Defeated Republican Petulance

[diana]

What unbelievable babies. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/gop-senators-refusing-to_n_511639.html)

So let's see. They single-mindedly opposed the most important legislation in this country in decades. Some are apparently even planning to run on the "revoke Obamacare" ticket, so I hear (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/gop-applies-for-health-ca_b_509718.html) (yeah...that'll go over well). And now, they're refusing to work.

They're the spoiled kid at the park who can't handle losing, so he's taking his ball and stomping home.

My god. It's at the point where I have only contempt for these elected Republicans and only pity for their constituents.

d

[Ray Moscow]

It sounds like we can get some decent legislation passed after 2 PM now. Just ignore the little whiners, and take away their committee seats of those that refuse to show up to their committee meetings.

[Notta]

I like how McCain said the Republicans wouldn't cooperate with the Dems ANY MORE. When was the last time they DID cooperate on a Dem-sponsored bill???

[Garnet]

I can only hope that people pay attention the this nonsense and vote every single Republican out of office. Refusing to conduct regular and important business should be the last straw.

Unfortunately, it won't be.

[Notta]

Violence against Democrats increases markedly (http://www.bnd.com/2010/03/24/1187980/threats-violence-against-democrats.html)

House Dems report increased threats (http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/24/congress.threats/index.html?hpt=T2)

Conservative blogger posts Twitter call for Obama assassination (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/03/22/2010-03-22_angry_over_health_reform_vote_conservative_blog ger_posts_twitter_call_for_obama_.html)

Those shit-stirrers should answer for the crimes they're suggesting be committed against elected officials!!

[Worldtraveller]

From that last link:
Jay Martin, a college grad who calls himself a hip-hop aficionado, tweeted: "If I lived in DC, I'd shoot him myself. Point blank. Dead f---ing serious."

Martin shrugged off law enforcement officials.

"If the FBI comes knocking tomorrow I wouldn't give a f---. I didn't do anything wrong," he wrote.

Gawker.com later reached Martin through Facebook.

"I have no excuse for that," he said. "I don't really wish death on him or anyone else."
He doesn't give a fuck....until someone actually contacts him about it. heh.

[Horrorfan]

Violence against Democrats increases markedly (http://www.bnd.com/2010/03/24/1187980/threats-violence-against-democrats.html)

House Dems report increased threats (http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/24/congress.threats/index.html?hpt=T2)

Conservative blogger posts Twitter call for Obama assassination (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/03/22/2010-03-22_angry_over_health_reform_vote_conservative_blog ger_posts_twitter_call_for_obama_.html)

Those shit-stirrers should answer for the crimes they're suggesting be committed against elected officials!!


Other acts of vandalism have occurred at Democrats' offices throughout the country. In recent days, bricks were hurled through windows of Democratic offices in three states, and some members of Congress have reported receiving death threats.

I find this interesting. Death threats and throwing bricks through windows by tea party members is vandalism if it were Muslims I really think it would be labeled terrorist action by some.

[Notta]

A huge, glaring double standard, isn't it?

Where was the Republican outrage when the Patriot Act, which took away some pretty important civil liberties, was passed??

[Worldtraveller]

The republicans were the ones that passed the misnamed Patriot act. duh. :p

[lpetrich]

The Associated Press: GOP leader calls for health care repeal, replace (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikRbXg5ZjZ8uojmWlbRkUcQpG-2wD9EMTEG80) - Associated Press
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Saturday in the GOP radio and video address that "nobody is satisfied with the health care system as it is."

Costs are out of control and "people are being squeezed out of the market," he said.
NOW he tells us. Where was he over the last decade and last year?
"We can do better," he said. "We can expand access to people with pre-existing conditions. We can keep people from being kicked off their plans. We can lower costs and premiums. We can do all of these things without undermining the things we do best and without raising taxes that kill jobs in a bad economy."
I'll believe it when I see it.

[lpetrich]

The Republicans have been claiming to speak for "the American people", as if the Democratic Party is some evil occupying army.

It gets even worse. RNC rejects joint 'civility' statement - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35096.html)
The Republican National Committee has rejected a proposal from its Democratic counterpart to sign a joint “civility” statement, POLITICO has learned.

Various members of the DNC — including Chairman Tim Kaine, Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon and Communications Director Brad Woodhouse — contacted their respective RNC counterparts this week in hopes of getting RNC Chairman Michael Steele to co-sign a document with Kaine that, in part, called for “elected officials of both parties to set an example of the civility we want to see in our citizenry.”

“We also call on all Americans to respect differences of opinion, to refrain from inappropriate forms of intimidation, to reject violence and vandalism, and to scale back rhetoric that might reasonably be misinterpreted by those prone to such behavior,” read the proposed joint statement, which came at the end of a week which saw acts of vandalism and threats of violence directed at members of Congress from both parties, but mostly aimed at Democrats who voted “yes” on the health care bill.
It was a good political move: to give the Republicans a choice between renouncing their extremists and appearing to endorsing brown-shirt tactics.
RNC Communications Director Doug Heye told POLITICO that Steele chose not to agree to the statement because “we don’t need to do anything on their schedule or on their timetable.”
A very stupid reason.
“Obviously, a large majority of Americans — a broad coalition of Republicans, Democrats and Independent — are upset that President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid pushed through health care legislation that increases premiums and raises taxes and did so through strong-arm tactics, closed-door meetings and sweetheart deals. Voters have a right to be angry. Unfortunately, some have chosen to engage in language and actions that go too far,” Heye said, insisting that “among the first voices to condemn such activities was Michael Steele’s.”
Talk about rewrites of history -- it was out in the open and the Republicans refused to help out, despite the Democrats' efforts to please them.
Woodhouse told POLITICO that the DNC is “disappointed” that the RNC would not agree to a statement that “would carry a lot weight symbolically.”

“It’s very disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, that Chairman Steele, who authored a fundraising presentation that depicted the President as the Joker, the Speaker of the House as Cruella de Vil, raised money online showing the Speaker on fire and said she should be put before a firing squad would refuse to do a joint statement with Chairman Kaine to ratchet down the rhetoric and condemn the violence and threats which Republican supporters have engaged in since the passage of health reform,” Woodhouse said.

“Chairman Steele’s own overheated rhetoric and the Republican Party’s fear tactics have contributed to an environment of anger and frustration that is unhealthy and counterproductive to our political dialogue,” he added. “Rather than take responsibility for their own actions, Chairman Steele not only refused the good faith offer of issuing a joint statement, he then sent his spokesperson out to go on the attack in a breathtaking display of chutzpa and hypocrisy. Chairman Kaine and Democrats will continue to work towards a civil and responsible debate on the issues of the day even as Republicans continue to be pulled farther and farther towards the radical extreme.”

[Bleaker]

$1 says that (assuming he's not dead), Osama bin Laden is laughing his ass off right now.

[Garnet]

No bet.

[lpetrich]

70% Say Country "Dangerously Divided" by Health Care Debate (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-zogby/70-say-country-dangerousl_b_514620.html)

Seems to me that the "divisions" here were created by Republican strategists, who had hoped to do to Obama what they had successfully done to Clinton.

Ezra Klein - What do conservatives believe about health care? (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/what_do_conservatives_believe.html)
Conservative strategist Patrick Ruffini has a searching and skeptical post (http://www.thenextright.com/patrick-ruffini/the-republican-health-care-failure) on his party's approach to health-care reform. "On health care, I have no idea what our basic guiding principle is," he writes. "Seriously, I don't." He compares that to No Child Left Behind, a Republican bill on a traditionally Democratic topic that had its problems, but at least "insist[ed] on the vaguely conservative principle of accountability."
EK then went on to describe how much the health-care bill was like various past Republican schemes, like the Republicans' proposed alternative to Bill Clinton's scheme, and Romneycare, as it may be called.

He then went on to describe how the Republicans had almost succeeded in sinking Obama's first term and how they had gotten their base into action. If they had been willing to deal with Obama, he would have come out of it as a great president, and their based would have been very dispirited. So it was political sabotage without any real alternative proposals.