Quote Of The Day

"This is a Waterloo moment for Trump, the tea party and their alliance.  They have been stopped in their tracks not only by Democratic opposition but because of a mutiny within their own ranks. Although never particularly liked or respected, it is now clear that they are no longer feared. The bankruptcy of their ideas and their incompetence have been exposed. Their momentum has been dissipated. Their rejection of political norms has itself been scorned. Our long national nightmare may finally be coming to an end." -- Steven Perlstein in the Washington Post.  We can only hope (and continue to resist).

BONUS:  Steve M. has a good piece on why we should be very skeptical about premature reports of tea party/ Trumpism on the ropes.

"I'm A Democrat"

Steven Perlstein rightly faults Democrats for their incompetence at not proudly "branding" their party, instead defensively playing into Republican themes.  Economy gathering steam?  Huh, wha?! Unemployment cut almost in half?  Shhh!  More people with affordable health insurance?  Quick, hide!  A twice popularly elected President heading your party? Run for your lives!

Here's what Perlstein would suggest as a "branding" message for Democrats (albeit waaaay too late for the mid-term elections):

“I’m a Democrat. In economic terms, that means I believe we need an active, competent government to ensure that prosperity is broadly shared by protecting ordinary people from the occasional excesses of markets and the undue power of businesses. That’s why Democrats are for raising the minimum wage, closing down corporate tax scams, putting tighter regulation on Wall Street and providing adequate funding for a world-class public education system from pre-K through college. And it’s why we are proud to have passed legislation to ensure that all Americans finally have a basic health insurance plan regardless of income or health or which company they work for. With oil and gas prices falling, it means I’m even willing to raise energy taxes by a few pennies per gallon so we can reinvest in the infrastructure — highways, ports, airports, subway systems, the electric grid, the Internet — on which all of us and the economy depend. Republicans are uninterested in, or unwilling to do, any of these things or in making any of these investments. Are you with them, or are you with us Democrats?”

Doesn't that sound remarkably like Sen. Elizabeth Warren's message?  As we've said before, if more Democrats had even a fraction of Sen. Warren's clarity, conviction and guts, they wouldn't be shaking in their boots every time an election rolled around.

Sunday Quote: "Occupy"-ing the Side of the People

Steven Perlstein in today's Kaplan Daily business section:

"[H]ow about White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, outside the same conference [hosted by the Atlantic magazine], responding to a reporter’s question about whether the [Occupy Wall Street] protests were helpful to the White House in furthering its economic agenda:

'I don’t know if it’s helpful.'

Trust me on this one, Bill: It’s helpful. And the fact that the White House chief of staff can’t see that and say it publicly is why Barack Obama finds himself in the political pickle he’s in.

I realize Daley has taken it as his personal challenge to repair relations with the business community. But the first thing to point out is that the business community isn’t Wall Street. More significantly, however, you can’t 'repair' relations with the business community while its members are pushing back against virtually every one of your initiatives and generously financing the Republican opposition. The way to 'repair' your relationship with the business community under such conditions is to provide convincing political evidence that they need to repair their relationship with you.

I’m sure Daley and Geithner are keenly aware that there’s a nasty political war going on out there and that they’re losing. What I suspect they don’t fully understand is that one reason they’re losing it is that people aren’t sure which side they’re on. And the way to let people know which side you’re on is to send clear signals through what you say and what you do."

Bad For Business

Yesterday's column by Kaplan Daily business columnist Steven Perlstein takes on the toxic, shut-the-government-down philosophy of SC radical wingnut Sen. Jim "Demented" DeMint. He warns business that while some facets of Demented's "agenda" may be appealing to them, the overall effect would be gridlock: on trade agreements, on tax policy, and other issues. He cautions business:

"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that, once the heat of the election season has passed, cooler heads will prevail and DeMint and the other anti-government zealots will return to their rightful place on the fringes of the political system, leaving it to the grown-ups to get things done. Don't kid yourselves. You're about to create a political monster that you can't control, one bent not on reforming but on destroying the institutional framework that allows an advanced industrial economy to grow and thrive."

Translating the rage against government that has motivated right wingers since the days of St. Ronnie of Hollywood (and before) into actually governing the greatest nation on earth is something that Rethug wingnuts haven't bothered to figure out. Voters need to take notice.

(image: Demented, and funny at the same time)

Fruitcakes and Political Fantasy

Worth reading today is Steven Pearlstein's article in the Kaplan Daily, wherein he cautions deluded Rethuglicans not to imagine that because their prospects look good in November it follows that the Rethuglican party "can claim vindication for every nutty notion spouted by its leaders," like how Keynesian economics was proven wrong in the recent/ continuing unpleasantness. He also asks how the

"...beleaguered private sector has responded to this unwarranted and unconstitutional government takeover of the economy? Profits are booming, and publicly traded share prices are up 70 percent!"

Since many of these folks are cut from the same sociopathic cloth, Perlstein is right in saying there's no pleasing them, whether its Sen. Jim "Demented" DeMint (Crackpot-SC) or Wall Street hedge fund manager Anthony "Scaramouche" Scaramucci, who whined at the recent CNBC town hall with Obama that he and his hedge fund masters of the universe were tired of being Obama's whipping boy (the Obama response, which generated the town hall's biggest applause: large portions of the public think I haven't been tough enough!).

Rethugs "Political Terrorists"

This morning's column by WaPo business analyst Steven Pearlstein is a breath of fresh air in the paper's neo-con miasma. Pearlstein lambastes the Rethugs for their "cynical effort to gain partisan advantage" in the health care reform debate. Our favorite bite:

"Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society--whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done.

"If health reform is to be anyone's Waterloo, let it be theirs."

Bravo!