Friday Reading

By John Ballard

This post will be like a "Sunday Reading" except I'm in a hurry and have less time to reflect. That's okay, though because in the aftermath of events of the last couple of days I'm also pissed and should cool off before I claim to have been reflecting. Unlike a few high-profile public figures and a boatload of Tea Party activists I am usually self-aware enough to recognize the difference between rational and emotional impulses.

That said, I start with Newt Gingrich's latest blame-the-victim pronouncements which unlike those of poor Eric Cantor have an edge of sharpened steel that in my experience comes readily from white people in the South who have learned to walk through the hot coals of racism barefooted and still not get scars on the soles of their feet. Neal Boortz comes to mind but this is not about him this time.

Responding to the recent spate of violence against those who support health care and/or President Obama, Gingrich had this to say.

I think there�s something very disingenuous with the Democrat leaders who attack the Tea Party movement, who refuse to hold town hall meetings, who refuse to go back home, who kept the Congress locked up in Washington, and are now shocked that people are angry....I think the Democratic leadership has to take some real responsibility (for choosing) to use corrupt tactics that bought votes, that bullied people and as a result has enraged much of the American people. And I think it would be nice for President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid to take SOME responsibility for what THEIR actions have done to this country.

Two days ago when I heard Eric Cantor try to walk down that same road my first reaction was to be a little upset. But the feeling passed quickly as I saw him looking like a puppy in the rain, first because I knew the hose was aimed at the left and anyone on the right might get a few drops on them but the the left is the real target. (Please excuse the fire hose analogy. It seems appropriate because this is a recapitulation of the early days of the civil rights movement. I'm sure nobody will ever call Eric Cantor the N-word.)

Gingrich, however, is a different person. He's smart, quick on his feet and fully capable of taking advantage of a political moment and flipping it to his advantage. Cantor has an acid tongue but he's not in the same league as Gingrich. He waits for someone like Cantor to open the door first and a response to the violence from the "other side" (Pelosi and Hoyer's incredibly constrained press conference, during which neither came close to blaming anyone, bending over backward not to mention anyone from the opposition) and only then does he feel the need to start spinning that blame-the-victim meme. 

Flashback from nearly fifty years ago. As a young college student who joined a group of others picketing a segregated restaurant in Tallahassee, Florida I saw mob violence first hand. Fortunately I was never injured or beaten myself. I was too cowardly to be a pushy as some of my peers, too afraid of how my family and others might react if I got put into jail or got hurt. A serious part of my own fear was exactly the button that Newt Gingrich is trying to push, but at that time it took the form of "If you people were not picketing, this angry mob of others yelling and throwing stuff would not be happening." 

That was correct, of course. As long as no one does anything to disturb the status quo, everyone is happy. Except for the people paying the price, those left out of or losing the benefits of the status quo. In the case of the Tallahassee violence we were schooled in the ways of non-violent resistance. Our best weapon turned out to be a camera. We learned to always have someone on duty across the street conspicuously holding a camera and appearing to be taking pictures any time someone appeared to threaten the picket line. Most of the time the camera was without film, but that was not important. Potential perpetrators didn't have nay way to know that so the possibility of getting photographed was enough to help them control their behavior.

Today's perpetrators, however, are not constrained by old-fashioned civility codes. Not only do they seem to relish the idea of getting on television, it seems the further they push the envelope of civility the better they like it. (I suppose we of the Sixties generation do have to share part of the blame for that since so many of us did the same things protesting the Vietnam conflict. Little did we suspect that the same uniformed soldiers at whom we were misdirecting our anger would some day turn their anger back on us who were attempting to bring their mission to an end. We had no way to predict that by replacing conscription with the so-called "all volunteer army" we would be inadvertently promoting a gun culture like none of us ever thought possible.)

Another item in today's news is about a particularly obscene voice-mail left at the office of Rep. Mark Schauer.

I hope you die a slow death at a very young age.

The audio can be heard at The Political Carnival and the caller has since apologized.
But it's hard to put the poop back into the elephant once it's in the street.

Meantime, the same angry crowds from which these weeds are sprouting continue their irrational yelling and shouting, egged on by politicians who have not yet come to terms with the dawning of a new day. Check this by Evan McMorris-Santoro at Talking Points Memo.

Remember Jim Bunning's one-man government shut down earlier this month? Remember how everyone -- even Republicans -- condemned it?

Well, it seems the GOP has had a change of heart. According to a report by Politico's Manu Raju this morning, multiple Republicans in the Senate are now preparing to repeat Bunning's scheme to block unemployment benefits if Democrats attempt to pass an emergency extension of them again, a move that could come as early as this week.

Playing the role of Bunning next time will likely be Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). But he'll have an ensemble cast to help.

Raju reports that "several other GOP senators" said they would jump on board with Coburn blockade if the Democrats try to extend benefits without using the pay-go rules to fund them again. Among the supporters, apparently, is Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who attempted to stop Bunning the last time.

"The last time was an emergency situation - but we can't keep doing one-month extensions that aren't paid for," Collins told Politico. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) also expressed support for the idea of a second Bunning-style move, and told Raju that other Republican Senators are likely to get on board as well.

Coburn is the main architect, the man who would likely start the ball rolling. He told Politico he's prepared to keep Senators in DC through their scheduled two-week recess, set to begin on Friday.

Ironically, one of the few Republicans not to tell Politico he'd join the effort was Bunning himself, the man who's surprise block led to a multi-day standoff that shut down many government projects briefly. But Bunning didn't say he wouldn't go along with Coburn's plan -- he just said he wouldn't tell Politico if he would or not. (It's not the first time Bunning has dodged a reporter.)

So who are the obstructionists now?

And in the hours following sparks flying from a tenderbox filled with teabags read this.

Repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a focal point for GOP congressional hopefuls.

The four Republicans seeking the party's nod to face U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, D-17, in the Nov. 2 General Election promised to run on a platform of repealing the bill, which passed the House by a vote of 219-212 late Sunday.

"I will run on repeal," Allen Griffith, a former Myerstown Baptist minister and 17th District candidate, said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon. "The federal government just does not have the right to do this."

The other candidates - state Sen. David Argall, R-29, military veteran Frank Ryan and Harrisburg businessman Josh First - took a similar stance.

[...]

In opposing the bill, Holden said bans on federal funding for abortion were not strong enough. He also expressed concerns about $500 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts.

Holden and his potential Republican opponents were in near agreement that the bill represents "bad public policy."

"There are real issues with health care. This bill does nothing - absolutely zero - to address those," First said. "I think we (Republicans) can take this apart piece by piece" after reclaiming control of Congress.

He said voters will "make Democrats pay" in November.

"This (bill) pours political gasoline on the fire," he added.

I have used up all my time this morning and still haven't finished.But I feel somewhat better having got that off my chest.

Meantime, take a look at the big picture and ask yourself
?Where is the fire?
?Who's holding the fire extinguisher?
?And who's holding the gas can?