Anyone who has watched the past 40-plus years of Republican nihilistic politics just has to shake their head over President Obama's apparent supra-naivete when it comes to working with the cretins across the aisle.
It reminds me of this scene from "Stir Crazy" when Gene Wilder finds it in his heart to go talk to the "biggest mass murderer of the Southwest."
I know, President Obama, you promised bipartisanship in your campaign but the Republicans didn't and it takes two to tango. And you should've known the difference between a nice campaign theme and reality. No amount of phony-baloney rationalizations from some on the left about some Machiavellian "we got them where we want them" big plan is going to keep from believing that you just played your hand and lost, big-time. And in the end, lost what you claimed you got elected to do -- to serve the best interests of the American people.
Remember, Mr. President, these guys have been doing this shit since the Nixon era. Watch the movie "All the President's Men" again at Camp David this weekend and remember these lines:
Carl Bernstein: What was that term you used when you screwed up something?
Donald H. Segretti: We're rat-fuckin'.
It's Armageddon politics. Blow-up the whole place and you'll be in the same shithole as them, except people will admire them purely for the shock and awe. Nixon failed at it but Rove spent 30 years perfecting it and got most of the media and all the corporations and evangelicals on his side, with a lot of normal people to boot.
I don't truly believe you know what you're dealing with here. And that's hard to accept considering you're a smart, worldly guy who just got himself elected President. But these guys play for keeps. They don't care about you, the country or the future. They care about one thing -- the Republican Party and what it will get them personally and for their friends.
You handed the House Republicans an olive branch and they beat you with it. They went with the advice of a drug-addled radio blowhard who couldn't get elected to dogcatcher. And now you've handed over additional cuts to a stimulus package that was barely enough to three Republicans in the Senate to dilute and dither some more.
Their main goal with all this is not just to destroy the package or any positive impact it may have -- it's to destroy YOU and your popularity and make you look like a weakling and Jimmy Carterize you before your presidency barely lifts off the ground. And they've come damn close to doing that already.
You should've LED and pressed hard for what was right in the package from the beginning. You should've said that with nearly a trillion spent on a war for no reason, and nearly a trillion spent on banks, mortgage companies and insurance companies that got us into this mess, we can spend $800B on jobs for Americans during the greatest economic mess since the Great Depression.
You should've stated clearly that if the Bush bill shored up the financial industry (badly and with no accountability), this bill's goal is to shore up the American middle class. Geesus christ, is that so difficult a point to make?
Although you've lost a lot of momentum and cache, I'm hoping you come to your senses this weekend, Mr. President, and truly appreciate what you're up against. And bring the same political savviness and hard-boiled smarts you brought to the campaign trail to the Presidency -- for the rest of your eight years.
God bless and God speed. You'll keep my support if you just fight for what is right.