P.M. Carpenter
Joe Barton's mike hadn't yet cooled from his searing stupidity about a tragic "$20 billion shakedown" before President Obama's former campaign manager, David Plouffe, now of Organizing for America, fired off an email that, to be fully savored, should be delivered in the aesthetic tones of Jeremy Irons as Claus von Bulow:
"Other Republicans are echoing his call. Sen. John Cornyn said he 'shares' Barton's concern. Rep. Michele Bachmann said that BP shouldn't agree to be 'fleeced.' Rush Limbaugh called it a 'bailout.' The Republican Study Committee, with its 114 members in the House, [also] called it a 'shakedown.' "
All the above is less a mere reversal of fortunes than the epic granddaddy of them all.
It's the sparkling bull's-eye of 435 ruthless campaign ads, plus 36. It's a titanic reaffirmation that Bushism's Wildness receded not into the West in January, 2009; its ideological tentacles still clumsily flop and sprawl.
And it's a priceless reminder that one must never despair. As long as modern-day Republicans are free to talk like modern-day Republicans, there's hope.
The right, the far right, the Tea Party right and all other sub-manifestations of contemporary pseudoconservatism just don't get it.
It was first with a chuckle that moments before Mr. Barton revealed his sagging spirits that I read this, in Politico's "The Arena," by a certain Charles Calomiris, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute:
"Obama will lose in 2012. The most important reason he will lose is not the decline in his overall approval ratings, which reflect his radical agenda and increasingly unlikable demeanor, but rather his decline in approval in swing states and among independents.... But the end of the Obama presidency will begin after the 2010 election, when the radical agenda will cease to be viable in a Congress no longer controlled by the radical fringe."
Then came Barton, and my chuckle -- "radical agenda," "radical fringe" -- turned to a (dangerously) self-satisfied "Say again, Charles?"
The election of 2012 is a long way away, indeed, as is this year's November, so no preferred outcomes could possibly be in the bag. But I know one thing with a Bartonlike certainty of the "first proportion": The burden of any publicly perceived "radicalism" -- which in American politics portends electoral death -- just shifted to the other side.
Shit, "radical" has been on the Repug side since 1980. Maybe because of all the wacko shit they say now that they're so desperate for power that the gloves are off and they're outta the crazy closet, reg'lar folks might just notice, like a mule notices a 2x4 upside his head. Maybe.
The funny (not ha-ha) part is that the Repugs think the Dead End Quarter that actually believes in crazy is the same as "the American people".
I said yesterday sucked. I take it back. It turned out to be a wonderful day after all. Barton gave us a gift that hopefully will keep on giving.
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