“We’re not going to pass a clean debt limit increase.”
—John Boehner, October 6, 2013
Clearly, as MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and others suggested this morning, Republicans have poll-tested the word “conversation,” as applied to the sad impasse in Washington. John Boehner used that word around twenty times during his squirmy 14-minute appearance on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. I took the time to string together his use of the word in order to demonstrate how desperate the Speaker now is:
…we asked to sit down with the Senate and have a conversation…that the leaders will sit down and have a conversation…We’re interested in having a conversation…it begins with a simple conversation…It’s about having a conversation…It’s time for us to sit down and have a conversation…Let’s sit down and have a conversation…It’s not their fault that the leaders in Washington won’t sit down and have a conversation…The president is saying, I won’t negotiate. I won’t have a conversation…Even though President George Herbert Walker Bush had a conversation about raising the debt limit…The nation’s credit is at risk because of the administration’s refusal to sit down and have a conversation…And the president is risking default by not having a conversation with us…And the president is putting the nation at risk by his refusal to sit down and have a conversation…My goal here is not to have the United States default on their debt. My goal here is to have a serious conversation about those things that are driving the deficit and driving the debt up. And the president’s refusal to sit down and have a conversation about this is putting our nation at risk of default…The president canceled his trip to Asia. I assumed — well, maybe he wants to have a conversation…I’m willing to sit down and have a conversation with the President…I’m not going to raise the debt limit without a serious conversation…I’ve been willing to sit down with the president and have this conversation...George, I’m ready for the phone call. I’m ready for a conversation...
That’s about one and a half per minute! How embarrassing was that appearance? How weak is this Speaker? How dumb is he? Or, rather, how dumb does he think we are?
Republicans in the House started all this madness with a weird jihadist desire to defund and destroy ObamaCare, then they said they would settle for delaying it, and now they say all they want to do is talk to Democrats, or to put it in the revealingly passive construction favored by Boehner, “have a conversation.”
Yikes. John Boehner is a pitifully puny leader whose desperation is apparent to all, except maybe himself. And what he is really asking President Obama to do is to bail him and his Tea Party friends out of a jam, a dangerous jam that threatens to wound the country for a generation or more.
How ironic it is that establishment extremists in the Republican Party need the Scary Negro in the White’s House to make some kind—any kind—of “deal” to get them off the hook and save them from Ted Cruz and the other anti-establishment extremists in the GOP.
How delicious it is that Barack Hussein Obama holds in his socialist, Kenya-birthed hands the fate of the Grand Old Party, which would surely suffer incalculable damage from the economic disorder and chaos its members say they are about to bring upon Americans.
Speaker Boehner confirmed—yes, he confirmed—Stephanopoulos’ characterization of a Treasury Department report saying that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be “unprecedented and catastrophic,” that “credit markets could freeze,” that “the value of the dollar could plummet,” that “U.S. interest rates could skyrocket,” that “the negative spillovers could reverberate around the world,” and that “there might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse.”
Stephanopolous asked Boehner, “Do you agree with that assessment?” And the Speaker replied: “I do. And the President is putting the nation at risk by his refusal to sit down and have a conversation.”
Yes, it’s all in the President’s hands. If he would only sit down and talk it would all be over. It’s that simple, said Boehner. Except, of course, it isn’t.
We all know that establishment Republicans are hoping that the President, at the last minute or before, will swoop in with some concession and save them from themselves, from their cowardice, from their failure to stand up in force to the Tea Party nuts they have so willingly used to endlessly attack the President since his election in 2008.
Political pundits are fond of talking about the extremism of a “small” group of Tea Party Republicans in the House. But these pundits rarely make the point that it is Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Roy Blunt and other establishment players that make possible the antics of teapartiers. Establishment Republicans are deathly frightened of what Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity will say about them if they dare to loudly and publicly call out the extremism and stupidity of the anti-establishment zealots that are leading their party, and possibly the country, to ruin. So, they need Barack Obama’s help.
And the President should not help them. I repeat: he should not help them.
Establishment Republicans should do the dirty but necessary work themselves or else risk sullying their party’s name and reputation for years, and elections, to come. A Democratic President should not be the savior of an out-of-control Republican Party, many members of which don’t give a damn about the welfare of the country if it means abandoning their ideological Allah.
The American people finally, if painfully, need to find out what has happened to a once-proud political party, the party, for God’s sake, of Abraham Lincoln. And Americans, many of whom are still suffering from the foolishness of Republican economic philosophy, need to know just how far this very non-Lincolnesque party is willing to go in service to a very strange and destructive god.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
Prof. Olsen
/ October 7, 2013Reblogged this on Professor Olsen @ Large and commented:
“Republicans in the House started all this madness with a weird jihadist desire to defund and destroy ObamaCare, then they said they would settle for delaying it, and now they say all they want to do is talk to Democrats, or to put it in the revealingly passive construction favored by Boehner, ‘have a conversation.'”
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R. Duane Graham
/ October 7, 2013I appreciate that, my friend. Keep up your good work. And as the father of a teacher, I appreciate also this graph I found featured on your site. It’s amazing:
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ansonburlingame
/ October 7, 2013“Of course, negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon. The pigeon knocks over all the pieces, craps on the board and then struts around like it won the game.”
I found the quote online and do not claim such originality!!
Anson
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R. Duane Graham
/ October 7, 2013You know where I found it? I found it on a right-wing site called The Patriot Post. Is that where you found it? Huh? If so, perhaps you also read this on the site:
Wow, Anson. You are in good company.
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King Beauregard
/ October 7, 2013“And the President should not help them. I repeat: he should not help them.”
It’s times like this I’m glad our Commander in Chief is a Community Organizer at heart: we need someone who understands obstinate negotiators and how to not lose sight of what’s important. My guess: Obama will help because this is too important not to, but he will do so in a way that empowers and encourages the Republican grown-ups to take charge.
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Herb Van Fleet
/ October 7, 2013Duane,
Your last paragraph stood out to me. “The American people finally, if painfully, need to find out what has happened to a once-proud political party, the party, for God’s sake, of Abraham Lincoln. And Americans, many of whom are still suffering from the foolishness of Republican economic philosophy, need to know just how far this very non-Lincolnesque party is willing to go in service to a very strange and destructive god.”
I think it should be disturbing to all Americans, not just Republicans, that we have people like Cruz and Boner who are strident in their beliefs and have a pathological obsession with a single issue that holds the entire nation hostage and whose extreme political ideology would threaten the very security of we the people!
Why the hell aren’t people rising up and screaming for somebody to end the insanity of voting, what?, 40 times?, to end Obamacare. Isn’t that the kind of behavior that, if done by you or me, would put us in a rubber room pdq?
This is not the extremism in the defense of liberty that Goldwater had in mind. This is dangerously pathological. Why aren’t the talking heads on the Sunday talk shows, who are supposed to be journalists, do some fact-checking before the radicals come on, and then hit them up the side of the head with them when the lies and hyperbole start coming out?
What has the world come to when I start agreeing with Grover Norquist????
It’s just damn sad that the average Joe and Jill just sit passively, watching these goings-on and say nothing, do nothing. Then, again, maybe they think this is the way it’s supposed to be. Either way, there may be a real wake-up call on October 17th. According to a Reuters report on October 4th, “The Irish online gambling site Paddy Power lists the odds of 1/6 on the government raising the debt ceiling and 7/2 on a default. Previously, the odds were 1/3 on raising the debt ceiling and 6/1 on a default.”
Then, again, maybe a default would produce the 2 x 4 smack between the eyes of the American people that I’ve been hoping for. On the other hand, there are five fingers with the middle one standing straight up.
Herb
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ansonburlingame
/ October 8, 2013Duane,
You demean my “company” because they try to adhere to some form of moral code, “rightness” if you will, in their lives. Well I am glad that I live with such “company” by and large, men and women that believe that there are right and wrong choices in their individual lives and try to live by doing the “right things”, no matter how hard they might be to so do.
Forget religion, forget the “word of God” however some may interpret such things. Just consider people that THEMSELVES simply try their best to do the “next right thing” in their lives. I will always do my best to associate with such people until they start trying to tell ME, what is right or wrong, morally.
I don’t like moralistic, Bible thumping red neck assholes any more than you do. But I also hate truth denying slugs and no loads, people whose only interest is their own well being and screw anyone else.
MLK said it but progressives still ignore it. Judge a man by his character alone. Today our whole political spectrum demeans the character to entire blocs of people, anyone that has conservative ideas on this blog, character be damned, the manner in which they try to live their own lives.
For sure I am no icon of great character nor do I claim to be so. I don’t know YOUR character either, how you live, work, and try to do what is “right” each day. We only know each other from what we write herein. But I know what I TRY to do each day, in terms of how I interact with other people, places and things. And of course I suggest other people might at least consider trying to do the same things in their daily lives.
Ultimately that translates into one’s “politics” as well. And you in particular demean and “scream” at anyone with differing views. Rarely do I ever agree with such on your part and you don’t like how I respond, either. Does that mean one of us is a bad “character”?
Anson
PS: I got the quote from my class web site and thought it was funny. I told it to my Democratic wife and she did too. She laughed and said that is “Ted Cruz” in a nutshell!!! And she does not have bad character, just misguided politics which I will never fix and don’t try to do so!!!
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