Krugman: Lessons of 1995 (on Mitch McConnell's comment)

[ProSense]

Lessons of 1995

When I read the Mitch McConnell quote that’s been getting so much attention:

The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

my immediate concern was whether it was taken out of context. And if you read the full National Journal interview (subscription required), the nuances are a bit different from those you might take from the quote in isolation.

But not in a good way.

If you read the whole thing, what you get is that McConnell is taking a very different lesson from the events of 1995 than the one most pundits take, and expect Republicans to take. The whole attempt to bully Clinton into slashing Medicare by shutting down the federal government was a political failure for the GOP; but McConnell doesn’t see this as evidence that Republicans were too confrontational.

No, he sees it as evidence that they weren’t confrontational enough; they were too focused on their policy agenda, and neglected the necessary work of destroying Clinton:

We suffered from some degree of hubris and acted as if the president was irrelevant and we would roll over him. By the summer of 1995, he was already on the way to being reelected, and we were hanging on for our lives.

So this time around they won’t bother much with trying to get actual legislation passed; they’ll focus on the important thing: undermining the man in the White House.

DNC video: "Single Thing"

[JoePhilly]

1. Absolutely correct.

If the GOP gets the majority ... their agenda will be ...

1) Shut down the government, so no policy or regulation can be enforced
2) Investigate the Obama's, every person they ever met, and everyone in the administration

Nothing else will happen.

[sadbear]

2. This time the media will spin it in their favor

McConnell knows it, too.

[ThomCat]

5. The media spun it in their favor last time too.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. The prospect of a republican majority shutting down the government reminds me of

the current stand-off between FOX/Newscorp and Cablevision here in the NYC metropolitan region. FOX/Newscorp wants Cablevision to pay twice what was paying for the FOX Network and another station to broadcast on its service. They're holding the Worlds Series hostage and some popular shows. They expect Cablevision to blink, pay the money, and pass the cost on to their subscribers. Cablevision has requested arbitration and FOX has refused. FOX has made ads telling Cablevision subscribers to go to competitors like DISH to see FOX broadcasting.

It's a stalemate. But FOX's position has not moved Cablevision an inch. And viewers are coping by buying antennas or going to bars to watch the Series.

What needs to be done is compromise by both parties, but it isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I don't see McConnell or anyone else telling the WH where to get off if they want to go down that path.

[Kdillard]

4. Krugman nails it. k and r

[ProSense]

6. Thanks. This went from 4 to 1 in less than 60 seconds.

Wonder why?

[Bitwit1234]

7. This shows how the republicans do not care one whit for this country.

It shows very well that all they want is power and control of the government so they can support the corporations. Why isn't the media broadcasting this. Why are they not in a full fledge campaign to tell the country what the republicans are doing.

This in it's self shows that the media is not one bit liberal. How can it be when it is owned lock stock and barrel by republican corporations. It is a shame that a well heeled Democrat couldn't get hold of at least one media corporation.