Chicago Tribune political columnist John Kass says it better than anyone else could say it. I'm talking about efforts by the Obama crowd to blame S&P's decision to downgrade our country's credit worthiness on the Tea Party. Kass recalls the words his Greek grandfather used to describe politicians who insist on releasing hot air at the wrong time: Af-TOS mee-lye, ke o GUY-thou-ros KLA-nee. Translated loosely, Kass says it means: "When he speaks, the donkey breaks wind." Obama's media guru, David Axelrod, sounded off first on the talking point that the downgrade should be properly cited as the Tea Party downgrade. Sen. John Kerry and other Democrats quickly took their cue from Axelrod. Here's Kass'
straight talk on Axelrod's spin:
Obama wanted the debt ceiling raised without conditions. He lost that argument because the tea party Republicans demanded spending cuts in exchange for extending the debt ceiling. And they refused to raise taxes.
And once the deal went through, and S&P downgraded America's credit anyway, the politics were obvious: Blame the other guy.
Axelrod understands this better than many. He plays politics for a living, and he's very good at it. He's been the mouthpiece for Obama for years, and for the Daleys of Chicago.
So he knows that accusing someone loudly is important when you're trying to shift blame away from your candidate. And with Obama busy at fundraisers, Axelrod has a lot of shifting to do . . .
But there was no hiding the desperation in the voices of Axelrod and Kerry. It is the sound of fear that carries farthest.
A year or so ago, the grass-roots tea party conservatives were just called weird. When weird didn't work, they were called crazy. When crazy didn't work, they were called racists.
When racists didn't work, some Democrats called them terrorists and worse.
All the donkeys making noise because the tea party doesn't want the government to grope you at airports or spend your money? Amazing . . .
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Star's Matt Tully should take a week off and shadow John Kass at the Chicago Tribune. He could learn a lot from him.
Maybe Kass should read what S&P said?
ReplyDeleteFrom page 3 of their report: "The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as
America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective,
and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in
the debate over fiscal policy"
http://www.standardandpoors.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobheadername3=MDT-Type&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobheadervalue2=inline%3B+filename%3DUS_Downgraded_AA%2B.pdf&blobheadername2=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobheadername1=content-type&blobwhere=1243942957443&blobheadervalue3=UTF-8
Any guess who made the debt ceiling a bargaining chip. You know, the pro forma vote which was passed 18 times under Reagan without a whisper? Hint: it wasn't us. It was tea partiers.
The inflexibility of American politics is due to the intransigence of the Limabugh faction of the GOP, which refuses to acknowledge Keynes knew what he was talking about, refuses to acknowledge that austerity has led to economic ruin in Greece, Spain, Britain, and in 1929-1932 US.
Taking money OUT of the economy at the time of a demand slump is just stupid, yet it's what the Tea Partiers demanded.
When you add the fact that they were renegotiating spending on money they already authorized by passing a 2010-2011 fiscal budget on 4/15/11, the whole thing deserves its own entry in Barbara Tuchmann's old book "The March of Folly."
So, no deference to Matt, but Kass seems to understand claiming his opponents are weak a helluva lot more than he understands economics, policy, or history (or the S&P debt downgrade report)