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Piddling while the nation burns

Submitted by NextRightNando on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 12:32

Our country is facing the most severe economic crisis in our nation's history.

What are the Congressional Republican's focusing on? Bringing down the Democrat's popularity numbers.

Quoting Greg Sargent:

GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key player in helping craft the Republican message, has offered an unusually blunt description of the Republican strategy right now.McHenry’s description is buried in this new article from National Journal (sub. only):“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”McHenry’s spokesperson, Brock McCleary, tells me his boss is standing by the quote.

Idiot. Prize idiot.

 

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Which is the same thing

Submitted by ddemilo on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 13:36.

the House Democrats did from 2000-2006, when they had no ability to set the agenda in the House, or pass any of their own legislation. Pelosi has tightened the rules even more to deepen her control.

Disappointing.

Voters aren't going to take kindly

Submitted by NextRightNando on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 14:10.

This shouldn't need saying, but: voters aren't going to take kindly to politicians who define their goal as taking down the opposition. Their goal should be to fix the huge mess we are in. Just becasue they are in opposition doesn't mean they can't be constructive - and if they can't get the Democrats to take up their constructive ideas, they can go over their heads and appeal to the nation. That is leadership. This guy thinks that sniping from the sidelines is what it takes to put them back in power in 2010. Well, newsflash: "throw the bums out" isn't going to work when the public understands that "the bums" inherited a thicket of complex problems and two years isn't enough to fix them all, expecially when the opposition isn't offering any ideas of its own.

Agree about sniping

Submitted by ddemilo on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 17:48.

...but the opposition has plenty of ideas -- a variety of tax cuts and incentives have been proposed, structured bankruptcy for GM, fixing mark-to-market accoutning rules, etc. They were dismissed out of hand. The Stimulus Bill and the Budget were written by a few Democrats, and thanks to Peloisi's new rules, the minority cannot introduce amendments to submitted bills. Or did you miss that one?

Republicans dominated the airwaves during the stimulus debate

Submitted by NextRightNando on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 19:42.

During the debate over the stimulus Republicans outnumbered Democrats by more than 2 to 1 on the cable news shows. The net effect was to reduce their approval numbers even further. Pretty clear evidence that if you do have "plenty of ideas", they are either very bad ideas, or no one is actually expressing them to the American people.

Case in point: first item on your list was "a variety of tax cuts". Even people with only casual knowledge about economics have the gut feeling that this supply-side solution is a curious prescription for a severe demand-side problem. The promise of tax cuts is no longer a silver bullet guaranteeing electoral popularity. So you can't just say "tax cut!" - how much, for whom, and why???

NBC/WSJ poll last week:

"Is it your impression that Republicans who have opposed Barack Obama's economic proposals have a plan of their own for turning the economy around, or not?"

  • Have a plan = 31%
  • Do not = 58%
  • Unsure = 11%

 

 

Sorry NRN, can't hang with you on this.

Submitted by artigiano on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 16:24.

I'm not ready to turn in my liberal card. But, I've got to defend on this one. Sounds to me like we might be pulling McHenry a bit out of context here.

He was probably responding to an interview question about the GOP's chance of passing any legislation of their own. We all know the chances are zero, and his answer was probably just a recognition of that harsh reality. The second part about winning the message war, is just trying to make lemonade out of lemons with the follow up portion of the answer.

I don't believe for a minute that he was saying that the GOP had made a conscious choice to reject all legislative aims in favor of making a massive PR campaign their primary focus. McHenry probably should have said, "One of our goals," instead of, "Our goal". His choice of words there was probably just inartful.

And I don't mean in the M.C. Steele sense of the word, where you tell the truth that you should have kept to yourself. It's no secret that the GOP is going after Pelosi and the house Dems. Obama is an untouchable rockstar, and Reid is so "not there" that punching him is like fighting a pile of shave cream.

The GOP needs Pelosi because she will fight back. Just like Dr. King needed George Wallace. They could have taken the civil rights struggle to any one of a dozen states. Alabama was a tactically chosen battleground, where victory was assured from day one.

Please note that Sargent gave him the opportunity

Submitted by NextRightNando on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 17:09.

Please note that Sargent gave him the opportunity to clarify, and he declined - doesn't sound like a man who thinks he's been taken out of context.