Filed under: 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Conservatives, Governors, Media, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine | Tags: 2010, 2012, Alaska, Barack Obama, Chelsea Clinton, Democrats, Fail, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Resignation, Sarah Palin
I’ve spent some time in the past few days thinking about Gov. Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation, and I still think that her decision stemmed from either an impending scandal or an impending Presidential campaign.
But there have been a few other explanations I’ve heard and dismissed. For instance, some people are claiming that Palin is facing huge legal bills fighting off all the ethics complaints against her, which explains her resignation. But I find that hard to believe—her term as Governor is done in just a year and a half, meaning that she could hit up the paid lecture circuit and make those costs back several-fold come January, 2011.
Others are saying that being Governor would prevent Palin from going out there and campaigning for Republicans in 2010, putting her at a disadvantage against folks like Mitt Romney who no longer hold an office and thus have the time to campaign.
But, remember, Palin campaigned for Vice President while remaining Governor of Alaska; I find it hard to believe that she couldn’t just hand things over to her staff or her Lt. Governor every once in a while in order to speak at a rally or a speech.
Plus, being an effective Governor would probably help your presidential ambitions far more than quitting in order to fly around stumping for Congressional candidates–that’s something you do when you leave office, not something you leave office in order to do. Double plus, if 2010 isn’t a good year for the GOP—which it doesn’t look like it will be—then Palin would be better off staying in the Governor’s mansion.
Some people are saying that it’s normal for politicians to quit their current job to run for higher office. While that may be the case, they don’t usually quit 40 months before the election.
And a number of people are claiming that Sarah Palin is resigning in order to protect her family, but I don’t entirely buy that, either. When you run for office you become a public figure; you and your family are going to be in the spotlight.
Personally, I think families should be off-limits. To me, we should be focusing on the person running for office, not their husbands or wives or children; I don’t see the political point to be made in going after someone’s family. Still, we have to deal with the political reality we have, not the political reality we want—and in the political world we live in, the families of politicians are given a fair amount of scrutiny.
Palin should have known that, by being a public figure, she was putting her own family in the spotlight for good or ill. Plus, I feel that a lot of right-wing victimhood on this front seems awfully overblown–a lot of Palin’s supporters seem to believe that Sarah Palin is the most unfairly-attacked people in modern American history.
In that regard, I agree with ABC’s Cynthia Tucker, who said on Meet the Press this past weekend:
If [Palin] thinks she’s had it tough, I have two words for you: Hillary Clinton!
Conservatives are attacking Palin’s critics for allegedly targeting her family, but if you were to page through nearly any conservative blog out there and you’ll find plenty of unhinged attacks on Michelle Obama. And some of these same conservatives who are defending Palin and her family are the very same conservatives who spent the 1990’s unfairly attacking both Chelsea and Hillary Clinton.
Sarah Palin may have been subjected to some unfair criticism (and I should note that she was also subjected to a lot of perfectly fair, valid criticism as well), but she is not the first person to have dealt with that, and resigning her Governorship is an extremely poor way to deal with it. Hillary Clinton was a fighter; Sarah Palin is a quitter.
I also don’t believe the right-wing talking point that Sarah Palin’s early resignation is some kind of brilliant Nixonian political maneuver.
I mean, just think about the timing—if this was part of a brilliant political strategy, why announce it the Friday before Independence Day? Why try to bury it in the news cycle—why not make it front and center, try to draw as much publicity as possible that you can then take advantage of?
And if this was Palin’s brilliant political move, why did she sound like she was close to tears during her speech on Friday? Go listen–Palin sounds like she’s going to break down, not like she’s launching a cunning political strategy that will catapult her into the White House:
In the end, it just looks like Sarah Palin couldn’t take the heat so she quit. She promised the people of Alaska to serve as their Governor for 4 years but she broke that promise. If Palin does run for President, it should be remembered that, when things got tough, Sarah Palin turned tail and fled–not a quality any of us want in a President.
Honestly, though, I don’t think we have to worry about Sarah Palin running for President–I don’t think she’s going to recover from this. Whatever political career she may have had is probably over now; America loves fighters and hates quitters.
To make an analogy fitting of Gov. Palin, she grabbed the basketball and took off in the middle of the third quarter, leaving both teams to stand in the middle of the court, watching in utter befuddlement as she disappears off into the locker room.
UPDATE: Not only is Gov. Palin a quitter, she’s a hypocrite:
During a Women and Leadership event back in March 2008, Governor Palin was asked about Senator Clinton’s response to media scrutiny – and criticism – she received on the campaign trail during the Democratic primaries. Palin made it clear to moderator Karen Breslau of Newsweek that she considered Clinton’s conduct unbecoming. Hillary, she insisted, needed to just “plow through”:
“Fair or unfair, I think she does herself a disservice to even mention it…When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism or, you know, maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think, man, that doesn’t do us any good. Women in politics, women in general wanting to progress this country. I don’t think it’s, it bodes well for her — a statement like that…It bothers me a little bit hearing her bring that attention to herself on that level.”
[Emphasis mine]
So when Hillary Clinton gets media scrutiny, Sarah Palin thinks she should just shut up and push through it. But when Sarah Palin gets media scrutiny, she thinks it’s okay to play victim and quit.
Filed under: 2012 Election, Breaking, Conservatives, Media, Scandal, Senate | Tags: Affair, Congress, John Ensign, Las Vegas Sun, Nevada, Republicans
In the wake of Sen. John Ensign admitting that he had an extramarital affair with a campaign staffer, the Las Vegas Sun is now reporting that he has resigned his leadership position as the 4th highest-ranking Republican in the Senate:
Nevada Sen. John Ensign resigned his leadership positition today as chair of his party’s policy committee in the Senate after admitting having an extramarital affair with a former member of his campaign staff.
Ensign had been a rising star in his party Republican Policy Committee chairman, the the fourth-ranking leader of his party in the Senate. This year, he was mentioned as a possible presidential contender in 2012.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a brief statement, saying Ensign has “accepted responsibility for his actions and apologized to his family and constituents. He offered, and I accepted, his resignation as chairman of the Policy Committee.”
Filed under: Conservatives, Government, Media, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine | Tags: Congress, Democrats, Epic Fail, Judiciary, Republicans, SCOTUS, Sonia Sotomayor, Surrender
It looks like that, in the wake of Judge Sotomayor’s accomplished academic and judicial records, her abundance of experience, moderate stances and bipartisan history, the GOP is giving up the fight against her nomination to the Supreme Court:
Top Senate Republican strategists tell POLITICO that, barring unknown facts about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the GOP plans no scorched-earth opposition to her confirmation as a Supreme Court justice.
More than 24 hours after the White House unveiling, no senator has come out in opposition to Sotomayor’s confirmation.
“The sentiment is overwhelming that the Senate should do due diligence but should not make a mountain out of a molehill,” said a top Senate Republican aide. “If there’s no ‘there’ there, we shouldn’t try to create one.”
[...]
However, senators on both sides said they are confident that unless the process takes some startling turn, Sotomayor will be confirmed in plenty of time for the court’s opening on the fabled first Monday in October.
[...]
Republicans’ only hope of derailing Sotomayor would be a filibuster — a move countless Republicans have opposed in the context of judicial nominees. And even if they took that route, they are virtually certain to lose badly.
Republicans have 40 votes in the Senate — and it’s hard to imagine someone like Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) or anyone from a state with big Hispanic population blocking the judge.
[Emphasis mine]
The GOP would have very little power to block Sotomayor even if they had some kind of solid ground upon which to oppose her.
If out-of-context quotes are garbage made-up statistics about ‘reversal rates’ are the most conservatives can lob against a 17-year veteran of the federal bench, then Judge Sotomayor has nothing to worry about.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Breaking, Conservatives, Media, Progressives, Senate | Tags: 2010, Dan Mongiardo, Democrats, Jim Bunning, Kentucky, KY-Sen, Mitch McConnell, Republicans, Rumors, Trey Grayson
It seems like Republican Senator Jim Bunning will not run for re-election in 2010:
In a move that signals a retirement announcement from Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) is imminent, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) has formed an exploratory committee to run for Senate.
I won’t say Bunning is actually retiring until he makes it official, since there have been a lot of rumors about him stepping aside that turned out to be false.
Mitch McConnell and much of the GOP establishment wants Bunning to step aside, mostly due to his age, erratic behavior on the campaign trail and his anemic fundraising. The establishment could simply be encouraging Grayson to run and feeding this story to the DC press in order to put some pressure on Bunning to step aside.
If Bunning is the candidate, it’s likely that Lt. Gov Dan Mongiardo will be able to take him out, thus making this a relatively-easy Democratic pickup. But if he does step aside–or get defeated by Grayson–then it becomes significantly harder for Democrats to win here.
So I’m reporting the rumor, but taking it with a huge grain of salt.
Filed under: Conservatives, Government, Media, Polls, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine | Tags: 100 Days, Barack Obama, Democrats, Numbers, Popularity, Republicans, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Tea Partays
100 days into his Presidency, Barack Obama is still Mr. Popular:
Washington Post-ABC News (4.24.09)
APPROVE: 69% / DISAPPROVE: 26%
On the economy: 58% / 38%
On the budget deficit: 51% / 43%
On international affairs: 67% / 27%
On the situation in Iraq: 71% / 21%
On global warming: 61% / 23%
On health care: 57% / 29%
On U.S. relations with Cuba: 61% / 28%
On the situation in Afghanistan: 63% / 26%
On immigration: 48% / 35%
On taxes: 54% / 35%
Pew Research Center (4.23.09)
You read that right–Obama is more favorable than both Bush and Clinton were 100 days in, and he’s second only to Ronald Reagan in job approval.
And just so I don’t get accused of cherry-picking, here are the Pollster composites:
National Job Approval
APPROVE: 61.2% / DISAPPROVE: 32.4%
Favorability
FAVORABLE: 62.8% / UNFAVORABLE: 26.5%
What does this tell us? Well, despite the tea partays, despite the full-tilt pace of the conservative outrage-a-day machine, despite all the right-wing sound and fury over Obama, he is one of the most popular, well-liked and broadly supported Presidents in modern American history.
The GOP really does oppose Obama at their own peril–the more vehemently they fight against him, the more they alienate the American people.
Filed under: 2008 Election, 2010 Election, Breaking, Conservatives, Media, Progressives, Senate | Tags: 2010, Al Franken, Arlen Specter, Congress, Democrats, Minnesota, Norm Coleman, PA-SEN, Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania, Republicans, Washington Post
Welcome home, Arlen.
The Washington Post has it:
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to sources informed on the decision.
Specter’s decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next Senator from Minnesota. (Former Sen. Norm Coleman is appealing Franken’s victory in the state Supreme Court.)
“I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary,” said Specter in a statement. “I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.”
[Emphasis mine]
This changes everything.
UPDATE: First, there’s the question of what Specter’s switch puts back on the table–since he doesn’t have to pander to the right wing of his party anymore, will he vote more liberally? Will it be easier for the Democrats to win him over on key votes now?
Second, this puts even greater pressure on Norm Coleman to step aside in Minnesota–Al Franken would give the Democrats a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority, thus making the resolution of MN’s Senate contest even more important.
Third, this throws the entire PA-SEN race into disarray. Will more Republicans join Pat Toomey in vying for the GOP nod? Will any Democrats challenge Specter in the Democratic primary?
If a Democrat challenges Specter from the left, could he be pressured to vote more liberally–like how Toomey’s challenge from the right pressured Specter to vote more conservatively?
We have no answers yet, but this is undeniably good news for the Democrats and bad news for the GOP. I wonder how small the Republicans’ tent can get–it’s already looking pretty tiny from where I’m standing.
UPDATE II: MSNBC is reporting that one of the conditions of Specter’s switch is that nobody is allowed to challenge him for the Democratic nomination. I’m not exactly happy about that, but I guess I’ll accept it.
And I want to remind everyone that Specter won’t be a party-line vote–in fact, I predict there will be a number of times he votes against the Democratic caucus, just as he voted against the GOP caucus. He won’t be a reliable 60th vote, but he will be a 60th vote, and that’s what matters.
UPDATE III: The entire conservative movement is currently having a sour grapes party; you can practically smell the vinegar from here.
Even though Specter’s switch puts the GOP’s Senate caucus at 40 members, the fewest they’ve had since January of 1979, they’re still pretending that Specter’s departure is a good thing.
Because sitting by and watching all the moderates abandon your party in droves has done wonders for the GOP since 2005, right?
UPDATE IV: Whether or not you think this is good news for the GOP depends on whether or not you think Pat Toomey can beat Arlen Specter.
Problem is, PA has been trending bluer for a long time. For instance, compare the results of the 2000 Senate election to the 2006 Senate election:
2000
Rick Santorum: 52.4%
Ron Klink: 45.5%
2006
Rick Santorum: 41.3%
Bob Casey: 58.6%
Or look at how many Congressional seats have changed hands in the past 4 years alone:
2005
GOP: 12
DEM: 7
2009
GOP: 8
DEM: 11
Or look at the popular vote shift between the 2004 and 2008 Presidential elections:
2004
Kerry: 51%
Bush: 48%
2008
Obama: 54%
McCain: 44%
No matter how you look at it, PA has been trending bluer in the past few years; it isn’t particularly fertile ground for Republicans, let alone far-right Republicans like Pat Toomey.
Plus, Specter has the advantage of being a longtime incumbent, is regarded as a well-respected Senate moderate, and his party switch is already being spun as him putting his beliefs ahead of partisanship.
Toomey won’t win. He might be more popular than Specter among Pennsylvania Republicans, but Pennsylvania Republicans haven’t been the majority in Pennsylvania for a good long time.
UPDATE V: More proof that PA has been getting more hostile toward Republicans:
1998
Arlen Specter: 61%
Bill Lloyd: 35%
2004
Arlen Specter: 52.6%
Joe Hoeffel: 42%
Filed under: Conservatives, Government, House, Media, Polls, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Senate | Tags: Congress, Democrats, Gallup, Numbers, Popularity, Republicans
…is still popular.
After passing the conservative-dubbed spendulus/porkulus/Generational Theft Act of 2009, Congress is…the most popular it’s been in more than 4 years:
Americans’ job approval rating of Congress is up an additional 8 points this month, after a 12-point increase last month, and now stands at 39% — the most positive assessment of Congress since February 2005.
[Emphasis mine]
Congress’ popularity is up among all groups, but mostly among Democrats and Independents:
So, what does this tell us? First, conservatives are far outside the mainstream–they spent weeks maligning the economic stimulus package, only to see Congress’ approval ratings shoot up after it was passed.
Second, despite all the right-wing gibbering about socialism or deficits or whatever their latest talking point is, the American people clearly want to see their government doing something about the economic crisis. Part of the reason why Congress was so unpopular between 2007 and early 2009 was because, with a Republican President, very little got done. Now that Bush is gone, Congress and the President are finally getting to work solving some of our nation’s most pressing problems, and clearly the American people appreciate that.
Keep doing what you’re doing, Congress; taking action and being effective is the best way to refute garbage right-wing talking points.
Filed under: 2008 Election, Conservatives, Economics, Governors, Media, Polls, Progressives | Tags: 2008, Bobby Jindal, Budget, Democrats, Federal Spending, Gail Collins, Hypocrisy, Republicans, States, Stupidity, Taxes
Louisiana has gotten $130 billion in post-Katrina aid. How is it that the stars of the Republican austerity movement come from the states that suck up the most federal money? Taxpayers in New York send way more to Washington than they get back so more can go to places like Alaska and Louisiana. Which is fine, as long as we don’t have to hear their governors bragging about how the folks who elected them want to keep their tax money to themselves. Of course they do! That’s because they’re living off ours.
Here are the top ten states that receive the most federal tax money per every dollar they pay, color-coded by how they voted in the 2008 Presidential election:
- New Mexico
- Mississippi
- Alaska
- Louisiana
- West Virginia
- North Dakota
- Alabama
- South Dakota
- Kentucky
- Virginia
Here are the top ten states that receive the least federal tax money per every dollar they pay, color-coded by how they voted in the 2008 Presidential election:
- New Jersey
- Nevada
- Connecticut
- New Hampshire
- Minnesota
- Illinois
- Delaware
- California
- New York
- Colorado
[Source]
So, if we actually listened to Republicans and cut federal taxes, the Republican-voting red states would be hurt the most. Turns out that the GOP’s grandstanding on taxes is nothing more than hot air–they have no problem railing against high taxes while simultaneously taking tax dollars hand-over-fist from blue states.
Filed under: Conservatives, Media, Polls, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Rights | Tags: Civil Unions, Gay Marriage, Michael Steele, Mike Gallagher, Newsweek, Numbers, Republicans, Rights
[RADIO HOST MIKE] GALLAGHER: Is this a time when Republicans ought to consider some sort of alternative to redefining marriage and maybe in the road, down the road to civil unions. Do you favor civil unions?
[RNC CHAIRMAN MICHAEL] STEELE: No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you, crazy? No.
But I thought this was supposed to be the new “beyond cutting-edge” youth-friendly hip-GOP?
NEWSWEEK
Now I have a few questions about the situation for gay men and women in this country and the issue of gay rights…Do you think there should or should NOT be Legally-sanctioned gay and lesbian unions or partnerships?
Age 18-34 58% SHOULD BE / 31% SHOULD NOT BE
Don’t worry, though–the GOP will always have their TEA PARTAY:
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, Media, Right-Wing Noise Machine | Tags: Bailout, Credit Default Swap, Economic Stimulus Package, Hypocrisy, Main Street, Republicans, Rick Santelli, Wall Street
CNBC host Rick Santelli’s recent trading-floor rant has made him the darling of the right. Apparently Santelli, just like conservatives, is trying to deflect blame for the financial crisis away from himself onto anyone else he can think of—in this case, the poor.
See, the Santellis of the world are used to being the masters of the universe, the toast of Wall Street; for decades, they were lauded as the captains of industry whose personal economic success went hand-in-hand with America’s economic success. They were paid unimaginably-large salaries to do what they did and they were told constantly that they were the smartest guys in the room. Lawmakers fell over themselves to roll back government regulations so that these guys could do their thing free of oversight or restriction.
But now the economic system they built has collapsed in on itself and suddenly “Wall Street” isn’t a synonym for success and wealth; it’s a synonym for incompetence, for mismanagement and fraud and bloated, undeserved salaries. “Wall Street” has become the villain in this play, with the Bernie Madoffs and the Allen Stanfords of the world serving as living, breathing symbols of corporate greed.
So of course Santelli and his millionaire stock trader buddies are angry; they’re being blamed for this mess, and rightfully so. Remember, there was no outcry from them when Washington was forking over hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up the companies they worked for; it’s only now that the government is trying to help families on the verge of being evicted that the Brooks Brothers mob finds it’s torches and pitchforks.
Guys like Santelli don’t want to be remembered as the bad guys of this historical interlude. They’ve been told for so long that they were the geniuses who singlehandedly ran America’s economy that, even after they caused near-total economic ruination, they still don’t want to admit they were wrong.
No, rich stock traders like Santelli would much rather believe that this whole economic crisis was caused by a bunch of poor people defaulting on their mortgages; otherwise, they would have to admit that the $60 trillion they sank into the Credit Default Swap market–a creature born of excessive market deregulation–was to blame, making their greedy, profit-hungry ways the true heart of this crisis.
They don’t want to admit that market deregulation, free market fundamentalism and the cult of Wall Street is at the heart of this collapse, allowing wealthy traders like Santelli to make idiotic choices that let them pocket huge amounts of money in the short term while ruining our economy in the long term.
Want to know how much of a guru Rick Santelli really is? Here he is on September 2nd telling us that, essentially, the fundamentals of our economy are strong:
True genius there, huh?
This economic crisis has exposed the dynamics of our economy in stark detail–we can clearly see that right now the battle is between the people and the powerful. The powerful made millions digging us into this particular hole; when their businesses collapsed they gladly accepted hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars hand-over-fist, but now they can’t contain their anger at Uncle Sam helping regular hard-working Americans in need.
No wonder the Party of No is standing on the sidelines cheering Santelli & co. on; they’re also looking for a scapegoat, and they’re hoping that the working people of this country can be made to carry the blame for our economic crisis. Why else would they rubber stamp $700 billion for Wall Street while obstructing $800 billion for Main Street?
Filed under: Conservatives, Media, Race, Right-Wing Noise Machine | Tags: 2006, Maryland, Michael Steele, North Carolina, RNC, RNC Chair, Stupidity, Virginia
Ladies and Gentlemen, RNC Chairman Michael Steele:
The RNC’s first black chairman will “surprise everyone” when updating the party’s image using the Internet and advertisements on radio, on television and in print, he told The Washington Times.
I wonder if Steele knows that that political advertising on the internet, radio and television isn’t a new concept. Is he really hoping that putting out a bunch of ads saying the Republican Party isn’t as bad as you think it is will surprise anyone, let alone everyone? I’d be more surprised if the Republican Party didn’t advertise.
“There was underlying concerns we had become too regionalized and the party needed to reach beyond our comfort” zones, he said, citing defeats in such states as Virginia and North Carolina. “We need messengers to really capture that region – young, Hispanic, black, a cross section …
Look, people aren’t stupid–they can figure out if your party’s policies are good or bad for them. Finding minorities to read GOP talking points and/or run for political office won’t in and of itself win the Republican party minority voters, mostly because those voters know that the GOP’s policies are still bad for them.
And Steele should know that people vote on a lot more than just their race. I mean, he was defeated in his run for Senate despite being an African-American in a state with a sizable African-American population. You actually have to work to make people’s lives better in order to earn their support–having the same skin color or ethnic background doesn’t cut it, and it’s pretty insulting to assume that those are all minority voters look at.
We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”
Asked if this venture will be cutting-edge, Steele replied, “I don’t do ‘cutting-edge.’ That’s what Democrats are doing. We’re going beyond cutting-edge.”
First off, “urban” and “suburban” are completely different culturally–you can’t lump them together with a hyphen. More to the point, people tend to have a host of political concerns that have very little to do with what kind of setting they live in.
Second, I can’t think of anything less hip-hop than the Republican Party. I think certified public accountants and and corporate tax attorneys are more hip-hop than the GOP.
More importantly, does anyone realize that the Republican Party has, essentially, a walking gimmick as their chairman? Talking about making your party more “urban-suburban” and “hip-hop” aren’t going to fix anything; they’re band-aids that only paper over the GOP’s real problem: terrible ideas that very few people support anymore.
The problem isn’t the GOP’s advertising, it’s what that advertising is trying to sell. You can have the slickest ads and most well-crafted image in the world, but your sales will still be terrible if your product is garbage. Personally, I wonder how much time the GOP is going to waste focusing on the superficial garbage before they realize that it’s their product itself that needs to change.
UPDATE: Eric Kleefeld hits the nail on the head:
This sort of sounds like a middle-aged man talking to his kids, trying to his utter best to sound as if he’s cool.
UPDATE II: Behold the hip-hop GOP:
Nah, I take that back; that video’s still cooler than the hip-GOP will ever be.
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, House, Media, Polls, Progressives, Senate | Tags: Congress, Economic Stimulus Package, Liz Sidoti, Markos Moulitsas, Republicans, Unemployment
Markos Moulitsas comments on our woefully out-of-touch political press:
You’d think that the Beltway conventional wisdom would reflect the simple reality revealed in the polling: the stimulus legislation was overwhelmingly popular, Obama and congressional Democrats benefited politically from passing it, and Republicans are being punished by popular sentiment for opposing it. Alas, D.C. is located in an entirely different dimension from the real world.
MSNBC’s First Read declared the Republicans winners, because the party “demonstrated unity after its big losses in November.” The Associated Press’s Liz Sidoti risibly wrote, “Adrift after back-to-back electoral losses, they found their voice against a Democratic Speaker and an expanded majority … as they led the effort to define the package as too costly and too quick.” The propagandists at Fox News echoed those sentiments: “Republican lawmakers may turn out to be winners. Most of them voted against the package, and in their largely unified opposition, they found an issue to galvanize the party.”
The problem with the Republican Party isn’t a lack of unity. Conversely, finding unity isn’t going to save the Republican Party. In fact, if anything, the GOP was hurt because they were too unified behind bad policies.
That’s the GOP’s problem–they have bad polices, they have bad ideas. It doesn’t matter how unified they are or aren’t; unifying behind bad ideas is always bad policy.
Did people vote against the GOP in 2006 and 2008 because they were disorganized? No, they voted against the GOP was because Republicans had spent years implementing really poor policies that had disastrous effects.
Lining up behind a bad idea wasn’t a victory for the GOP; in fact, it was the same kind of politics-as-usual that got us into this economic mess to begin with.
But I guess that’s the Republican Party for you: working hard to solve problems nobody had.
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, Media, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine | Tags: Bob Herbert, Congress, Democrats, Don Young, Economic Stimulus Package, Hypocrisy, Job Loss, Jobs, John Mica, Republicans, Unemployment
Bob Herbert reminds us of what the American people care about, which is–coincidentally–what the GOP forgot about in the debate over the economic stimulus package:
Listening to President Obama, I was struck by how well he understands that most voters are not driven by ideology and are not searching for politically orthodox leadership. Most want leaders who speak to their needs — especially in this time of economic crisis — and a government that works.
Republicans in Congress — all but completely united in their effort to build a wall of obstruction in the path of President Obama’s economic revitalization effort — seem to be missing this essential point.
[Emphasis mine]
Government that works.” That’s what the American people are hungering for–government that works. It’s not about liberal or conservative or Democrat or Republican or tax cuts or more spending–it’s about what will fix the economy. That’s why Obama’s message has resonated with tens of millions of people–because he stresses what will work ahead of dogma and ideology.
Republicans have this misguided belief that America is a center-right country and that a lot of the people are doctrinaire conservatives who believe that tax cuts are the way to go and that government spending is socialism. The truth is, when we’re losing a staggering 20,000 jobs per day, the American people don’t care how the government fixes the economy, they just the government to stop the free-fall and get our country back on track again.
Right now the GOP might be busting out the Aerosmith and patting themselves on the back for putting pennies on the tracks in front of the economic stimulus package, but that’s only because they don’t realize that most of the American people aren’t celebrating with them. There’s a reason the GOP echo chamber is so echo-y: it’s mostly empty, most of the American people having abandoned the Republican Party long ago.
UPDATE: Of course, vehemently opposing the stimulus package every step of the way won’t stop Republicans from taking credit for the benefits it will bring:
Rep. John Mica was gushing after the House of Representatives voted Friday to pass the big stimulus plan.
“I applaud President Obama’s recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America’s future,” the Florida Republican beamed in a press release.
Yet Mica had just joined every other GOP House member in voting against the $787.2 billion economic recovery plan.
[...]
But Mica wasn’t alone in touting what he saw as the bill’s virtues. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, also had nice things to say in a press release.
Young boasted that he “won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”
[...]
But nowhere in the Young or Mica statements was any mention that they opposed the bill.
[Emphasis mine]
That’s the GOP for you, as two-faced as ever. They oppose the economic stimulus package en masse, but then turn around and try to take credit when it helps create jobs and improve their districts. Do we need any more proof as to just how craven and hypocritical some parts of the modern Republican Party have become?
If the GOP tries to turn the stimulus into a political liability, every Democrat in the nation should have copies of Mica and Young’s statements in their hands.
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, House, Media, Polls, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Senate | Tags: Democrats, Economic Stimulus Packahe, Fail, Job Creation Bill, Polling, Push Polling, Republican National Committee, Republicans, RNC, Scott Rasmussen
Despite the Republican rhetoric on the economic stimulus package, poll after poll from a variety of polling outfits show nearly identical results: a majority of the American people support the plan, while about a third oppose it, since at least late January:
GALLUP
[2/11] 59% FAVOR / 33% OPPOSE
PEW
[2/8] 51% GOOD IDEA / 34% BAD IDEA
CNN/ORC
[2/8] 54% FAVOR / 45% OPPOSE
GALLUP
[2/5] 52% FAVOR / 38% OPPOSE
CBS NEWS
[2/4] 51% APPROVE / 39% DISAPPROVE
GALLUP
[1/28] 52% FAVOR / 37% OPPOSE
DIAGEO/HOTLINE
[1/24] 54% SUPPORT / 34% OPPOSE
Well, that’s the case for nearly every polling outfit except Rasmussen:
RASMUSSEN
[2/12] 44% SUPPORT / 40% OPPOSE
[2/4] 37% FAVOR / 43% OPPOSE
[1/29] 42% SUPPORT / 39% OPPOSE
Rasmussen’s polls–at least on this issue–are clearly outliers. He constantly undersamples stimulus support and oversamples stimulus opposition. There are only two conclusions to be drawn here: either everyone else is wrong or Scott Rasmussen is not a reliable pollster.
The way his polls skew isn’t surprising–according to the Center for Public Integrity, Rasmussen received nearly $150,000 from the RNC and the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign. Normally I wouldn’t shoot the messenger on something like this–pollsters have to earn a living somehow–but when your polls produce idiosyncratic results that just happen to serve the political interests of your clients, well, that’s cause for some alarm.
Polls don’t just measure public support, they often play a role in forming it. If you look at conservative blog coverage of the stimulus package you’ll find Rasmussen’s polls quoted all over the place while other polls with contradictory results are ignored. It looks like there’s an effort underway to claim–falsely–that the American people don’t support the stimulus.
Plus, Rasmussen has put out some bizarre surveys like this one:
When it comes to the nation’s economic issues, 67% of U.S. voters have more confidence in their own judgment than they do in the average member of Congress.
[...]
Forty-four percent (44%) voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress
[...]
Fifty-eight percent (58%) agree, too, that “no matter how bad things are, Congress can always find a way to make them worse.”
This is dangerously close to push-polling. Plus, it doesn’t say anything about whether people actually support the stimulus package. Thinking you could do a better job than your Congressman (who doesn’t think that) or that Congress “can always find a way to make [things] worse” doesn’t tell us if you support or oppose the legislation before Congress.
What that poll does is imply what the opinions of it’s respondents are without ever just asking them outright, which raises a number of red flags in my mind.
Rasmussen’s polls are outliers. By every reasonable measure, the American people support the economic stimulus package, and do so by anywhere from 10% to 20%. As much as conservatives would like to twist the very fabric of reality to change that one simple fact, the truth cannot be buried, not even by an avalanche of untrustworthy, partisan polls.
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, Media, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine | Tags: Economic Stimulus Package, George Stephanopoulos, Job Creation Bill, Michael Steele, Republican National Committee, RNC, RNC Chair, Stupidity
Recently, newly-minted RNC Chair Michael Steele sat down with George Stephanopoulos and tried to argue against the economic stimulus package. How did it go? Well, see for yourself:
STEELE: You’ve got to look at what’s going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s a job.
STEELE: No, it’s not a job. A job is something that — that a business owner creates. It’s going to be long term. What he’s creating…
STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn’t count if it’s a government job?
(CROSSTALK)
STEELE: Hold on. No, let me — let me — let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we’re talking about have an end point.
As a small-business owner, I’m looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It’s a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I’m — either way, the bottom line is…
STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don’t really understand that distinction.
STEELE: Well, the difference — the distinction is this. If a government — if you’ve got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That’s — there’s no guarantee that that — that there’s going to be more work when you’re done in that job.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we’ve seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.
STEELE: But they come — yes, they — and they come back, though, George. That’s the point. When they go — they’ve gone away before, and they come back.
[Emphasis mine]
First, Steele draws a distinction between “work” and “jobs,” as if there are millions of people who are being paid to do nothing, in anticipation that there will be work for them to do in the future. It’s pretty simple—more work means more jobs.
For instance, if a construction company has 50 employees but receives contract for a job that will require 100 employees, they will hire 50 more people; thus more work creates more jobs, and that’s the type of scenario this stimulus package is designed to create nationwide.
Second, Steele acts like the jobs created by the stimulus package don’t count because they’re not indefinite. By that standard, though, whose job does count? Tens of millions—if not hundreds of millions—of workers across the country could be fired or laid off at any time. Do those jobs not count, either, just because they’re indefinite?
Plus, the jobs created by the stimulus are designed to be temporary—we can’t have millions of people earning government salaries for the rest of their lives, after all. The point of the stimulus is to spur economic growth so that, when those temporary jobs end, there will be other newly-created jobs those workers can move into. The point of the economic stimulus package is, after all, to stimulate the economy, yet Steele pretends a nearly-$1 trillion investment in the economy won’t have any effect on economic growth.
Third, Steele claims that we shouldn’t even worry about losing jobs because “they come back.” Well, the reason why the job we lose “come back” at the end of a recession is because, when we enter a recession and start bleeding jobs, the government steps in and does something about it. In fact, we have a host of monetary and economic policies we can implement in order to create jobs again, one of those being economic stimulus packages like this one. Again, Steele is assuming that the economy exists in a vacuum and that the federal government doesn’t affect it, which is patently absurd.
In light of this, maybe Steele shouldn‘t have scrapped the RNC’s plans to develop a policy think tank–it’s going to be a long couple of years for him if this gibberish is the best he can come up with.
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, Media, Polls, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Senate | Tags: Approval, CBS News, Congress, Democrats, Disapproval, Economic Stimulus Package, Favorability, Gallup, Job Creation Bill, Numbers, Polling, Republicans, Stupidity, Unfavorability, USA Today
A new Gallup poll shatters the Republican talking point that the economic stimulus package is unpopular and that Obama has hurt himself by supporting it:
So two-thirds of the American people approve of how Obama is handling the stimulus package, while nearly 60% disapprove of how the GOP has handled it. Who would have thought that working to get something done is more popular than obstructionism?
A full 80% of the American people believe the stimulus package is important, with 51% saying it’s critically important; that aligns with a February 4th CBS News Poll showing the stimulus package with 51% approval and 39% disapproval, as well as a February 4th USA Today/Gallup poll showing that 52% favor it and 38% oppose it.
Pollster has Obama’s job approval at 61.7% and disapproval at 25.5%; they show his favorability at 69.1% and his unfavorability at just 24%.
The American people support the economic stimulus package, they support President Obama, but they vehemently oppose the right’s culture of obstruction.
Filed under: Breaking, Conservatives, Economics, Government, Media, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Senate | Tags: Breaking, Congress, Democrats, Economic Stimulus Package, Job Creation Bill, Obstructionism, Republicans, Roadblock Republicans
CNN is reporting that Democrats and Republicans have agreed to a final version of the job creation bill that will total $780 billion dollars.
Reid is currently taking the new bill to the Democratic caucus for review; the Senate is scheduled to reconvene in about a half hour.
Maybe we can get this bill passed before Republican obstructionism costs us another 20,000 jobs per day…
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, House, Media, Polls, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Senate | Tags: CBS News, Congress, Democrats, Economic Stimulus Package, Fail, Gallup, Job Creation Bill, Numbers, Rasmussen Reports, Republican National Committee, Republicans, RNC, Scott Rasmussen, USA Today
A few days ago I warned that Rasmussen polls on the stimulus package appeared to be outliers. Rasmussen has consistently pegged public support for the stimulus at lower levels than any other polling outfit (and it’s worth noting that Scott Rasmussen is a Republican pollster who has been paid nearly $150,000 by the RNC).
And as it turns out, I was right. Here are the results of the dubious Rasmussen poll in regards to the stimulus package:
Rasmussen: 37% FAVOR / 43% OPPOSE
And here are the results of two other polls taken at about the same time:
CBS News: 51% APPROVE / 39% DISAPPROVE
USA Today/Gallup: 52% FAVOR / 38% OPPOSE
By every indication, Scott Rasmussen’s polls are outliers. No other polling agency is confirming the results that Rasmussen is finding; according to USA Today/Gallup, the number of people favoring the stimulus package remains unchanged from January 27th.
Yet, conservatives will tout the Rasmussen poll while ignoring every other survey, crowing about how the American people oppose the stimulus in order to validate their opposition to it. The GOP appears to be living in an echo chamber, listening only to those who agree with them and shutting out all dissent. For weeks, poll after poll has shown that more Americans support the stimulus than oppose it, yet you wouldn’t know that by listening to the Republican’s rhetoric.
The GOP opposes the recovery package at their own peril. When millions of Americans have new jobs thanks to that legislation, they will know that the Democratic Party made it possible while the Party of No tried to keep them on the unemployment lines.
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, Media, Polls, Right-Wing Noise Machine | Tags: Budget, Economic Stimulus Package, Numbers, Polling, Republicans
Is the economic stimulus package losing support?
Conservatives are pointing to a Rasmussen Reports poll–released yesterday–saying that 42% approve of the stimulus while 39% are opposed; that’s a drop from their prior poll–released on January 21–showing 45% approval and 34% disapproval.
That’s a drop, yes, but not a very big drop–3% in one direction and 5% in the other doesn’t really tell us very much. It’s just as likely that those shifts are due to statistical noise than to any actual shift in public opinion.
Plus, the Rasmussen polls aren’t aligning with other polls on this issue. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released on the 15th shows 58% support and 40% opposition. A Diageo/Hotline poll released on the 24th shows 54% support and 34% opposition. And a Gallup poll released on the 27th shows 52% support and 37% opposition.
So, we can take two points away from this: first, one poll doesn’t make a trend and right now there is no statistically significant evidence showing that public support for the stimulus is dropping. Second, Rasmussen doesn’t appear to be in line with other polls on this issue–their January 21st poll had support for the stimulus in the mid-40% range, while nearly every other survey from around that same time showed support somewhere in the mid-50% range, therefore making the results of their latest poll similarly questionable.
Don’t get me wrong, maybe there is a trend emerging here. But it’s really to early to tell, and seeing so many Republicans jump all over one poll–while ignoring a host of others–reeks of desperation to me.
Filed under: Breaking, Corruption, Government, Governors, Media, Progressives, Scandal | Tags: Democrats, Illinois, Illinois Lieutenant Governor, Illinois Senate, Impeachment, Pat Quinn, Rod Blagojevich
The Illinois Senate just voted to remove Governor Rod Blagojevich from office, 59-0.
Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn will now be sworn in as the 41st Governor of Illinois.
UPDATE: They also voted 59-0 to bar Blagojevich from ever holding elected office in Illinois again.
