red states rule
02-04-2010, 09:55 AM
TIME actually "reported" this is their hit piece on Republicans. Which President is Joe Kline watching - and was he sober as he watched?
"I am not an ideologue," the President said to the House Republicans, cocooned in their annual policy caucus in Baltimore - and the ideologues among them laughed. The President was explaining, in the midst of an unprecedented, televised "Question Time" session, that he was open to any good ideas they might have. "It doesn't make sense," he continued, that if they told him," 'You could do this cheaper and get increased results,' that I wouldn't say, 'Great.'" But the logic of this seemed to slip past the assembled legislators - and the "I am not an ideologue" bite became a derisive staple on Fox News. And therein lies the crisis of democracy that our country faces: a moderate-liberal President, willing to make judicious compromises, confronted by a Republican Party paralyzed by cynicism and hypocrisy, undergirded by inchoate ideological fervor.
The President's hour in the lion's den was part of an aggressive week of politics - his first in many moons - that began with his well-received State of the Union address and proceeded through town meetings in Florida and New Hampshire. It was marked by a new willingness to engage the opposition party with cutting humor and offers of compromise. In the State of the Union, he had offered an olive branch to the Republicans - a new commitment to budget balancing (including a bipartisan commission to reduce the deficit that Republicans had been clamoring for), a new emphasis on free trade, a total reversal of his party's traditional positions on nuclear power and offshore drilling. In Baltimore, Obama reminded the Republicans that his $787 billion stimulus package had comprised elements they'd normally support - a $288 billion middle-class tax cut, $275 billion to bail out financially strapped states and an extensive infrastructure plan. "A lot of you," he noted, dryly, "have gone to appear at ribbon cuttings for the same projects you voted against." (See the 10 greatest speeches of all time.)
The Republican response to this barrage was, well, incoherent. But in most cases the need to demonize Obama trumped the party's ideological beliefs. The budget commission - to take one flagrant example - was blocked by a group of Republican Senators who had supported or sponsored it. These included the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the formerly virtuous John McCain, a sore loser who has reversed his position on practically everything lately. The Senate Republicans then proceeded to vote unanimously against a provision, attached to a necessary increase in the debt limit, that would force Congress to pay for every new initiative it enacts. This "paygo" provision was the law of the land when Bill Clinton was building budget surpluses (in fairness, he inherited it from the equally responsible George H.W. Bush) - and was abandoned when George W. Bush started building the alpine deficits that plague us today. The hypocrisy of all this was staggering, even for politicians.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100204/us_time/08599195899600
"I am not an ideologue," the President said to the House Republicans, cocooned in their annual policy caucus in Baltimore - and the ideologues among them laughed. The President was explaining, in the midst of an unprecedented, televised "Question Time" session, that he was open to any good ideas they might have. "It doesn't make sense," he continued, that if they told him," 'You could do this cheaper and get increased results,' that I wouldn't say, 'Great.'" But the logic of this seemed to slip past the assembled legislators - and the "I am not an ideologue" bite became a derisive staple on Fox News. And therein lies the crisis of democracy that our country faces: a moderate-liberal President, willing to make judicious compromises, confronted by a Republican Party paralyzed by cynicism and hypocrisy, undergirded by inchoate ideological fervor.
The President's hour in the lion's den was part of an aggressive week of politics - his first in many moons - that began with his well-received State of the Union address and proceeded through town meetings in Florida and New Hampshire. It was marked by a new willingness to engage the opposition party with cutting humor and offers of compromise. In the State of the Union, he had offered an olive branch to the Republicans - a new commitment to budget balancing (including a bipartisan commission to reduce the deficit that Republicans had been clamoring for), a new emphasis on free trade, a total reversal of his party's traditional positions on nuclear power and offshore drilling. In Baltimore, Obama reminded the Republicans that his $787 billion stimulus package had comprised elements they'd normally support - a $288 billion middle-class tax cut, $275 billion to bail out financially strapped states and an extensive infrastructure plan. "A lot of you," he noted, dryly, "have gone to appear at ribbon cuttings for the same projects you voted against." (See the 10 greatest speeches of all time.)
The Republican response to this barrage was, well, incoherent. But in most cases the need to demonize Obama trumped the party's ideological beliefs. The budget commission - to take one flagrant example - was blocked by a group of Republican Senators who had supported or sponsored it. These included the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the formerly virtuous John McCain, a sore loser who has reversed his position on practically everything lately. The Senate Republicans then proceeded to vote unanimously against a provision, attached to a necessary increase in the debt limit, that would force Congress to pay for every new initiative it enacts. This "paygo" provision was the law of the land when Bill Clinton was building budget surpluses (in fairness, he inherited it from the equally responsible George H.W. Bush) - and was abandoned when George W. Bush started building the alpine deficits that plague us today. The hypocrisy of all this was staggering, even for politicians.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100204/us_time/08599195899600