Question....What is the obsession with Rahm ?

[firedupdem]

I never see or hear from the guy. Now, teabagger jane is supposedly only becoming a teabagger to get Rahm? What am I missing?

[NJmaverick]

1. It's the new White Water investigation

Jane figures this sort of thing would cripple the Obama White House

[Cha]

13. hamsher looks like the lame one.

[BlueCaliDem]

2. Sweeping the GOP back into power. That's the obsession and the result if she's not

shut up and exposed for the mole that she is.

Look, criticizing the President is absolutely fine with me, but joining forces with the very people that cheerleaded *ush and who are direct responsible for the near catastrophic situation in the United States because of ideology, is too damned crazy.

Don't they see that the result of screaming like the left's version of Batshit-Bachmann is counter-intuitive to progress in the United States?? If enough ill-informed, less politically astute Americans (of which there are a majority) get the feeling that President Obama is out to destroy them, rather than help them, they'd sit home and the teabaggers and other miscellaneous nutjobs will RUN to the pols to force more repubs down out collective gullet.

I'm not crazy about Rahm either, but apparently he has something President Obama can use and his position as CoS isn't written in stone. It can be changed at any time, so I don't get what's happening with my once admired heroine or the angry left leaders.

I believe, really believe, that President Obama is using Rahm for his knowledge since he was a freshman U.S. Senator and Rahm's a seasoned pol. Once he's gotten out of Rahm what he needs, I'm sure he'll find a way to return him to the House.

[OregonBlue]

5. You are 100% right. Does Jane think that if she can take Obama down that she's gonna get a good

Progressive administration in it's place. She's gonna get the same bunch or despicable cads who brought this country to it's knees in the first place. She's gonna get a whole government of Norquists again. She has lost it. Her ego got bruised and she will do anything (and I do think she will do ANYHTING) to get back at those who she perceives crossed her.

Many here are sceaming about DU purity tests. Jane wants us to go after Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean because they "betrayed" their principles. Wow, talk about purity tests. She's sounding more like the teabaggers every day.

[BlueCaliDem]

20. The only thing she'll succeed in doing is helping to secure another win

for the disastrous GNO!P, and to have America take that final plunge over the cliff.

Perhaps, in her besotted mind, that *is* progress.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Boogie Man; strawman, or whatever helps put Obama's decisions in a bad light.....

He recruited Blue Dogs in places where they had a better chance of winning,
and therefore he is the devil.

Some folks believe that it would be better if we were in the minority in the House,
and that Nancy Pelosi having control over the agenda set in the House is not worth
having to deal with the Blue Dogs. I beg to differ.

Doesn't mean that Emmanuel Rham is perfect in all that he does,
it simply means that politically speaking he is one of the reasons
we have a majority in the house.

If that makes him the new Democratic Boogie Man,
than folks understand politics and the ways of Washington
less than I used to give them credit for.

[Born_A_Truman]

8. Nate Silver's take on Blue Dogs...

Very interesting read...
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/12/2009s-most-valuable-democrat-is.html

What makes a congressman valuable to his party? One fairly intuitive answer is that it's someone who votes with his party on key pieces of legislation more often than a typical congressman from his district would.

I have, therefore, compiled roll call votes on ten key pieces of legislation -- in my opinion, the ten most important pieces of legislation -- that came before the House of Representatives this year. These items are: the stimulus package, the FY 2010 budget, the health care bill, the Stupak Amendment to the health care bill, the jobs bill, the financial regulation package, the cap-and-trade bill, the Fair Pay Act, the Guantanamo detainee transfer vote, and the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was attached to a defense appropriations bill. This is a little heavy on economic policy versus social policy or foreign policy, but that's how the House's agenda been this year. The Democrats won each of these votes in the House, except for the Stupak Amendment, although several of the policies have yet to pass the Senate.

What I then did was to run a logistic regression for each vote, comparing each representative's vote to his predicted vote based on his district's PVI. For example, a congressman in a district with a PVI of R+6 had a .37 likelihood (37% chance) of voting for the stimulus package. A congressman from such a district who voted for the stimulus package would be rated positively for his vote: specifically he'd receive a score of 1 less .37, or +.63. If the congressman voted against the stimulus package, on the other hand, he'd receive a score of -.37. I then added up each representative's score across all 10 votes.

~~~

The most valuable Democrat is ... Bart Gordon of Tennessee. He voted with his party on each policy except health care and Stupak, in spite of being in a R+13 district. Unfortunately for Democrats, he's retiring.

[firedupdem]

10. Very interesting indeed. n/t

[CBR]

4. He (Rahm) and Dean have beef....

I think that is a source of it. :shrug:

[Bryan]

14. I think Bush fatigue has a little to do with it

Whether it's done out of trauma or lazy cynicism is unclear, but much of the criticism of Emanuel seems to be undergirded by the assumption that he's not an aide-de-camp but some sort of unaccountable Cheneyesque eminence who does as he pleases.

[firedupdem]

6. Thanks guys....I'm reading some crazy stuff on this board.

I just changed my home page. The first thing I saw when I signed back in was 'The Obama administration destroys humanity' or something crazy like that...with a gazillion rec's.

The garbage being spewed is getting nuttier by the day.

And people wonder why folks tire of politics and quit being involved. Noise & Garbage is all over this site.

[DevonRex]

12. Can't say I'm surprised that was posted but I ain't gonna go look at it.

:scared:

[Cha]

18. Their hyperbole is hoisting them right smack

dab in the middle of their own Petard. OUCH.

[firedupdem]

19. I see the post that was at the top with all the rec's stating the

Obama administration was destroying humanity,or some such garbage has been yanked. Finally. Unbelievable to read that kind of mess here.

[Born_A_Truman]

7. How long until she aligns herself with Cheney??

[DevonRex]

9. Seems like she'll align herself with anybody who hates Obama...

I unsubscribed from FDL and gave them a piece of my mind while I was at it. Not that they care...

[MerryBlooms]

11. I don't know how she can align herself with them

in good conscience. I don't understand it, but I don't understand a lot of what's going on with the left these days. I read DU daily and am continually shaking my head and wondering what the hell some of these people want. Of course we're never all going to agree on everything or with our administration, but the absolute venom that's being spewed is something else and not only against Obama, but against fellow Dems. I've removed fdl from my bookmarks for now - I can in NO way support an alignment with the right wing nuttery.

[chris8372]

15. I can see why Repubs hate Rahm but why does it seem like so many Dems

seem to hate this guy?I understand he can use some real strong arm tactics at times but he also is one of the key reasons the Dems regained a majority in the House again.Do they think he's just to centrist or what.It seems that he may be an ass at times but he seems to really be able to get things done too.I just don't get it.

[KittyWampus]

16. As Frenchiecat pointed out, Rahm recruited some Blue Dogs to run in districts that were Republican

strongholds. Ergo, he is a DLC sellout.

[chris8372]

17. Or in other words a lot of liberals have lost thier minds

gotcha :(

[Sultana]

21. Cuz he's a sxc beast

:D

[lamp_shade]

22. Oy Yes..... > >

[lamp_shade]

23. Makes you wonder if Hamsher and Taitz are one and the same.

[Cary]

24. Anti-Semitism

I hate to say this but I have had these kinds of pissing matches before at DU, and it involved Israel. The mods deleted my posts on my opinions on Israel even more aggressively than they have locked me down in my pro-Obama threads.

The anti-Obama posters are the same as the anti-Israel posters. They hate Rahm because he's Jewish and he's pro-Israel.