More Sniping From The Sore Loser Party

Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Even to me it's starting to look over the top. The Republicans really have nothing better to do than just sit around sniping at Obama, while he goes about trying to get his job done-- much of it cleaning up the catastrophic mess they left in their wake. And by catastrophic mess, I don't just mean the recession or depression. Bush and his congressional rubber stamps also left the state of foreign affairs in turmoil. You've probably heard Cheney snarling and growling on TV about how Obama is making the country less safe. And Obama's push against corporate tax cheats today-- the financial foundation of the Republican Party-- has set them all off on the warpath again, and in every direction. Gingrich was bellowing that Obama is endangering Israel, while the Republicans plot strategies to derail whomever Obama nominates for the Supreme Court, and congressional Republicans continue to obstruct every single initiative Obama takes. On Friday, for example, every senior GOP leader-- Boehner, Cantor, Sensenbrenner, Dreier, Bachus, Ryan-- voted against the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights Act, even though more than half the Republican backbenchers crossed the aisle and voted with the Democrats, more frightened-- for a change-- of their own constituents than of their bankster paymasters.

But the right-wing extremists aren't going to go down without a fight, even if it means turning off every voter who doesn't live in a backward district of the Old Confederacy or every voter who doesn't get all his opinions directly from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly or Ann Coulter. And they have a leader: South Carolina obstructionist Jim DeMint, one of 25 Republican senators proud to be zeroes. They're referred to as "the zeroes" because that's the number of times each of them has voted for any of Obama's important initiatives. Of course they include die-hard radical rightists like Jim Bunning (R-KY), Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Richard Burr (R-NC), each of whom is likely to lose his seat to a Democrat next year, but also included are the frightened and cowardly little pissants like Robert Bennett (R-UT) and John McCain (R-AZ) who are voting the obstructionist line because they are more scared about losing primaries to teabagger Know Nothings.

Meanwhile, though, DeMint is demanding absolute right-wing purity. It was his support for neo-fascist Pat Toomey against Arlen Specter that pushed Specter to leave the GOP and start making believe he's a Democrat. DeMint said he was happy to be rid of Specter-- who could blame him?-- and that he'd "rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.” DeMint's definitions of these things, of course, would lead directly back to an aristocracy based on slavery. They screamed that FDR was a socialist when he introduced Social Security-- which every single Republican in the House opposed and voted against-- and today when Obama is trying to level the playing field for ordinary working families, DeMint and his fanatic followers are calling him a socialist.

DeMint, who is completing his first term in the Senate after serving in the House from 1999 to 2005, pushed back against the idea that demanding more adherence to conservative principles would hurt the party. “I’ve been criticized for saying I’d rather have 30 Republicans that believe in something than 60 who don’t believe in anything,” DeMint said. “My point is, the only way we’ll get a majority is to have Republicans who are here stand up for something.”

As a House member in 2004, DeMint backed Toomey in his first primary bid against Specter, who narrowly won. DeMint said he had promised in March to back Toomey again in 2010.

On April 14, the day after Toomey left his job at the Club for Growth to pursue a campaign, the club endorsed the 2010 re-election bid of DeMint, who received a 100 percent rating last year from the group. The club also endorsed Toomey.

DeMint’s tactics drew a muted response from colleagues.

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Senate Republican Conference chairman, said he likes President Ronald Reagan’s so-called 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”
“It’s still a good commandment,” Alexander said. But he stopped short of criticizing DeMint. “I’m not going to make rules for other Republicans,” he said.

DeMint defended his break with Senate tradition: “These are desperate times. The party . . . needs for senators to stand up for principles and speak out.”

But the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, John Cornyn of Texas, had vowed not to follow DeMint’s lead in backing primary challengers to sitting Republicans.

So... while the Republicans fight among each other and work doggedly to shrink their party down to some kind of secessionist base of brain-washed purists, and plot with Fox "News" and hate talk radio poobahs to undermine Obama, he and his administration are going full speed ahead implementing the program he campaigned on. Which absolutely drives the rightists even more insane and more obstructionist and destructive, which in turn will continue to turn off more and more mainstream voters. Today SUSA released presidential job approval ratings for several states. The first number is the percentage Obama got in November and the second number is his job approval rating today.

Alabama- 39%..... 48%
California- 61%.... 69%
Georgia- 47%....... 54%
Iowa- 54%............ 59%
Kansas- 42%......... 44%
Kentucky- 41%...... 52%
Minnesota- 54%..... 63%
Missouri- 49%........ 57%
New Mexico- 57%... 63%
New York- 63%...... 73%
Oregon- 57%......... 58%
Virginia- 53%......... 57%
Washington- 58%... 64%
Wisconsin- 56%...... 56%

It must suck being a Republican strategist.


UPDATE: Sore Losers All Whining That Nancy Pelosi Isn't Nice To Them

How soon they forget how the Republican-dominated Congress was run! I mean has anyone called the cops on any Republicans or shut them out of meeting rooms? In a survey conducted by The Hill among members of Congress, Speaker Pelosi was judged to be the most partisan Democrat.

Asked to describe the qualities that define a partisan, one member said, “The ones who are extreme ideologues, who are not open at all and have a narrow view of how Congress should work.”

Many Republicans criticized Pelosi’s style of running the House, contrasting the Speaker with President Obama, who has attracted praise from GOP officials for his inclusiveness.

“The Speaker doesn’t meet with Republicans,” a Republican lawmaker said.

“Nancy Pelosi has not been very friendly to me,” another GOP member said. “I tried to visit her and I have had trouble with that. I know she is busy … but it is difficult.”

“The Speaker honestly doesn’t like Republicans,” a third House Republican lawmaker said.

On the other hand, Democrats voted most often for unreconstructed obstructionists for the Deep South, Tom Price (R-GA), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and closet queen Patty McHenry (R-NC), as well as delusional motormouth Michele Bachmann (R-MN)-- but even Republicans wish she'd shut up and leave Congress to the adults.