Adam Nagourney of the NY Times is notorious for only reporting on the "insider baseball" of politics and for pushing Republican talking points is at it again. Nagourney is another of our country's vaunted "serious journalists" who never question or analyze the truth of what a Republican says. This time he plays stenographer for Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and helps push Pawlenty's 2012 presidential ambitions.
Of course, there is much stenography to analyze ...
At 48, Mr. Pawlenty, who has never served in Washington, is a potential new face for the national Republican Party. He is at the center of what the party’s leaders see as a critical debate: how to recover when the party is viewed so unfavorably by much of the public. Mr. Pawlenty is the two-term Republican governor of a swing state; he was on the short list of possible running mates for Senator John McCain of Arizona last year; he is frequently mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in 2012.
Mr. Pawlenty said that he is far from making a decision about whether to run for president, or for that matter, re-election next year as governor. But it was clear in the course of the conversation that he is thinking about ways to take on the Democratic Party in general and Mr. Obama in particular.
(NY Times)
The only reason Nagourney says that Pawlenty "is far from making a decision" is that he is a loyal stenographer. Nagourney ignores the minor detail that Pawlenty has been purposefully strutting his stuff on national cable news for quite a while now.
"He can get almost anything he wants out of this Congress," Mr. Pawlenty said.
Really? Anything? How would that work? Haven't the Republican leadership opposed absolutely everything Obama has proposed so far?
To be fair, Nagourney was just relaying what Pawlenty said about how Obama could have cut earmarks. Funny that. If Obama would just do what the Republicans would want, they'd go along with it. Here's the quote in context.
But he said he was concerned with "the utter lack of concern they seem to have for the deficit and debt — and I don’t point my finger just at President Obama," noting the steadily escalating deficits during the years of Republican government as well. He said Mr. Obama has offered the country a "very expansive view of government that I don’t agree with."
And he said that Mr. Obama had failed to take advantage of his political capital to force Congress, for example, to cut back on earmarks. "He can get almost anything he wants out of this Congress," Mr. Pawlenty said.
What a steaming pile of prairie pudding! However, Nagourney unintentionally gets to the core of the Republicans and Pawlenty's notion of cooperation:
This is also a concept that Nagourney has been avidly pushing over the years. Democrats would just do better if they behaved more like Republicans. Democrats would do better if only they'd cooperate with Republicans. Bi-partisanship is the only solution to save America.
Please.
Democratic capitulation and Democratic complicity have given us the Military Commissions Act, legalized warrantless wiretapping, retroactive immunity to telecoms who abetted the illegal wiretapping.
Because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is so worried about what Republicans might say or do, it requires a 60 vote super-majority to pass any legislation. Reid has bit on Nagourney and his ilk's bait hook, line and sinker. In my opinion, Reid is a proponent of Democratic capitulation.
But there's another choice morsel of stinkiness in that pile I quoted above.
But he said he was concerned with "the utter lack of concern they seem to have for the deficit and debt - and I don't point my finger just at President Obama," noting the steadily escalating deficits during the years of Republican government as well.
Because Nagourney does no research nor any analysis, he wouldn't know that Pawlenty behaves exactly the same way. Pawlenty is a borrow-n-spend conservative. He practices credit-card economics.
Because the state of MN constitutionally cannot have an unbalanced budget, his lack of fiscal responsibility and his no-new-taxes pledge has forced local governments to jack up property taxes.
Pawlenty has drastically slashed local government aid on many occasions. This has forced local governments to raise property taxes to maintain basic services like police and fire. And Pawlenty cares not one jot that he's hurting seniors who can't afford these tax increases.
But Nagourney wouldn't know that.
"My prediction is you’re going to see some near-term uptick in the economy — regardless of these policies, just because it’s the nature of these things," he said. "But the thing to keep an eye on is the boomerang effect of this massive infusion of money. I’m not just talking about the stimulus bill and the spending bill, but what’s coming. The Big Kahuna health bill. The Big Kahuna energy bill."
Stenographer Nagourney let's Pawlenty get away with this one. It is not "the nature of these things." The Republicans drove the economy off a cliff. Obama's policies are an attempt to rebuild after the car crashed ... while the sucker is still burning.
A journalist would analyze this statement. A stenographer ... well ... you're seeing one the nation's best in action.
-- cross-posted from MN Progressive Project --