(I posted this yesterday, but I had to put it up again with Heather's video. The media is still lining up Republicans to whine and complain and flash republican talking points over Obama's speech earlier. Yesterday the Today Show had on Mitch McConnell to say Republicans work better with Obama than Democrats and this morning Matt Lauer interviewed Bill Kristol.)
Watching smug Republicans getting all this air time to smear the DemocRAT for not being bipartisan is sickening and it's a product of this bipartisan love-fest...
There are more Repubs on TV than I've ever seen. Rep. Mike Pence is smugly standing there on Hardball and denouncing the Democrats for not following Obama's call for kinship is nauseating. Their conservative ideas have caused this economic problem, but the media makes no mention of it. Now, back to the bipartisan weenie roast crying fest from the republicans. Here's what they said before Obama even met with them this morning:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) went for the jugular, urging his members to oppose the economic centerpiece of Obama's first term just hours before the president paid the Republicans the compliment of coming to the Capitol for a private meeting — even before he did the same for House Democrats.
The Republicans are already torpedoing any possible bipartisan framework towards the stimulus bill, but they stand there with a straight face and lie to the cameras.
Here's Pence in 2007 talking about Saddam:
Wolf: "You know a lot of people believe that the whole weapons of mass destruction was a charade. The real reason was oil."
Pence: "Right. Well we, I mean, but, in point of fact, uh, Saddam Hussein did have chemical weapons of mass destruction. He used them against the population in Kurdistan"
As Digby says:
It's Republican day on the cable networks. They are crawling over every show like fire ants.
The GOP hissy fit has worked like a charm. The villagers are all on the same page: the "problem," as always, is that Democrats are not doing everything they are precisely told to do by the Republicans. They are being partisan. The Republicans weeping and wailing like Victorian spinsters works every time.
Look, I blame the Democrats for this too. They needed to explain that the government has to spend money directly to create jobs, whether it's a job working backstage at Shakespeare in the Park or putting in new lawns on the mall or staffing family planning clinics. It's all jobs, many of which already exist and will be kept rather than lost if the feds can kick in some money. Tax cuts are used to stimulate demand, but the last round didn't halt the slide. Neither has interest rate cuts. None of the usual stuff is working. That's why a direct injection of federal money into the economy is required.
