It could also be that he hates his past, and hates all the privation that came with it, so much that he doesn’t want to associate himself with it even psychologically.
There are rumors that he still has an inordinate appreciation for alcohol too, FWIW.
Martin, that’s two outstanding posts in one thread. I’m getting a new appreciation for you as a poster and though we might rarely agree, I have a great deal of respect for your perspective. If only more Republicans were as capable of looking at their own party critically as you are.
So the President should have expected the GOP to have no compromise as their goal after the 2010 elections. Too bad they had decided on that course on January 20, 2009, in secret. And hearing rhetoric about going to Washington and standing on principles is nothing new in politics. Having them actually do it, with no regard for the damage they do to the country, is not normal.
While the second is possible, and occurred to me as I read Martin’s post, I think it is more likely the first problem. He is desperate to hold onto the Speakership and is stalling until after the election in January. Of course, he will not have any more power after it then he does now. But he might be more willing to work with the Dems to actually get something done. I can hope anyway.
It’s possible too that he may be the sort (and I know a few of them) who figures “If I made it out of poverty, then anyone can. Anyone who does not make $400,000+ per year is simply lazy.”
These are folks who figure that because they accomplished something, it therefore means that they did it entirely through their own hard work, with no advantages or luck or timing involved.
Well, some good news. Mitch McConnell has gotten Biden involved. They have brokered deals in the past. They served together for decades. They were one of the few bipartisan Senators that we still had until Biden got the VP.
Hopefully they can come up with something. Pretty sad when old warhorses like McConnell and BIden have to clean up the mess left by the young blood in the chambers.
If they can convince the nutjobs and troglodytes of the House GOP caucus to vote for something the President supports, I’ll be very, very surprised.
McConnell doesn’t have to do a damn thing. The Senate already passed the extension for <$250K back in July. If there are more items in it now, then all he has to do is not abuse the filibuster, just this once.
And all Boehner has to do to get a majority of the House is let 25 of his non-crazies know they can join the Dems. The number will be even fewer in the next term, too. He needs to remember that he’s the Speaker of the entire House, not the GOP majority leader.
There’s a bit of a procedural or tradition hurdle there. Since Newt Gingrich (formalized by Dennis Hastert) GOP Speakers have followed a rule by which they will not allow a vote to come to the floor unless a majority of the majority is going to vote for it. So unless Boehner is willing to break with the “Hastert Rule”, which could have serious political consequences for him, what he’s going to want to do is get at least 121 GOP congressmen on board.
In ordinary circumstances, yes. Right after an election when his party got told pretty strongly by We the People to cut the shit, and when the price for obstruction-as-usual is as obviously high as it is, he’s going to have to give.
Another option is for 25 GOP sanes to join in the discharge petition Pelosi has in process, to force the Senate bill to the floor.
Discharge petitions almost always fail though, because the political pressure to not sign them when you’re in the majority is immense. In the past breaking ranks like that has cost people all of their committee positions and basically any standing in the party. In today’s political climate it’d also get you a tea party primary challenger.
I suspect the most likely scenario is Boehner can wrangle 121 votes, or a few less in the 113th Congress, and they pass the Senate bill. If that doesn’t happen, I think Boehner would call a vote and break the Hastert rule before he’d let a discharge petition go through.
We don’t know for sure how many GOP are really unwilling to compromise. We know Boehner lost at least 23 votes from his own caucus for his “Plan B” but I think he had to have been reasonably close, because otherwise it’d be a ridiculously stupid political move to have even tried that Plan B shenanigan. Now, like him or hate him I find it hard to believe someone who has navigated the House for almost 20 years and risen to the Speakership could be that far off. So if he say, lost 30-35 votes for Plan B, he might still be able to get 121 for whatever the Senate passes now that the cliff is “imminent” and anyone who votes for it can try and cover themselves with the political necessity argument.
Looks like we’ve avoided $7 milk. They’re making progress. I bet the take out calls to the closest Capital location of Domino’s Pizza are through the roof tonight. 
Get er done boys. Work out that budget deal over slices of Domino’s meat lovers.
They “showed their hand” during the Bush II Presidency. Even as far back as then they demonstrated no concern for the country and defined “compromise” as them getting everything and the Democrats getting nothing. Even right after 9-11 when the Democrats were thinking of terms of “it’s an emergency, we should be bipartisan for the good of the country”, the Republicans thought about nothing but taking advantage of that to grab everything they could and give nothing back in return. Plus, Obama is black; for that reason alone he should have expected nothing but mindless hatred and opposition from the party that has spent decades as the party of white racism.
I hope you are right about him breaking the Hastert rule, but I am not that optimistic. It would probably lead to him getting primaried from the right in 2014, which I doubt he wants to go through.
Don’t count your chickens. They have worked out a compromise, but that is not a word to bring joy to the hearts of anyone that needs something voted on in the House these days.
I’m sorry, I did not realize that we were talking about the Omniscient Obama, who would of course know exactly what the GOP motivations are and how the GOP would react to everything. I was talking about the human Obama who would actually have to live and experience things in order to learn them. Since I am not familiar with the Omniscient Obama, I will defer to your expertise on him.
It didn’t require omniscience to see what would happen. It was obvious to me from the start and I’m not even a professional politician like Obama, much less omniscient. All it required was recognizing past Republican behavior and assuming that they’d keep on acting like they had been.
Right after 9/11 I saw both parties reacting in ways I didn’t like, and I let them know that. I certainly didn’t see the GOP running roughshod over all the Democrats, since quite a few Democrats were right there with them. And they were not adverse to compromise in the later year of W’s presidency, since they were able to work with the Democrats that were in control of Congress. So apparently you were able to see things that professional politicians couldn’t a decade ago.
It seems to me you are still blaming him for not realizing his opponents had stopped behaving rationally. But the biggest problem I have with your characterization of the entire GOP as being the party of white racism. There are certainly plenty of racists in the GOP, but I have known more people that aren’t then that are. And I have met plenty of people on the left that are also racists. That broad characterization tells me you are not being rational about what you are saying, you are letting your own ideologies color your perceptions. Not unusual on either side these days unfortunately.
No, it means I’m acknowledging reality. The Republicans have been recruiting and catering to white racists in America for decades as a matter of policy. Individual Democrats are racist, but appealing to racism is not a deliberate Democratic policy; it is of the Republicans.
This is quite obvious and well known despite periodic attempts like yours to create a false equivalence between the parties, which is why the Republicans have effectively zero support from black people and real low support from anyone who isn’t white.
Yes, the GOP has been appealing to the southern white vote since the 60s, using racial issues to appeal to them. But you are effectively calling people like Martin Hyde and many others racists because they are in the GOP. Not because of their personal beliefs or actions. Can’t imagine why I find that distasteful.
If they are members of and vote for the Republicans they are supporting racism regardless of their intentions or personal feelings on the subject.
I originally saw this article on the subject:
Personally, I laughed my ass off. McConnell delivers an offer at 7:00 p.m. on December 29th (the next day being a Sunday, no less) and criticizes the other side for a lack of urgency. Wow.