Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.
John Adams
Democrats:
Spend-it-all-oholics Not So Anonymous
Run Into Credit Limit
American People:
We've Had Enough: We're Cutting You Off
Obama's Friday Temper Tantrum Continued
Notice to the GOP campaign committee: yesterday afternoon Obama got all the rope he needed to hang himself for next fall's election. When you get RCP home article titles like "President's Had Enough", "The President Finally Gets Mad", and "White House: Boehner Walked Out"--and those are the LIBERALS. They are positively THRILLED that Obama has found his inner partisan voice after playing this pretentious Referee-in-Chief/Adult-in-the-Room.
I ripped into the President in yesterday's post, but let's point out some other things: after trying to maintain this mystique as the unflappable, brilliant decision maker, condescendingly talking down the Congress, specifically the House Republicans, even below his own daughters, whom, after all, don't wait until the last minute to start on their homework and school projects, the same man with a super majority who waited until after he lost a historic mid-term election to make a deal on the Bush tax cuts, the same guy whom voted against raising the debt ceiling as a senator arguing against funding the federal deficit a mere fraction that has occurred under his watch as President, the same guy whom didn't have a problem with the Democrats failure to come up with a budget in 2010 or whose own budget didn't even win a single vote from a Democratic Senator. Oh, the emperor is wearing no clothes, and this time I'm not talking about Anthony Weiner in the middle of a NYC heat wave.
No, we have the Finger Pointer in Chief: oh, Speaker Boehner didn't return MY call. Speaker Boehner left the meeting. Waa-waa-waa! (Ignore that thing about Obama walking out on House Majority Leader Cantor; it's okay for Obama not to return phone calls or not submit a plan of cuts or to walk out on the Israeli Prime Minister--but I'm the freaking President of the United States! Everybody knows that the same rules don't apply to Democratic Presidents, just ask Bill Clinton...) Speaker Boehner won't play 'Obama Says': 'Cut this year's budget'--wait: I didn't first say 'Obama Says'. Obama Says, 'Show up at White House tomorrow at 11AM.'
RCP has a snippet of a FNC interview yesterday between Chris Wallace and Charles Krauthammer
This is Obama at his most sanctimonious, demagogic, self-righteous and arrogant. ...he started out by summoning the leaders of Congress -- summoning them -- at 11:00.... In the American system, the executive and Congress are coequal.
[Obama] said "We have set forth a plan." He has set forth nothing. Nor has the Democratic controlled Senate. The Republicans offered a detailed plan. The Ryan plan in the House, and they offered Cut, Cap and Balance this time around... He has never once spoken about real cuts.
...Even at this late date where he says that the fate of the republic hangs on the debt ceiling extension, he said if given a short extension of, say, half a year I won't except it. Why? because he says I want this to go past election day. That is entirely self-serving and political, and he pretends he's the one who's not interested in politics.Consider the Jennifer Rubin Washington Post blog post, entitled "Boehner Runs Laps Around Obama Again". Boehner discussed the fact that he had a deal with Obama including a tax simplification component bringing in $800M in revenue, when Obama decided to throw his long-sought ideological class warfare tax hike he's been vowing to reinstate since the Bush tax cut compromise last December as an explicit condition to make the deal. Obama did this knowing that there is ZERO chance of the House approving that deal.
So make sure you understand this Alice in Wonderland thinking: Obama is arguing a debt ceiling rise without debt reduction at all; he argues not raising the debt ceiling is financial Armageddon and he's talking about senior citizens not getting their monthly checks; he then agrees to a tentative deal with both additional revenues and cuts; and then at the last minute he poison-pills the compromise by introducing the class warfare tax hikes which are a non-starter, regardless of the context. And it's not just the Tea Party--the rank-and-file rejects this, period.
Speaker Boehner talks in terms of negotiating with Obama is like trying to nail Jello, or changing the goal posts (or rules in the middle of the game). Let's call it bluntly what it is: OBAMA NEGOTIATES IN BAD FAITH, PERIOD. He lacks integrity; he is not trustworthy. Obama helped sabotage immigration reform in 2007 by voting to strip Democratic concessions in the bill. This is little more than the same; if this guy doesn't get his way, he's going to sabotage it for the rest of us.
My mom once told me of a relative in her generation whom used to play board games--until it became clear he wasn't going to win. He would then overturn the game board so nobody won. Mom never told me his political affiliation, but I'm willing to believe he must have been a Democrat.
Political Humor
"There’s talk of splitting California into two different states. Apparently, this divorce between Arnold and Maria is bigger than we thought." - Jay Leno
[The first state will be called "Denial"; the other will be called "Confusion".]
"Philadelphia has a new plan to ticket pedestrians who text without looking up while they walk. As opposed to the previous punishment: lamp posts." - Jimmy Fallon
[And Philadelphia policemen will write tickets without looking up while they walk. And the TSA will check out your package without looking up as they work.]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ELO, "Hold On Tight"
