Democrats’ New Strategy: Keep the Same Leaders, Defend Their Bad Legislation (Updated)
There’s a somewhat hackneyed definition of insanity regarding doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to get a different result. I won’t tie that definition directly to the disturbingly perpetual grin worn by the Democrats’ former speaker of the House, but it may be worth tying it to this amusing story in the New York Times. They’re the newspaper of record, ya know.
Democratic leaders in Washington plan to spend the next week doing what they all but refused to do in the 2010 midterm elections: mount a vigorous defense of President Obama’s health care legislation.
The “all fronts” plan is a response to the decision by the new House speaker, John A. Boehner, to schedule a vote next Wednesday on a complete repeal of the health care law that Mr. Obama signed last March.
Senior Democratic officials said their effort would be managed by a rapid response operation modeled after the ones Mr. Obama used in his presidential campaign. That team will monitor Republican claims, send out fact-checks and deploy a team of surrogates to get their views on television.
If you caught any of Wednesday’s coverage of the opening of the 112th Congress, you saw this strategy’s first road test, and who is likely to be its standard bearer. After her odd, self-serving parting speech, Rep. Nancy Pelosi stayed farther away from TV cameras than she usually does. In her place, on every network I happened to catch, was Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, of Florida.
Schultz is arguably the best the Beltway Democrats have at the moment. She presents a younger face than either Pelosi or minority leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, and isn’t as odd or disconnected from reality as Sen. Harry Reid. She is no less of an ideologue than her party’s leaders, though, and she has certainly learned to throw a few pitches doing minor league duty appearing on every MSNBC show nearly every day over the past couple of years. It remains to be seen whether Chris Matthews’, Ed Schultz’s, Keith Olbermann’s and Rachel Maddow’s left-handed slow pitch game is enough to get Wasserman-Schultz ready to go up against Speaker Boehner and his leadership team, or against the faster, less predictable pitching she’ll face from the Right’s talk radio and social media. When I was producing for the Laura Ingraham Show a couple of years ago, Wasserman-Schultz was obscure enough that we hardly paid any attention to her at all. If she does turn out to be the congressional Democrats’ new lead spokeswoman, that will change, and quickly. Whether she fills that role or not, the Democrats have in fact kept the exact same leadership team that earned them the November shellacking. And says the Times, they’re set to defend ObamaCare with a vigorous PR campaign. There’s no “out with the old, in with the new” with these folks. It’s just “in with the old, and still in with the old.”
The Democrats are experiencing an existential crisis. Most Americans now accept the fact that government needs to be made smaller. How can the Democrats go along with the new direction? They rely on the growth of government to bribe their loyal constituents. The Democrats are royally screwed.
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss…”
I like the way Progressives are dealt with in the new animated web movie A Not Too Grimm Fairy Tale… you’ll laugh your butt off as the truth about America is unveiled along with a new American symbol (weapon) – the Liberal “head-up-the-butt” person
http://www.marcrubin.com/Hairmerica.ivnu
Just the fact that the Dems are doubling down and repeating the same idiot mistakes proves that they aren’t fit to lead. I hope America’s classical liberals have learned a lesson, but it’s clear that the true leftists never will.
Boehner is no match for a woman that displays PMS symptoms every day of the week. The next whimpering we’ll see is because they hurt his feelings.
With the complete rabid/uncouth team of Pelosi/Reid/Wasserman-Schultz, and the kook MSM with Obama as their hood ornament, I don’t expect much change.
Right now, there is only symbolic Republican representation. The veteran Democrat mercenaries will eat the new TEA Party Republicans for lunch.
If adversity creates character, these new Republicans will graduate as battle hardened warriors in two years.
Darrell Issa is the only one demonstrating the strength of character to take on this Democrat Mob.
Bryan, the opponents of leftism make a common mistake when they assume rules that do not exist equally for each side.
For instance, if we assume that leftists have to tell the truth and face facts when positioning or framing an argument, that assumes a rule that does not exist. Leftists don’t care one whit about the facts. The “masses” are to be fed an outcome and any path to that outcome is as good as any other path.
Secondly, if one assumes that the lapdog media, academia and Hollywood are going to “play fair” and set forth a fair debate on the “facts”, one is going to be sorely disappointed time and time again.
So, we should instead assume that the leftists are going to lie, distort, cover up, deceive, and use “any means necessary” to advance the seizure of our system of government and that the Fetch Media is going to run interference for them.
Republicans, for all their recent showings of “getting the message” from the people, have historically been abysmal at fighting the war of “issue framing” and “laying out the distortions”. Worse than abysmal.
They don’t fight back with the same fury and with hardly an ounce of precision, they get beat each and every time and they run from the lapdog media as if it was rabid and ravenous for a bite out of their private parts.
They run scared, tuck tail and back down repeatedly. If it is not realized that the truth is worth fighting for and that it is a fight on multiple fronts, this is a war of attrition and winning a couple of skirmishes is not enough…then we might as well just lay down and let the leftists have the country.
The 111th Congress is proud of its accomplishments, they have nearly torn the country apart, nearly completed the overthrow of our system of self-governance and nearly wrecked the economy. Those are only bad things, if that’s not exactly what one intended.
Yes, go ahead with the vote. ObamaCare must be repealed and the vote will reveal precisely where each rep stands on the issue NOW. Some of the fubars and landmines buried in that sneaky, destructive legislation have been revealed, while many more have yet to surface.
I’m no deep, strategic thinker, but by tackling this now, Boehner appears to be publicly pegging the battle parameters, testing battle line strength, and taking the measure of friends, foes, wafflers and whiners.
If nothing else, it will make great political theater. Hopefully, the Demodrones will be innundated with vociferous expressions of outrage from constituents, and those who vote against the bill will be innundated with kudos for (finally) pursuing the people’s will.
It’s time to quit kicking the can down the road and kick a few “cans” to the curb.
UPDATE: Local MSM is reporting that a group of “protesters” submitted a petition to Boehner’s Troy, Ohio regional office. The petition purportedly includes 2000+/- signatures from doctors and healthcare industry workers encouraging Boehner and the Rs to NOT repeal ObamaCare.
And so it begins …
Um, yeah. Better check those signatures. ACORN may have gathered them.
What, you don’t believe Dr. Mary Poppins, Marcus Welby MD, and Dr. Mickey M. Mouse really signed the petition?
… and Dr. House, Dr. 13, Dr. MacDreamy, Dr. Smith, Dr. Smith, Dr. Smith … Yep, every single signature needs to be scrutinized carefully.
The MSM, however, has done their job: Protesters! Petitions! Signatures! Oh, my!
It’s a sign of the demtard disconnect from reality, that they’ve made a shrill,stalinist harpy ,like Debbie Wasserman Test, their spokesbitch.
The socialist progressives (Democrats) aren’t employing any new strategic tactics. Their 100 + year old strategy has been significantly successful over time and they remain in no hurry to fully succeed. They rely heavily upon all the superficial populist rhetoric to distract from their core strategies. These dregs on our society are sadly far more strategically intelligent than the opposing team.
Case in point! They know that you cannot simply repeal any piece of enacted legislation without a couple of [specific] showings of cause and even then a “replacement” legislation has to be accompanied to a repeal effort. In this regard, the GOP has already indicated they are willing to retain several of the more generally popular and accepted elements of the original Health Care Act such as the issues of prior high risk health history, no caps, etc. In separate legislation they have already succeeded in socializing child health care with virtually no populist objections.
Bottom line? They have already won their current health care initiatives by any standard of measure and are happy to facilitate the diversions of the current rhetoric….pending their next opportunity for advancement. They have placed the GOP in a corner for which the GOP will most likely, if successful to any degree of repealing and retaining certain elements of the Health Care Act, place the private sector insurance industry into an unsustainable economic position…something nobody is addressing.
They are NOT stupid nor are they implementing any [new] strategies!
Democrats will do what they always do – lie their asses off. But will it work this time? The dismal Obamacare results are coming in, and the Dems will have a harder and harder time polishing this giant turd.
This just lends credence to the idea that Liberalism is a form of mental disorder. Insanity = doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
The leftists are counting on their artillery overcoming the vastly superior numbers of their enemy, the people. Their arillery, the media and the intelligensia, have won every battle for the leftists for the last 60 years.
But this time, the outcome is not so certain. The enemy is aroused, the leftist leader is weak, and we have artillery that is beginning to approach their own.
They have also traditionally had the advantage of stealth. That also no longer exists.
Strictly in terms of military assets, the left is now in a position they have never been in before…a direct confrontation with a superior enemy that now understands their tactics and their goals, and that understands what the stakes really are.
It certainly won’t be a slam-dunk, but this battle is one that can be won, if we are smart, and patient. If we don’t win it in the next two years, the war is over.
Proreason….I admire your spirit! However, there is a reason beyond maintaining “spirit” on the field, that coaches stand on the sideline of every sporting event….or generals behind the lines of battle. In short, it is their charge to utilize their honed skills and wisdom to make analytical observations beyond the superficial.
You speak to the arousal of Americans, thus, a wind of victory is just around the corner. Sadly, the aroused Americans, including the elected and appointed membership of the GOP, are locked into the superficial, remaining blind to the underlying core issues. The driving machine of the opponents however remain honed into their 100 + year old core issues and objective strategies.
I think we tend to overlook the fact that the opponents have systemically amassed a 40% hard core following over the many decades and additionally, have encapsulated nearly 100% of Americans with benefits they will not easily give up for the greater cause.
The TeaParty/GOP/Citizen arousal is meaningless unless they get beyond all the superficial issues, rhetoric and basic first aid strategies. Pouring more water into a radiator that has a hole in it hardly fixes the core problem. The core problems that have brought America to this point is not the 40% discretionary spending. The core problems are represented by the federal governments control of commerce and the national economy generated by commerce, coupled with current and expanding unsustainable socialist entitlements…..in other words, centralized socialism in all its historic and evolutionary facades.
I have neither heard nor seen anything that indicates that the “aroused” have any real definitive understanding of the underlying problems much less a comprehensive and realistic strategical approach in combating and reversing the “real” core problems.
Anyway, all the current arousal rhetoric towards the intended action strategy by the GOP does not stand up to the battle vs the war test.
Why do you bother to comment, TT? You obviously think that all is lost. Posting here can only depress you further. Your time would be better spent hoarding food and ammunition.
I bow to nobody when it comes to cynicism. For example, if there are 50 honorable human beings in Congress, I would be shocked to learn it. But giving in to criminals is a behavior that isn’t in my genes. When they are injecting the Obama fluid in my 90-year old veins, I’ll be spitting in the commissar’s face.
proreason…Anger and frustration are great tools for motivation and change….IF…. it is not misdirected. Can you agree with that?
Here’s the problem with all the “arousal” you speak too, as I see it and I’m pretty sure I can defend my position quite well.
America is dealing with a cancer that has been left unabated for the past half century plus. Currently, this cancer has come to a [critical] fork in the road where it can be fatal. Now, lets us consider the treatment protocol variables as prescribed by the medical team and you make some choices as the patient and patients family. The “experts” proclaim that the only two choices are 1) treating the symptoms (the superficial symptoms) to allow for the most comfortable and humane exit or 2) aggressively attack the cancer (the underlying causation of threat to life) in hopes of a positive cure. Which would you choose? For certain, the latter would be a most challenging and painful endeavor….pain or life?
So far the patient (the aroused citizens) is choosing #1!
My persistent attempts is to persuade the patient to consider choosing #2. As a matter of common sense when the patient is an entire nation…an entire society of peoples, it defies logic for a nation and its people to be led to treating only the superficial symptoms and not the underlying causation that cannot and will not defy eventual death.
Please allow me to post something from the Declaration of Independence and see if it has any applicable connection to the current situation.
["--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."]
The Socialist Progressives have systematically, for more than 100 years, been implementing strategies to institute a [new government]….with a much greater degree of success than most average citizens realize. What has been the single most used or abused Article of the Constitution that has allowed for them to destroy the Traditional America to date?
So yes, I will continue to be persistent in proclaiming that we treat the underlying causation of the problem(s) and all the superficial symptoms will go away on their own accord…..pain or death?
I’m only one person so I can hardly dictate who and what the people choose to follow as their sources of information and strategy for America’s future. I won’t be around for the end of the 4th quarter but I hope the people will wake up and choose to attack the underlying cancer.
TT, we’re on the same side, so I don’t want to argue with you.
I initially responded because you countered a relatively optimistic post with a pessimistic response.
But it’s easy to be pessimistic. I certainly am pessimistic enough of the time, just like many or most PJM commentors; but I also think it is undeniable that the marxists’ assault on liberty has engaged millions of people. Are we all Thomas Jeffersons? Is nirvana around the corner? Of course not.
Even so, it makes sense to recognize that some things are beginning to happen, that all is not lost, and that we have tools at our disposal that we haven’t even tried yet.
All in all, the country is better positioned today to turn back the socialist tide than it was 24 months ago. We should celebrate small victories and do everything we can to keep it going.
Your approach has merit. My only advice is to temper it with RR’s approach of remaining optimistic about the limitless possibilities of our country.
Watch your local letters to the editor sections carefully. The full court press against potential republican presidential candidates has already begun. The seeds of hate and discontent are being planted now and will bear full fruit in 2012.
The latest example is South Dakota Senator John Thune. Anti-Thune letters to the editor are appearing in SD and national newspapers almost daily, and the letter writers are NOT SD residents. The latest diatribe was from a moonbat living in Loveland, CO.
This is what they do for a living, folks. While the rest of us are working our tails off and trying to do the right thing every day, these jackasses on the far-left are full-time, professional muck-rakers.
Remember to keep working hard so the do-nothings have enough money for their beer, drugs and cigarettes.
More evidence:
Courtesy The Hill
So… keep the single most unpopular bill from being repealed, and return the nitwit that lost their party 60+ seats in her last election as Speaker. Yeah… that’s really a recipe for success.
the blame GWBush syndrome, the wheels have fallen off that bus, and now they are saying that ten years of George Bush is the cause of the shattered economy. if we just let the bleeding continue it will soon stop. they are beginning to shout so therefore it must be the truth. 4years of democratic control has crashed the car, but look at the bright side, you can now have it painted.
How can the democrats ‘defend’ something when they don’t even know what’s in it?
If I were in the medical profession, I would be scared to death just ‘thinking’ about this monstrosity landing on my desk and having to decipher it! People in the medical community will have to do this you know…
What we should do is demand that everyone who wrote it, and those Congress Men/Woman who signed it should go out and lecture (teach) to the medical community on exactly (precisely) what is in it.
“No Glossing over either”! Make them “earn the money” they received for their “vote” on this in the first place!
The leftists aren’t going to defend Obamacare. They are going to defend 4 or 5 items from the 2700 page bill. Item that in isolation from everything else, sound good on the surface, until you know the price.
And they are going to harp on the bogus CBO report a thousand times a day.
Republics better get good at countering those tactics. For the “budget savings”, they should point out the accounting scams as simply as possible (i.e., they didn’t count x, they double counted y, and z), and then have big colorful charts at the ready that show the estimated costs vs actuals of government health care in the US and all of the major socialist states in Europe and Canada.
I have seen and listened to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz a couple of times on television and I couldn’t tell if she was trying to be deliberately insane or if she was acting. Her perception is so bizarre and distorted one has to strain to find the basis for her opinions.
If she represents the next generation of Democratic leadership we had better oil up the weapons and plan some strategy involving bloodshed.