The Problem Really Is That Which Is Most Basic About Right Wing Parties-- So Good Luck With The Post-Partisan Shtik

Clyburn (left) calls a spade a spade

President Post-Partisan had congressional leaders over to the White House for a meeting about his stimulus package yesterday. It was an opportunity for McConnell, Kyl, Boehner and Cantor to gripe and whine about Democratic solutions to the problems that have been caused by Republican dogma and failed Bush era policy. They basically want more of the same. (If you think I'm exaggerating, be sure and check out the Update on this post from the NRCC which boldly claims that "Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust and job creation is strong.")

President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning-- but he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations. "I won," Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation.

The right wing talking point, parroted today by Boehner, is "Government can't solve this problem." It's a tune they never change. The Republican Party does all it can to degrade government-- by purposely driving out and starving out the most talented people-- and replacing them with political hacks (think in terms of that horse groomer Bush had in charge of FEMA when Hurricane Katrina hit; that was not just a bad coincidence). A Republican Party mantra has long been "Personnel is Policy."

In his brilliant new book, The Wrecking Crew-- How Conservatives Rule, Thomas Frank talks about the GOP's "hostility to talent" and how devastating that has been for government.

It is a basic principle of conservatism-- an axiom, a cornerstone, an immutable law of human nature, world history, and all the planets and stars-- that turning over government operations to private business is the most efficient way to get things done. In reality, the conservatives' outsourcing system has been a ripoff of such massive proportions that it deserves a Grace Commission all its own. In each of the Bush administration's great initiatives-- antiterrorism, the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and the administration of Iraq-- privatized government has played a starring role and has proven itself a gold-plated botch... shielded from oversight and accountability.

...The chief consequence of the conservatives' unrelenting faith in the badness of government is... bad government... When the Chamber of Commerce called for "inefficiency in government" and when Doug Bandow wrote that we ought to "keep the very best people out," they did so because they objected to the meddlesome things government did; keeping government shorthanded and ineffective was explicitly seen as a way to keep government from doing those things. To you it may seem like a bad idea for the USDA to cut way back on food inspectors-- especially in this age of mad cow and toxic spinach [and poisonous peanut butter]-- but it is a wonderful idea when seen from the perspective of the food processors, who can run their assembly lines as if it's the nineteenth century all over again.

And not only are they not held accountable in any way, ever, neither is John Boehner and his gang of Republican thugs or the scummy Blue Dogs who countenance-- for a price-- this attack on American working families.

At least Obama seems to be getting the symbolic things right. I was very happy to see that he reversed another heinous Bush agenda item, the Mexico City policy, signing "an executive order Friday striking down a rule prohibiting U.S. money from funding international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion services."