Divisiness and Bullying

This quote was pulled from a post on The Flash Report today:

“Unity and teamwork are important for the GOP right now — and our leaders should publicly decry the divisive, bullying tactics being used by Senate President Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Bass.”

– Jon Flesichman

Look in a miror dude, or at least read your own web page.  Divisive bullying is a Republican trademark but much hard to pull off when your party is a minority party as California Republicans are.

Blogger digby reported this on the Hullabaloo blog:

“Conservatism has been stripped of everything but its essence — cheap thugishness. I honestly can’t remember a time in the last 30 years when they weren’t holding a gun to the states’ head no matter what the economic climate. If times are good they have to cut taxes. If times are bad they have to cut taxes.”

Cheap thugishness.  Yep.  Sounds about right.

4 Comments

  1. dan,
    im glad you read the FR so I dont have to. I got into it with Jon F over at Red County over cigerrette taxes. The GOP has de-evolved into a one trick pony ovewr taxes.

  2. The Repubs know if they are wrong they’ll be kicked to the curb by the middle class voters into obscurity. It’s why they are fighting so hard at the Federal level on the Stimulus Bill.

    Just like the GOP knew economics back in 1993 when the new Democratic president Bill Clinton struggled to get his centerpiece economic legislation passed. Back then the GOP was sure the bill was a recipe for disaster. At the time Newt Gingrich announced “The tax increase will kill jobs and lead to a recession, and the recession will force people off of work and onto unemployment and will actually increase the deficit.” He was positive a recession would ruin America’s economy within the “next year,” or even “over the next 60 days.”

    And Newt wasn’t alone. The whole GOP crew was in Chicken Little mode and the press back then, just like today, made sure to record and amplify every dire warning: “A recipe for economic disaster,” warned Phil Crane of Illinois. “It is going to lead to a Clintastrophy, an economic Clintastrophy,” added Indiana’s Dan Burton.

    Yeah, that decade of prosperity…that was hard to take, wasn’t it? And the most pathetic aspect of how seriously and credibly the establishment media takes these GOP whingings and sturm und drang is how nakedly obvious–yet unmentioned–the political machinations drive this, just as they have in the past:

    December 2, 1993 – Leading conservative operative William Kristol privately circulates a strategy document to Republicans in Congress. Kristol writes that congressional Republicans should work to “kill” — not amend — the Clinton plan because it presents a real danger to the Republican future: Its passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party. Nearly a full year before Republicans will unite behind the “Contract With America,” Kristol has provided the rationale and the steel for them to achieve their aims of winning control of Congress and becoming America’s majority party. Killing health care will serve both ends. The timing of the memo dovetails with a growing private consensus among Republicans that all-out opposition to the Clinton plan is in their best political interest. Until the memo surfaces, most opponents prefer behind-the-scenes warfare largely shielded from public view. The boldness of Kristol’s strategy signals a new turn in the battle. Not only is it politically acceptable to criticize the Clinton plan on policy grounds, it is also politically advantageous. By the end of 1993, blocking reform poses little risk as the public becomes increasingly fearful of what it has heard about the Clinton plan.

    Repeat after me: Fleischman and the GOP do not care about Americans. They do not want the stimulus to succeed because it will hurt their party. That’s all that matters to these moonbats.

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