Remarkable! Moments after I left a comment under
tnlib’s latest post, I found this story at the NBC News website,
The Do-Something Congress:
This Congress … accomplished more, legislatively, than any other Congress since the 1960s (the Great Society) or the 1930s (the New Deal). In the past two years, it has:
- expanded the safety net with the health-care law;
- invested billions in the nation's roadways, airports, schools, and green technologies with the stimulus;
- reformed the nation's financial system with financial reform;
- passed billions in tax cuts for Americans with the stimulus and the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts
- expanded civil rights with the repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don't Tell."
And in its final piece of business, the Senate is currently working on one of the White House's top foreign-policy goals: ratification of the New START treaty with Russia. Then throw in all of the other legislation enacted this Congress, like credit-card reform and the Lilly Ledbetter anti-pay-discrimination act.
(…)
Yet as we -- and others -- have pointed out before, political power in Congress comes and goes. What truly matters is what you do with it when you have it.
To repeat what I said earlier under
tnlib’s post:
If Jane Hamsher had her way, Congressional Democrats and Republicans would be locked in mortal combat, and none of this would have happened.
There is much to be admired in the patient and pragmatic approach – in contrast to being dogmatic and self-sabotaging. I will say this of folks who allow themselves to get angry in any debate: If you feel you must trade on anger to win an argument, then you have defaulted on any claim to win by persuasion.
So Jane, how is that
hopey changey thing working out for you? It works quite well, IMHO.
Saw someone joke on Twitter today that this lame duck Congress was Jim DeMint's Waterloo. LOL.
ReplyDeleteAmazing that much was accomplished with little to no help from the Republicans.
ReplyDeleteMr. Obama and the Democrats have much to be proud about--A Do Something Congress.
Pragmatism works.
Octo and all,
ReplyDeleteYes, this Congress did a lot in spite of crushing opposition. Same goes for one President Barack Obama -- what he has helped to do so far already makes him a consequential president, whatever happens in 2012.
One thing I suppose everybody should know by now -- though it's the easiest thing in the world to forget -- is that a year, or even a couple of months -- is a lifetime in politics. Aren't many of the same media types who were panning President Obama right after the 2010 election now tripping all over one another to say how successful he's looking?
en de mia moira khronou
allot' alloiai diaithussoisin aurai.
Pindar, Olympian Ode 7, 94-95
"In a single moment, many winds may blow one way or another." (Very Simple Dinosaur translation)
When you consider the hand Obama was dealt upon taking office, and the fact that his progressive base has been anything but supportive of the pragmatic compromises necessary to get legislation (or sausage) produced, PLUS GOP obstructionism at every turn, this has been an incredibly productive Congress.
ReplyDeleteFolks write off Obama at their own peril. Two years is FOREVER in politics, as bloggingdino says, and despite the tsunami of incoming House Repubs I think we'll still have much to be proud of when this man's first term ends.
Whether he even wants a second one is up to him, but if it were me, I think I'd extend a middle finger to the left AND the right, take my wife and kids and go home.
I am very, very tired of hearing the whines of the disaffected progressives that started being disappointed approximately 45 minutes after President Obama took office and have been wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth ever since. They are the ones who stayed home this last election to make some sort of point about something, and saddled us all with a burdensome and onerous batch of Teabag newbies who are going to be a real pain.
ReplyDeleteIdealism is a wonderful thing, and I'm sure many wonderful advances in human achievement have come from the windmill-tilters among us, but it's no way to approach the ugly sausage-making that goes on in our current system. It's absolutely amazing what our President has done with inconsistent support from his own party and extremely consistent hostility from the GOP, and it's impractical and dangerous to dismiss this as an incomplete set of fulfilled campaign promises.
I continue to be absolutely impressed by my President's incredible work ethic, his ability to get things done in spite of everything. But I agree with @squatlo above, about the middle finger & the going home.
godlizard,
ReplyDeleteAlways glad to see a fellow lizard express such sensible notions.
Then again, perhaps it was the vociferousness of the impatient and disappointed that goaded some of the accomplishments of the last weeks.
ReplyDeleteAs glad as I am to see the despicable DADT come to an end, hopefully soon depending on how the military decides to proceed, we still have Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The richest among us still have their Bush tax cuts. I'm glad to have my goodies but I would have more gladly given them back.
And don't forget senators like Scott Brown who damn well better move from the right to the center to have any chance of winning their elections in 2012.
On the whole though the last couple weeks have been well played by President Obama and I commend him.
And of course I'm going to vote for him in 2012.
It will be interesting in the coming months to see just how the GOP "spins" the legislation that has been passed (AKA "Death Tax" and similar framing).
ReplyDeleteI still haven't found out how much John Boehner is liking his "Washington-run health care"?
I just want to point out that there is a big difference between "trading on anger" and realizing that there are a lot of outrages in the world that ought to make you angry. I remember a bumper sticker that said "If you're not angry, you aren't paying attention." If the behavior of Republicans over the last three decades doesn't make you at least a little angry, what exactly do you think they have been up to?
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see "must-see TV" watch Laura Ingraham and Dick Morris on Faux News bitching about Obama's success in the last couple of days. They might need a suicide watch from the sound of their whining...
ReplyDeleteHere's the link:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/laura-ingraham-and-dick-morris-fume-over-sell-out-republicans-lame-duck-session-votes/
godlizard, I love your comments! 'Bout time someone put it like that!
ReplyDeletePragmatism, patience, and persistent powers of persuasion are essential presidential qualities. (I like alliteration.) Then there's planning and vision. I voted for Obama because I trusted that he had the skills to do the job. He hasn't disappointed me.
ReplyDeleteGreen Eagle - "If you're not angry, you aren't paying attention.”
ReplyDeleteMy fine feathered friend (all friends above included), I am with you on this. Of course we are angry and have every right to be. As fellow liberals and progressives with shared values, I don’t need to offer up a list of reasons. We know the failings of the previous administration. What concerns me now, however, is that our President will no longer have a House majority in January, and we must be practical. When liberals and progressives are divided against themselves, we lose elections. So this an appeal for more unity within our ranks.
Man, I'm telling you.
ReplyDeleteIf I read on ONE MORE BLOG how Obama threw such and such a group of people "under the bus," well, I just can't go back to any of those sites again!
Happy New Year all of you lovable eggheads!
Just one note from an "f'ing retard". War criminals love "pragmatism". Not so much as a truth commision or investigation into a war for political power and crony profiteering. Here's to more "looking forward".
ReplyDeleteI guess waterboarding, and looking the other way, is pragmatic after all.
"War criminals love "pragmatism""
ReplyDeleteIf by that you mean they feel the end sanctifies the means, I guess I see what you're saying, but has anyone suggested that pragmatism must not be tempered by morality and legal restraint?
Yes, looking forward and putting the past behind us is OK on one level, but it is, after all, the universal plea of the guilty.