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Sticking It to Rahm
Emanuel, working with his old boss and ally, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, made it easy for the Republicans to resist. Every penny in the more than 600-page bill came from a Democratic wish list of pork that dated back to the beginning of the Bush administration. "They were limited the last two years by the White House keeping firm on the cap for each bill," a congressional source reported to me, "and Nancy Pelosi told them all to send their ideas to David Obey [chairman of the House Appropriations Committee], and he just put them together in one great big earmark."
"We won the election, we wrote the bill," said Pelosi as many times as she could to an open microphone. But what was happening away from the microphone made it even easier for the Republicans to hold together. All they had to do was bring up Rahm Emanuel.
“Rahm hates us and lets us know it, and we hate him back,” said a senior Republican. “If we had gotten together in a room and tried to write a bill that put the taxpayer together with the Republican Party, we could not have come up with this thing. It is too unbelievable.”
Rahm Emanuel is the Republicans’ favorite piñata. Overwound and overbearing, the Chicago congressman helped destroy the Republican majority in 2006 when he acted as chief fund raiser, candidate recruiter, and stump speaker. On the night the Democrats took the House back after 12 years of Republican rule, he praised himself for delivering a “thumpin’.” Now that he’s Obama’s chief of staff, the Republicans have him to poke at for at least four years.
After the vote, President Obama, at Emanuel’s suggestion, hosted a bipartisan reception at the White House for congressional leaders from both houses. John Boehner joked that he felt like the “snake at the garden party.” But the Republican leaders were not silent.
“We gave the president what he asked for, a temporary stimulus bill,” said a senior Republican, “at half the cost of what the Democrats wrote. He knows it. They handed him a monster of spending. Rahm did this, and now he takes this to the Senate. Does Rahm want to be an honest broker, or does he want to be the guy who socks Republicans in the face? He isn’t helping with the Democrats, and he’s hurting with the Republicans.”
“Polling showed us that when we took the vote, independent support for the bill was collapsing,” a senior Republican said. “Democratic support was climbing while the independents ran away.”
“What does Rahm do? Is he going to go to the Democrats and say ‘no’ to this? Or is he going to make his president sign it?”
Emanuel’s answer to the Republican shutout is to announce that the Democratic Party will target Republicans by running campaigns in their districts to tell the voters that their representative “voted against 4 million jobs.”
Eight days after Obama’s inauguration, the partisan battles are at full tilt.
John Batchelor is radio host of the John Batchelor Show in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
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Wow. Do you mean to imply that the sole reason Republicans voted against the stimulus package was because they have a grudge against the Democrats and the way some top Democrat leaders have spoken about the victory? Do you mean to imply that the bill as it is today is perfect and required nothing more than has already been presented to Congress and tht only evil, selfish, self-serving politicians who put getting elected above the country's best interests would vote against this bill?
Here's my problem with the bill: 600 trillion, 700 trillion, 800 trillion, 819 trillion, 825 trillion...when does it stop?
Obama needs to get rid of Rahm Emmanual, all the lobbyists that he said he would not hire, and Sanjay Gupta and all us Dems would like him again.
Nancy Pelosi is not a plus for the democratic party.
Obama's core instincts in wanting to be an inclusive leader are noble but do not correspond to the realities.
The Republicans nominated and supported Sarah Palin with a straight face.
In their politicking around this bill, they did not in the least take into account recommendations from centrist economists.
In other words, they are not serious about taking prompt measures to ameliorate the economy. They were, however, serious about getting Obama to cave on the inclusion of free contraceptives to poor people.
Obama has made every attempt to move beyond the way Republicans have been since the 1990s, but they refuse to move beyond themselves, even though it is plain that doing so would be for the better. They are addicted to their disproven theories like a crackhead to the pipe.
Their judgment now in the face of the economic crisis is no better than it was in nominating and supporting Sarah Palin.
This is a rather limp piece. It rehashes the common mantra about Rahm Emanuel ("Overwound and overbearing") and yet all that can really be said for sure is that Republicans don't like him (but apparently they don't dislike him enough to say it on the record).
He helped beat them in the 2006 election? Wow, as if they weren't trying to beat the Democrats. Elections are the time for politics: after elections is the time for governing.
Notice how even this piece credits Rahm Emanuel for bringing the President to see the Republican congressmen on two occasions, even suggesting the bipartisan meeting after the vote, in which they had all spurned President Obama's overtures by voting unanimously against the bill. If anything, it sounds like Rahm Emanuel is behaving less partisan than his '90s bad-boy reputation would suggest. (Not to mention the fact that he has taken one of the most demanding jobs around-so demanding that the typical tenure is about two-and-a-half yea-and is sacrificing time with his family.)
I think it is weak for any Republican to suggest that they voted against this bill because of Rahm Emanuel. This piece, basically serving as a mouthpiece for anonymous Republicans bad-mouthing Rahm Emanuel after their unanimously impotent vote, is pathetic.
Next time a congressman wants to whisper in your ear, don't quote him unless he's willing to put his name on it.
Finderj,
I could not agree more. Part of me hoped that the reason the Republicans were against the stimulus was because they were returning to what they once stood for. The other part of me knew this move was purely political. How can these so called public servants squander at a time when the country is in dire straights? From the sounds of this source, they were not open to even considering voting for the stimulus because of petty politics. I know high school students who show more maturity. For the sake of the Republican Party, they better hope that the stimulus fails because if it ends up passing and does what it is intended to do, they can forget 2010, much less 2012.
Ronald Reagan back from the dead couldn't have sold this bill to the Republicans. This irresponsible bill has more pork than a Lutheran Suasage Supper. Obama told his little girls they were the reason he was running for President. It seems odd he wants to stick them and their generation with the bill for this porkfest.
I too think that Pelosi is an unsophisticated, childish, unprofessional person. She is a bad leader and has not helped Obama at all. He should somehow get rid of her.
This is not about Rahm, this about Pelosi!
Put the family planning benefit back into the package. To h. with the Reeps.
With the economy in the tank, the Republican message is ... We Don't Like Rahm.
It's good to know where their priorities lay.
So the GOP chooses to let businesses and people nationwide suffer because they hate the Chief of Staff? Lame.
The bill that came out of the House was simply TERRIBLE as
stimulus. Most of the spending would take place in 2010 and 2011. Pelosi is a moron, and an obnoxious one. Perhaps the Senate will write a bill that actually stimulates the economy and that Republicans can vote for.
It is always good to learn the Repubs are not only racists but anti-Semitic also. No matter who the personality are this was about Americans and if the Repubs couldn't see that they deserve to out of power.
Look at the actual substance of the bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that only one-fifth of the bill will have any stimulative effect by 2010. This was just a vehicle for people to jam through their pet bills. This isn't going to do crap to address core economic problems. It is groundhog day all over again. And groundhog day is Monday - perfect timing! We'll be debating these same issues three months from now, just like we did in November. I'll we'll have is another trillion dollars in debt to show for it. Wise up, people! Don't let your admiration for Obama cloud your reading of the facts.
You can't reject a good gesturw all the time.With all his dream of post partnership and inclusive politics if he couldn't win even a single republican vote this time it matters the least. Initial pang. That every new vision, mindset or management process at times experiences.More so if it involves politicians with vested party interests.But everytime, if Obama's positive gesture gets a big no just for the heck of it the people will know. And will start saying 'no' to the republicans.
Also, when it comes to saving the nation's economy, where is the sense to get personal with immanuel?
Good thing is the republicas ofcourse appriciated Obama's attitude and conduct. Probably they will see more of it and will 'change'.
Dear USA,
"We won't participate in helping solve the economic crisis because we hate the Chief of Staff. Thanks for your votes."
Love,
The GOP
Dear USA, "We won't participate in helping solve the economic crisis because we hate the Chief of Staff. Thanks for your votes." Love, The GOP
I am glad that there is one Obama staff member that makes the Reps. edgy. Somebody needs to stand up to their machinations. Anybody who thinks that the Conservatives havn't had their present conservative scenario in place, and all their alternatives mapped out for the last four years is living a dream. They want him gone the same way they wanted Hillary gone. They don't like the opposition.
I'm not seeing my comment show up, but maybe you guys are using caching to improve performance. If so, please delete the duplicate comment once they appear online.
Obama looks like a dupe. After spending the entire post-election period pandering for Republican support, talking about bi-partisanship, honoring fundamentalist homophobes at his inauguration, rolling billions of tax breaks into his package to pander to Republicans, NOT A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE for what has to be the most important initiative he'll propose this year. NOT ONE!
You can't change the way Washington does business if one of the two parties refuses to participate in a change.
To change the way Republicans do business, Reid, Pelosi and Obama should adopt the now passe notion that Congress is a deliberative and legislative body: Let the majority and minority bring bills to the floor, discuss the merits of each in full view of the public and then enact one or the other. That way the Republicans are not given the advantage of being able to obstruct without any need to offer constructive alternatives.
If they are going to be irresponsible, then the process should change (back) to make where they actually stand clear to the public.
Also, in the Senate, do away with the anti-democratic minority cloture rules that empowers minorities to obstruct policy the majority wishes to enact. The Republicans were willing to break that oppressive minority-rule rule for the Alito nomination. National financial collapse certainly justifies the Democrats doing the same. A majority should be free to act in a democratic legislature. Comity and "tradition" gave us the Civil War and Jim Crow without federal remedy. It's time to throw it over and step into the 21st Century.
If the Republicans are so contemptuous of this nation that they are voting against the stimulus because they don't like Rahm then we should be out gathering tar and feathers. They deserve to be horse whipped and ridden out of town on a rail.
For all Obama's talk of bipartisanship, he has injected the most combative, partisan player into the equation with Emanuel.
The label of "obstructionist" only works if Americans want what the democrats are selling and see the republicans as keeping them from getting it. Judging from the polls, I'd say not enough Americans see it that way to make the "obstructionist" label stick.
Americans want some restraint. Democrats have shown little. Republicans are filling that need.
Let's stop the Republican's Reagan worship already. Sure, the 'Gipper' cut taxes, but faced with a catastrophic budget shortfall was then informed by his budget director that he would have to raise them again. Reagan raised taxes on everything he could, and probably raised taxes more than any politician in recent history.
"If the Republicans are so contemptuous of this nation that they are voting against the stimulus because they don't like Rahm then we should be out gathering tar and feathers. They deserve to be horse whipped and ridden out of town on a rail"
Yeah, because we know nobody ever voted against President Bush simply because they didn't like him cough Obama cough most other democrates cough.
You people on both sides are just insane to me. It's very obvious that the republicans just weren't included in the writing of the bill, and therefore didn't vote for it. There are many ways to stimulate an economy, I don't know why a bill couldn't be written that includes some of what republicans want, and most of what dems want. (simply because we have voted them into the majority,therefore they should have the majority of the ideas written in) that way we would have everybodys input aka bi-partisanship.
This is the biggest (hopefully) and probably most important bill of Obama's first 4 years and I really hope that they can all learn to get along and WORK together on this. Not just put something forward that they know the other side won't vote for, and then go after the other side when they don't vote for it. Why not make something that more of them will vote for.
Presumably that would be better for us all.
Thank you.
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