GOP Strategy For A Takeover In November: Let Them-- Meaning Us-- Eat Fake

Will a strategy of concerted dishonesty backfire on them?

If Republican activists sniff out even a whiff of rational behavior on their side of the aisle, their wrath knows no bounds. New York Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava is writing a book about it. And Tennessee junior Senator Bob Corker is learning to perfect his backpedal... fast. Only dangerously clueless Republicans in Washington-- a Virginia Foxx (R-NC) or Paul Broun (R-GA), maybe a Trent Franks (R-AZ) or drugged-up John Sullivan (R-OK)-- actually believe, for example, that healthcare reform legislation is going to be repealed. But for a Republican to say that out loud... well, that drives extremists insane(r).

That's just what Corker did-- as did Republican Representative and wanna-be senator Mark Kirk, runnin' scared North Carolina kook Richard "Bank Run" Burr and even Miss McConnell. Teabaggers, John Birchers, Fox viewers and Hate Talk Radio fans went bonkers-- at that and Corker's signal that he might cooperate with the Democrats on Wall Street reform (I guess in the teabaggy world hatred of colored presidents' agendas trumps hatred even of banksters), and Corker retreated unceremoniously.

Naturally, this left some folks mighty ticked off. So now Corker’s gotten on the phone with the Weekly Standard to clarify. Sort of.

Corker told the Standard he only meant that repeal can’t happen next year, not that it can never happen. “It’s an issue of simple math,” Corker said, adding that as long as Obama is president, “it takes 67 votes in the Senate for that to occur.”

But, tellingly, when asked by the Standard if he would commit to supporting repeal in 2012 if a Republican is elected President, he demurred.

All of which is to say that the folks pushing for repeal are signaling that they’re going to keep this crusade going for years to come. Here, for instance, is another writer suggesting that Republicans might be able to repeal Obamacare in the year 2014 if they develop large enough Congressional majorities.

Rational Republicans, like Corker, can't have it both ways. They either have to drink the Kool-Aid completely and start drooling and declaring Obama was born in Indonesia or Kenya or Mexico or they'll be driven out of the Party of Hatred and Bigotry. So while most Americans were feeling a bit of cheer over a glimmer at the end of the Bush Recession tunnel and at the marked reversal in the unemployment outlook today (even some teabaggers might be able to understand that graph below), Republican activists were busy re-enacting an updated Civil War by putting up anti-Obama billboards, filled with invective and covered with right-wing fairy tales and socialism and war in the Atlanta Metro Area.


Republican elected officials are all about fake outrage and their grassroots activists-- what we call teabaggers-- have embraced it wholeheartedly. This could backfire come November. Last night Rachel Maddow gave a great explanation of the phenomenon. The first half of the tape below is about what she terms "the unmooring of politics from facts," in this case how the right destroyed Acorn and almost destroyed climate science. It leads to this, "Let Them Eat Fake":

When Republicans complain that President Obama is using recess appointments they're faking it. Because if they really have a real concern about recess appointments, they wouldn't have been fine with them when George W. Bush used them. The recess appointments outrage is bull. Republicans are faking their outrage about their being an individual mandate in health reform too. It's a Republican idea. Republicans are faking their outrage over terrorism suspects being read their Miranda rights. They had no problem with that when it was done by the previous administration. That fake outrage is bull. Same goes with the Republican outrage over civilian trials for terrorism suspects. If you weren't outraged over the shoe bomber getting a civilian trial, that's proof that your purported outrage over the underpants bomber getting a civilian trial is bull. Republicans are faking their outrage over the Stimulus. You can tell because when they go to their home districts they admit that it's working great. Their Washington outrage over the Stimulus bill is bull. The anti-Acorn crusade was bull. Climategate was bull. Repealing healthcare reform is bull. The lawsuits against health reform are bull. The death panels: bull. The president is secretly foreign and doesn't have a birth certificate: bull. Fear of the census is bull. Supposed threats to end the Second Amendment: bull. The claims that thousands of armed IRS agents are going to be storm troopers to enforce health reform... it's bull. The Administration taking away the right to go fishing... it's bull...

Rachel loves an argument, loves debate and insists it's healthy for the country, but she points out that there are "two things that disqualify you from this process: you can't threaten to shoot people, and you have to... stop... making... stuff... up."