Memo to the media: They’re called “obstructionists”

[Donnachaidh]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201012140002


That sore-loser phrase doesn’t seem to get much use these days. Yet watching Senate Republicans in the minority essentially close down the chamber, not allowing any votes to proceed until their demands are met regarding tax cuts for the very wealthy, I’m pretty sure that fits the working definition of “obstructionist”:

One who systematically blocks or interrupts a process, especially one who attempts to impede passage of legislation by the use of delaying tactics, such as a filibuster.

I’ve been noting this for months now: The GOP’s Obama-era brand of hyper-partisanship and obstructionist voting patterns has no precedent in modern American history. None.

And you know why that is? It’s because in the past when in the party out of power tried to systematically obstruct the will of the majority, they’d catch holy hell for it in the press and from commentators. Meaning, there was a downside to trying to hold Congress hostage.

But not for today’s GOP. And Republican leaders know it. The Beltway press has mostly turned a blind, non-judgmental eye while the GOP has re-written the rules for governing from the minority. Yes, the press covers many of the votes that Republicans stymie. But there’s little or no media debate about what the Republican Party is actually doing, which is practicing obstructionism on a massive and previously unseen scale.

That’s not normal and it’s about time the lapdog Beltway press corps awoke form its current coma and started calling the radicalism by its proper name.

More at the link --