Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Tea Party Dissolution: Open Thread

The once-beloved savior of the Tea Party – Scott Brown – is now Satan Incarnate to the Far Right (which has been becoming synonymous with “the Right”).  The Tea Party Conference was, at best, a strange occasion.  CPAC seemed to have as many sessions on how to beat the GOP as it did on winning against Democrats.

And the $15B Jobs Bill just passed the Senate on a vote of 70-28.

Is The Krazy beginning to drain away from the actual political function of the Republican party, or is it just a hiatus?

This is an Open Thread.

Kathleen Parker at WaPo has an interesting piece this morning:

One of the sessions at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) questioned whether Abraham Lincoln was “friend or foe.”

…

Who emerges pure enough from this fray of fraying parts will be interesting to watch, but things could get messy as the tea party movement gains momentum and old alliances show signs of weakening.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 88 Comments

88 comments

  1. louisprandtl

    denouncing everybody from Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Kennedys, Johnson, to M. L. King Jr…Anyway they are probably better off living in the kingdom of TeaBagging Nation.

    Talking about politics, here’s MOT displaying rugged American individualism, Ayan Rand and John Galt, all in one package…

    It is on the top of the Rec list since yesterday.

    http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…

    Who said Teabaggers only have the momentum behind them..

  2. HappyinVT

    voting against something called a “jobs bill” would be a bad thing and held their noses to give Obama a positive?  I guess focusing on the tax breaks for small businesses was enough to make it palatable.  Scott Brown has got to be hoping some of the heat is now distributed to other “deserving” Republicans.  Lastly, wonder how the teabagging faction will use these votes during primaries.

    BTW, any Dems vote against it?  Like Nelson?

  3. creamer

    One the bill went to the floor more republicans decided not to vote against a tax cut/ stimulus.

    Is it the “I want to be on the winning side” mentality? Or maybe the “I don’t want to be on the losing side mentality”.

    I think the single thing that corporate media could do for our country is to pre-empt programing and let Glenn Beck speak to the nation for as long as he wanted.

  4. John Allen

    hammered over the John Birch sponsorship? Why are the Democrats and the media letting this slide?

    BTW, I’ve been busy updating my web site, which is the reason I haven’t been posting on the Moose as much as usual. I’m pleased with the result. I deleted more than half of the photos and then added 30 new photos that are better than the old ones. The poetry section has new navigation, updated poems, and a couple of new ones. The blog is now more fully integrated with the rest of the site and has all of the posts I’ve made here on the Moose plus others that aren’t suitable for here.

    Check it out if you have a few minutes. I’m particularly happy with the way the photo galleries came out.

  5. HappyinVT

    In a recent interview with Newsmax, [Jeb]Bush was asked whether he thought Palin was a viable candidate for president.

    snip

    He said that Palin’s success depends on her willingness to add a “depth of understanding of the complexity of life we’re living in today” to her rhetoric.

    “That’s up to her,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know what her deal is, but my belief is in 2010 and 2012, public leaders need to have intellectual curiosity.”

    Video is available as well.

  7. HappyinVT

    The Christian Science Monitor reports today the Pakistan has arrested nearly half (7 of 15) of the Afghanistan Taliban leadership, including the head of military operations.

    Western and Pakistani media had previously reported the arrest of three of the 15, but this is the first confirmation of the wider scale of the Pakistan crackdown on the Taliban leadership, something the US has sought.

    snip

    The crackdown may to be related to efforts by some Taliban leaders to explore talks with Western and Afghan authorities independently of Pakistan, the UN official said. Pakistan is widely suspected of backing the Afghan Taliban in a bid to maintain influence in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad has long denied. But Pakistan may also be wary of Taliban attempts to initiate talks without its involvement or sanction.

    snip

    “A year ago when this [Obama] administration was completing its first Afghanistan review and we asked the Pakistanis about the Afghan Taliban leadership operating from their country, they flatly denied it,” says Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst who led President Obama’s initial Afghanistan policy review. “Now not only do they say there are senior Taliban leaders in their country, but they are frankly taking action against them.”

    snip

    US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) chief Robert Mueller met with Afghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and his Pakistani counterpart, Rehman Malik, Wednesday, Pakistani officials say. The three discussed the possibility of transferring Mr. Baradar and other captured Taliban leaders to Afghanistan.

    I certainly don’t want to see (nor am I completely sure it would be warranted) the president in a flight suit before a banner on an aircraft carrier but it would be nice for someone in the administration to acknowledge the success against the Taliban.  And, yes, I understand that the Taliban and al Qaeda are two separate entities but I think it is fairly clear that the Taliban is undermining efforts in Afghanistan.

    It also remains to be seen what long-term effects these arrests will have.  Is it a matter of time before Mullah Omar is captured or rendered neutral as he tries to keep onestep ahead of Pakistani/NATO forces?

  9. HappyinVT

    In an EXCLUSIVE, Politico’s crack staff has learned that Barack Obama is running for president in 2012.

    President Barack Obama’s top advisers are quietly laying the groundwork for the 2012 reelection campaign, which is likely to be run out of Chicago and managed by White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, according to Democrats familiar with the discussions.

    http://www.outsidethebeltway.c…

    Guess what!  He’s planning to win again, too!

    h/t balloon juice

  10. Shaun Appleby

    Some carefully chosen words from the Governator:


    “So this is why I think, in the end, when the economy comes back, I think that the Tea Party will disappear again. It will, you know, twinkle and disappear, and that will be it. So that’s exactly what I feel about it.”

    Arnold Schwarzenegger interview with Greta Van Susteren – Tea Party Will ‘Twinkle And Disappear’ Huffington Post 24 Feb 10

    Poor Greta.  And among the sanest words on the subject I’ve heard recently.  Let’s hope they stay around at least for the mid-terms.  I’ve got the popcorn ready.

  11. fogiv

    He called Eric Cantor’s office today, and spoke to a staffer (paraphrase):

    Please tell Mr. Cantor to stop lying everytime he’s on television…

  12. HappyinVT

    (Ole Miss to most of us) voted to develop another mascot to replace the retired Colonel Reb:

    colonelrebel

    The university has been without a mascot since the Colonel was removed from the sidelines seven years ago.  With a paltry 3,300+ students out of 18,000 voting, 75% said it was time find another mascot.

    Of course, not everyone agreed.

    “I’m extremely disappointed. I do think Colonel Reb is getting a bad rap,” said Hannah Loy, a senior political science major and a member of the Colonel Reb Foundation.

    Loy said her generation should be allowed to define issues of race and school spirit.

    “I think the older generations need to stop pressing their feelings about race and what happened in the past on those of us who weren’t even alive then,” Loy said.

    I’m not suggesting Ms. Loy is racist and perhaps she, as was the case with a number of my students, is simply tired of hearing about Mississippi’s issues with race.  This sort of speaks to the issues talked about in a recent diary.  To the students of Ole Miss Colonel Reb may simply have been an expression of school pride, not the symbol of the Old South of slavery and the more recent Jim Crow laws.

    People who weren’t alive then (I was barely) don’t understand how turbulent the sixties truly were or how much Mississippi is still viewed by the rest of the country as some haven of redneck racist jerks.  If nothing else, finding a new mascot shows that Mississippi is moving on even in small ways.

  13. Chris Blask

    In a Facebook thread someone was mocking – probably accurately – some nobs’ counter-film response to Moore’s “Capitalism”.  I stated my usual disdain for both Moore and the Counter-Moores, as anyone who knows me would not be surprised to hear:

    Chris: Not being at all likely to watch either if I can possibly avoid them, they both sound like the usual simplistic crap put out by extreme partisans who already have concrete positions that they retroactively find “facts” to support. Ptui. All these things do is show that you can build a “proof” for anything if you squint hard enough.

    And, while a “you’re an idiot” response I could live with, it’s the lofty snide below that just sets my teeth on edge:

    Matt:   The truth is the truth, you really don’t have to look to far. If you really think, the way you do chris, its probably because you live pretty comfortably in your world and don’t have a reason to understand the things that other people go through. Michael Moore was effected directly by a certain action takin by a certain party which led him on a life long journey to pursue some kind of justice against the way one way of thinking treated another. But in the end it comes down to, why did one party get fucked over by the other? Humanistically did they really deserve to be treated that way? Probably not. More then likely somone was worried more about another dollar, and less about any of the goings on around it. The outcome and effects of poverty on a person has no meaning to some, a hard working innocent by stander only wishing to carry on with a decent hard working living and maybe the possibility of a better way of life for there children. Arogance and ignorance vs, rational complacent notion, fuckin somebody over for a dollar vs humanity. This ultimate discussion all leads to the passion and effort that michael moore puts into his films and I’m happy for it.

    Chris:  Matt, with all due respect, you don’t know the first thing about me, and you sound like an arrogant idiot pretending that you do. “you live pretty comfortably in your world and don’t have a reason to understand the things that other people go through” what a pile of sanctimonious – and wildly inaccurate – sterotyping bigoted bullshit.

    I don’t agree with you so I must be cozied up in a pink world where everything falls in my lap? Never suffered, just don’t get it? You have no clue who I am and what I have experienced. The incredible and unmitigated gall you display is staggering. Do you see me trying to sum up your life by your support for some Hollywood activist? I don’t know the first thing about you and would never pretend to.

    Attitudes like you just displayed are the #1 reason partisans of every stripe feel justified in whatever simple worldview they cling to.

    Bite me, Matt.  Go carry a sign protesting things you don’t understand, you’ll look really Cool and Political and stuff.

  15. Shaun Appleby

    Big news?:


    Washington (CNN) – The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to repeal the antitrust exemption currently granted to health insurance companies.

    The vote was 406-19 to repeal the exemption, which has been in place since the end of World War II. The 19 who voted against the repeal are all Republicans.

    House votes to repeal antitrust exemption for health insurers CNN 24 Feb 10

    I’m assuming this has to get through the Senate, but still.  And isn’t 406 an awful lot of votes?

  16. DTOzone

    first time I had to do it…was not a pleasant experience.

    The good news is in two weeks, I get to hire two people 🙂  

  18. btchakir

    Let’s hear it for Annabel Park of Silver Spring, MD, who, when really upset by the Tea Party Movement and it’s Fox News promoters, started a response movement in her living room: The Coffee Party Movement. And, wonder of wonders, it has caught on… enough so that I’ve added Coffee Party to my blog rolls.

    Here’s the Coffee Party Mission Statement:

    The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.

    And here is Annabel on how she started it all:

    youtube=

    Interested? Then go HERE and join the Coffee Party Movement. I did.

    Under The LobsterScope

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