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Democrats just seem to be missing the negotiating gene.
Yesterday someone told me about a Senator who was going to trade their vote away on the tax cut bill — which they deeply oppose — in exchange for the right to have a symbolic vote they knew they would lose.
Made me want to put my head through a window.
Or, at least invite them over for a game of poker.
Harry Reid spent what — $25 million dollars? Like three times as much money as anyone has ever spent in a Nevada political race, to beat a complete mutant. Maybe the worst political candidate of all time.
Now everyone’s running around like it was the biggest Democratic victory of 2010. And you know what’s worse? It was.
49 Comments
Keep your sense of humor. It’ll get a bit darker as time goes on, but that’s healthy.
What’s the saying about “interesting times?” What you do, Jane, is important, although there have to be days when rolling over and pulling the covers over your head has to be appealing.
Ferguson’s hillarious!
It’s been Jack and the Bean Stalk over and over again with this batch of Dems.
And the Dems know that magic beans do not win elections. But perhaps they are expecting a repeat of Tabart’s tale:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk
In our revised tale, Jack is a Democrat who sells the Republic for a few beans, much to his electorates annoyance. The beans are magical and grow into a stalk that reaches the sky. Jack climbs it, discovers a strange land called Wallstreet. Jack soon meets a giant named Phil Gramm who offers him a cushy job.
There was a blogger here once–what was his name…he used to run the blog diary section prior to it’s current incarnation…anyway, he termed the Reid reelection effort as absolutely brilliant, and supremely competent. Damn. I’ve forgotten his name entirely.
Anyway, congratulations to Harry for winning a squeaker over the Mutant. So inspirationsl.
And while I’m ranting and wasting everyone’s time, congrats on surviving another O’Donnell show. It may have been bad, but at least he didn’t haul out an old “West Wing” script and read it to you on the air.
the biggest part of the problem as i see it, is that Dems (especially in the Senate, a lot of the Blue Dog SOB’s were taken care of by the Nov election) really believe in the neo-liberal, pro-corporate Reagan kool-aide. Since the DLC, New democrats, and the Third Way have taken over leadership of FDR’s party, Dems since Clinton share the same ideology as their republican opponents: government is the problem, taxes are always bad, and the market is always right.
We are so fucked if we can’t: (a) get the Dems to return back to being We The People’s advocate, or (b) forging a viable third party that represents the interests of the working and middle classes.
“Yesterday someone told me about a Senator who was going to trade their vote away on the tax cut bill — which they deeply oppose — in exchange for the right to have a symbolic vote they knew they would lose.”
and for those (few, very few) Dems in Congress that actually share our values (demonstrated by Jane’s observation above, thanks you Jane) but lack the balls to fight for them…we don’t need the spineless bastards anyway.
You are missing something. Given the economy in Nevada, Reid shouldn’t have been re-elected. He would have gotten crushed by a sane Republican. But the Republicans decided to nominate one of two insane nutjobs.
BTW Angle is still lurking, zombie-like. Reid’s $25Mil semi-squeaker only made her someone else’s problem.
Democrats just seem to be missing the negotiating gene.
I blame real estate. Real estate agents learn to negotiate and they are almost all Republicans.
How could anyone who wasn’t a Republican stand to do that job?
Jane, I’d like to know your opinion of Barbara Boxer. I would have thought our two high-profile California elections – Boxer and Brown over the corporate millions of Fiorina and Whitman – were the biggest Democratic victories of 2010, even though they may not have drawn as much attention as the Obtuse Angle because they weren’t polling surprises and were no longer close races by election day.
I’m already painfully aware of what Dianne Feinstein is – her call for the prosecution of Julian Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917 was merely the icing on the cake, especially after her endorsement of the Catfood Commission “report” – but Boxer puzzles me. Is she just the better-disguised twin of Feinstein, or is she really about as good as corporate-friendly liberals get?
Basically, since Reid does such a good job for the corporatists, they decided to run a phoney nut job against him to make sure no viable candidate – one with enough common sense to see through the corporate BS – could replace him.
In short, they undermined the populist revolt that was boiling up in Nevada. Just like they did in 2008 by pitting Obama against McCain. It’s all Kabuki Theater.
We need to start getting serious around here about finding progressive candidates. Not just to primary Obama, but to primary for every Blue Dog seat the Dems just lost the last election cycle. And for every other seat we possibly can.
Until we primary these worthless Dems outta office, the corporatists are going to keep control. And with the Earth getting more and more uninhabitable for the human species, we need to act fast and with urgency and fatalistic determination. Because it isn’t just politics anymore, it’s the survival of the human race at stake.
Yep I agree with both comments and Thanks for the Laugh sadly enough.
–Mod Note: Violent imagery though fleeting is discouraged.–
Ran into this Zero Hedge, sad but this might be what it takes.
Republicans are making Obama their bitch? I think Craig’s writers are reading FDL. I think I should get royalties :)
” Yesterday someone told me about a Senator who was going to trade their vote away on the tax cut bill — which they deeply oppose — in exchange for the right to have a symbolic vote they knew they would lose.” No quotes thing or tool bar Jane
Anyway why negotiate the right to fail? Obama and the Dems seem to have already won that right from the GOP.
The Late Nite Comedians are going after Obama? The Dems know the Left that still supports Obama love those shows. I predict a big falling off in Obama support in a few months among the Obamabots.
In order to consider Obama a poor negotiator in all this you have to assume he is actually unhappy with the outcome .
From everything I have seen to date , the man is more than happy to do the bidding of the rich and the corporations at the expence of the rest of us .
Unfortunately with very few exceptions , this is true of virtually everyone in Washington.
Personally, I was pulling for the mutant over the corrupt wholly-owned sellout. She’d dwarf Palin both in entertainment value and in how rapidly her scandals would engulf her.
Harry’s just another damn enabler.
Great Link:) Jo6pac
Before Bush a $1.25 would buy you a gallon of gas today $2.50 won’t get you a gallon of gas sure the rich own as Joe^pac’s link says most of the assets and get most of the income.
But these morons don’t seem to realize that the dollars they own buy half of what they did ten years ago.
Obama does not seem to get it tax cuts for the rich mean that the rich have more money to outsource jobs. Case in point just look at all the jobs we lost during the Bush years.
Along with negotiating skills I think the Dems need an economics for dummies book.
Sorry, not someone else’s problem. She’s our country’s problem along with O’Donnell (both the male and female aspect), Paladino. and the rest of the traitorous right-wing fringe nuts.
I love Obtuse Angle! Gave me a huge laugh. thanks
The Ds understand economics perfectly well. They just look at who donates to their campaigns.
I thought right when it came out with Summers that I read an article quoting Summers saying that ALL the tax cuts had to be extended or else the economy would collapse. Unfortunately I read the article at work, so wasn’t able to post to here it here and since that time I haven’t been able to find it, but it has since come out that others in the Obama admin had said that ALL the tax cuts would have to be extended or else the economy would collapse.
It doesn’t seem like there was any negotiation at all, but Obama just got a bunch of corporatists in a backroom and asked them what they wanted and then he said “OK” and that was the extent of the negotiation.
Ugh.
Rachel Maddow has already gone back to rolling out the Republicans (crazies, wrong, “the right”) vs the Democrats (fact-based, right, “the left”).
In other words, she’s already gone back to cheerleading for and giving cover to the
Democratsweaklings, sellouts, enablers based on the argument that “the right” bad, “the left” good.Seriously? Rachel needs to get a clue.
Jane thanks for all the things you do, keep up the fight and also humor because it keeps life in balance.
Pres. Thomas Jefferson would have been proud of you if he was around right now. In my opinion looking at the facts and by logical reasoning worst is yet to come. What I mean by that is as follows:
Middle Class Decimation Initiation: NAFTA (Pres. Clinton, 1994)
Kleptocratic Seed Planting: Glass Stegall Act Repeal, Derivatives out of govt. oversight (Pres Clinton, Dec 1999)
Kleptocratic Run: GWB with 2008 bailout Drama with short sell rule convieniently removed in 2007, mixing of all funds insurance and investment done intently.
Wealth Transfer: GWB & Pres. Obama, 2008 to 2010, Fed money exchange for asset IOUs (To check IOU worth see Dumb and Dumber movie what IOUs were).
Plutocracy: Pres. Obama legalizing the wealth transfer with proposed lower tax rates.
Feudal System: Works well with no middle class and poor class without any safety system.
Social Security Safety Net: Proposed payroll holiday. Stealth mode to reduce savings Pot if one cannot decimate it. Total control of the economy in wall street.
Individual Mandates for AHIP & Pharma: To scoop up any savings left and tool to introduce pain if needed.
Regressive Taxation: Tax Overhaul Project. Expect the worst proposal of all VAT taxes to show up and expect President signing it 2012. That is the goal of this project. Look at any third world country in the world right now and you will see VAT taxes is the reason why there are stuck there in third world state.
Strife in Middle Class: Expect whatever left in the country to be scooped up by Sen. Reids Gambling Act if Conservatives are brave enough to vote for this most horrific piece which forces people to violate ten commandments and do things they are not used to due to the addiction.
How to control strife when Middle class see the duplicity unfolding.
Mr. Pistoles Police State (TSA version) extended everywhere where human dignity and self-respect are violated at will.
Solution is simple. Pres. Jefferson fought against these human weakness and succeeded. If he did not and the founding fathers divided colonies among themselves as feudal owners America thriving as a country would not have existed right now. So solution is fighting for what is right and BTW we saw one Senator Mr. Bernie Sanders doing just that today. It is a fight every generation has to fight for itself because people have the weakness for Power over others and tendency for Easy life at expense of others. It is ever present. I remember Albert Einstein indirect quote regarding this which set me thinking on this.
OMG! That sounds like an income source! It’s a way out of the recession!
Millions of Americans should immediately begin posting here.
They had a liberal weenie fest at the White House today I heard.
If they keep this up instead of leading the most powerful nation on earth they will be running a third world country. But yes they will still be rich.
BTW. I recommend everyone if he or she has few moments reading about Pres. Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Gandhi, Thoreau, Paine, Martin Luther King etc quotes. They fought bigger battles and succeeded than what we are seeing right now. Their quotes might suggest ideas on how to tackle current problems and everyone can have a peaceful, happy and more fulfilling life and at the least will give you all positive energy and cheer up your rest of the day.
I do not believe this is merely a matter of poor negotiating.
Recall, if you will, the sudden rise of Barrack Hussein Obama and his quick ascent to the throne.
A constitutional law professor seemingly made to fit, right down to his middle name, at the time of the worst constitutional crisis in our nations history .
Introduced to the nation at the democratic national convention, the man never even completed a term as senator before clinching the democratic nomination for President. Pretty slick.
Remember FISA ?
Along side the other contenders for the democratic choice for president he pledged not to allow retroactive immunity for the telecoms.
The FISA laws would have locked up Bush officials and anyone caught spying on American citizens for something like a million years and this was seen by progressives as the best chance of restoring what had been destroyed under Bush and bringing those responsible for dismantling our rights to justice .
Then just shortly after receiving the nomination, surprise, a complete about face on our best chance at restoring democracy in America.
But he would still stand firm for the constitution in the courts or so we were told .
Well we now know that he has defended all the powers he inherited from Bush and even expanded his evil footprint claiming even the right to assassinate Americans abroad and essentially eliminating Miranda.
This has been, from the onset , a very involved con job by people responsible for the deaths of 100s of 1000s of innocents who have no compassion for the average man here or abroad and who run the government and both parties.
It may make you feel good to believe that petitions and running progressive candidates in the primaries will change this ,but may I suggest that that is rather naive.
I believe that without a popular uprising and direct confrontation en masse with the people who hold our stings, which remains entirely non violent so as to prevent the excuse to use all those nifty new laws we now have we will never see any change meaningful enough to address the dire situation our nation and planet find themselves in .
Good luck out there.
Love it Jane,
Obama is the Republican’s B****.
But why does this guy need a laugh track ? He’s got good enough material.
How many times does Upton Sinclair’s quote need to be stated?
“You can’t expect someone to know something when their paycheck is dependent on them not knowing.”
i caught msnbc this afternoon and the tone was noticebly different. like they had ed shultz on thorazine.
If LBJ had Obama’s negotiating skills blacks today would have the right to drink from public fountains.
I think Rachel Maddow gets the credit for that one – or maybe it was Keith Olbermann. As serious as their subject matter is, they often manage to make their shows hilariously funny. There’s no humor like gallows humor – and sometimes (as with the Catfood Commission) ridicule is the best answer.
Give Rachel a break. She just interviewed Bahati. What shape would you be in after interviewing someone who was trying to pass genocidal legislation against a group to which you belong? (I don’t believe Bahati when he says he would be happy to have the death penalty provision of the bill taken out; he’s been disingenuous about other parts of the backstory already.)
I also think Rachel is right about false equivalences between Left and Right in the mainstream media. It didn’t at all interpret it as meaning that she’s ready to cheer for Obama.
Love it when ya talk dirty (politics) Ma’am . .
*G*
Way to call it for what it is.
No, actually I wasn’t missing that.
“I also think Rachel is right about false equivalences between Left and Right in the mainstream media. It didn’t at all interpret it as meaning that she’s ready to cheer for Obama.”
Her decision to pick that totally insignificant aspect of the story says much. Instead of focusing on the Sanders message, she largely ignored the content of his day-long rant and shifted instead to this non-issue of equivalence.
Behind that camera is a studio audience, not a laugh track. Ferguson mocks them endlessly, along with the warm-up comedian. Thanks for posting this clip, Jane. I laughed out loud when I saw it “live.”
It makes me sad that some of the only non-conservative media personalities keep acting as little more than White House cheerleaders.
One little blip, one night, of unvarnished words speaking truth to power, and then the return to approved talking points and finger-pointing. My feeling is that this is done as a way to buy time, to silence the progressive left, to put us back into wait-and-see mode for a time. It gives the kabuki dancer time to change costumes.
I recall this pattern during previous legislative dances.
That’s exactly what makes a great leader; unprincipled, incessant capitulation, secretive, lying and blaming others, presenting false choices and rationalizations.
Yeah, you don’t have to know anything to get paid. You don’t have to do anything to get paid. And you get to use other people’s money for all of it. You do have to be persistent.
Rachel thinks false equivalences are very important. So do I. She’s often stressed this issue before in other contexts. So have I. It doesn’t at all mean that either of us will ever go back to cheering for Obama.
Jane thanks for all the things you do, yours is a wonderful brain and face for the left. I love your TV appearances – even when we disagree and indeed are 180 degrees apart on an issue, I know that where you are going is the same place I want to get to.
Love your humor – in these days of fait accompli by the rich via Obama, we can still laugh and go on to the next fight.
Thanks for the laugh. I like your version better.