GOOD NEWS FOR JIGGY
Earl Evleth
alone in being self-duped.
****
November 8, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
The Night They Drove the Tea Partiers Down
By FRANK RICH
FOR all cable news�s efforts to inflate Election 2009 into a cliffhanger as
riveting as Balloon Boy, ratings at MSNBC and CNN were flat Tuesday night.
But not at Fox News, where the audience nearly doubled its usual prime-time
average. That�s what happens when you have a thrilling story to tell, and
what could be more thrilling than a revolution playing out in real time?
As Fox kept insisting, all eyes were glued on Doug Hoffman, the insurgent
tea party candidate in New York�s 23rd Congressional District. A �tidal
wave� was on its way, said Sean Hannity, and the right would soon �take back
the Republican Party.� The race was not �even close,� Bill O�Reilly
suggested to the pollster Scott Rasmussen, who didn�t disagree. When returns
showed Hoffman trailing, the network�s resident genius, Karl Rove, knowingly
reassured viewers that victory was in the bag, even if we�d have to stay up
all night waiting for some slacker towns to tally their votes.
Alas, the Dewey-beats-Truman reveries died shortly after midnight, when even
Fox had to concede that the Democrat, Bill Owens, had triumphed in what had
been Republican country since before Edison introduced the light bulb. For
the far right, the thriller in Watertown was over except for the ludicrous
morning-after spin that Hoffman�s loss was really a victory. For the
Democrats, the excitement was just beginning. New York�s 23rd could be
celebrated as a rare bright spot on a night when the party�s gubernatorial
candidates lost in Virginia and New Jersey.
The Democrats� celebration was also premature: Hoffman�s defeat is
potentially more harmful to them than to the Republicans. Tuesday�s results
may be useless as a predictor of 2010, but they are not without value as
cautionary tales. And the most worrisome for Democrats were not in Virginia
and New Jersey, but, paradoxically, in the New York contests where they
performed relatively well. That includes the idiosyncratic New York City
mayor�s race that few viewed as a bellwether of anything. It should be the
most troubling of them all for President Obama�s cohort � even though
neither Obama nor the national political parties were significant players in
it.
But first let�s make a farewell accounting of the farce upstate. The reason
why the Democratic victory in New York�s 23rd is a mixed blessing is simple:
it increases the odds that the Republicans will not do Democrats the great
favor of committing suicide between now and the next Election Day.
This race was a damaging setback for the hard right. Hoffman had the
energetic support of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox as well
as big bucks from their political auxiliaries. Furthermore, Hoffman was
running not only in a district that Rove himself described as �very
Republican� but one that fits the demographics of the incredibly shrinking
G.O.P. The 23rd is far whiter than America as a whole � 93 percent versus 74
� with tiny sprinklings of blacks, Hispanics and Asians. It has few
immigrants. It�s rural. Its income and education levels are below the norm.
Only if the district were situated in Dixie � or Utah � could it be a more
perfect fit for the narrow American demographic where the McCain-Palin
ticket had its sole romps last year.
If the tea party right can�t win there, imagine how it might fare in the
nation where most Americans live. Some G.O.P. leaders have started to
notice. Mitt Romney didn�t endorse Hoffman despite right-wing badgering to
do so. On Wednesday, Michael Steele dismissed the right�s mantra that
somehow Hoffman�s loss could be called a victory and instead talked up the
newly elected Republican governors who won by appealing to independents and
moderates. Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell are plenty conservative, but
both had rejected Palin�s offers to campaign for them. They also avoided the
tea party zanies, the fear-mongering National Organization for Marriage and
the anti-abortion-rights zealots Hoffman embraced. They positioned
themselves as respectful Obama critics, not haters likening him to Hitler.
In the aftermath of this clear-cut demonstration of how Republicans can win,
the revolutionaries are still pledging to purge the party�s moderates by
rallying behind more Hoffmans in G.O.P. primaries from Florida to
California. And they may get some scalps. But Tuesday�s loss revealed that
they�re better at luring freak-show gawkers into Fox�s tent than voters into
the G.O.P.�s. As if to prove the point, protesters hoisted a sign likening
health care reform to Dachau at the raucous tea party rally convened by
Michele Bachmann on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Should the G.O.P. avoid self-destruction by containing this fringe, then the
president and his party will have to confront their real problem: their
identification with the titans who greased the skids for the economic
meltdown from which Wall Street has recovered and the country has not. If
there�s one general lesson to be gleaned from Christie�s victory over Jon
Corzine in New Jersey, it�s surely that in today�s zeitgeist it�s less of a
stigma to be fat than a former Goldman Sachs fat cat, even in a blue state.
Michael Bloomberg�s shocking underperformance in New York was an even more
dramatic illustration of this animus. Tuesday�s exit polls found that he had
a whopping 70 percent approval rating, as befits a mayor who, whatever his
quirks and missteps, is widely regarded as a highly competent,
nonideological executive who has run the city well. Yet only 72 percent of
those who gave him a thumb�s up voted for him. Though the mayor wildly
outspent and out-campaigned his bland opponent, Bill Thompson, he received
only 50.6 percent of the vote.
This shortfall has been correctly attributed to Bloomberg�s self-serving,
highhanded undoing of the term limits law he had once endorsed. The ferocity
of the public reaction to this power grab surprised him, pollsters and the
press alike. That it became a bigger deal than anyone anticipated � arguably
bigger than it merited � is an indicator of how much antipathy there is
toward the masters of the universe in the financial capital. Americans don�t
hate rich people, but they do despise those who behave as if the rules don�t
apply to them. �Michael Bloomberg is About to Buy Himself a Third Term� was
the cover line on New York magazine in October. However unfairly, some
voters conflated his air of entitlement with the swaggering Wall Street
C.E.O.�s who cashed out before the crash and stuck the rest of us with the
bill.
The Obama administration does not seem to understand that this rage, left
unaddressed, could consume it. It has pushed aside the entreaties of many �
including Paul Volcker, the chairman of the White House�s own Economic
Recovery Advisory Board � to break up too-big-to-fail banks. Those
behemoths, cushioned by the government�s bailouts, low-interest loans and
guarantees, are back making bets that put the entire system at risk. Yet
last Sunday, we once again heard the Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner,
on �Meet the Press� dodging questions about the banks in general and Goldman
in particular with unpersuasive bromides. �We�re not going to let the system
go back to the way it was,� he said.
Surely he jests. On Monday morning, a business-savvy Democratic senator,
Maria Cantwell of Washington, publicly questioned Geithner�s fitness for his
job, given his support of loopholes in proposed regulations of the
derivatives that enabled last year�s collapse. On Tuesday, Congressional
Democrats, with the White House�s consent, voted to gut the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act, the post Enron-WorldCom law passed in 2002 to prevent corporate
accounting tricks and fraud. Arthur Levitt, the former Securities and
Exchange Commission chairman, told me on Friday it was �surreal� that
Democrats were now achieving the long-held Republican goal of smashing �the
golden chalice� of reform. If investors cannot have transparency, Levitt
said, �the whole system is worthless.�
The system is going back to the way it was with a vengeance, against a
backdrop of despair. As the unemployment rate crossed the 10 percent
threshold at week�s end, we learned that bankers were helping themselves not
just to bonuses as large as those at the bubble�s peak but to early
allotments of H1N1 vaccine. No wonder 62 percent of those polled by Hart
Associates in late September felt that �large banks� had been helped �a lot�
or �a fair amount� by �government economic policies,� but only 13 percent
felt the �average working person� had been. Unemployment ranked ahead of the
deficit and health care as the No. 1 pocketbook issue in the survey, with 81
percent saying the Obama administration must take more action.
The tea party Republicans vanquished on Tuesday have no jobs plan. They just
want to eliminate all Washington spending � a prescription that didn�t go
down too well in New York�s 23rd, where the federal government has the
largest payroll. The G.O.P. establishment�s one-size-fits-all panacea is tax
cuts � thin gruel for those with little or no taxable income. The
administration�s answer is the stimulus, whose iffy results so far, it
argues, can�t be judged this early on.
Fair enough. But a year from now the public will register its verdict in any
event. Meanwhile, both parties have their own delusions, not the least of
which is the Republicans� conviction that Tuesday was a referendum on what
Obama has done so far. If anything, it was a judgment on just how much he
has not.
John Rennie
> Jiggy should find some solace that he not
> alone in being self-duped.
>
> ****
>
>
> November 8, 2009
> Op-Ed Columnist
>
> The Night They Drove the Tea Partiers Down
> By FRANK RICH
Snipped the part that deals with the non-representative peejay
and jiggys of the 'tea party' world. We all know that most
Americans are a great deal more savvy than they are.
>
> The Obama administration does not seem to understand that this rage, left
> unaddressed, could consume it. It has pushed aside the entreaties of many �
> including Paul Volcker, the chairman of the White House�s own Economic
> Recovery Advisory Board � to break up too-big-to-fail banks. Those
> behemoths, cushioned by the government�s bailouts, low-interest loans and
> guarantees, are back making bets that put the entire system at risk. Yet
> last Sunday, we once again heard the Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner,
> on �Meet the Press� dodging questions about the banks in general and Goldman
> in particular with unpersuasive bromides. �We�re not going to let the system
> go back to the way it was,� he said.
> Surely he jests. On Monday morning, a business-savvy Democratic senator,
> Maria Cantwell of Washington, publicly questioned Geithner�s fitness for his
> job, given his support of loopholes in proposed regulations of the
> derivatives that enabled last year�s collapse. On Tuesday, Congressional
> Democrats, with the White House�s consent, voted to gut the Sarbanes-Oxley
> Act, the post Enron-WorldCom law passed in 2002 to prevent corporate
> accounting tricks and fraud. Arthur Levitt, the former Securities and
> Exchange Commission chairman, told me on Friday it was �surreal� that
> Democrats were now achieving the long-held Republican goal of smashing �the
> golden chalice� of reform. If investors cannot have transparency, Levitt
> said, �the whole system is worthless.�
Personally I was amazed that Obama appointed Geithner as his Treasury
Secretary. Paulson and Geithner were in concert - they both hated
regulation. Fancy the Democrats virtually revoking a Bush
administration bill.
>
> The system is going back to the way it was with a vengeance, against a
> backdrop of despair. As the unemployment rate crossed the 10 percent
> threshold at week�s end, we learned that bankers were helping themselves not
> just to bonuses as large as those at the bubble�s peak but to early
> allotments of H1N1 vaccine. No wonder 62 percent of those polled by Hart
> Associates in late September felt that �large banks� had been helped �a lot�
> or �a fair amount� by �government economic policies,� but only 13 percent
> felt the �average working person� had been. Unemployment ranked ahead of the
> deficit and health care as the No. 1 pocketbook issue in the survey, with 81
> percent saying the Obama administration must take more action.
>
> The tea party Republicans vanquished on Tuesday have no jobs plan. They just
> want to eliminate all Washington spending � a prescription that didn�t go
> down too well in New York�s 23rd, where the federal government has the
> largest payroll. The G.O.P. establishment�s one-size-fits-all panacea is tax
> cuts � thin gruel for those with little or no taxable income. The
> administration�s answer is the stimulus, whose iffy results so far, it
> argues, can�t be judged this early on.
>
> Fair enough. But a year from now the public will register its verdict in any
> event. Meanwhile, both parties have their own delusions, not the least of
> which is the Republicans� conviction that Tuesday was a referendum on what
PJ O'Donovan
<...Unemployment ranked ahead of the deficit and health care as the
No. 1 pocketbook issue in the survey, with 81 percent saying the Obama
Pasted thanks to Evleth>
America hemorrhages jobs while Democrats dawdle with health care
PJ O'Donovan
<Fox had to concede that the Democrat, Bill Owens, had triumphed
Pasted thanx to Evleth>
Even considering the low turnout how can the writer claim Owens
"triumphed" when more voted against Owens than voted for him. Adding
the only named Republican on the ballot to the Hoffman vote yielded
51% against the Democrat 49%. We will probably see that run off
between Hoffman and Owens alone in 2010.
<..in what had been Repub lican country since before Edison introduced
the light bulb. ..
Pasted thanx to Evleth>
The perpetual lie by DemocRATS. A DemocRAT held the seat as recent as
93 and for many of the years after Edison's light bulb.
The writer is just broadcasting his bias and Evleth allows himself to
be duped again as usual
Happy99
"John Rennie" <john-...@talktalk.net> a �crit dans le message de
news:gfidnWXVyuw9h2XX...@giganews.com...
Gregory Morrow
[...]
scRunge only fools himself...!!!
--
Best
Greg
> "John Rennie" <john-...@talktalk.net> a �crit dans le message de
> news:gfidnWXVyuw9h2XX...@giganews.com...
>> Earl Evleth wrote:
>>> Jiggy should find some solace that he not
>>> alone in being self-duped.
>>>
>>> ****
>>>
>>>
>>> November 8, 2009
>>> Op-Ed Columnist
>>>
>>> The Night They Drove the Tea Partiers Down
>>> By FRANK RICH
>>
>> Snipped the part that deals with the non-representative peejay
>> and jiggys of the 'tea party' world. We all know that most
>> Americans are a great deal more savvy than they are.
>>>
>>
>>> The Obama administration does not seem to understand that this
>>> rage, left unaddressed, could consume it. It has pushed aside the
>>> entreaties of many �
>>> including Paul Volcker, the chairman of the White House�s own
>>> Economic Recovery Advisory Board � to break up too-big-to-fail
>>> banks. Those behemoths, cushioned by the government�s bailouts,
>>> low-interest loans and guarantees, are back making bets that put
>>> the entire system at risk. Yet last Sunday, we once again heard the
>>> Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner,
>>> on �Meet the Press� dodging questions about the banks in general and
>>> Goldman
>>> in particular with unpersuasive bromides. �We�re not going to let
>>> the system
>>> go back to the way it was,� he said.
>>
>>> Surely he jests. On Monday morning, a business-savvy Democratic
>>> senator, Maria Cantwell of Washington, publicly questioned
>>> Geithner�s fitness for his
>>> job, given his support of loopholes in proposed regulations of the
>>> derivatives that enabled last year�s collapse. On Tuesday,
>>> Congressional Democrats, with the White House�s consent, voted to
>>> gut the Sarbanes-Oxley
>>> Act, the post Enron-WorldCom law passed in 2002 to prevent corporate
>>> accounting tricks and fraud. Arthur Levitt, the former Securities
>>> and Exchange Commission chairman, told me on Friday it was
>>> �surreal� that Democrats were now achieving the long-held
>>> Republican goal of smashing �the
>>> golden chalice� of reform. If investors cannot have transparency,
>>> Levitt said, �the whole system is worthless.�
>>
>> Personally I was amazed that Obama appointed Geithner as his Treasury
>> Secretary. Paulson and Geithner were in concert - they both hated
>> regulation. Fancy the Democrats virtually revoking a Bush
>> administration bill.
>>>
>>> The system is going back to the way it was with a vengeance,
>>> against a backdrop of despair. As the unemployment rate crossed the
>>> 10 percent threshold at week�s end, we learned that bankers were
>>> helping themselves not
>>> just to bonuses as large as those at the bubble�s peak but to early
>>> allotments of H1N1 vaccine. No wonder 62 percent of those polled by
>>> Hart Associates in late September felt that �large banks� had been
>>> helped �a lot�
>>> or �a fair amount� by �government economic policies,� but only 13
>>> percent felt the �average working person� had been. Unemployment
>>> ranked ahead of the
>>> deficit and health care as the No. 1 pocketbook issue in the
>>> survey, with 81
>>> percent saying the Obama administration must take more action.
>>>
>>> The tea party Republicans vanquished on Tuesday have no jobs plan.
>>> They just
>>> want to eliminate all Washington spending � a prescription that
>>> didn�t go down too well in New York�s 23rd, where the federal
>>> government has the largest payroll. The G.O.P. establishment�s
>>> one-size-fits-all panacea is tax
>>> cuts � thin gruel for those with little or no taxable income. The
>>> administration�s answer is the stimulus, whose iffy results so far,
>>> it argues, can�t be judged this early on.
>>>
>>> Fair enough. But a year from now the public will register its
>>> verdict in any
>>> event. Meanwhile, both parties have their own delusions, not the
>>> least of which is the Republicans� conviction that Tuesday was a