Stoopid Stuff

Judd for the Dénouement

Bipartisanship. Word gets tossed around like the new girl at a biker bar. But what does it mean? How does it apply in 2009? And what the hell is President Obama seeking in his frantic search for post-partisan government?

Intermingled in the definition problem, there is an execution problem. And our man Obama's up to his eyebrows in both, and is losing on every front. First, we have a condition where bipartisan politics are not workable because the minority party doesn't see any benefit in supporting the majority's agenda. Second, we have politicians in general, in this era, exposed on ethical fronts for the money the have to raise, exposed on legal fronts for enabling criminal activity and exposed politically for their responsibility for domestic, foreign and economic catastrophe. On the one side we have Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, seeking power and recognition not through any reasonable legislative act, but simply by doing, acting against the interests of BOTH sides in order to control the conversation, unable to defend their actions but not being required to offer a coherent explanation. On the other side, we have Feinstein and Rockefeller, criminal enablers of the worst excesses of the Bush/Cheney administration, and seeking, at this point, only to stay out of prison.

Which brings us, in a kind of roundabout fashion, to Judd Gregg and the amazing Post Partisan Technicolor pony that is the Obama Cabinet. Bush appointees, Clintonistas, Republicans, hell, I think he's got a three-legged dog in there somewhere. Everything but the kitchen sink. Oh, and the solid center of Americans that want government to make life better for Americans, who can't see a good reason to spend trillions killing people half a world away just to earn their eternal enmity, who want help with their jobs and educating their kids and their health care, the people who turned out in huge numbers for the innaugauration because they had been convinced there might be something there to hope for? How does this stupid, cowardly "centrist" approach help them? Every courageous proposal watered down to ineffectiveness, every populist proposal shot down because some right-wing dead ender wants to play ideological games while holding the American economy hostage just because he can? Mr. President, with all due respect, fuck that.

Stop it. Just fucking stop it. Stop playing games, Mr. President. Stop playing word games, puzzles, jumbles and hide and seek. There is a personal reason for you to stop all this outreach to people who hate you - you will be judged on outcomes. Sure, you and I, we both know you don't have as much control over outcomes as you get credit for, but you damn well better use what control you have. Reagan got credit for the end of the Cold War. Clinton got credit for a budget surplus he had no idea was even possible when he took office. If, in four years, we're treading water, Mr. President, you are the one who will be blamed.

So maybe you better start listening to smart people, and stop trying to create some post-partisan Camelot where everybody agrees with you. Maybe you better start thinking about ramming through YOUR policies, YOUR agenda. At least, if you go down in flames, it will not be because you came out with a set of watered down symbolic actions that were never designed to accomplish anything but pacify the American people while all around them the unsustainable political and economic system was crumbling.

Judd Gregg is a symptom. He represents the fantasy portion of the Obama political vision. He is the living manifestation of why your cross-party outreach camp out must end. Now. You have been played for a sucker, punked by people who never even hid their intentions, or their contempt. Like Charlie Brown, you keep acting like you believe that THIS time you'll kick that 'ol football. But you never will. You need to spit on the Republican Caucus, and you need to explain some real hard facts to the Democratic Caucus. Blue Dogs have to forage for scraps, and the worst of the Bush enablers have a LOT of restitution to pay.

Americans want your leadership, and so far you've offered precious little. President Obama, you're going to run out of time. This Stimulus bill isn't going to do the job, you know that as well as Paul Krugman knows that. If you let the insolvent banks stumble on, if you preside over eleven percent unemployment, if there's no way to see how we get from HERE to THERE, you are going to go down in history as a failure. It's time to get your hat out of your hand, clap it on your head and LEAD this nation. You can. We still believe in you. Now, before it's too late...

posted by mikey @ 5:03 PM