Tuesday, October 01, 2013

All Gloves Should Now Be Off

So: They did it.  We get what we sowed when Obama and the Dems continued for years to treat people who act in bad faith as though the next round of negotiations could be done in good faith.  I'm not arguing that there was anything that Obama and the Dems could have or should have done differently, exactly, once Ted Cruz decided to use the entire world as his litter box to increase his standing in a hypothetical future presidential election.  But from the get go the Dems have allowed the Republicans, to come back to the bargaining table over and over and over again without destroying their worst actors.  They negotiated in bad faith all the way through the ACA and for every year since.  Boehner, in particular, at the behest of his caucus has always thrown extraneous stuff at the wall just to see what sticks. There has never been any punishment for that.  Seldom even a call out.

For example, right up until yesterday a Democrat was arguing that the Democrats had already negotiated and already compromised because they "let the sequester stand" in the current Senate CR.  She seemed to be arguing that the Republicans owed us a pity-vote for being such good sports.  Well, that's not the way they roll. And we shouldn't have either.   No agreements with the Republicans in the House or the Senate should ever be reached again without an exchange of hostages (and not the stupid ones that led to the sequester) and, frankly, if I were the Dems I'd try to take a scalp and demand Boehner shoot one of his caucus--lets take the fat boy from Texas, Sissy Farenthold's step grandson the perv.

The moment the Republicans started going back to the non-negotiating table the Democrats should have voted on repealing the Sequester line by line and re-installing everything that had been taken out. Perhaps Reid couldn't do that because of Senate rules, or because he couldn't get even the angry old guy Republicans to go along with it but I think the Dems should have made more of this point all the way along.

At least now they are proposing to stop with the comity and take out the knives (Roll Call)


Senate Democrats are considering leaking a series of emails between the chiefs of staff of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker John A. Boehner regarding employer contributions to congressional staff health care plans, multiple top-level sources said late Monday.
Senate Democratic chiefs of staff discussed the emails between Reid chief David Krone and Boehner chief Mike Sommers at a recent meeting, according to a source with direct knowledge of the meeting.
Leaking the emails would be unusual, given the taboo over disclosing personal communications between top staffers. But the missives also would reveal Boehner’s position on employer subsidies for congressional staff. Democrats believe the Ohio Republican’s decision to attach an amendment to revoke those contributions to the most recent House continuing resolution was a direct shot at vulnerable Senate Democrats up in 2014.
Senate Democrats believe that Republican efforts to force a vote on what some in the GOP have characterized as a congressional “exemption” are designed to politically corner Democrats like Kay Hagan of North Carolina or Mark Pryor in Arkansas, who represent more conservative states. Democrats contend that Republicans just want to campaign on the issue,while hoping the amendment will not pass.

But this really isn't enough. I hope the Dems have some serious dirt to release, county by county, in the home states of these assholes. I hope they are pursued by hordes of angry federal workers. I want the Dems to introduce a bill as soon as they get back into power that says that if you vote for a government shut down when a clean bill is on the table your county is put last in line for a return to federal money and FEMA aid and everything else.

In case I didn't make myself clear enough: I want Obama to grind their bones to make my bread.

--Aimai X posted at I Spy With My Little Eye

8 comments:

Ten Bears said...

Obama and the Dems continued for years...

I don't find that, to be "good faith". It was clear from the git-go what the Retards were doing. This should have been shot down then. But no, they offer my Social Security up for bargain. That isn't good faith, it's a violation of the social contract we entered into forty-five years ago. Obama sold me out. The Retards are all egg-sucking dogs that need be taken out back of the barn and shot, but the Dems ain't much better.

No fear.

Victor said...

Ten Bears,
While the Dem's aren't great, they are light years from the Christian Nihilists in the Republican side.

Don't forgive them, Lord - for they know exactly what they do!

aimai said...

Yeah. No. The Democrats didn't sell you out by tinkering around the edges of the SS program. Every single thing that was done was done in order to either preserve the larger system/benefits which were under attack, or to advance other important goals such as the ACA or funding the damned government. I don't think they should have done it but I don't think it was a sell out of SS recipients, either. At this point in time the Dems are the only game in town if we don't all want to be fed into the meat grinder of unrestrained Randian capitalist Jesus.

Matt said...

Ah, if only the President had an inner Michael Corleone he could call upon! I think he only has an inner Michael Ignatieff.

This is what kills me about politicians from the academic side of things: we thought we were getting a Chicago street fighter in Obama, but he seems unable to grasp what a bunch of thugs are facing him.

This is not going to be won in the op-ed pages, that much I know.

aimai said...

I never, ever, thought we were going to get a "Chicago Street fighter" in Obama, whatever that means. The guy wrote an entire autobiography and a political autobiography and as far as I can see never, ever, misrepresented the kind of politician he aspired to be.

His mother was an Anthropologist and he was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, both places where keeping calm and not displaying a lot of violent, arrogant, emotion are highly valued. If you thought because he was a black guy who was living in Chicago you were going to get some kind of dirty street fighting gang banger that is entirely on you.

Joey Blau said...

Thanks. This whole "Obama as thug" meme is wack. dreamed up by the right to evoke a combination of scary black man and Mayor Daley at the same time.

I've always said Obama is a middle of the road technocrat who wants to be liked by Republicans.

Matt said...

Aimai,

I had no illusions about Obama, but IIRC, that's how he was marketed (memoir notwithstanding), as a product of a tough political environment who could come to DC and throw some elbows when needed. I think some Dem pundits pushed this to counter the notion that he was too inexperienced.

It quickly got turned around to make it sound like he was corrupt, but Republicans do turn things around on you. It took on a different meaning once Bill O'Reilly came to own it.

Examinator said...

Aimai
The publicly *threatened* action strikes me as yet more brinkmanship. By publicly telegraphing the threat they are :
Removing any chance of plausible deniability.

Setting a precedent which WILL come back and bite especially given the short term focus of the TB ers, their gun ho representatives and the selfish opportunism Some Republican with presidential aspirations....Numbkin Cruz and or that Dumbkin Paul.

Upping the ante and or tension .In the long run very counter productive
to a deal.

Closing down back channels for discussion. e.g. I remember one labor negotiation I was in the 2id string Union delegate followed me into the urinal and suggested that IF the company would offer XXXX. it might save face for their negotiator to move on YYY which might break the log jamb. After some appropriate argy bargy I thoughtfully offered the XXXX. They adjourned to discuss it and came back and agreed. A discussion that had been lingering for weeks was resolved that night...Don't underestimate the power/effectiveness of back channels.

While gloves off my seem satisfying to the short sighted. Given the slash and burn of the republicans
the powers for reason need to be cool and smarter, if this isn't just gonna become the US political version of the cold war and M.A.D.

Even general Sun Tsu says "the biggest weapons don't win wars."(just battles because the enemy can lean the weapons/tactics too). "It is better to lose a battle and win the war than to win the battle and lose the peace"(examinator) see the Civil War. The poor (south) are still fighting that one at the expense of the reasonable.

Don't forget Win lose or draw