The list is full of "So-and-so NAILS it!" or "So-and-so DESTROYS Obama!" and on and on.
You're falling for it again.
It's a meaningless dance.
"Pelosi says No DEAL!"
Wanna bet?
President Obama said WE could change politics in Washington, and he just (unintentionally, perhaps) gave us the chance.
But it won't happen, because unfocused outrage is as bad as too-focused outrage.
All week long, I've seen the airwaves filled up with indignant politicians and pundits - House members feeling betrayed. Senators roaring about the "compromise."
Whenever these folks get on Ed Schultz or speak with a Cenk Uygur-type, oh how the vitriol spills. This is Armageddon, dammit!
But whenever any of these folks goes on Chris Matthews or Lawrence O'Donnell - the two on MSNBC who know the inner workings of DC the best - they get their lungs cut out, by reality.
When Senator Brown began chest-thumping on Hardball, Matthews clobbered him with a simple question: "How?" Brown was going on and on about the bad deal, but he had no answer about how the President could have gotten a better deal. Oh, he talked about "going to Massachusetts and Maine" - big deal. Matthews simply pointed out that it was all meaningless baloney. Where's the damned bill?
Same with some progressive activists who found themselves against O'Donnell and Klein in claiming the deal was a shit-sandwich for the left. O'Donnell called them on their lofty ideals with a dose of stark reality - he made the choice facing President Obama perfectly clear, and it was a choice that would either break his pledge to not continue the cuts over 250k or allow the poor and middle class to see real dollars taken out of their wallets, to say nothing of the unemployed. It was a choice that included real pain for real people.
I'm not weighing in on whether or not the Democrats should take the President's deal right now. In truth, I'm on the fence over it - perhaps it's time to start a fire to force the firemen to do their jobs. But that's not the point of this diary.
The point is, are we going to let the Democrats in Congress get away with this meaningless dance again?
I heard one strategist say that the Democrats would pass the compromise, but maybe with a tweak or two so they could get some cover for some of their members - and the vote would be close so that this Democrat or that one could display his/her outrage properly and vote no.
It's a dance.
It's so easy to "NAIL" or "DESTROY" or even "PWN" President Obama, because the buck has to stop with him. He's the only one truly responsible for any failures to get anything done - for the unemployed, for the tax credits for the poor, for the middle class tax cuts he feels are needed to continue the recovery. Since he has said from teh beginning that he will continue to get things done, even incrementally, going after him is so easy, and cathartic, I'm sure. It's also pointless. Here's the truth: President Obama is not some demon plotting with the EEEEEvil GOP to screw the average American. Thinking that might make you feel good, but it's just not true. He will sign DADT repeal if it gets to his desk. He will sign under 250k only tax cuts. He will sign DOMA repeal. He will sign pretty much any progressive bill that gets to him.
But frankly, I get very tired of the "he needs to fight" mantra. I find that a convenient dodge by (particularly Senators) people like Sherrod Brown so that they can hide behind President Obama's skirts, as Matthews clearly told him.
I'm hearing complaints that President Obama didn't consult with the House on his deal - I've also heard that the House wouldn't work with the Republicans in crafting their bill. Well, given that the Senate wasn't going to pass their bill, all that means to me is that the House accepted political cover to prove their liberal cred without any notion that what they passed would get through to the President's desk.
And in the Senate, I've been told that it only takes a simple majority to change the rules. It's been apparent now for more than a year that the GOP were nothing but hostage takers, as the President pointed out, so...
And now, it only takes 40 to stop the compromise. I suggest this: if the Senate doesn't stop the compromise, you can begin to truly understand what the President is up against. They're phonies. They tell you what you want to hear so that you can post "NAILS IT" diaries and send them money to continue...doing what?
Call me when they, you know, actually get something done.
The President has said from the beginning that he wanted up to 250k only tax cuts. The House passed it, and then the Senatorial hand-wringing began anew and poof, no bill.
So who's then on the hook for what will happen in January - not politically, but the actual effects of what will happen? What one person has to deal with the reality that the poor will be poorer and the middle class will have less money to spend and the economy might not handle that hit? No Senators, surely - oh, they fought the good fight! Give me a break.
Look, this is really simple: the House can kill the compromise. Forty Democrat Senators can kill the compromise.
The ball is in their court. If you don't like what happens, then direct your ire there. Shooting at the President is too damned easy, and too damned unfair. Had I been in his shoes, given the continual nothingness offered me by the worthless Senate, I don't know what I would have done. The Republicans don't have the power because the President gave it to them; they have it because the Senate Democrats want them to have it for their own bloviating political cover.
It's all a dance.
Bob
UPDATE: Let me reiterate: I'm not weighing in on whether or not the Democrats should take the President's deal right now. In truth, I'm on the fence over it - perhaps it's time to start a fire to force the firemen to do their jobs. But that's not the point of this diary.
The point is, are we going to let the Democrats in Congress get away with this meaningless dance again?
Will some of you please look past your seething rage long enough to understand that point? Please?