More on McConnell’s tactics in the Senate
As expected, by refusing to vote for cloture, the Democrats shot down McConnell’s latest attempt to get a vote against the Iran deal.
Also as expected, McConnell has so far refused to exercise the nuclear option, which would merely get the bill on Obama’s desk but could not serve to override his inevitable veto.
And that’s where we stand.
I decided to start on a new post on this in order to call your attention to a relevant discussion in the comments section on an old thread that most of you may not be following any more. It’s really the whole thread, but the newer part I’m talking about starts around here.
I especially call your attention to my comment here, but I really think the whole thread is worth reading.
Until “conservatives” can bring themselves to face what the modern liberal really is, and wants, and how little it cares how that is achieved, the conservatives will continue to be political patsies and so-called principled losers; consoling themselves with the thought that at least they never betrayed their principles of amity and comity and collegiality and fundamental “We-ness”, and therefore died or withered away in the right cause.
I’m beginning to despise these delusional “conservatives” almost as much as the left.
OT headsup on the ongoing European invasion. Conservative physicist in Pilson, Czech Republic, Lubos Motl (formerly at Harvard University), has two posts of interest at his blog site, The Reference Frame.
“Yesterday, the Libertarian European lawmaker Petr Mach — whom I have successfully voted for and whom I know in person — tweeted that the [new German] border checks are a part of a blackmail strategy by Germany.” Lubos decides that Petr is correct; the Germans are exercising a power play to get migrant resistant Central Europe to play along with their radical political designs.
c/2015/09/eu-funds-blackmail-will-probably-lead.html
In another post, Lubos fisks a NYTimes piece, critiquing
Central European resistance.
http://motls.blogspot.com/2015/09/migration-nyt-hit-piece-on-post.html
On this heavy news day, I trust these will be of interest.
FIRST LINK again
http://motls.blogspot.com/2015/09/eu-funds-blackmail-will-probably-lead.html
This GOP Senate is irrelevant as Rubio quickly learned.
I’m beginning to despise these delusional “conservatives” almost as much as the left.
You’ll get used to it. I certainly have. They look like very very special snowflakes in the beginning, but after about 5-8 years, that changes.
The Republicans don’t know the rules of the game as played by the Democrat type.
You pass a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, the president vetoes it and you hang it around the neck of every elected democrat in the nation like a millstone. Mayors, Governors, Senators, Representatives, and the president. Every speech in the House and Senate, no matter the topic starts off by reminding the electorate that the Democrats are funding baby killers. Sure the media will stick up for the DEMS and make you out to be the bad guy… so what, they don’t like you anyway.
That’s why Trump is making such a big wave and is popular. The rank and file Republicans out here in fly over country are tired of the McConnell and Boehner playing the part of “Harvey Milktoast” all, I repeat, All of the time. Trump is jamming the Media types into their chairs. He doesn’t care what the MSM thinks. Stick in the A$$ and break it off !!
Carly had it right… this is about the conscience of a nation.
Because Obama didn’t provide to congress all of the side agreements, neither House should have voted on it. And yes issues, where possible, need to be voted on as John Dough stated. If you want recognition of your position, coverage in the media will only be there if Obama has to veto it.
McConnell is a coward and a fool. He never fails to at the last minute “force” a vote to see if he can get a vote, the first of which inevitably fails, and the 2nd of which would fail anyway.
He is an idiot and a weak and selfish loser. Just because he is so self-centered and small minded and dumb, he should be tossed right away if not sooner.
You don’t “force” votes you know you will lose.
Idiot.
Reid forces votes that he knows will win and the ones that won’t, he stalls until they die off. Similar to what he did to take all that land in Nevada by shooting off the residents.
McConnell may be trying to think several moves ahead however it doesn’t seem he is willing to adapt to new or changing information.
For example, the debate on CNN had 23 million people watching and the candidates made a compelling case, several for that matter, as to why the Iran deal isn’t just bad, it’s dangerous. If one of the primary principles of our elected officials is to keep the homeland safe then congress is reneging on one of its primary jobs, so its worth asking what is fighting over?
If this is a game of “chess” McConnell doesn’t seem willing to adapt to moves on the board.
There is no way to stand up for something and not cause an effect, and the republicans so desire to stand up, but cringe if it cause some effect that then they are held responsible for.
ie. feminist socialist communist fascist ballless paranoid leftist self serving lying clod hoppers.
Illustrating democrat tactics:
Last year 285 people died from a rifle according to FBI crime statistics. This includes the deadly assault rifles. It’s a shocking number.
But upon further investigation we learned that 1,490 U.S. citizens died from a knife attack…
Fighting for what you believe in is not theater.
In fights preemptively surrendering absolutely guarantees that you will lose. When you fight and fight hard you just never know whether you will win or shift the Overton window for the next fight. That after all is what the left has done for the last century. They never give up and they’ve pushed the Overton window far left and elected a Marxist to the Presidency.
So my recommendation to the feckless Republicans in Congress is to get a backbone and fight, fight, fight.
“John Dough: You pass a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, the president vetoes it and you hang it around the neck of every elected democrat in the nation like a millstone.”
I am behind John 100% on the statement he made. I also think this tactic should be used with the Iran deal. Get that veto on record. I’m tired of the Senate saying, “oh we can’t get that passed anyway b/c Obama will just veto it.” MAKE HIM VETO IT.
I may not understand the ‘chess’ game that many claim is going on…I think the Republicans need to have black and white, CLEAR responses to this stuff. Not a chess game. Have PP as a separate bill all its own, outside of the budget. Make the Democrats eat it. Make Obama veto it. Make THEM be the ones that stall the budget, claiming they won’t pass it until it includes PP. Do the Democrats really want to stall the budget process over PP?
I’m just tired of Republicans not having a spine. Ugh.
At a certain point things have to penetrate your skull. For instance, I hated how Romney ran against a “nice guy, just in over his head” Barack Obama. No, he’s not a nice guy and he’s doing exactly what he set out to do.
Of course, I had reached that point in July 2008, when I realized that Obama only wanted to become President of his enemies so he could give them their comeuppance and help his friends. This Iran deal is him making good on both halves of that promise.
Similarly, McConnell (and Boehner) isn’t a spineless jellyfish. Look at how he and the NRSC went to the mattresses to work with the Democrats to reelect Thad Cochran. He’s doing exactly what he set out to do, too.
In Illinois they call the political machine the Combine. The Republicans are perfectly happy being the junior members in the Combine. Clearly it works the same way in D.C.
A good habit to get into when fighting existential foes is to never underestimate them. Which is to mean, stop taking them lightly in most situations.
Take them lightly when they are dead, not before.
Hussein was birthed from a combo of Ayers marxist activism and chicago machine politics. Importation and immigration, as some would say, just like Islam does to Europe.
It’s nice to be on the attack and to hold the Left to their own rules. Too bad the anti Leftists rarely do that.
K-E:
Understand, though, that the only way they can pass any of it is to jettison the filibuster/cloture rule.
See this.
Harold: “That after all is what the left has done for the last century. They never give up and they’ve pushed the Overton window far left and elected a Marxist to the Presidency. So my recommendation to the feckless Republicans in Congress is to get a backbone and fight, fight, fight.”
I’ll use Harold’s comment to highlight again the seemingly obvious yet persistent disconnect of correct diagnosis yet self-neutralizing prescription.
Electing high-quality Republicans who do their part is necessary, but it is not sufficient and it is not primary for countering the Left.
Apples to apples. Countering Left activism requires Right activists zealously competing against the Left everywhere, not limited to electoral politics, head on non-stop.
Activism subsumes electoral politics. The current president is a second-order effect. For the GOP to “get a backbone and fight, fight, fight” effectively, they need to be empowered by and answer to a greater Right like Democrats are empowered by and answer to the greater Left.
The preemptive self-neutralizing assignment to the GOP of responsibility to counter the Left must stop. The solution must be based on the people of the Right collectively rising as Marxist-method activists to struggle everywhere for the nation.
Apples to apples – the role of Republicans is to counter Democrats. Republicans cannot counter the Left. Apples to apples – a collective activist Right is necessary to counter the Left.
Ymarsakar: “It’s nice to be on the attack and to hold the Left to their own rules. Too bad the anti Leftists rarely do that.”
That’s the thing. They shouldn’t be the Left’s “own rules”. The activist method is not limited to any ideology. The only reason they’re considered the province of the Left is the habitual neglect by the Right in not adopting them.
A serious obstruction is putative conservatives who discourage and even actively prevent the common adoption of the Marxist-method activist method by the Right. I suspect the preemptive sabotage is stoked by Left activists.
It brings to mind a post that Neo wrote about a young Right activist who successfully employed a tactic and then recommended its wider application. But a prominent conservative commentator promptly shot down the young Right activist’s recommendation, saying the tactic doesn’t work for the Right like it does for the Left … despite that the young Right activist’s recommendation was based on his firsthand experience that it did work.
To that extent, the Right has only itself to blame for the competitive imbalance.
The self-imposed activist gap causes the improper reliance on the GOP to counter the Left in spite of the unsuitability of the GOP on its own to counter the Left. The activist gap also causes the market inefficiency underlying the Trump phenomenon.
neo-con, if there ever were a time to get rid of the filibuster rule (which is NOT a Constitutional thing, mind you), it would be on the Iran deal AND Planned Parenthood.
To that extent, the Right has only itself to blame for the competitive imbalance.
Even if people wished to resist the Left, the Left’s total asset and power stands at about the same as if Cuba or Japan tried to win a world war against Russia, China, and America combined.
That is the current power imbalance at work between the Left and the non Left.