As right wing talking heads, wing nut bloggers and GOP legislators continue to engage in a self-destructive and supercilious dialogue about the future of their movement, Rome burns. Patrick McHenry, a dim bulb from North Carolina representing a congressional district comprised of former tobacco growers, chicken factory farmers, and end times followers, claims his job is not to solve the nation’s economic woes but to win the public relations fight against the Democrats.
“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Southern governors, still sore that Lee’s attempts to breakthrough the Union lines at Gettysburg failed, were seriously considering not accepting stimulus funds to help their ailing state economies. Governors Sanford, Barbour and Jindahl have turned up their noses at federal help. Not surprisingly, they represent states that have some of the highest levels of poverty, unemployment and infant mortality.
Representative Jim Wamp, a Republican from Tennessee, in a recent interview asserted, “Listen, health care is a privilege…. I was just about to say, for some people it’s a right. But for everyone, frankly, it’s not necessarily a right.”
There are just too many self-parodying examples of the incredible brainpower of the party of ideas.
Meanwhile, Michael Steele, the only black member of the GOP (other than John Boehner), is trying to transform an intolerant set of self-immolating ditto heads into a new multicultural brand of narrow-minded politicians who like white hip hop music and can eat Mexican food without a fork.
And you know how successful his efforts have been!
This is not to say that the Democrats and the Obama Presidency have not made some missteps in first few months in office. Perhaps events have overwhelmed their ability to respond to each daily piece of economic bad news. Their bench strength is very weak or non-existent right now. Treasury Secretary Geittner does not exude a sense of confidence. He reminds me of someone who gets picked to play right field in a backyard baseball game.
The financial markets are still the core of this economic crisis. Companies like General Electric are being sold at about $9 a share. Not because they are not making good products but because the financial portion of their business is view suspiciously by investors. Until institutional investors, pension funds, or international groups believe our financial markets are reasonably stable, they will not reinvest in the financial sectors of the market. Again, I am not an economist nor ever pretend to be but it seems obvious to me the first step in getting out of this economic mess to reestablish confidence in our banking system. Let’s hope that Obama’s core of economic and financial advisers can tamp down the fear in the financial markets. So far, they have had mixed results.
Even though I have some concerns, Obama and his team are trying to respond to the crisis. Their ambitious agenda for reforming health care, creating a green economy, and producing jobs are important first steps. The Democrats are not engaged in an intrafracine struggle like the remnants of the GOP. They won a major election and as Chris Matthews has said time and again, “Elections have consequences.” Democrats are trying to use the tools of the federal government to get us out of this near depression. And the Republicans? Well they continue to throw spitballs at each other, watch reruns of Ronald Reagan’s funeral, and waste time sticking pins in voodoo dolls of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
