Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

The next time someone tries to tell you how much Cons care for their country and the common man, point them here. Show folks just how much they put the nation before their own interests:

Rush Limbaugh caused a bit of a stir about a month ago, when he told his audience, "I disagree fervently with the people on our [Republican] side of the aisle who have caved and who say, 'Well, I hope [President Obama] succeeds.' ... I hope Obama fails. Somebody's gotta say it."

The right-wing host went on a similar tirade yesterday when talking about the economic recovery package: "I want everything he's doing to fail... I want the stimulus package to fail.... I do not want this to succeed."

[snip]

Similar sentiments are even found coming from members of Congress. Take Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), best known for getting caught in a prostitution scandal, talking to a Federalist Society gathering this week.

According to Vitter, the GOP is basically betting the farm that the stimulus package is going to fail, and the party wants Democrats to go down with it. "Our next goal is to make President Obama and liberal Democrats in Congress own it completely," he said. Instead of coming up with serious measures to save the economy, the party intends to devote its time to an "we told you so" agenda that will include GOP-only hearings on the bill's impact in the coming months to highlight the bill's purportedly wasteful elements and shortcomings.

While Vitter seemed to think this was a brilliant new political tactic, voters might be less enthusiastic than Federalist Society members about politicians who spend the next 18 months rooting for the economy to get worse, just to prove a point.

You think maybe? These fuckwits would prefer to have America crash and burn than change their direction.

And they'll use desperation to hold guns to our heads:

I gotcher disaster capitalism for yah, right heah:

The average Californian's taxes would shoot up five different ways in the state budget blueprint that lawmakers hope to vote on this weekend. But the bipartisan plan for wiping out the state's giant deficit isn't so bad for large corporations, many of which would receive a permanent windfall.

About $1 billion in corporate tax breaks -- directed mostly at multi-state and multinational companies -- is tucked into the proposal. Opponents say the breaks will do nothing to create jobs, and the Legislature has rejected such moves repeatedly in the past. But now, to secure enough Republican votes to pass a budget that would raise taxes on everyone else, the Legislature is poised to write them into law with no public hearings at a time when the state treasury is almost out of cash.

[snip]

"This is a pure giveaway for the vast majority of corporations that will benefit," said Lenny Goldberg, executive director of the California Tax Reform Assn., a union-backed nonprofit. "They will walk away with a great deal of money at everybody else's expense."

[snip]

Conservatism has been stripped of everything but its essence --- cheap thugishness. I honestly can't remember a time in the last 30 years when they weren't holding a gun to the states' head no matter what the economic climate. If times are good they have to cut taxes. If times are bad they have to cut taxes. It's no wonder that the regular folks decided they shouldn't have to pay taxes either.

It doesn't matter to them that their ideology has failed in every conceivable way. It bothers them not one wit that their ideology could destroy the country.

And their thuggery gets turned on their own if any sign of heresy is detected:

Earlier this week, New Orleans’ freshman congressman Joseph Cao (R) stated that he would vote for the economic recovery package. “I believe that more likely than not, I will vote for it because the 2nd Congressional District needs a stimulus package,” he said. Even on the day of the vote, Cao was telling reporters that he was “leaning yes.”

When the vote occurred yesterday, Cao voted no, succumbing to the GOP’s pressure tactics. Politico reports:

Beforehand, Cao acknowledged that Republican leaders had put “pressure” on him to oppose the package, and the party’s chief deputy whip, California Rep. Kevin O. McCarthy, stood near Cao during the entire vote.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), the Republican whip, “said he had talked to Cao regularly, including the last 24 hours.”

[snip]

Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Cao’s hopes for winning a second term depended on “people in the district identifying him as a thoroughly independent person who is not in the thrall of the Republican leadership. Now anyone running against him can say, ‘He’s a Republican mouthpiece.’”

So they've fucked the citizens of Louisiana and they've fucked a member of their own party, but by god they got a unanimous no vote against the stimulus. Now they strut and brag and pray for the Dems to fail, because only catastrophic failure could possibly make them look palatable to voters again.

You may admire them for standing on principle, but that admiration would be sorely misplaced. Now that the stimulus has passed despite their obstruction, they can't get their hands out fast enough:

What is at least a little surprising, though, is seeing some of the same Republicans who rejected the package issue press releases touting the spending measures in their districts.

Rep. John Mica was gushing after the House of Representatives voted Friday to pass the big stimulus plan.

"I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future," the Florida Republican beamed in a press release.

Yet Mica had just joined every other GOP House member in voting against the $787.2 billion economic recovery plan.... Mica wasn't alone in touting what he saw as the bill's virtues.

To be fair, it's hard to say just how common this was yesterday; the McClatchy article only points to a couple of examples of the GOP hypocrisy.

But it's nevertheless amusing. In Mica's press release about the stimulus package, for example, he not only applauded the spending for his district, he neglected to mention altogether that he opposed the bill. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who also issued a press release claiming "victory" for an Alaskan contracting program in the bill, also failed to mention that he voted against the measure that he's so excited about.

These people are obscene.

Cons are betting voters won't remember their fuckery come election day, but if the past two cycles and the fact that Cons are doubling down on all of the things that got them trounced the last two times are any indication, the American electorate has a better memory than they think.

And don't be surprised if the electorate's not in a forgiving mood, either.