The GOP's good cop/bad cop plan to bring down Obama
Beneath the warm pledges of bipartisanship and the earnest calls for cooperation in the midst of a grave crisis lurks an unpleasant fact: From the moment it loses power, the opposition party turns immediately to the task of getting it back.
Party politics has not been suspended. It has just become more subtle. Republicans are already busy testing lines of attack against President Barack Obama and laying down markers that will allow them to say they warned us -- if Obama fails.
In the meantime, Obama is already countering with quiet moves to broaden his own political coalition. When opponents of abortion rallied in Washington's streets last week, Obama did not offer a simple restatement of his support for abortion rights.
Instead, his first response to the subject as president coupled his support for legal abortion with a call for "common ground." He urged action "to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make."
The consensual tone on a divisive issue reflected intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by Obama's religious supporters who asked him to delay for at least a day his executive order ending the ban on federal funds for groups involved in abortions overseas. The symbolism of the delay suggested that he intends to continue to poach on once reliably Republican constituencies.
Republicans are divided over how aggressively to take Obama on. This is the new president's greatest advantage over Bill Clinton, who faced fierce GOP attacks from the day he took office.
It was easier to discount Clinton's 1992 victory, based on 43 percent of the popular vote, than it is to deny the import of Obama's solid majority. Republicans actually gained ground in Congress the year Bill Clinton was first elected. Now, they are coming off stinging congressional defeats in two consecutive elections.
On Friday, Gallup released a devastating report, based on 30,000 interviews over the course of the year, finding that in 2008, an average of 36 percent of Americans identified themselves as Democrats and only 28 percent called themselves Republicans. Gallup noted that this was the largest advantage of the Democratic Party in more than two decades.
For some Republicans, these numbers counsel short-term prudence and suggest the need for at least a semblance of cooperation with Obama, whose personal popularity is soaring. Former Rep. J.C. Watts, once a member of the House Republican leadership, cautions his party: "Be careful how you throw eggs at this parade." In Congress, this approach is reflected in the efforts of some Republicans to alter but not oppose Obama's stimulus package.
But in what might be seen as a GOP good cop/bad cop division of labor, others in the party are already savaging Obama and his plans.
The most insidious line of attack involves laying the groundwork for blaming the new president in the event of a terrorist attack.
In a remarkably partisan op-ed piece in The Washington Post last Thursday, Marc A. Thiessen, who was a speechwriter for former President George W. Bush, declared flatly: "If Obama weakens any of the defenses Bush put in place and terrorists strike our country again, Americans will hold Obama responsible -- and the Democratic Party could find itself unelectable for a generation."
This is dangerous, both substantively and politically, and it suggests that some of Bush's loyalists will continue to politicize issues related to terrorism in their efforts to vindicate the former president's legacy.
Less controversial are criticisms of the economic stimulus package still taking shape. Here, Republicans are torn between those focused on making the plan more palatable to conservative sensibilities and those offering root-and-branch criticisms of its emphasis on new spending.
Typical of the second approach was a recent assault by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, on the proposal. "This isn't a bill to help the economy," Hensarling said recently on CNBC. "It's a bill to help big government," a response to "14 years of pent-up demand for big government programs." He warned that the package would simply mimic a flawed stimulus strategy pursued by Japan a decade ago.
Both Thiessen and Hensarling reflect an important undercurrent in Republican thinking: that the GOP should place its bets on the prospect that Obama's policies will fail, knowing that if the president succeeds, he and the Democrats are likely to gain ground no matter what Republicans do. This is hardly in keeping with the bipartisan spirit the White House seeks to foster. But it's a lot easier than coming up with new ideas.
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Comments: 14
We need a stimulus package that will give money to the economy where it is needed. Pelosi thinks that the best way is to kill the children. She has already admitted that she thinks children are a drain on the economy. Clearly she can’t kill those already born but she can increase contraception in a way to boost the economy. The President wants the money to be spent by the “end of 2010.” (For those of you counting that’s two years away, a poor consolation to those who have lost their jobs today!)
And if you think that’s bad, let’s see what happens in Davos where I’m sure he will tell the European leaders the same thing. The difference between unilateralism and multilateralism is that in the former Europe didn’t follow the United States and in the later Europe follows the United States.
And speaking of which where were you JC these past years when your party needed you the most?
Its easy to talk down Obama even though he has not been in the job even a full week but he offers more alternatives than just feeding taxpayer money into corporate bank accounts to throw away on resort rentals and bonus to criminals that belong behind bars. The only thing the GOP is good for is stealing taxpayer money to give to their crony friends.
How does increasing contraception kill children?
Its obvious these party politic followers will never change including when they destroy everything we have left which is not much now. They will probably try blaming FDR for it like they tried to do in the last depression they caused.
America has to initiate a justice system based on innocence and guilt that covers political criminals as well as the poor or we will never be able to repair what the GOP has caused. The democrats are not guiltless either as Dodd has demonstrated with taking payoffs from corporate bank lobbyists when he is the chairman of the banking commission. The democrats are also the porkers of the political system.
One of the most appealing aspects I've seen in 44 is that he does not seem to be a big partisan Democrat. 44 has always presented himself as an American and a human first, placing his status as a Democrat in second, third or fourth place.
44 clearly presents himself as wanting to represent ALL people and to explore ALL options that might better our nation, and not just those come from the Democratic party.
"This is dangerous, both substantively and politically, and it suggests that some of Bush's loyalists will continue to politicize issues related to terrorism in their efforts to vindicate the former president's legacy."
It was Bush that allowed 9/11 to take place while he TRIED to read a book to a child, a book he was holding upside down.
America already feels safer with the loony out of office.
The only good thing Bush could do for America is die.
The Republicans on the other hand used good spelling and sentence structure. The proposed ideas and backed them up with reasoning.
Therein lies the difference between the two parties.
Neo Cons didn't exist so much then or I would have run a collumn on their ideas as well since they are a third party with constituants in both Republican and Democratic circles.
Regional demographics play a huge part in how individuals respond when writing about things. West Coast Democrats and Republicans are generally not the same sort of beings that Mid-West Democrats and Republicans are; similarly, North-Western Democrats and Republicans are not the same as, say, California Democrats and Republicans; nor is it the same on the East Coast when you compare Northern and Southern party members.
It is the current members and leaders of these parties, the ones who regularly appear in the national media, that inspired me to my conclusion.
I think our new President has already made us safer....just his name Barrack Hussein Obama is a salve against the terrorists. Closing Gitmo and actually restoring the Rule of Law will only strengthen America's place in the world.
Let the Republicans continue their road to perdition. That's what you get from Faith based policies and politics.
Bill's Spirit A+