Republicans have decided to go for broke, launching an assault on policies that protect Americans

[ProSense]

Where's the media? The right and media are exploiting the ability to fan outrage aimed at Democrats. That is what they're successfully doing.

CNN: Republican group takes aim at unions

The Hill: Video seizes on union leader's boast of daily contact with White House

Walker is busy pissing off more and more people in his state, ruling like a dictator, facing a recall (as are several WI Republicans) and the media is focused on bullshit spin to try to make this about the President and Democrats. They're even trying to demonize union leaders.

Republican Governors in several states are acting like assholes. Idaho passed a bill yesterday ending collective bargaining for teachers.

I suppose the President could demand they stop acting like assholes by issuing another statement. The problem is these Republican won elections and majorities and the President can't declare their election invalid. He can't tell them how to legislate. If they violate a federal law, his administration can intervene as he did in the case of Arizona's immigration law or the health care law.

Simply getting into a war of words when Republicans are determined to act within their elected rights would be idiotic. The RW try to argue that they won the election and are only doing what they campaigned on. That's pretty much a lie because even some Republican voters are turned off by their actions. Same thing is happening in Ohio.

That's the problem with electing assholes again and again.

Via Krugman:

Hoocoodanode? Politico suggests that Republicans are in a bit of a bind: they want to cut Medicare — in fact, they’ve always wanted to cut Medicare — but they

funneled millions into TV ads last year accusing Democrats from Pennsylvania to Missouri of “gutting Medicare” and “hurting seniors” — charges that compelled older voters to swing en masse toward the GOP.

I have to say that this was the great scam of the 2010 election. The fact that the party of this

<...>

managed to pose as defenders of Medicare was truly awesome, a testament to voters’ (and the news media’s) short memories.

As Senator Kerry said in a recent floor speech, Republicans have decided to go after everything from an ideological position using the deficit as an excuse to try to kill programs they've opposed for years.

They are, at the federal and state level, trying to kill policies they have hated for decades.

Remember, they had a Republican President and Congress for eight and six years, respectively. They could have done these things then. Bush thought he had an opportunity to privatize Social Security, but he failed miserably. Republicans have been waiting for the right moment, and it hasn't come until now. They were waiting for the right moment and scheming. They were recently empowered by apathy, short memories and a 2006 Koch strategy meeting.

Republicans have decided to go for broke.

[ananda]

1. There's so much money and power involved for them.

nt

[tallahasseedem]

2. And they're going to win...

they have way too much money and a loyal following that will show up at the polls in 2012. The Dems will/can not simply stick together, stop bickering and look at the bigger picture. 2000 is going to replay itself in 2012.

[ProSense]

3. Yup,

divide and conquer is the GOP/media strategy, always.

[apnu]

4. The problem is the Dem leadership is weak.

The party is lead by spineless jellyfish and that hasn't changed in a decade. We took back the House and Sentate in 2006 not because of good leadership (and I don't mean Dean, though he was a help there) but because of how badly the GOP fucked up. Rahm, Pelosi, and Reid Forest Gumped themselves to victory in 2006 after following along with Dean's 50 state strategy. Again in 2008, we won not because the Dems were doing anything right but because the GOP was so bad.

The top of the Democratic party hasn't done jack shit to inspire me. The people on the lower levels of the party have. The ground pounders and a few of the obscure Reps, who are kept obscure because they don't tow the DLC line -- those guys inspire me and others on the street I talk to. But, they aren't given a place at the table.

We lost in 2010 because Dem leadership, again, (minus Dean) shot themselves in the foot. They make pretty promises at election time and then go the other way. The Repukes, at least, do what they say. They campaign on trashing the environment, and busting unions. Coded though the language is, they at least do what they say.

The Dems were given a gift in 2006 and again in 2008 and the leadership due to weakness, laziness, and plain idiocy threw that gift in the garbage.

If Dean or someone with his vision and willpower was running things, the GOP would be ground into dust, or at the very least, split into at least two parties.

[Armstead]

7. Demnocfrats would be a lot stronger if the "obscure Reps" were a model

I agree with you.

The obscure Reps like Marcy Kaptur, Jan Schiavoksky and numerous others actually get elected over and over again, and are outspoken and unambiguous progressives. And not just from "liberal bastions." Some less obscure Senators like Sherrod Brown also fit into that category. And, of course the irrepressibly honest Bernie Sanders.

And they are the ones who speak the truth, who actively push for and fight for progressive populism and liberalism. They don't kowtow to the corporate oligarchs. they don't try to water things down to appeal to the rightest of the right wing. They don't neutralize their positions

While we have to try to read the tea leaves about where Obama, Harry Reid too often, hyou know where the progressives stand. And those progressives know how to win electons -- even in bad years for Democrats.

[sofa king]

9. What little you have left is thanks to those "spineless" Democrats.

Democrats who, under the threat of murder and with Joe Lieberman as the single deciding vote, prevented you from losing everything.

[politicasista]

8. That's scary

:scared:

[AlinPA]

5. Public education including Higher Education is getting smashed in PA by the

new republican governor (and the republican legislature). For example he is cutting Higher Education funding by 50% ! He is cutting K-12 by a billion and taking the billion for vouchers for private and other religious schools. State park funding is cut nearly in half.

[Safetykitten]

6. "Republicans have decided to go for broke." Ya think?