomed NOT crashed as a result.
It is a testament to the lunacy of anyone who buys the Democrat’s fear mongering lock, stock and barrel. It is also a matter of unmitigated bios to ignore the fact that the Democrats were rejecting all republican proposals, and yet somehow get to blame republicans for not agreeing with their proposals?
Bump!
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