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The President has apparently come to the conclusion that the current version of the Senate is worthless.
One administration official told POLITICO that Obama was so dispirited after his Nov. 18 meeting with the Democratic leadership that he decided, then and there, to place his faith in direct talks with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“The point is the House and Senate [leadership] has proven they are incapable of getting things done,” the official said.
I don’t see the basis for the snotty comment about House Leadership. If Nancy Pelosi had not whipped her troops, Obama wouldn’t be able to tout anything on health care or any other issue. She kept pushing when he was ready to give up. On the tax mess, she passed the bill he says he wants. Why snot at her?
But, like everyone who is paying attention, and especially those who pay campaign contributions to its powdered and rouged lordlets, I absolutely agree that the Senate is an utter disgrace. It proves that we cannot govern ourselves, that we as a nation have capitulated on the fundamental principle of majority rule. It is unrepresentative, with the minority elected by a small minority of actual voters from states with few citizens able to stop action without consequences, political or personal. It is completely corrupt. What better evidence could there be than that the majority leader wants to use the disgusting tax compromise to pass a bill allowing internet gambling, a direct payoff to his supporters in the last election?
It pays total deference to its silly rules leading to mumbling colloquys that Gilbert and Sullivan couldn’t top. I won’t even go into the nonsensical belief structures of Senators. I won’t mention their unmentionable personal foibles, their foolish eschatologies, or their silly fetishes.
At one level, I sympathize with the President. It wasn’t unreasonable for him to try to work with Harry Reid, who had immensely more experience at governing than he did. The problem is that Obama didn’t recognize the corruption and thuggishness in the Senate in time to do what needed to be done.
And what is that? I don’t know who said it first, and neither does the internet, but it’s still true: When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow. Mr. President, your TSA is showing the way. It is time for you to grab some balls. You might call Reid into your office and ask him about that internet gambling bill. I’m sure someone can help you find something to discuss with with that blackheart McConnell.
It will improve your negotiating skills immensely.
108 Comments
Excellent diary, Mr. M. The hearts and minds quote is from LBJ – bless him for a lot of things. Wish we had one like him now. Thanks.
Article V of the Constitution, with emphasis added, and certain intentional (and, for present purposes, irrelevant) obfuscations clarified and abbreviated:
So they intentionally made it as difficult as possible to fix the problem, no doubt on the ground that “history informs us of no long-lived republic which had not a senate” (Federalist Papers #63, probably written by James Madison). Today we have numerous examples of long-lived republics with unicameral parliamentary legislatures.
I wonder just how bad it would need to get before we could hope for the unanimous ratification, by all 50 states, of a Constitutional amendment abolishing the Senate? Or could we argue that if the Senate is abolished, each state still has equal representation in the Senate afterwards (namely, none), so the restriction does not apply?
I think it’s getting bad enough that we can reasonably contemplate a Constitutional amendment to abolish the filibuster and all other forms of the tactics of delay and obstruction currently afflicting the Senate.
Although it’s starting to look as though the Revolution might intervene first. Check out that video from the UK, including the protesters reminding the Prince of Wales exactly what solution the people of Great Britain once adopted for the problems of another British royal named Charles. (Ironically, our current Charles is probably on their side, but they’re too angry to keep that in mind.)
Incidentally, here’s a link to the words of the Sentry Song.
By the way, Masaccio, is that you in the video? (I’m borderline prosopagnosic, and can’t tell for sure by comparing the video to your profile photo.)
No, sadly, it’s not I, it is the best of several youtube versions. I learned the song from my mother, who was a professional pop singer, and used it as my audition song for years. I sang Iolanthe several years ago as a member of the Nashville Opera Chorus, it was a lot of fun. We had a very good Private Willis, but this guy is pretty good.
Gilbert and Sullivan laughed at the foibles of Parliament regularly, even when it didn’t really fit, as in HMS Pinafore:
*gasp* But, but, masaccio, I thought the Senate was the ‘Most Deliberative Body’ in history…? ;-)
Et Tu…? ;-)
Oh, man, I am confused. Are you saying that Obama thinks that the Democrats are the obstacle to his goals??
The Comity of the Senate is something else that sounds like bullshit to me.
The President has apparently come to the conclusion that the current version of the Senate is worthless.
The Left has thought that since Bush came into office:)
One administration official told POLITICO that Obama was so dispirited after his Nov. 18 meeting with the Democratic leadership that he decided, then and there, to place his faith in direct talks with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“The point is the House and Senate [leadership] has proven they are incapable of getting things done,” the official said.
Obama wants to be Clinton and Mitch will be his Newt I doubt Mitch has the brains Newt had I doubt Mitch will cooperate like Newt did after all Mitch wants to keep his job.
Newt suffered cooperating with Clinton and lost the support of his party. The Tea baggers are even more crazy than Newts followers were.
Poor Obama doomed to failure again.
Thank you for standing up for Nancy Pelosi. She saved his ass on health care law and many times less obvious. I think the rebellion among the House Dems now is a reflection of just how used they have been by Obama, the cut out and lectured for thanks.
And continued to think so for the entire period Obama was IN the Senate. Hint, hint, Mr. Hopey-Changey?
And what is that? I don’t know who said it first, and neither does the internet, but it’s still true: When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.
General Westmoreland Vietnam?
It is time for you to grab some balls.
Normally I say Stones or Spine I think I created those catch phrases:)
Oh masaccio, masaccio. O is getting exactly what he wants. His complaints are just the whining part of his kabuki.
Agreed:)
And President Obama thought Lieberman would be his 60th vote. Ah, the halcyon days of The One in his youthful days of Presidency
Anyone who thinks that O was not an extreme R before 11/18 is delusional.
Yay! Obama has finally come out of the closet and let his inner Republican see the light of day.
Lieberman had bailed O’s ass out many times in the past 2 years. To not understand that is to not understand what O’s true goals are.
Oh like it took Obama a while to recognize the nature of the Senate. Srsly, girlfriend had no idea.
Come on, I’m not even a connected Ivy League smartypants and I sorta had an idea. It’s not exactly some stunning Harry Potter plot revelation, for chrissake.
O has shown he’s an extreme R in plenty of votes & actions prior to this week.
Though admit this week’s events are more dispositive than those of the past.
Nicely put.
We all know that now. Still he wants to pull a Clinton and I don’t think no GOPer wants to be his Newt.
Every time I think we’ve gone down another level in the rabbit hole, something else happens to make me think we’re actually in free fall at this point. Some prescient folk warned that Obama might not be the saviour he and his backers presented himself as, but did any of us realize how intensely he’d identify with the Republicans and how indifferent he’d be to progressive causes?
For two years we had a Democratic Senate & House of Representatives and a Democratic president, and what appears to “get done” is a direct repudiation of classic Dem values. I won’t reiterate the litany besides mentioning a couple of the major things: endless war, no transparency, a corporate-written and corporate-serving health care plan, for example. And obviously the Senate (particularly) and to a lesser extent the House of Reps is complicit in the reactionary policies bombarding us daily. But Obama’s constant show of finger-wagging and sometimes downright insulting of the Dems and liberals/progressives is downright breathtaking. What fucking gall.
We have GOT to find a way to primary this asshole so he doesn’t get a second term. There must be a decent progressive SOMEWHERE in the wings who’s also charismatic and photogenic (apparently a sine qua non for presidential candidates). If we can identify that person AND get cracking with the grassroots organizing, maybe there’s still hope to save this country from the oligarchs. They won’t be happy until feudalism is reinstated, and we’re all toiling mindlessly and for nothing for corporate/banking interests. You watch.
Please resist reiterating the canard that Newt Gringrich has “brains.” He’s just as dumb as the rest of the bunch (and more cynical than many); his glibness and provocateur pose aren’t evidence of intelligence just ambition and narcissism.
Obama has let Joe be the fall guy for why Obama could never pass the campaign ideas he ran on. I agree Joe saved Obama by agreeing to be the fall guy.
Notice Obama never leaned on Joe to get his votes by canceling things Joe wants or blocking laws Joe wanted.
Joe acts like he knows he will never get leaned on.
The above statement implies that Obama had good intentions and merely failed at implementation. All available evidence (backroom deals undermining genuine HCR, etc.) suggests exactly the opposite. They might be inept but the White House is every bit as corrupt as the Senate.
Obama is blaming the Left, Blaming the Senate blaming everyone but himself avoiding responsibility is classic Authoritarian behavior its classic Bush behavior.
Most of my black friends are reluctant to criticize Obama. They still are using the old, well he inherited a big mess line.
When I try to get specific, it seems it goes in one ear and out the other. The reason I say this is that black voters are the most loyal to the Democratic party, God bless them, but now that the party has sold out, how do we get them on board with us.
“the Senate is an utter disgrace. It proves that we cannot govern ourselves, that we as a nation have capitulated on the fundamental principle of majority rule. It is unrepresentative, with the minority elected by a small minority of actual voters from states with few citizens”
Masaccio,
This is a fact. Is there someone here who can put together a graphic of how few people, from the least populous states can dictate (via the Senate) to the majority of people? There has to be a way to illustrate this point so that even the dumbest among us can understand that this is a perversion of democracy.
When I try to get specific, it seems it goes in one ear and out the other.
Lizard behavior
Disappointed to hear Jan Schakowsky say on Rachel tonight that the ‘new improved’ Dem proposal will still include the payroll tax cut.
Do you suppose this might dent Obama…?
Poll: Obama’s losing support; Romney would beat him now
haiku
sos call to
Clinton Foundation –
big disaster White House, help
“The problem is that Obama didn’t recognize the corruption and thuggishness in the Senate in time to do what needed to be done.”
Not only did former SENATOR Obama recognize it, but I’d say he was a part of it. Obama knows exactly what’s going on and he works the backrooms to make it happen – just listen to what is coming out of the WH on this tax deal…they want pretty much everything in the deal despite their claims otherwise. When the WH isn’t signing assassination orders or making Congress an offer it can’t refuse, the WH plays the powerless victim card, but the WH isn’t the victim, but instead is one of the perps.
Mitt the Mormon who won’t get Fundy votes beats Obama? Mitt the smart/s businessman who bought Home Depot right before the housing market collapsed. Who sold three of his 4 mansions in this horrible hosing market nobody sells unless they have to in this market.
I follow Mitt because he’s funny I never thought he could get the GOP nomination much less beat Obama.
I hope everyone will excuse my shameless plug for a diary I put up today, but I do think it’s relevant. It’s suggestions re contacting your Congressperson. Hopefully many of us will be doing that over this weekend.
http://my.firedoglake.com/mauimom/2010/12/10/how-to-maximize-your-efforts-in-contacting-congress/#comment-219337
Tax Cuts For The Rich Or The Stock Market Crashes!
As time goes on, I feel that is less of a compliment and more of an insult.
Amazing.
This week should have removed all doubt. That there still seem to be plenty of folks among progressives who are willing to make excuses for him is disheartening, to say the least.
Take a framework and start and crap. Online gambling? GMAFB
Oops. Take a framework and start tacking crap on….
Just about everything about his career leads me to believe Obama is familiar with political thuggery. His choice of mentor when he joined the Senate should speak volumes.
I’m not sure you are right that Obama wanted this tax cut outcome. I think he caved on a lot of stuff, but I don’t know about this one.
But whether or not he wants it, he must have realized that nothing would happen in the Senate unless he forced it by cutting a deal with the devil.
I started referring to Obama as a con man during the Presidential primaries. Yet even with such low expectations, I have to admit there are times when he still shocks me.
The Broken Deal.
“The problem is that Obama didn’t recognize the corruption and thuggishness in the Senate in time to do what needed to be done. “–have to strongly disagree with you on that predication.
Obama was a Senator and knew of the Senate foibles; he also came in with what was essentially an electoral mandate which could have been used to short circuit the Senate.
Stated simply, he was and is aware of the corruption and uses it for his own personal interests which HE believes is in the best interests of the country. The perfect example was pointed out in another diary about his appearance where he took those who ‘naysay’ to task stating that “he passed the healthcare legislation”.
See, he thinks it was a good ‘deal’ and simply cannot or will not recognize that it wasn’t.
The problenm hoss, is Obama IS one of those thugs, the elite, the 1%.
Class war, not political party war, Massachio . . . I’m quite surprised about your comment I highlighted above . . .
Thuggery or bending over ? Real thugs might take offense to being compared to Obama I don’t here rap music bragging about acting like Obama in the street.
What President Obama fails to realize is that to a certain extent, the Senate he has was of his own making. He campaigned for Lieberman, who wasn’t even running as a Democrat. He opposed Sestak in the primaries, weakening him for the General Election. He campaigned for Lincoln in the primaries, when she had no chance of winning in the General. He campaigned for Reid, his is by far the most incompetent Majority Leader this body has seen in my lifetime.
¥eah, good instincts, cuz there IS no comity . . . only for themselves. It’s all corrupted, county, township, state and fed.
Each and every thing in our lives, health care, civil services, water, energy, roads, transportation . . .
All corrupted, thru and thru.
Like USSR was and is . . . bought, owned and operated by corporate fascist oligarchs.
Fully agreed eCahn . . .
Great come back to Obama’s blame the Senate Dems meme:)
I am not at all convinced that abolishing the Senate will accomplish anything other than creating gross under-representation of less populated states. NY, TX, FL, IL, CA will do great, and the other states will get to fight for scraps.
We don’t like regressive tax structures. Why would we like regressive representation structures?
The problem is not that less populated states have the same number of Senators as more populated states. The problem is that a minority in the Senate has more power than a majority, because of secret holds, filibusters, procedural blocks, and other nasty tricks.
Those problems are not necessarily because of anything written in the constitution; these rules, concocted by self-important people who believe they are of a better nature than the rest of us, have accumulated for so long that they have become ritual.
I can’t see him criticizing Pelosi, she has been the good soldier, delivering on his campaign promises to the point that we lost control of the House. The Senate is a mess but he was there two years ago, why is this a big surprise to him? When the conservadems blocked legislation he treated them with kid gloves and it was the Progressive Senators that had to keep giving in to them. Lincoln blocked everything yet he campaigned vigorously for her instead of the more populist candidate who actually had a shot at winning. Leiberman? No arm twisting there. Obama is full of it, he’s been nothing but an arrogant prick. Can’t even say he is the best Republican President we have ever had as that title is already taken by Clinton. At least Clinton had the charm and you felt that he cared. Obama is for Obama. He’ll get a cushy job on Wall St when he is done screwing us.
If Obama had actually learned anything during his time in the Senate – especially if he had participated in the Senate after Dems regained control in 2007 – none of this would have surprised him, and he wouldn’t be on verse 12 of Kumbaya.
But, he is.
Hey, Preznit, look in the mirror.
Maybe we should just clean house and start over.
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it”.
A. Lincoln 1861
I absolutely adore your nom de plume…! ;-)
At least, We the People did expunge the majority of the odious bluedogs from our ‘House’…! ;-)
Yeats
TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
http://www.online-literature.com/donne/780/
I misremembered the line ” Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;” as Things Come Undone
But it seemed the perfect name for the Bush and sadly the Obama years.
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
http://www.online-literature.com/donne/780/
I wonder if Yeat’s poem inspired the Lovecraft line That is not Dead which can eternal wait for after strange aeons even death may die?
That is something to be thankful for this Christmas:)
If I could do it again, it’d be Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart…! ;-)
“…while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
I can’t help but think of this poem and this line in particular every time I see the misspelled signs, the phobia, the clownish attempts to dress in period costume, the hyperbole and bullshit, the hateful rhetoric and the invisible puppet masters pulling the strings, pushing the buttons and ringing the bells.
Will, after refusing to enforce the rule of law look forward not backward), when any dumb shit know crimes are always in the past, and the travesty of health care reform (not), I have to say:
Hubris is such a bitch. And a wonderful spectator sport. I can’t remember enjoying the British phrase “Too Clever for His Own Good” so much.
Somewhat on topic I hope, as we are discussing the Senate here…
I have been wondering. Somebody help me out. Was there not a period of time, however brief, after Al Franken (wasn’t he supposed to be “the 60th vote”?) was sworn in as a Senator, and before Kennedy and Byrd became too disabled to participate, when the Democrats actually did have 60 votes in the Senate (counting Lieberman and Sanders)? My memory is not that good and I do not know how to research this, but if it is the case, why did not Obama, or the Senate and House leadership, push through a bill to extend the tax cuts for the lower and middle class while ending them for the rich? Why did they wait until the Lame Duck began to quack?
Please do not blame Senate or Congress Mr. President.
If the Tax Cuts Expire as is it is infinitely better for the country than the proposed bill which has a indirect assault on Social Security, legalalization of huge immoral wealth transfer of this year and unethical wealth transfer based on gene lottery with the reduction of estate taxes.
That is a fact. All that bill does is perpetuation of the status quo established by GWB and this is what I guess democratic leadership wants but wants to blame the other side.
~~~Howdy, stranger!
Make sure to pop into Late Late Night and say hello.~~~
Obama the grifter is upset that the other grifters won’t help him out with his heist. The guy just doesn’t get that confidence scams in the internet age can’t last long and that his newly found allies on the right are more into thuggery and strong armed robbery.
It’s all pretty pathetic- Obama could have been one of the untouchables that cleaned up the town and gained the bipartisan support that he so craves, but instead he’s embraced the corruption of the current system and made it his own, and has set down a path to be reviled by majorities from both parties…
Hey, Lurk, how’s it going? I know I have been a stranger, but I could not think of a better place to pose my question…I really want to know.
Fewer every minute. I think exponential decay might be a good mathematical model of Obama’s support right now.
Also, remember that there are perceptual biases. In particular, I’ve been astonished to see how many people interpret Rachel Maddow as still an Obama cheerleader on little or no evidence, apparently because they’re upset with her for having supported Obama in the past.
I’m finding out about it in reverse order. Yes, Matt Taibbi has documented Obama’s betrayals from way back, but it has recently gotten too obvious to ignore. Only after realizing that there was a problem from his recent actions, and coming to Firedoglake, have I discovered how much evidence there already was, that I had missed the first time around.
I think most discoveries of betrayal work out like this. “How could I have been so blind?” is the anthem of the betrayed.
This one administration official who made these assertions is a jackass.
This one administration official’s boss was so dispirited after his Nov. 18 meeting with the Democratic leadership that he decided, then and there, to work with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) in order to do what exactly?
Is this one administration official saying that Obama’s pos “deal” with McConnell is so bad only because Obama was upset when he ran to McConnell to surrender unconditionally?
And an official of this administration seriously said with a straight face that the House under Pelosi’s leaderhip has proven itself incapable of getting things done?
Is this jackass unaware of all the work that was done in the House in the 111th Congress?
If anything, Pelosi should be complaining about the White House’s inability to get anything good done with what she handed them.
[I'm cross-posting this from my comment (Sebastos@18 on DDay's post Brennan Center report shows failure of broken Senate, because I realized it's even more relevant to this post than to that one.]
I’m reading the Brennan Center report – it’s fantastic so far! Footnote 85 draws our attention to the closing words of the Federalist Papers #62 (probably written by James Madison):
Think about that when you watch Kabuki votes in the Congress, and hear about filibusters and secret holds jeopardizing measures like the defense authorization bill and the extension of the debt ceiling.
The Senate of the 111th Congress has forfeited any legitimate claim to respect.
A parallel from history is Churchill’s commentary on Admiral Darlan’s betrayal of his British allies after the fall of France (The Second World War, Volume 2, “Their Finest Hour”, Book One, Chapter 11, page 230):
My partner’s a BIG Lovecraft fan…
“That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die.”
supposedly from The Necronomicon
An intervention is needed to save the Senate of the 112th Congress from the degradation to which the current Senate has sunk. Toward that end:
Firedoglake should set up a Special Coverage category for filibuster reform.
The current five categories are:
* No New NAFTA
* TSA Abuse of Power
* Just Say Now
* Foreclosure Fraud
* Prop 8 Trial
As weighty as each of these issues is, only foreclosure fraud (which threatens to compromise the rule of law via “rocket docket” kangaroo courts) comes even close to filibuster reform in importance. A category for filibuster reform is needed even if (for some reason) the number of categories is fixed at five, and one of the others has to be bumped from the list to make room for it.
Likewise:
Firedoglake should set up an online petition for filibuster reform.
I think sometimes the Left – which is sensitive to people’s pain – tends to underestimate the importance of abstract-sounding, procedural issues like filibuster reform. Yet virtually everything in our Constitution – upon which we must pin any hopes we still have for government reform by means less drastic than outright revolution – is of a similarly abstract nature. Think about that.
“She saved his ass on health care law..”
I’m not sure that’s anything she should be particularly proud of, nor should we give her kudos because of it.
turns out for progressives, obama is a Trojan Horse.
Mhmm….What exactly is he saying here? He gave up on the Senate because they wouldn’t work with him on a Republican tax deal? I sincerely doubt that.
Obama is a social climber.
Nothing more, nothing less.
He climbed to where he is over the backs of the poor, the middle-class, and all the fools who voted for him. And I’m one of those fools.
Soon, he hopes to climb to the Board of CitiBank, the highest pinnacle in American Society, at least according to Peter Orzag.
Putting on testicular-level pressure should not be confined to Democrats. There are Republicans with pet projects too.
Senator McConnell, Fort Campbell is a nice little base, but we are considering combining its functions with Fort Drum. Senators Hutchison and Kyl, the Johnson Space Flight Center has outlived its technological life; we need to cut budgets to deal with the deficit. And Fort Hood is redundant and a base we need to close. We are going to propose that to the Base Closure Commission. You guys want smaller government; you’re going to get smaller government in your states first. Senator Nelson, Johanns, that’s a fine little farm state you have there; too bad if we need to end all agricultural subsidies to balance the budget.
That said, I wish you guys wouldn’t take Politico so seriously. Politico has an agenda, and it is not our agenda. And not all background statements or gossip are authorized. The Politico folks pick up a lot of their information at cocktail parties, and it has all the problems associated with valid information in that setting.
This Obama catalyst (tax agreement) has initiated a much needed debate in our country so that the American people can see how a small group of people (the Rich) control this country, do not pay taxes or their fair share due to tax loopholes and tax shelters, leaving the tax burden on the middle class and working poor, and that the GOP talking points that tax cuts create jobs is false, because for the last 10 years that we have had these tax cuts, we have lost jobs.
And the debate also highlights one party, the Republican, refusing to vote on any legislation to help the little people, the people they are supposed to represent — 911 responders, unemployment benefits, etc.,(like spoiled children) until they get their way — tax cuts for the rich! And this ability to not vote on legislation, to hold up the people’s business (or hold them hostage) is this legal? We know it is not fair.
This debate will give the American people a chance to decide if they want to extend the tax cuts to the rich so that their taxes can go down or if they want the tax cuts for the rich to expire knowing that their taxes will go up and they will be paying more come January than they do now. Do they want to make that sacrifice?
Let’s not forget that in order for us to forge new healthy pathways for the country, the dark, the outworn, the negative and false must be exposed.
And by the way, Sen Mary Landrieux you were for the Bush tax cuts and voted for them, before you were against them!
http://patrickhenrypress.info/node/315136
Really you guys here should be debasing the Republican Party for their stance on standing in the way of legislation and blocking it. That should not be legal. The issue is not Obama but Republican policies. You are wasting good energy on the wrong culprit. I thought you guys were smarter than that and that is why GOP win all the time.
Abolish the Senate!
It all sounds pretty unitary executive-y to me.
I feel as tho I’ve been seeing Obama ending running the House for some time now. Esp with the deficit commission…which I think this tax deal is an extension of.
Hell, Joe acts like HE’S the president. I think we have lots of them up there. Summers and Geithner spring to mind
I’ve sure noticed it on HuffPo, that’s for sure…except for the kids who will follow Dear Leader off any cliff and that included R or L
We are trashing the Republican Party, and we are trying to make their obstructive tactics illegal – that’s what filibuster reform is about. But none of that excuses Obama’s betrayals of the cause.
Not really. There’s something about Obama having supermajorities that he didn’t whip, because the American people were so desperate for change, all of US, that gives that old canard it meaninglessness.
Now he doesn’t have them I see him breathing a sigh of relief and running to the right. It was getting awfully difficult to keep up the kabuki there at the end that it was all the evil republicans fault and keep hiding behind their skirts.
Now, he doesn’t have to try so hard…or, at all
Just persist; don’t give up; keep giving them the facts. Read what various black leaders have written who have already gotten over Obama (like Cornel West), and use the ammunition they give you. Also read Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia, and try to get them to read it (or at least Chapter 6, which deals with Obama’s betrayals on healthcare). That’s what really clinched it for me.
I think Obama expected the L to give him the same blind hero worship the right gave Bush.
Unfortunately,for him, we think, therefore we are
I have a friend like that. I can’t push it, even a little. Denial is a powerful thing
Me too, there goes my SSI
If you could believe when Obama left him there on the stage to go to a Christmas party?????
The guy treats EVERYONE like shit
I seriously doubt Obama thinks of any interest except his own.
He made a Faustian bargain to become prez and he’s keeping it to the letter.
I always thought it was “too clever by half”?
Wow. didn’t know THAT! Talka bout strategic blunders
From what I’ve read, Citibank is a problematic institution that would probably be the first to go when the economic sh*t really hits the fan. So what does this say about the President–that his aspirations are as mistaken as his policies?
“The point is the House and Senate [leadership] has proven they are incapable of getting things done,” the official said.
Excuse me, Mr. President, but what we really need is not your useless blame and finger pointing, but genuine leadership that earns our respect. You won’t get much respect from progressives until you decide to actually decide to take some risk and stand for something redemptive instead of forfeiting your power by placating everyone.
Read the quotes below:
”Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
- Robert Francis Kennedy
”The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”
- John Maxwell
All this a predicated on the false assumption that Obama sincerely wants to get something done and is frustrated in the attempt. I see a willing player in the Senate’s games and someone who’s been exposed as such.
If Obama had really drunk the false-equivalence Kool-Aid and convinced himself that the Right was like the Left, that has to go down in history as one of the dumbest of many dumb things he’s done! He should have had a quiet little confidential meeting with Grover Norquist, who would no doubt have been able to give him a gentle introduction to the realities of the Left-Right divide.
This really demanded that I say something. I am a black voter, and I am on board with you. I’ve been voting Green instead of Democratic since 2004 and made a single exception for Obama in 2008. I’m not making that exception again.
That said, have you tried perhaps a more tailored approach? I think people that are more around my age (I’m almost 40) or younger might be more willing to listen because we’ve never seen anything but dysfunctional, rabidly conservative government our entire lives, and when I look at Obama I see someone who really could’ve made things better for us and as usual, didn’t. At the same time, I really can’t do much to change the minds of other black people that I talk to that are much older than me either. They weren’t inclined to listen to me about much of anything anyways, and this is an even further long shot.
“We don’t like regressive tax structures. Why would we like regressive representation structures?
The problem is not that less populated states have the same number of Senators as more populated states. The problem is that a minority in the Senate has more power than a majority, because of secret holds, filibusters, procedural blocks, and other nasty tricks.”
What your first question ignores, though, is that the Senate is already a regressive representation structure. It can’t help but be such as long as the number of ‘small states’ is significantly more than the number of ‘large states’, which allows the former to overwhelm the latter in the Senate. As long as the core problem of small state over-representation remains intact, they will use their voting power to enact the same kinds of structures you list later (which also serve to protect their power, as well as the power of the most regressive elements in the Senate in general).
“The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing – for the sheer fun and joy of it – to go right ahead and fight, knowing you’re going to lose. You mustn’t feel like a martyr. You’ve got to enjoy it.” I.F. Stone
Obama instead chooses the path of least resistence – pre-emptively losing the fight. And he doesn’t appear to enjoy it either.
“I have a friend like that. I can’t push it, even a little. Denial is a powerful thing”
I have several friends and neighbors like that. Trying to change their minds is an exercise in futility, imho.
The only avenue for actual policy is through the executive branch and his royal majesty is voluntarily retreating, with no enemy even in sight.
If he is as smart as people say, he should have been complaining about the filibuster in every single conversation he had. He still refuses to that.
I am not sure why the man wanted to be President.