Gregg + Bipartisanship = Zero

And forget, please, "conservatism." It has been, operationally, de facto, Godless and therefore irrelevant. Secular conservatism will not defeat secular liberalism because to God both are two atheistic peas-in-a-pod and thus predestined to failure. As Stonewall Jackson's Chief of Staff R.L. Dabney said of such a humanistic belief more than 100 years ago: "[Secular conservatism] is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today .one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt bath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth." Our country is collapsing because we have turned our back on God (Psalm 9:17) and refused to kiss His Son (Psalm 2). John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com Recovering Republican JLof@aol.com

Thanks for the timely article. In my mind Obama did not get a honeymoon - - the media was on his back the next day after the election, particularly CNN. Let me be blunt about what has motivated the assault on Obama - - RACISM! A Black man has declared war on the status quo in Washington and the media (the good old status quo guardians of the universe) are not about to let Obama get by with it. The only Republicans who survived Obama's landslide victory are part of a long racist tradition in the southern voting-block states. They are pitting their reputations at home on getting rid of that Black man in the "white" house (the South will rise again). In their minds, they cannot accept the fact that for the first time since the Civil War a black man not only got the best of them but also has one of the best minds in the country. For the record, I am not a minority - - just one who is sick and tired of the Old South running American politics. It is about time the media told the truth about what is going on and why bipartisan efforts are being rejected by the good old Dixie boys in the Republican Party. Before last night I was concerned, but after watching Obama's Lincoln Day speech in Springfield, Illinois (one of the greatest political speeches since Lincoln) I think these Southern "white" states' rights advocates are toast. Come 2010 many of them will no long be in office and those who remain will look like cave men attacking giants sloths with spit balls. It's hard to realize that post-Civil War myths don't belong in modern times anymore than they belonged since the Reagan years. The radical conservative movement in over.

The Republican MINORITY party needs to be perceived by their "base" as being excluded. It gives them an identity. Obama takes that away from them when he includes them. He said he's willing to listen to their ideas, but warns them not to bring to him the same old ideas that haven't worked in the past. He's playing with them, and they're looking like fools. Jughead Gregg is the latest wolf to lose his sheep's clothes and be revealed as a naked partisan. Ha ha.

....were always taught to look at the ball carrier's hips, not their legs - Why? Simple, they can't lie with their hips.

There is no mistaking where the GOP is going. Their current strategy - play the refs in the MSM. The GOP lost playing by the rules in two election cycles, that is: they got no game. So cry and scream and overwhelm the refs to get their message out. Hence, they've been in full attack mode from day one of the Obama Administration. I understand the Boehner even instructed House GOPers to vote against the stimulus bill before one was even proposed. There are way too many faux-journalists in the MSM looking for the easy story – the one that writes itself. Catchy, but disingenuous rhetoric blaming Obama for everything, even from both sides of a topic ("He’s naïve in his attempt at bipartisanship" ‘slap' to one cheek - and "He's not being bipartisan with us" ‘slap' on the other)…I guess the GOP speaks out of both orifices…

But Democratic party defenders in Congress are beginning to read the GOP’s running route. There is serious talk of re-instituting the fairness doctrine. We need to. The GOP rules by virtue (excuse the term) of Private Corporate conglomerates holding numerous broadcast permits on Public airwaves. But having so many leased frequencies on Public airwaves, they have demonstrated they are not interested in a balanced public dialogue, like we learned about in high school civics class. No, they are simply interested in pushing their political agenda on the under-educated, slightly bigoted, and very fearful American lower Middle Class. And it has clearly paid off. How else could the ruling elite BS so many American's against their own interests? Push their bigotry buttons, get them to refine their hatred of gays, immigrants and those scary Arabs...It’s clear they have no interest in “fair and balanced” journalism. And the mantra that Hannity and the other hacks are profitable, well, it certainly helped to have Murdock's wallet behind them for the first 5 or 6 years Fox News lost money...

If Congress has the Kaunas to do this, they will have sacked the QB – and forced a fumble…..

Is Obama smart enough to ever learn that you can never trust a Republican?

He only left to spare himself the absolute, abject SHAME & HUMILIATION of losing the confirmation by the Democratic Senators. They were in no mood to confirm him, a Right-Wing Republican who was doing NOTHING for them or for President Obama's Administration. i believe that the Democrats were going to finally act assertively, the way that Obama, himself, was unable to do. Gregg knew that, and he was trying to spare himself the loss and the humiliation.

I respect Pres. Obama's attempts at bi-partisanship. I'm sure he got cooperation results in the past, but now he is dealing with the top sinister obstructionists of all-time. I think Pres. Obama needs to call all the current Republicans in office to a meeting and lay it on the line in no uncertain terms. If they aren't willing to do what is rigiht during a very dire situation for our nation, then just shut up and get out of the way. Their selfish motives are too dangerous right now to be even considered. And no more airtime for them as far as I'm concerned. So Republicans: either roll up your sleeves and think of the American people or get the fuck out of our faces.

...and so little space to add to them! The one I will take up is the thought that Obama is trying way too hard to be Lincoln in ruling this nation.

IIRC, Lincoln didn't have control - much less cooperation - over his Cabinet until well into his first administration. It wasn't until about the time of Antietam that he could even get a near-unanimous consensus out of them. So, Barack - what's the rush to establish your wet dream of bipartisanship with the current Republifascisti?

You have the power to go over their heads as you just did in Peoria. Use it. You are about the only Democrat who can drag the M$M kicking and screaming along with you wherever you go. Do that. Tell the people the truth about the crisis, and give them choices so they can participate.

After that, the GOP can go to hell and rot. They aren't about to respect you, and without respect you aren't going to have bipartisanship. Quit wasting our time on our dime!

At least that's what we are lead to believe if you trust lazy White House reporters like the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza.

What is left unsaid is this small news item from a week ago:

The director of the Census Bureau will report directly to the White House and not the secretary of Commerce, according to a senior White House official.

The director of the Census Bureau will report directly to the White House and not the secretary of Commerce, according to a senior White House official.

Of even more concern to black and Hispanic leaders, Gregg battled President Clinton over a request for "emergency" funding for the 2000 census.

Yahoo AP News.com, February 5, 2009

The rabid dog right was frothing at the prospect of their guy losing control of the census. I'm sure the rabid dog right figures, if the Census Bureau reports directly to the White House of a "Negro" president, (we) White people could lose even more House seats in the next election!

Am I reading more into this than is really there? Here's what a commenter posted at conservative columnist Michael Barone's US News and World Report blog:

The census issue is HUGE!! Why should the executive branch seize full control of such a thing that affects so much: the electoral college, allocation of funds, etc.? It is absolutely outrageous. The USA is not a dictatorship, but it looks that's what we will end up with pretty soon. The only reason people are not more outraged is because they do not understand the ramifications -- they do not understand the gall involved in such a decision.

Horrors! An executive branch function under control of the executive branch! Of course now that the political shoe is on the other foot the rabid dog right sees dictatorship just around the corner. Never mind that the last president, George W. Bush, under the tutelage of "unitary executive theory" gurus Dick Cheney and David Addington, "...assert[ed] from the outset of his presidency" that presidential power "must be unilateral, and unchecked[,]" Obama is our Cesar Chavez! And anyway, the rabid dog right comforts itself, what happened under George W. Bush happened a long time ago, so it doesn't apply to the present.

Gregg's withdrawal of his name for Commerce Secretary may have caught the administration by surprise, but for its suddenness not because it was unexpected.

And I am sure we are all "misunderestimating" President Obama's bipartisan outreach program, for it appears he is playing chess to the GOP's checkers. For had the president marched into Washington with a ready-made cadre of lock-step ideologues for his top cabinet positions the rabid dog right would howl that he was being too partisan. Never mind that this is exactly what Obama's predecessor did under a mandate of five Supreme Court Justices in 2001.

Now, perhaps, President Obama can abandon all pretense of "bipartisanship" and get on with the governing of the country.

I don't think we can underestimate how much Obama has internalized Lincoln, and I fear that "bringing the country together" and finding "the better angels of our nature" is as important to him as achieving universal health care. What Obama does not seem to understand is that he is dealing with much more than the "passion" which ruled Lincoln's day. Today's GOP meets every definition of being a cult. It is ruled by the rigid ideology of its leader (Limbaugh) and is completely unwilling and indeed, unable to compromise. And worse, they operate in an alternate universe with realities created out of wholecloth. We are not dealing with principled opponents; we are dealing with mass mental illness. There can be no compromise with such people. You can't do therapy for 20 million when the source of their illness is on the radio 3 hours a day filling them with a constant stream of lies and hate and fear. This is the conservative brain on steroids and there is no finding middle ground with the inmates at the Asylum. We must simply hope to survive them as they attempt to collectively drag us into the abyss. Let us hope that our president is a quick study on human nature.

For years, Americans have been asking for bi-partisanship to resolve our growing problems. The Republicans had convinced many that it was the Democrats who were not being bi-partisan. This may have appeared to be an exercise in near futility. But then again, Obama has gotten nearly exactly what he wanted in the stimulus package and the bulk of the citizenry understand that it is not Obama's fault. He will need constituents to contact their members of Congress again and again to push through more crucial legislation. This is only the beginning. All the negatives floated by the pundits aka right wing plants cannot defeat President Obama as long as he continues to use the bully pulpit and communicate and teach the nation about our government and how it is supposed to work as he has been doing. Did you hear his speech commemorating Lincoln's birthday on Thursday night. He used a quote from Lincoln to explain the purpose of goverment. It was beautiful. Pat Williams

The Grand Obsequious Pricks have held the reins for so long they don't realize a new day has arrived. They won't be able to push Obama's buttons. Who do they have, really? What leader? Gingrich? McConnell? Their whole ideology has failed, as admitted by the fallen Greenspan. So ignore them. Like bullies on the playground, they're really gasbag wimp chickenhawks.

Jimp: I really must say your post hit the nail right on the head. Our country was trashed by the Republicans. Bush left us Americans nothing but scraps, while the rich are on top of the world. With the ideology of the Republicans, there could be no saving this country, as they are determined only to save their party. President Obama MUST break free of the Republican influence and save our country. No matter what he does, the greedy, radical Republicans will criticize and publicize and scrutinize and damn our new President. He MUST do what he feels is right for our country, and let the greedy GOP flush themselves down the toilet. Plain and simple, they CANNOT be trusted.

Gregg's desire for the post and his subsequent change of heart was totally a factor of the upcoming census. Gregg and his GOP conspirators were probably salivating over the opportunity to sabotage and twist the results of this essential disbursment tool, and were themselves blindsided by Obama's announcement that this task was to be removed from Gregg's grubby GOP clutches while he was Commerce Secretary.

For what my remote armchair analysis is worth: 1. Obama has had to live as a minority 2. He knows that being a minority can breed resentment 3. Nothing good comes from resentment So building bridges to common agreement with minorities (as Republicans now are) is not just political, its a law of nature if you want peace in a society. The fault in the logic is that racism is unjust but there is a reason we have prisons. If there is justice, that's were Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld would be in three years. As Saturday Night Live put it, "The last President broke the world." You don't want to have a beer and bond with evil. You want to excise it from the system.

Obama has been "bipartisan" and accommodating to EVERYONE but Progressives, who uniformly told him that "bipartisanship" with NeoCon Republicans is the equivalent of Charlie, Lucy, and the football.

Since Obama has tried EVERYTHING else and ended up loooking like an incompetent bufoon, he needs to listen to Progressives for a CHANGE. Otherwise, all he will have is "HOPELESSNESS We Can Believe In" by the time he leaves office in 2013!

Once there was a frog and a scorpion. Rain caused a stream to flood and the scorpion could not get across. The scorpion saw the frog and said, "Please, carry me across the stream on your back". The frog said, but you will sting me and I will die." "No", said the scorpion, "I will not sting you if you but carry me across the stream on your back". So the frog, believing the scorpion, allowed the scorpion to climb on his back and began to swim across the stream. Midway, the scorpion suddenly stung the frog. Dying, the frog croaked, "You have doomed us both. Why did you sting me?" "Because it is my nature" replied the scorpion as they both slipped below the water. Remind you of anyone?

Why bipartisanship? Bush passed everything with Democratic compliance (read prostration). That's bipartisanship. We need some partisanship. The opposite of lies is not "balance" or compromise. In fact, compromise merely means one has no principles, and compromise with Republicans repudiates what we learned at Munich: you CAN NOT compromise with fascists.