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The Democratic knives come out in the House.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  November 3rd, 2010 at 07:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

And, like all entertaining wars to the knife, this one has multiple factions. The ‘moderates’ blame the liberals for walking all over them; the liberals blame the moderates for going along with passing bad ideas like the stimulus, cap-and-trade, and Obamacare; the idiots (this may be a subgroup: there’s a bit of an overlap here with the first two groups) are claiming that this entire problem would have gone away with a little more marketing; and everybody blames the President.  Because really, why not?  It’s fairly clear by now that being on Barack Obama’s good side is not exactly inherently valuable.  They’re all right, of course: the Democratic debacle in the House represents a perfect storm of legislative cowardice, political greed, a grotesquely flawed group understanding of proper civic policy, and a White House that routinely demonstrates the organizational and administrative core competency that normally one associates with opium-raddled Victorian expatriate remittance men.  None of which helps them right now, of course; but it’s a lot of fun to point out.

As to solving their problem…  well, even if I wanted to I couldn’t.  Congressional Democrats are only going to be united by one person – the President – and just in case there’s still somebody who hasn’t noticed by now: the President is incompetent at leading people in directions that they don’t already want to go.  Which is not what the Democrats need right now.  So there’s no solution in sight, unless of course the President wants to start learning all of those boring, practical political skills that he should have started picking up a couple of decades ago…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

(Via @davidhauptmann)

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COMMENTS

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  • m_quick

    ‘unless of course the President wants to start learning all of those boring, practical political skills that he should have started picking up a couple of decades ago?’

    You do know the guy got elected Senator and President…

  • spainishirish

    Obama made MoC’s and senators his expendible pawns. Now here’s some more overlap: they were too stupid to realize it at the time, and it may never dawn on others what was done to them.

  • bobbymike

    time to put that “over 70 year old democrat congressman” list up again.

  • http://conservativemountaineer.blogspot.com/ conservativemountaineer

    sweet.

    In the words of Flounder (Animal House).. “This is gonna be great!”

  • IJB

    My guess is that no one, except Pelosi, announces their retirement now. I think they’ll wait several months or so, and see where the political landscape is next summer, and see how badly redistricting goes against them.

    At that point, I expect a number of them will retire – probably:

    Dingell (MI)
    Miller (CA)
    Stark (CA)
    Peterson(maybe?) (MN)

    …and probably a few more.

    The thing is, we won’t get the seats of the hardened liberals (or their seats will “go away” in redistricting anyway). That’s why we have to hope that guys like Peterson throw in the towel – he represents a district we might even have a chance of winning…

  • gazill

    Miller or Stark retiring, but I hope you are right IJB. My take is (after 10 years here) is this guy is so entrenched that the only way he leaves is cold (or if the Big O decides to appoint him in some education post, like he did Tauscher, all so the seat could go to new Pelosi lap dog Garamendi, it must hurt him to sit with her hand so far up…oh never mind).

  • izoneguy

    is to see how many dems flip to Republican to try and save their miserable careers….

    Arlene turned to the dems and look where that got him……

  • banzaibob

    and Congress got the shaft.

    Are the survivors in Congress listening.

    Go ahead and let the tax cuts expire. The economy stays in the doldrums and unemployment remains above 9%.

    Keep spending us into oblivion.

    2012 can’t get here fast enough and we will be waiting.

  • banzaibob

    In the Senate;

    Bill Nelson (FL) No,Get another Marco Rubio
    Ben Nelson (NE) No, work to un-elect him
    Manchun(WV) If Demos push for Cap and Tax

    Let them wallow in the mess they have made for themselves.

  • msctex

    DAMN, Moe. I’m guessing somewhere in Greene?

    (Still laughing. . .)

  • Tbone

    Gee, that musta been what, 60 + thumps?

  • tominkorea

    Getting elected isn’t a practical political skill directly related to governing. As has been demonstrated over the past two years.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    He’s excellent at sitting back and letting everybody else carry his load while he makes speeches; but I was never what you would call impressed with Obama’s non-scripted campaign performance. Then again, he never particularly needed to show any real skill in that.

    He will in 2012. Especially since the media’s not really happy with his shtick right now.

  • SharonR

    Nice to see the other guys slipping on the banana peels for a change.

  • audax
  • fredrik

    Rangel, Waters and other D MoCs with questionable ethics will probably decide to retire in the next two years.

  • californiagold

    Although congressional republicans now have the majority, the voters hold all the power. And the voters made it very clear yesterday that they want Obama’s healthcare plan either repealed, or drastically scaled back. In the short term congressional republicans can vote to repeal it, (and have the bill die in the senate). But in the long term the voters will expect real movement on the issue. If ObamaCare is still intact in 2012 without any significant changes, congressional republicans will need to explain why.

  • cactusjack

    I just think it is way too quiet on the foreign affairs front. I wouldnt be surprised if we start having to deal, the next 2 years, with the consequences of 0s disastrous foreign policy the last two years. These things used to be known as “crises,” as in “Cuban Missile.” We won’t have all this time to squander and squabble over domestic matters, wrong as 0 is. Interestingly, and despite certain Constitutional powers delegated to the Senate, the House has a very active history of foreign policy cognizance, jurisdiction and action in recent times, including support of Somoza against Carter, support of Afghanistan mujahadein against the rest of Congress. The House is arguably a better platform from which to fight wayward President, than the Senate, in matters of foreign affairs – because in the end, don’t forget those purse strings.

  • libertarianphilip

    Brilliant!

  • fredrik

    Yesterdays’ election likely taught quite a few D’s that 1) they’re expendable, 2) loyalty is demanded, not given, 3) Obama’s help is not necessarily helpful, and 4) it’s generally a bad idea to behave like royalty and insult your constituents. Soon, many of them will also experience the joys of redistricting. And quite a few D senators presumably realize that they are quite lucky they weren’t up for reelection yesterday.

    This matters quite a bit going forward. I expect far fewer D’s to blindly follow Obama, Reid and Pelosi.

  • IJB
  • californiagold

    As has already been stated, the voters are expecting action on the issue of ObamaCare. If the republicans in the house pass legislation to repeal it, knowing full well that the bill will die in the senate, but don’t do anything to defund it, voters won’t be too happy in 2012.

    Congressional republicans can do many things within the budget process to gut ObamaCare in 2011 before it ever sees the light of day. The question is, will they ? How they answer that question will go a long way in determining if the republican party is serious about cutting the size and scope of government.

  • southernilpat

    You obviously have no clue what his senatorial race was like. ANYONE the Dems put up that year would have won. The best the Republicans could come up with for an opponent was Alan Keyes, for heaven’s sake. The majority of his Illinois legislature “experience” was voting present. He never really was a Senator because he immediately starting campaigning for POTUS upon election.

    There is more to political skill than campaigning. At some point a leader has to actually, you know, lead.

  • IJB

    …We won’t be talking about elections or 3rd parties anymore – the discussion will quickly move way beyond that.

    I feel confident that the GOP Congress gets that – they realize that they have to deliver on stuff like this, or the situation in this country quickly becomes completely untenable.

    What I was trying to point out, though, is that outside of budgeting/defunding there is almost *nothing* the GOP House can achieve *legislatively* over the next two years – we don’t even have the control of the Senate, let alone the White House!…

  • JSobieski

    However, if you really want to kill Obamacare I think there are smarter ways to do it.

    Obamacare is really just a trojan horse for single payer, we all know that, but many folks don’t see it coming.

    We on the right have our own potential trojan horse. It could be enacted (I think Obama might even sign it in the aftermath of the midterms). If we pass some HSA enhancing provisions, it would rip the heart of Obamacare and bring the entire thing crashing down.

  • JSobieski

    in the same way that Obamacare will ultimately kill the private sector. However, this pathway is something that could be tried now, for both short term political gain and long term policy gain.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704462704575590344022699132.html

    Imagine the number of people operating in the universe of insurance coverage outside of Obamacare. Its like putting up capitalism against socialism and seeing who wins.

    I was actually thinking something along these lines the morning before the election, and then I read this article.

    Some argue repeal. Others argue replace. I argue repeal by supplanting and discrediting.

  • itrytobenice

    except for IL corruptocrats unsealing sealed divorce records of his opponents.

  • kchand

    … I would just leave. Oh??? … never mind.

  • kchand

    n/t

  • kchand

    Why wouldn’t he think he is so much brighter than all of us? Look how far he’s gone, doing so little. Selling the people a pathetic “Hope & Change” slogan. David Copperfield has to work harder. I’d think the masses are morons, too.

  • kchand

    If the moderate Dems bring a knife to this fight, do the lefist Dems follow Obama’s lead and bring a gun? Hmm, do they own a gun?

    Pass the popcorn … kettlecorn if you got it.

  • JSobieski

    and it has the added benefit of putting Obama on the defensive.

    http://www.redstate.com/jsobieski/2010/11/04/a-trojan-horse-for-killing-obamacare-in-2011/

  • JSobieski

    and it has the added benefit of putting Obama on the defensive.

    http://www.redstate.com/jsobieski/2010/11/04/a-trojan-horse-for-killing-obamacare-in-2011/

  • qurys

    How long did that take to think up? Genius. Anyway, the only one laughing this week has to be retired Congressman Marion Berry (D) from Arkansas. You know, the one Barack Obama told when he was concerned about his re-election in 2010 that this was different from 1994 because “you’ve got me”. It must be of little solace to those Dems today. The liberals, the moderates and the Victorian sub groups.

  • southernpatriots

    If the Republicans lead with conservatism, they will make additional gains in 2012 and will win the Senate and White House. If not, they will become an irrelevant impotent party and may cease to exist. The stakes are high. The news media will try to pressure the new representatives to blend in and be part of the establishment politician base in D.C. If they can resist this virus and stay to the principles they espoused to be elected, then the conservatives will continue to ascend and gain back all areas of the country, the Senate and White House in 2012 (except for spots in the northeast, including NY, and California where the unions will work to control their remaining power)….even NY and CA are possible with the right circumstances and candidates.

  • davesinsanantonio

    both shall fall into the ditch”. It was true 2000 years ago, and it is still true today.
    The Left as intentionally self-blinded. In both senses. They have blinded themselves to facts and reality, and they are blind about who and what they themselves are and are doing. They claim to have good intentions, but they refuse to see the destructive consequences of their policies, and refuse to admit that there is a better way to do things. Even though history is rife with examples of how things really work. So, they refuse to acknowledge that they really want to hurt people, not help them in any substantive way. The worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves.
    “There is none so blind as he who will not see”!!!!

  • davesinsanantonio

    power is not only the “great aphrodisiac”", it is also one of the strongest and most addictive of temptations. Of course it corrupts, but it also appeals to the pride in saying to the individual, “yes, but I am strong enough to not be corrupted”. So, the most corrupted by the lure of power convinces himself, or herself, that not only am I the best because I cannot be corrupted, I am smart enough to not be caught, and I am so needed in power that I cannot leave it, or it will fail without me. How delicious power is to those who crave it. And having some, but not as much as we crave, is the most corrupting of all!

  • davesinsanantonio

    because he really wants a single payer system. That has been the goal all along, because it is NOT about health, and never was, it is about power! He does not want to “save” or improve the health system, he wants to control it!

  • tngal

    Remember this from 2/25/10 the Bipartisan Health Care Summit at Blair House. The guy’ a prophet.

    ____

    “The question that I’m going to ask myself and I ask of all of you is, is there enough serious effort that in a month’s time or a few weeks’ time or six weeks’ time we could actually resolve something?” Obama said. “And if we can’t, then I think we’ve got to go ahead and make some decisions, and then that’s what elections are for.”
    _____

    I’m still giggling over this. Well, Obiwan wasn’t in much of a “working together” mood back then as Ia recall. Moe, I ‘m with you in that he probably isn’t ready to learn those boring political skills. Better to just be arrogant and say things like “I won” or “that’s what elections are for”.

  • blooch

    Daid Broder, the “O”pium-raddled Rooseveltian MSM remittance man, has that covered. It ssems that all Barry has to do is be proactive about getting us on a war-footing with Iran, Seriously:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102907404.html

  • blooch

    The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. In Barry’s case the tree was a Marx-raddled American expatriate remittance woman.

    lol

  • mdd1956

    the President is incompetent at leading people in directions that they don?t already want to go.

    WE need to be able to carry that message for the few years it will take us to repeal healthcare and get rid of those liberal ststists

  • petezarria

    The Illinois GOP was angry at Sen. Fitzgerald because he wouldn’t choose an Illinois corrupt combine Federal Attorney for Chicago. He nominated an honest one. Hence, the party refused to support him giving Illinois the Alan Keyes candidacy.

    A carpet bagger is pretty easy for the machine to defeat. So we now have the feckless and callow, the incredibly incompetent and hateful Obama courtesy of the Illinois GOP. Braack didn’t get there by dint of his own brow. Every electoral success he’s had up to president was given to him for obeisance to the machine. Now we are reaping the nothing that was sown by the Illinois criminal political class.

  • johnt

    There may be loyalty among thieves but none at all between the amoral power hungry. The trash have loyalty of a sort only so long as it serves their own brand of greed.
    The 20th century has sufficient evidence of collectivist scum imprisoning and murdering allies. The scum we’re stuck with have some legal and social inhibitions here, But just below the surface ??

    In any case, if necessary they will turn on The O & his band of clowns like the blood tasting sharks they all are.
    Hello Hillary & Bill.

  • http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/ reaganiterepublicanresistance

    They agree with Obama… that there must be something wrong with the idiot voters

    Linked at RR:

    http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2010/11/and-finger-pointing-hilarity-ensues.html

  • edintexas

    The political skills required for leadership, not getting elected. Not to mention the convenient elimination of his significant opponents in both his first state and first federal elections making the latter rather easy.

  • bruceinva

    both in serious financial straits and might have to lay off huge bunches of those government union employees. That will further limit the funds available for unions to work against conservatives. If they don’t, they may further their downward fiscal spiral by raising taxes and further alienating the populace. That will lead to more than just Rush Limbaugh fleeing NY. That will lead to massive electoral backlash either at the voting booth (can you see CA and NY colored RED?) or the exit sign and the latter will mean bankruptcy filing.

  • bruceinva

    will have to resign as SecState, otherwise she will be sent great distances from US soil at strategic times to ensure she can’t mount a case against Obumble. If she really wants it (and she might be the most electable Dem at the moment), then her sharp political skills will tell her this. Look for it in the next six months or write her out of the picture.

  • vince33x

    This is not a sub-group at all, indeed, this is the species, which includes: morons, idiots, moderates, independents, Democrats, Liberals, Socialists, Syndicalists, Fascists, Nazis, and Communists.

    This “idiot class” is best defined as: “those individuals who believe a group of apparatchiks in a central location – say, Washington DC – is better at ordering their lives and spending most of their income than they are!”

  • jjnevola

    America should be sending America’s “best and brightest” to represent us in Washington. However, both parties have become too enamored with their own quest for power and have usually only offered those incestuous candidates that play ball with their party masters.

    This time, however, there was a slate of regular people, citizen legislators who have slapped down many party favorites to win primaries and ?kicked butt? in the general election.

    They represented the frustrations of regular folks tired of being taxed to death and then spoken down to by the arrogant party elites.

    These “regular people” did extremely well in the face of blistering insults and biased coverage from the liberal media. They are a principled group that will remain faithful to their oath to their constituents and the Constitution. And the Tea Party movement helped get a diverse group of people elected (Rubio, West, Martinez, Haley and Scott) not BECAUSE they were minorities but because they held true to the principles of the founders.

    We have a long way to go to restore America but this Election Day was a positive first step in taking our government back.

    www.thelastjump.com
    Some proceeds donated to charity.
    Makes a great Christmas present!

  • jjnevola

    This is clearly no time to celebrate.

    Republicans benefited from the tea party movement and won over 60 seats in the House. And we think that’s good?

    60 percent of Independents voted Republican. What were the other 40 percent thinking?

    75 percent of the people polled have a negative impression of government? What planet was the remaining 25 percent living on for the last 2 years?

    Over half the respondents have a negative view of Obama! And what was left, almost half, DON’T have a negative view?

    After all of the Reid misdeeds in Congress, he was rewarded with reelection! Could he really buy all those votes?

    And the “villain in chief” of the real estate ?bubble burst? that almost cratered the economy, Barney Frank, was also reelected. Unbelievable!

    And to think there are a group of people, even in San Francisco, that think Pelosi is smarter than a box of rocks is also unfathomable!

    These “other” people, the ones who voted Democrat in this election, have no clue what it means to be an “American” even though they claim to be Americans! Their socialist agenda threatens every fabric of our founding beliefs of individual liberty, personal accountability and responsibility!

    If there was ever a time in our history when government threatened the liberty of each individual to such an extent as to place our Republic on a sure path of decline, the last 2 years was that time!

    If there ever was a government that held so many Americans up to ridicule, insult and in great dismissive disdain, it is the 111th Congress!

    If ever the Constitution was in danger of being trampled upon, we just witnessed that unthinkable notion during the last 2 years.

    And yet, after all that and more, we only managed to take a small bite out of the Liberal agenda? We didn’t kill the monster, we just barely wounded it!

    This election will be the last whimper of a dying nation if we do not follow up this ?victory? with another resounding win in 2012 where we must elect a Conservative president and a filibuster-proof Senate.

    Anything less makes 2010 a Pyrrhic victory at best!

    www.thelastjump.com
    Some proceeds donated to charity.
    Makes a great Christmas present!

  • talgus

    got fight the big bad banks experience with ACORN
    support the education unions with his buddy Ayers
    got into the state legislature by disqualifying all his opponents
    got into the senate by exposing closed divorce documents on his opponent
    got into the presidential suite by conning the independents

    What more Chicago thug experience do you want from the guy?
    No way he works with Repubs, he will pretend (and double down behind everyone’s back). Thank YOU MEDIA.

  • gunslingr45

    got a knife too. Rubio for Prez!

  • dmccracken

    The electorate in those deep-blue states like NY and CA.