Help Elok fathom Republican rhetoric

[Guynemer]

Indeed, like a veritable laughfest.

[Imran Siddiqui]

One of the enduring mysteries of the 2008 campaign was what got Ted Kennedy so mad at Bill Clinton. The former president's entreaties, at some point, backfired, and the explanation has never quite emerged.

I've finally gotten my hands on a copy of Game Change, in which John Heliemann and Mark Halperin report:

[A]s Hillary bungled Caroline, Bill’s handling of Ted was even worse. The day after Iowa, he phoned Kennedy and pressed for an endorsement, making the case for his wife. But Bill then went on, belittling Obama in a manner that deeply offended Kennedy. Recounting the conversation later to a friend, Teddy fumed that Clinton had said, A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmi...dys_anger.html

I'm pretty sure that comment was referencing Obama's lack of experience (getting coffee as an aide), rather than his skin color.

[SlowwHand]

So do I, and a valid comment.

[Dinner]

He, like the rest of us, are waiting for you to give an intelligent response.

Ad hominem. . .show trials. Do you even read what you write?

It seems he mostly just retypes "arguments" (the word is used loosely) he finds on Free Republic and the like.

[HalfLotus]

This attempt to paint Tea Partiers as "angry" is pretty weak. Frankly, any American who isn't a little angry about the joke that is our federal government should be checked for a pulse.

Again I'm not a huge fan of the movement, but the establishment smear campaign against them is entirely predictable and transparent.

[Dinner]

Which part of his ageneda do you think they've been overly aggressive in opposing?

Technically, the GOP has attempted to use proceedural votes to block 90% of all legislation. There goal does not seem to be to oppose certain parts of the Democratic agenda and instead it is simply to be so obstructionist that they grind everything to a halt no matter what it is. Pure obstructionism.

From: Marge Baker, People For the American Way
To: Interested Parties
Date: December 23, 2009
Re: The Numbers Don’t Lie--'publican Obstruction Efforts Unprecedented in Senate

If it has seemed that 'publican Senators have been expending tremendous amounts of energy for the sole purpose of slowing down the work of the Senate and the President’s reform agenda, that’s because they have.

A review of cloture attempts in past sessions of Congress reveals that 'publican senators have gone to record lengths to use Senate rules with the goal of slowing down the work of Congress, often when they have no expectation of stopping legislation or even winning concessions.

So far, 'publican foot dragging has forced the Senate leadership to file 67 cloture petitions and forced cloture votes on 38 occasions [1] . Those numbers, while high, aren’t yet on pace to break the record set by the 'publicans in the last Congress of 139 motions filed and 112 forced votes. But what is remarkable is that, of those 38 votes forced this year, cloture was invoked 34 times.

That means a full 89% of the time, the cloture vote did nothing but delay the inevitable—a huge increase from the previous high of 63%.



Moreover many of these attempts to block cloture didn't just fail, they failed by such significant margins that no one, especially not an experienced vote counter like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, could possibly have expected to prevail. In fact, in a majority of cases, 65 or more Senators voted to cut off debate. In several cases the number reached into the seventies and eighties, and in one case 97 Senators voted in favor of cloture, but not before the maneuver chewed up valuable time.



Far from being a meaningless exercise, this effort to force unnecessary cloture votes has wasted an enormous amount of time. After cloture is filed it takes up to two days before Senate rules allow a vote on the petition. Then, Senate rules permit the 'publicans to insist on an additional 30 hours of post-cloture debate. That means even when only a small minority of Senators actually oppose cloture, they have the ability to chew up days of the Senate’s time.

In 2010, the Senate will likely consider legislation addressing health care, global warming, the economy, immigration, and workers’ rights in addition to its obligation to confirm Supreme Court Justices, members of the federal bench and crucial administration officials. There’s plenty of work to be done, and time is already tight without needless intentional delay.

The 'publican Senators should stop trying to grind the Senate to a halt and start working on the issues that Americans elected them to address.

[Ben Kenobi]

It's interesting then that the GOP very nearly succeeded in denying the cloture vote. Don't you understand just how unpopular this bill is Oerdin, or is CA just going to raise taxes and pave their way to utopia?

[Theben]

If they dissolved the cesspool known as the Chargers Cali would have all the money it needed.

[Ben Kenobi]

Hey, no loss if the Chargers relocate to TX.

[GePap]

This attempt to paint Tea Partiers as "angry" is pretty weak. Frankly, any American who isn't a little angry about the joke that is our federal government should be checked for a pulse.

Again I'm not a huge fan of the movement, but the establishment smear campaign against them is entirely predictable and transparent.

The "tea party" movement has no coherent program.

I also can;t take seriously any group that views Sarah Palin as a viable alternative for the office of President, and views a fool like Glenn Beck as a leader.

[HalfLotus]

The Tea Party has no centralized leadership or program, so I don't know where you get your characterizations about the "group".

It initially grew out of Ron Paul supporters when they broke fund-raising records in the '08 election. It was a decentralized, grassroots movement of genuinely concerned citizens.

From there nationwide Tea Party "rallies" were organized to protest taxes. I think the core of the movement is implied the Tea Party name. Americans are sick of being robbed blind by the establishment and taken for suckers.

Now you see establishment blowhards like Palin and Beck trying to hop on board the movement and cash in on it politically. The two major parties are complete and total failures, and politicians are jumping off those sinking ships and some are trying to connect with the Tea Party. They have co-opted the movement, or are at least trying to, just as I said would happen.

Beck's and Palin's transparent "conservative" propaganda is not fooling any Ron Paul supporters, I'll tell you that.

[Darius871]

Glenn who?

[HalfLotus]

[Darius871]

That doesn't help me.

[HalfLotus]

?