Posted on 10/04/2013 7:19:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them ... Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the Six Hundred
--The Charge of the Light Brigade -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Almost exactly 159 years ago, a British light cavalry brigade rode directly into Russian guns at the battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. Tennyson was available to immortalize the valor of the soldiers who rode bravely to their deaths ("theirs was not to reason why"). How stirring, for the survivors.
The Light Brigade was actually meant to harry a retreating Russian artillery battery. But "someone had blundered" and the order was given that the six hundred ride directly into a valley surrounded by Russian guns.
Good generals are responsible for choosing their battles wisely. In politics, as in war, the goal should be victory, not glorious (or "principled") defeat.
The Republicans' blunder is to risk so much in a short-term public relations battle fought mainly through a medium that Democrats control -- the press. With a few exceptions, the American press is the Democrats' artillery in any battle with Republicans.
You may say, in that case, why should Republicans ever take on the Democrats? Won't the press always create a hopelessly uneven playing field?
Yes, but a shutdown showdown is almost uniquely sensitive to short-term public perceptions. Each side stakes out its position and then waits for public pressure to force the other to blink.
Mark Halperin of Time magazine offered a frank assessment of the Obama team's calculation: "Here what's the White House and to some extent the Hill is going to monitor. One is how the press covers the shutdown and does it just go back into the '90s mode of saying 'obstructionist Republicans are causing a shutdown and people, real people are hurting?' And the White House is assuming that's going to happen."
Good assumption. The Media Research Center analyzed the coverage of the big three TV networks in the two weeks prior to the shutdown. Of 25 stories that assigned blame for the government closure, 21 blamed Republicans and the "crazed" tea party wing, and four blamed both parties. CBS's Bob Schieffer explained to viewers that the crisis was provoked by "ultra-conservatives ... We're headed to a shutdown unless the moderates in the House revolt."
It takes two to produce an impasse, right? Not according to the almost unanimous press refrain. The Washington Post editorialized that the government shutdown was endangering national security -- 72 percent of the civilian intelligence agency personnel have been furloughed, according to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. But it doesn't even occur to the Post' editorial board to hold both parties to account for this. " ... Republicans are putting U.S. embassies across the world at risk with their shutdown of the U.S. government. More broadly, they are endangering national security at a time when the United States remains under threat from al-Qaeda and affiliated groups." (My emphasis.)
House Republicans have passed measures to keep funds flowing to the District of Columbia, the National Park Service, and the National Institutes of Health, but Senate Democrats declined to vote on these. Is this a big story? No. Harry Reid was even caught in the kind of gaffe that would be a career-ender for a Republican. CNN's Dana Bash framed the NIH funding question this way: "If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?" Reid replied, "Why would we want to do that?"
It would be unfair to conclude from that slip of the tongue that Harry Reid is indifferent to the welfare of children with cancer. Fair-minded people can agree on that. Can we also agree that if a Republican had said it, it would be featured in a constant loop on TV and elsewhere? Is there any doubt that if the roles were reversed, Democrats would be marching children with cancer before cameras to plead with Republicans to restore funding, and the press would be reporting that Republicans want children to die?
Barack Obama is the first president in living memory who has attempted to spook the financial markets in a transparent attempt to win a partisan advantage. He is also the first in recent memory flatly to decline to negotiate with the other party. When he invited congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday evening, his spokesman, Jay Carney, was careful to explain, "There was nothing to negotiate."
This is the battle Obama wanted because his cannons are arrayed on the high ground, controlled by his press.
Mona doing her best Peggy Noonan impression.
Man, this is annoying. All these belt-way morons, who seem to want to get along, always advocate giving up. They do so because they are afraid of angering the rats. And damn us for asking our elected officials to represent us, the voters, and not the true special interest groups that represent no one but themselves and their liberal/progressive masters or causes.
I’m just happy Republicans are finally putting up a fight about something!
This ‘live to fight another day’ mentality has produced nothing except twenty years of capitulation.
I would rather walk into a valley surround by the enemy and take my chances— no matter how small a chance. Otherwise it is lay down and become the prisoner of the enemy for life. That is not a life worth living, to me.
The House should immediately pass a bill the raises the debt ceiling enough to reach the end of January 2014. And another bill to delay the medical device tax one year.
If both pass then a CR for the next 6 months.
Yeah, we should all just lay down and die and simply accept the shackles Democrats seek to affix tightly to our ankles.
Forget that!
Not anymore.
I'll proudly don the mantle of a radical!
If this is where we must fight, so be it.
That is actually a brilliant idea. Take that scare tactic off the table but keep the gov shut down!
Yup, they're going to villianize Republicans. Check.
So what? They're going to and have been villianing Republicans for years.
The best game and image changer is for the Republicans to stand firm.
Every time they back down a certain percentage says "Gee, it must be true. Those Republicans are scandals and they backed down...finally...from their extremist position."
And everything is extremist if they don't agree with Obama. so stand up for what's right and let the chips fall where they may.
I like their current minibill strategy myself.
Here’s what the Senate Dems get to block funding for today.
(Eventually the media has to slip up and let this news out LOL!)
(a) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 75) making continuing appropriations for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(b) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 76) making continuing appropriations for the National Nuclear Security Administration for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(c) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 77) making continuing appropriations for the Food and Drug Administration for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(d) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 78) making continuing appropriations for national intelligence program operations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(e) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 79) making continuing appropriations for certain components of the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(f) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 80) making continuing appropriations for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education, and the Indian Health Service for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(g) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 82) making continuing appropriations for the National Weather Service for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(h) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 83) making continuing appropriations for the Impact Aid program of the Department of Education for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(i) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 84) making continuing appropriations for Head Start for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
(j) The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 85) making continuing appropriations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.
The debt ceiling is a different animal. Addressing it now would stifle Obama’s talking points about default.
“This is the battle Obama wanted because his cannons are arrayed on the high ground, controlled by his press.”
We still don’t get it and that bothers me.
If Obamas cannons are arrayed on the high ground, you take out the cannons first. Why is this so hard to understand? We don’t fly missions into a country without first taking out their eyes and ears.
This has been our problem. The MSM is the true enemy. Everyone knew what Obama was. The media covered it up. Everyone knows what Obama is doing. The media is covering it up.
Destroy the media, we get our country back. My suggestions is we take a figure in the MSM, frame it, polarize it and destroy it. Sound familiar?
We are forces of chaos and anarchy
Everything that they say we are we are
And we are very proud of ourselves
Aragorn: Stand your ground, stand your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes, the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come, when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves, and shattered shields when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! For all that you hold dear, on this good earth, I bit you stand, men of the west!
I'd rather set up on the slopes with a rifle and a good red-dot sight and a barrel of ammo, singing "One little, two little, three little Indians..."
The conventional “wisdom” that the RATS and pubs like Charen are is wrong. They predicted the same with the sequester. Outside of DC, people don’t care if 95% if the EPA is furloughed. The longer this goes on, the more people will realize just how “nonessential” much of government is.
Moreover, unlike 1995 there is a conservative media. The leftstream hacks no longer control the message. Stunts like barry-cading the WWII memorial are backfiring.
hahahaha!
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