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Tuesday, September 30. 2008
Punked
Is it a surprise the Republicans torpedoed the bailout bill Monday? It’s all politics. That was obvious last week and confirmed Monday when John Boehner got in front of the cameras and microphones and blamed the lack of Republican votes on … Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.Pelosi gave a speech Monday, about the collapsing economy and the bitter pill we will eventually swallow:
“[W]hen was the last time someone asked you for $700 billion? It is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush administration’s failed economic policies — policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.”
“Democrats believe in the free market, which can and does create jobs, wealth, and capital, but left to its own devices it has created chaos.”
“Democrats insisted that legislation responding to this crisis must protect the American people and Main Street from the meltdown on Wall Street. The American people did not decide to dangerously weaken our regulatory and oversight policies. They did not make unwise and risky financial deals. They did not jeopardize the economic security of the nation. And they must not pay the cost of this emergency recovery and stabilization bill.”
“Today we will act to avert this crisis, but informed by our experience of the past eight years with the failed economic leadership. We choose a different path. In the new year, with a new Congress and a new president, we will break free with a failed past and take America in a new direction to a better future.”
The Speaker put the blame for this in the lap of the Republican president. Maybe Monday Morning was the wrong time to make that speech, but she didn’t attack her colleagues in the House of Representatives … and yet, this is the reason the Republicans are giving for not delivering the votes — votes House Minority Leader John Boehner said he would deliver just last week.The Republican tactic, five weeks away from their own elections in their states and districts, is to tie the Democratic leadership to President Bush and this debacle.
On the bigger stage, Senator McCain has been falling behind in the polls and since last week McCain has been trumpeting his “leadership,” even telling Ohio voters it was his leadership that was bringing the vote to a successful conclusion — just minutes before Monday’s vote in the House of Representatives.
The rhetoric today, from the McCain campaign, is that this is Obama’s fault, that Obama “phoned it in” when the crisis hit, that Obama was only “monitoring” the situation — even though Obama got back to Washington last week before McCain to meet with the president in the White House.
McCain claimed to have “suspended” his campaign, but the truth is, he used the entire crisis to promote his campaign, trumpeting his “leadership” in this — and it failed. And now that it has gone down the tubes — despite his “leadership” — the fault belongs to someone else: his opponent obviously.
The truth of McCain’s involvement is even truthier, to channel Stephen Colbert, McCain never attended any of the negotiation meetings in Congress. McCain, in fact, claims he phoned in his “leadership” to his fellow Republicans.
Now he’s out on the campaign trail, after claiming to lead Congress to a successful conclusion of the bill, telling us it’s Senator Obama’s fault the bill failed.
They don’t care what happens. Their primary concern is to win their elections in November. Their emphasis isn’t on how this crisis will effect the average American — and the world — but on how this is a bailout of “Big Business” and the “Fat Cats” who control business. Congressman Darrell Issa was just on Hardball with Chris Matthews, touting his own leadership in sinking the bailout bill. Issa, to everyone’s astonishment, claimed the Republican Party was “united” in this vote … really? Even though Republican leadership in Congress pushed for passage of the Republican president’s plan? Brings a new definition to the word “united.”You gotta love spin. At least Issa didn’t claim it was Speaker Pelosi’s fault he and the majority of his House colleagues voted to reject the bill.
After the Republicans tanked the plan, the stock market saw its largest crash in history — EVER — 778 points.
The Democrats only delivered slightly more than half their caucus, which is what Pelosi promised before the vote was taken.
Here’s something really ironic, in a hypocritical kind of way: ever notice that the ones who say, “This is no time to fix blame,” are usually the ones who are to blame? On Monday that was one of McCain’s answers to a question from a reporter about who was/is responsible for the crash on Wall Street. Maybe this is exactly the time to find out who sponsored and wrote the bill that deregulated the banking and other financial industries: former Senator Phil Gramm, Senator McCain’s chief economic advisor.
No, you don’t want to trumpet that little nugget of information. Let’s keep blaming the greedy “Fat Cats” on Wall Street, not the politicians who gave the “Fat Cats” free reign to greedily loot the system. Cynical bastards.
But that hasn’t been the first bit of cynicism by the Republicans this election. No, that would be the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate.Seriously, I feel sorry for Palin. The Republicans did her a great disservice by making her a last minute choice for the Vice Presidential nominee. Palin’s interview with Katie Couric was an embarrassment and her debate with Joe Biden, one of the best debaters and speakers in the Senate, will be even worse.
Yeah, two days ago I wrote that watching her debate Joe Biden would be fun, but after seeing bits of the interview, interspersed with bits of Tina Fey’s parody of Palin on Saturday Night Live, I’ve had a change of heart.
The Republicans’ controlling body, the Council for National Policy, knew Palin wasn’t qualified but wanted to lock in the base of the party — the people they represent — the Religious Right. Now, every time Palin is in an unscripted situation, she will make a fool of herself, spouting the few talking points she can remember for every question asked of her.
No, this was never about scoring the “Hillary vote,” or women voters in general. The Republicans have won presidential elections without the women’s vote before so why would they think they need it this year?
Cynically, less than a day after it was announced she would be McCain’s running mate, after pundits were talking about how Governor Palin would shore up the Republican base, the new talking point was about how she would bring the “Hillary vote” to the Republican tent. Draws attention away from their true intentions that sound so … Machiavellian.
Putting Sarah Palin in this position is just about the most cynical move I’ve witnessed — and I’m one cynical SOB. And you know, those Republican a-holes think choosing Palin was a shrewd political move. They will have no shame or conscience and when she brings down the party — when she is forced to remove herself from the ticket (news reports are that some Republicans are pushing for her to step down) — those cynical pricks will blame the media for picking on her and the Democrats for being sexist, all because the Republicans put their party ahead of the nation’s best interest.
The Council for National Policy should have given her time to prepare. Send a couple people up to Alaska a month or two ahead of time to school her on foreign and domestic affairs, prepare her to be a vice presidential candidate. Instead, they thrust her out there to be the savior of their presidential campaign. For their shameless, cynical sin, Sarah Palin will pay the humiliating price of being the woman who sank the McCain campaign, all because the Republicans wanted to save face with their base; when they knew McCain was not going to win anyway.Even Sarah Palin deserves better than that.
Here’s a sobering thought:
Today, September 30, marks my 24 years
without having a drink!
Life is better sober!
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