"We have met the enemy and he is us." --- Walter Kelly (Various versions in his comic strip "Pogo”; countless quotes and copies by others, with and without attribution)
If you clicked through the Sunday talking head shows on March 17th, maybe you stumbled upon John Boehner, arguably head of the House Republicans, Speaker of the House and number two in line for the presidency. Specifically, on ABC’s This Week, hosted by Martha Raddatz, Boehner intentionally downplayed the problem of national debt while loudly proclaiming his wonderful relationship with President Obama.
Here’s what the House Republican leader and messaging master actually said, “The president and I, as I have made very clear, have a very good relationship. We're open with each other. We're honest with each other.” Following up, ABC host Raddatz asked, “Do you trust President Obama?” *** “Absolutely,” Boehner replied. *** “Absolutely?” Raddatz emphasized. *** “Absolutely,” Boehner repeated. After that, things just went from bad to worse.
Here’s how Breitbart put it: “Then Boehner dropped the bombshell. Raddatz, after quoting President Obama saying we don’t have ‘an immediate crisis in terms of debt,’ asked Boehner for his thoughts. And Boehner eagerly agreed: ‘We do not have an immediate debt crisis. But we all know that we have one looming …. It could be a year or two years, three years, four years. It’s not an immediate problem.’ And then Boehner said he agreed with Obama on the immediacy of the problem.” (“BOEHNER: I 'ABSOLUTELY' TRUST OBAMA” by Ben Shapiro, 3/17/13 Breitpart - Big Government [http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/17/Boehner-absolutely-trust-Obama]).
In case you want to dismiss Boehner’s gaffs as just a Republican version of Bidenism, you should know that Boehner was >> ON ! << his talking points. What he was saying wasn’t all a mistake [it’s possible that none of it was a mistake at all]. Obviously, some of what Boehner had to say was some part of yesterday’s House GOP talking points, because on another talk show, Representative Paul Ryan, another GOP congressional leader said on CBS News’s – Face The Nation – “We do not have a debt crisis right now, but we see it coming.”
After yesterday, I have to ask: What is the problem with the GOP House leadership ? Why the re-messaging ? Why the equivocation ? Why the hairsplitting ? Why the praise of Barack Obama ?
IT’S NOT JUST THE GOP LEADERSHIP IN THE HOUSE — IT’S THE ENTIRE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP FROM TOP TO BOTTOM.
Rank-and-file Republicans, and every man in the street who cares about the GOP, see the same sort of re-messaging is coming out of Rance Priebus, the RNC Chairman; Ed Cox the NYS Republican Chairman; and Craig Eaton, the Kings County Republican Party Chairman, who recently did his own switcheroo from “Game-changer A” to “Game-changer B”. At all levels, it shows nothing but confusion at the top of the Republican Party. What everybody sees is an accelerating attempt at “re-branding” Republicans by the likes of the House Republican leadership, the RNC and establishment Republicans generally.
If they want to change the Republican Party so much, why not change the party’s name as well. I suggest “Ab Fab,” as in “The Ab Fab Party.” This name would be most appropriate for reasons that are intuitively obvious to the casual observer.
Speaker Boehner and these other “Republican leaders” are playing the whole game just for themselves. For them the only object of the game is to maintain their positions of power in the game. So for them it’s all about getting re-elected, keeping the money connections hooked-up and flowing and maybe getting new ones in the bargain, and most important, looking and sounding important throught out the process. These people who lead the Republicans in congress and in the Republican Party organizations don’t have any real guiding principles or morality that govern their decisions. That’s because they don’t take their party positions and duties as representatives of the people, and in particular the Republican Party voters who elected them, seriously.
ReplyDeleteThe only things these GOP leading phonies care about when they’re making decisions are their own longevity, raising more funds and trying to peddle the influence their positions give them. The only questions in their heads are: will supporting this identifiable interest group or set of positions make them look more or less powerful, or get them more funds; or put negatively, will any decision that they make cause them look like they aren’t in a position to influence what’s going on or cause them to lose certain money connections ?”
Once you see that, everything they do makes sense.
"REBRANDING" Ain't that what the rustlers do after they made off with the other guys' cattle?
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