The Audacity of Cope
Blame it on Scott Brown. Blame it on poll numbers which all seem to be shifting in one direction. Hell, maybe we should blame it on Rio. Whatever the reason, President Obama took the hopefully productive step of visiting with Republican legislators this week. While there were a few tense, testy and factually challenged moments, the conversation seemed engaging and ideas were floated where some common ground might be found between the President’s agenda and the goals of Republicans in a variety of areas. While it’s far too early to get our hopes up, we might just see some progress out of this.
The event elicited some awfully strange responses, though. What should have been seen as a potential moment of true bipartisan efforts and possible progress got some of the Democratic Party’s most ardent supporters up in arms. Leading the charge was Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen, who seems to think the entire affair was more posturing and that the Republicans are locked into a self-destructive cycle.
It’s one thing for party officials just outside the decision-making center to raise concerns; it’s something else when someone with actual power and direct influence shares those concerns.
And at this point, Republicans realize that they’re taking obstructionism to levels unprecedented in American history, and they realize that the public may disapprove, but they’re willing to take the risk.
I’ll be the first to agree that the GOP has done a pretty effective job of holding ranks against proposals which run absolutely counter to essential conservative principles, but did Steve really just try to describe this as obstructionism which is “unprecedented in American history?” While our history goes back a couple of centuries or more, we need not look all that far. I mean, we’re talking about the same Democratic Party which held up elements of the Bush 2 administration’s goals to the point where Republicans were foolishly talking about a nuclear option. It’s the same party that broke with centuries of standard – if flawed – practice and began calling five minute legislative sessions into order on a weekly basis to prevent the President from making recess appointments.
(I would like to parenthetically point out here that I oppose the practice of recess appointments entirely in the modern age, and would frankly like to see a constitutional amendment to eliminate the practice. But the larger point here is that, flawed though the practice may be, it is the constitutionally mandated practice which has been in place since the nation began and the Democrats were most certainly acting in an “unprecedented” way to thwart it.)
Quibbling over recent history aside, Benen’s commentary brings us back full circle to the bogus but oft repeated charges made by Democrats and their obedient MSM surrogates that the Republicans “have no ideas” on the issues of the day and aren’t trying to participate. Health care is only the latest example. As we have pointed out in this space on multiple occasions (apparently to deaf ears) the GOP’s Paul Ryan introduced his own health care reform bill last year and has recently brought it forward once again. There are elements in there which both parties could agree on if they wanted to start over with a leaner, more efficient reform package.
It seems to me that Obama is a good enough politician that he can read the writing on the wall. He’s going to have to start dealing with a significantly more powerful Republican force in Congress next year and seems to be laying the groundwork to get something done. Smart for the Republicans. Smart for Obama. The problem is, a lot of the President’s most liberal supporters are clearly having a hard time coping with the idea of both parties having some input to the governmental process. They’ll come along kicking and screaming sooner or later, but for now it’s going to remain The Audacity of Cope.
36 Responses to “The Audacity of Cope”
“I’ll be the first to agree that the GOP has done a pretty effective job of holding ranks against proposals which run absolutely counter to essential conservative principles”
Yes, what with the reform plan containing single-payer ideas, a public option etc. Oh, and pay-go is a really communist idea as well.
“As we have pointed out in this space on multiple occasions (apparently to deaf ears) the GOP’s Paul Ryan introduced his own health care reform bill last year and has recently brought it forward once again. There are elements in there which both parties could agree on if they wanted to start over with a leaner, more efficient reform package.”
Obama pissed off the base on like a dozen occasions, and got Snowe's vote. Republicans were perfectly happy to leave democrats with only the so-called moderates as talking partners. Basically, there is no reason to assume any quid pro quo good faith is possible.
” The problem is, a lot of the President’s most liberal supporters are clearly having a hard time coping with the idea of both parties having some input to the governmental process.”
Probably because the GOP's ideas are pathetic messes far more ideological than anything the DNC has offered. They don't deserve input unless they become less stupid.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/better-id…
“He’s going to have to start dealing”
According to what I heard at the debate, Obama has been working with Reps. You seem to be suffering from the same problem as Steve.
Wow, you are really the anti-intellectual aren't you
This is why the repo-men will have the house next year
We have to do something about the dumb-o-crates like you( Maybe we could cut off your healthcare and thin the herd)
He sees the light (O).. Jobs is the #1 priority. Better late then much later. Better cope than dope. I have hope.
Let's see, a super majority in the Senate an overwhelming majority in the House, a far, far leftist President that would/will sign any piece of crap bill passed….yet its somehow the Republicans fault that healthcare reform collapsed. What a bunch of whining morons.
[...] me add a thought to this observation by Jazz Shaw: It seems to me that Obama is a good enough politician that he can read the writing on the wall. [...]
Has anyone seen this billritchards thing around here before? I mean, I want to know if people have managed to get anything intelligible out of it.
Also, when you have to put hyphens in your anti-opponent portmanteaus, you really need to smoke a bowl or something.
Alex – let's see. You had 2 posts one month ago, and then started posting in earnest 2 weeks ago (you DO know that your whole posting history at TMV is available for others to view, right?)
I have not been posting here very long either, but at least I don't think a few weeks of posting makes me one of the long-time regulars, or gives me the right to call out someone as a newbie.
You newbie, you.
The article should have been titled: The audacity of the dope!
First, the Republicans should learn two lessons from President Obama's example. If a candidate cannot holder his own for over an hour while facing a hostile audience, then the candidate has no business running for office. Republicans need to find conservatives who can hold their own in policy discussions instead of depending on second generation incompetents like GW Bush. The Republicans should also learn than when being in front of a hostile audience, hold your ground and go not pander. Republicans would be better off going in front of the NAACP and saying that militant blacks are wrong and conservatives are right. President Obama did not pander for a second and conservatives should never pander to hospitle audiences.
The Republicans should also learn that the Democratrs are itching to blame Republicans for all failures. To the Obama Administration, bipartisanship means being able to blame Republicans. The Republicans should never agree to anything the Democrats porpose unless the Democrats agree, in a public forum, to accept total responsibility for the policy. Until Democrats learn to accept responsbility for their own policy decisions, nothing will change.
Is that the bill that will do for Health-Insurance what Deregulation has done for credit cards?
Secret History of the Credit Card History
I am looking forward to having Mississippi set Health-Insurance Standards and Rules…
I never implied he was a newbie (that's not bad in my book, so I wouldn't want to call anyone out on such a status anyway), this was just the first time I was exposed to him and I wanted to now if he was in this kind of mode all the time.
Don't feed the trolls.
Benen is an absolute tool
“I’ll be the first to agree that the GOP has done a pretty effective job of holding ranks against proposals which run absolutely counter to essential conservative principles”
******
I read the reponses and think, spin spin spin!
.lol..
I wonder if Team-Obama is smart enough now to recognize internet GOP clones that post at websites like this one and elsewhere? I'd follow the gist of what they're trying to allege is the “truth of the matter” and then resist it with common sense.
The GOP stands shoulder-to-shoulder against Obama and congressional dems until the very last day they have a powerhold. Period. No matter what they say, how much they allude to compromise. They could sing Kumbaya all day long for 300 days and I still wouldn't trust a single one of them further than I could spit.
Guys like Boehner who screw up their face in comical distorted disgust, masked by a hilarious forced smile are the ones, ironically, I'd trust the most as far as honesty is concerned. It degrades from there to the smiling McCain and the bluedog DINOs who present authentic smiles, handshakes and a pat on the back [insert knife here].
Am I serious? [it will be taunted]. Yes. Absolutely. Bet on it. Drive a nail through it and hang your hat on it. It's sad but true, the GOP is incapble of change in this regard.
[...] Hot Air Headlines) Let me add a thought to this observation by Jazz Shaw: It seems to me that Obama is a good enough politician that he can read the writing on the wall. [...]
So all of Obama's problems were the Republican base, now it's Obama's own base? How about the truth of the matter. Obama is the problem.
Run! Run! It's the Great Troll Invasion!!
Is there anything more Republican than tax credits for small businesses? Seriously. How often have Republicans proposed things like this? Yet when Obama proposes them a member of the Republican leadership has a problem. So somehow I don't think that liberal backlash is Obama's worst problem.
Shaw is right, and Obama is a crybaby when he blames Repubs for not getting ultra-left Dem legislation through the Congress controlled by Dems in all three law-making branches.
Satterfield, you're a troll to a majority of American voters, who now hold the Tea Party [even though it isn't an organized party] in higher esteem than the Repubs & lowly Dems [NBC/WSJ].
How does a tool like you get on a “moderate” forum and call the moderates “trolls.” Time for a change in meds, buddy.
Maybe it's just me, but it was my impression that there were many more positive and non-partisan than negative and partisan responses (including from Democratic sources, and on this site) to Obama's détente meeting with Republicans. I guess I was wrong…
this was just the first time I was exposed to him.'
Wait a minute, that's Scad's gig.
I guess I was wrong…'
No, you were right. Progs and Cons just can't share the shovels and buckets in the sand box.
Axel: “Probably because the GOP's ideas are pathetic messes far more ideological than anything the DNC has offered. They don't deserve input unless they become less stupid.”
I mean, really, have you READ the Constitution? Whether or not you in your infinite wisdom judge the GOP's ideas to be stupid, they do happen to represent quite a lot of the country's ideas, roughly half and perhaps more. Congressional members of the GOP been voted into office precisely because they represent their constituents, and you're ready to cut them off at the knees because you don't like their ideas? What a little tyrant you are.
(This isn't to say that everyone who votes GOP buys into every plank in the platform, but the basic message does have resonance when articulated correctly, and by someone who isn't a flaming hypocrite. I'm looking at you, Dubya, Tom Delay, etc etc etc.)
“Whether or not you in your infinite wisdom judge the GOP's ideas to be stupid, they do happen to represent quite a lot of the country's ideas, roughly half and perhaps more.”
The amount of people supporting an idea doesn't correlate too well with merit. Considering more than half of Americans are idiotic enough to think homosexuality is immoral, I think the vox popoli is to be the target of suspicion, at all times.
“Congressional members of the GOP been voted into office precisely because they represent their constituents, and you're ready to cut them off at the knees because you don't like their ideas?”
They are allowed to say what they want and propose all manner of things. But if their ideas lack merit, they must not make it into legislation.
“The amount of people supporting an idea doesn't correlate too well with merit. Considering more than half of Americans are idiotic enough to think homosexuality is immoral, I think the vox popoli is to be the target of suspicion, at all times.“
Excellent point. And I'm sure you remembered to voice that loudly and proudly when so many readers here were claiming that “the majority of the country” wanted a public option in health care reform. Well.. at least until they found out more about it.
What we really need is a Constitutional Amendment that outlaws calling a party “Obstructionist” when the other party has both the Presidency a super majority in both houses of Congress!
The Republican Party is no more obstructing President Obama's plans than the Berkley City Council was obstructing President Bush's.
So therefore you believe in a ruling elite, unelected by the hoi polloi, immune and isolated from the wishes of majority, governing us by fiat?
If we cannot trust the majority of the public, that seems to be the obvious alternative.
I, for one, will pass on un-representational government. I don't like the results I have seen in my life in the countries that have tried it.
Troll = “Anyone who says the GOP will never work with Team-Obama under any circumstances”.
Some facts are negotiable. This one isn't.
“They are allowed to say what they want and propose all manner of things. But if their ideas lack merit, they must not make it into legislation.”
And that will be determined by?????
Don't attack this TP link, but the numbers from the graph seem to indicate that the Repugs from 110 are addicted to the cloture vote.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/31/republican-…
The charty is from Norm Ornstein at AEI.
http://www.american.com/archive/2008/march-apri…
Norman Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
“Obama is a crybaby when he blames Repubs for not getting ultra-left Dem legislation through the Congress controlled by Dems in all three law-making branches”
Then there was the whining about Bush — when he and the Dems are misspending far worse (and then he announced the partial “freeze” gimmick, which sets the far leftists into a frenzy, but that's outside bounds of normality). Worst was when he whined about the First Amendment (with all the diseased corporation-hatred and obscession associated with that, as well as having a fit about a judiciary that would be legitimate rather than left-activist, and would dare say “no” to His Majesty).
“if their ideas lack merit, they must not make it into legislation”
Unfortunately, this past year, the lib Dems and ObamaCo have insisted on the opposite of this.
That's why they have a substantial poor-public-relations and political-consequences problem now.
[...] } Via Hot Air Headlines) Let me add a thought to this observation by Jazz Shaw: It seems to me that Obama is a good enough politician that he can read the writing on the wall. [...]
Since we are still–most of us in a bipartisan way and mood–talking about the Obama-GOP meeting last week, I thought the following exchange between Illinois Republican Representative Peter Roskam and President Obama was especially candid–and nuanced:.
The president then went on to address Roskam's questions and issues
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by TMV, LadyLogician and Susan , Jazz Shaw. Jazz Shaw said: Dems meltdown over POTUS talking to Republicans: http://bit.ly/a7yoAQ The Audacity of Cope [...]