I was pretty disgusted to see Sen. Lamar Alexander in the "news" attempting to paint Republicans as the voice of reason - talking Obama down from his foolish, ill conceived plans to eliminate the anti-trust examption for insurance companies and take on Fox News.
from Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top U.S. Senate Republican invoked the memory of the scandal-marred Nixon administration on Wednesday to urge U.S. President Barack Obama: "Don't start an enemies list."
Senator Lamar Alexander told Reuters he sees the Obama White House adopting an attitude similar to that of the Richard Nixon White House four decades ago, that "everybody is against us and we are going to get them."
Alexander cited as examples the Obama administration threatening to strip the insurance industry of its exemption of federal anti-trust laws, "taking names" of bondholders who opposed the auto bailout, its reported aim to "neuter the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," boycotting Fox News Network and "calling out" of others who oppose it.
I wrote this letter - and now that its written I may as well post it. Any suggestions before I send it?
Senator Lamar Alexander,
I was not too familiar with your name before I saw a Reuters article this morning titled "Senator Urges Obama not to start "Enemies List."
In the article, the title of which has now been changed to "Senator Sees Obama Making Nixon Mistake," your transparent attempt to paint yourself as the voice of reason and Obama as a paranoid and isolated Republican (Nixon) is reported as if this were news.
It seems that upon your re-election last November, you promised:
"I will work across party lines to get results on the big issues, including energy independence, controlling spending, and helping every American have access to affordable health insurance."
And this is your "help?" From the Reuters article:
"Alexander cited as examples the Obama administration threatening to strip the insurance industry of its exemption of federal anti-trust laws."
Far from coming off as the voice of reason, you come off as dishonest and desperate to protect the interests of your true contituency - insurance companies that want to continue their profitable reign of terror against the American People.
Do Tennessee voters like this sort of thing? The rest of the country is sick of it. Your gamesmanship is easily worth a $50.00 contribution from me to whoever runs against you in 2012. But why should that matter to you?
I am not from Tennessee, and I know that you don’t care one bit about people who aren’t constituents. Please be aware, however, that I, and millions like me, care very much about the shallow attempts at divisive media ploys that have become the only work of politicians like yourself.
How much longer will Tennesseans believe your lies about helping them access health insurance while you make every attempt you can think of to decieve and confuse them? How much longer will Americans allow you to lie to your voters?
You have had a long political career, but the times are changing. Please, please keep up your media shenanigans. Nothing would please me, and the millions like me, more than to keep your name in the national news so the American People don’t forget to run you out of politics. Small progressive donors from every state in the nation (and overseas) are eager to continue the work we started in 2008.
The fires you are stoking will backfire. You are not up for re-election until 2012, but your actions will keep us motivated and engaged to unseat more and more of your colleagues in the meantime.
And while we may never get rid of all of you, we can, and will, keep the Republicans to an irrelevant super minority for the next 50 years.