Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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August 15, 2007 7:09 AM
Memo to GOP: "This Ship Will Self-Destruct In 20 Seconds - This Is Your Last Chance to Push the Cancellation Button"
Lately here in Colorado, the public has been treated to a rather comprehensive seminar on why conservative politicians have now been thrown out of a state government formerly dominated by Republicans, and more broadly, about why the national GOP is on the ropes. If I could set this post to a movie sound-effect, I wouldn't choose the Spaceballs clip where Rick Moranis says "now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb" because I think the GOP has that one down already. No, I'd play the Spaceballs clip where the voice tells them that "this ship will self-destruct in 20 seconds - this is your last chance to push the cancellation button." Except, I don't think the Republican Party can - or has the desire to - stop any of this.Earlier this week, we found out that Republicans, under the direction of their standard-bearer Bill Owens, diverted severance taxes to their pet projects, and did nothing to close a gaping loophole that allowed Big Oil to escape paying the taxes it owed. As Law-and-Order Democrats have pushed forward to clean up the mess, the GOP has been totally silent - oh, except for their big backers in the oil and gas industry, who are now trying to stop Democrats' investigation into the matters. The situation almost perfectly mimics national Republicans' first passing a lobbyist-written Energy Bill that gave away billions to already wealthy oil and gas companies, and then opposing Democrats' efforts to repeal the largess and put the resources into more important energy priorities.
Now today, we see leading Colorado Republicans issuing a call to arms against a minor administrative rule change that would allow state employees to - gasp! - meet in rooms in state buildings. No really. I'm not kidding.
Led by a GOP legislator named Josh Penry - you know, the one with the typical crazed look in his eyes - Republicans are promising an all out assault on - get this - the Colorado Department of Personnel's decision to allow "the state to provide employee organizations with space to hold meetings, e-mail addresses of all employees and use of state mailrooms," according to the Rocky Mountain News. Call it the Republicans' Anti-Kickball Team Campaign, because yes - at a time of skyrocketing health care costs, stagnating wages, an energy crisis and potential global catastrophe from climate change, Colorado Republicans have decided it is both smart politics and their Moral Duty and Responsibility to brand themselves as the party that's courageously trying to stop state employees from being allowed to email their Kickball Team schedules to each other.
The Rocky Mountain News says that "Republicans charge the policy will turn Colorado into a union paradise," which is first and foremost a strange phrase ("Union paradise"? Yeah, because coal miners, steelworkers and highway construction workers in America have traditionally lived LARGE. I'd like to see a few union pipefitters redo Coolio's hit song about living the high life). But more importantly, the assertion is just plain absurd. Even more absurd is that these supposed "fiscal conservatives" are calling for the state to spend precious taxpayer dollars convening Constitutional Convention-style public meetings to debate the rule change as if it was a proposal to undermine the Colorado Way of Life.
And make no mistake about it - the Republican effort to stop the rule goes way beyond kickball. Say a group of public employees wants to have an office-wide bake sale before work to raise money for the child of a sick employee. Nope, sorry. According to the GOP, that's not shouldn't be allowed to happen at the office, because allowing that would "turn Colorado into a union paradise." What about a state employee association sending out a flyer to others at the office about an emergency blood drive in the wake of a disaster? No again - the Colorado Republican Party, channeling its anti-union brethren in Washington, hysterically says that's just part of the "governor's mea culpa serenade to the disgruntled union bosses" and shouldn't be allowed. Seriously - you cannot make this up.
But my favorite example of how the conservative movement has self-destructed is the Right's public criticism of GOP federal judge Edward Nottingham for going to a strip club...legally. As David Harsanyi correctly asks, "Why would these revelations cause so much consternation?" It's a good question - and I'm glad to see Harsanyi, a libertarian, seems as concerned about the Right's overzealous outrage as any privacy-respecting American should be.
It's true, Colorado Republicans have now hired Dick Wadhams to lead them out of the wilderness - but that seems about as smart as national Republicans having hired Karl Rove to build them a permanent majority. This is, after all, the same Dick Wadhams who publicly melted down when a local advocacy group had the temerity to ask a Republican candidate to disclose his campaign finances, the same Dick Wadhams who has previously made a career out of helping safe-seat Republican incumbents almost lose reelection, and the same Dick Wadhams who took the national Republican Party's leading candidate for president, George Allen, and not only commandeered his Senate reelection campaign into the ground, but helped turn Allen into a historical cautionary tale. And Wadhams hasn't been able to do anything about the extreme right-wing of his party now launching primary challenges to the merely-far-right wing of his party.Here's a tip to GOP elites here and in Washington: If you want to know why you have been swept out of office, take a good look in the mirror. When you fire your car up to 110 miles an hour on a mountain road next to a cliff, and then deliberately jerk the steering wheel to the hard right, you shouldn't then ask why you are waking up in a hospital with your car totaled and your arms and legs in a cast.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
Don't be so sure the GOP is out The idiot Democrats are giving them a lot of help and all the loopholes you can imagine to escape any responsibility for all the terrible misery death and plunder they have inflicted upon America..!
They even gave Gonzales the power to listen in on them for political purposes..
Also Hillary is like playing political Russian Roulette and Obama as just distracted the Democrats from any real candidate that might actually change anything who can also win..!
So the GOP is not in as bad shape as you might think once the time comes for the general election..
You'll see..!
TJ, I think Sirota was referring to the GOP in Colorado. I'm not sure what the CO Dems are like but I'm pretty sure that they're not like the VA Dems or for that matter the DC Dems.
As for George Allen, well, Webb blew it once he voted against Sanders's bill on property tax relief and again not too long ago when he voted YEA on giving the president dictatorial powers to wiretap the country to DEATH. I would normally forgive Webb on his maverick independence but not when he caves in on an egregious vote. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Allen runs again in 2012 and uses the wiretapping vote against Webb to falsely proclaim that he's for "privacy".
The GOP may lose in CO but as TJ pointed out, not in DC.
Sounds like a good cross section of American GOP mentality. It'll probably be a smarter country when the basic anglo population is replaced. They are losing their whole country, the way they have lost the main pockets like NY and Ca. They are their own worst enemies. They complain about immigration, but don't reproduce. They're living oxymorons. Bush is a good representative example. Born with a silver spoon up his ass, best ed money could buy and is as articulate as a horny toad attacking a water buffalo. I have heard speakers from every country in the world, but Bush takes the cake for an inarticulate hick. And he's probably suffering from alcoholic ed. He got lucky and only had to get it up once for a standard anglo family of two kids. No wonder Tancredo is worried. The mexes will have his seat soon. Tancredo is anglo for It. isn't it?
What people don't get especially Democrats is that Republicans are a arm of corporate American and the monied elite. They don't represent anyone else.
Social conservatives and moderate GOPers have had no say in the party for a long time. Sure Bush will invite some fundie like Robertson tothe whitehouse but its PR. Bush doesn't take orders from these people, he takes orders from big business and the wealthy. Just like Pelosi and Reid do, but Democrats are so blinded by ideology they don't see the corruption in their own party.
As for why anglos vote Republican there are two main reasons.
1)Democrats stopped representing bluecollars and middle-class(who are mostly anglo) on economic issues for the last 30 years. Not to mention being repeatedly vilified and demonized as Nazis and "crack head porn monkeys" by Democrats and liberals for not supporting Democrats.
2)Republicans are smart enough to pander to the social concerns of the middle-class and blue collar. So Bluecollars and the middle-class support GOPers because of this.
As for Democrats supporting illegal immigration and open borders. Liberals and Democrats have made it quite clear they want replace the old anglo bluecollar and middle-class voter whom they lost due to economic policy changes. They think hispanics will support them if they throw enough welfare and public aid at them(vote buying). The problem is hispanics don't vote in any appreciable numbers for gringo politicians. They only vote for hispanic politicos.
Are the Sanchez sisters in SoCal RepubThugs? I think not. They represent Democratic districts in Orange County. From the song: "The Demographics Are A-Changein'." Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Montana...from another song: "We're Beginning to See the Light." Just think, there is only one Republican House seat left in all of New England: Shays in Connecticut! And he is typical Connecticut R': not a right wing crazy. Why even Israeli Ambassador Lieberman still votes Democratic!
I can remember Senator Lowell Weikert (R, Connecticut), during the Watergate hearings, telling Nixon's thug, Charles Colson: "Get Your Ass Out of My Office!" See, there really were some good Republicans. However, today's thugs have still not heard the last of the Abramoff scandal. More heads are going to roll. Jack is talking to the FBI while he's in the jug. John Doolittle is going be fitted out with an orange jumpsuit. Likewise Renzi in Arizona. And on and on..."I'm resigning so I can spend more time with my family" is wearing thin!
Sadly the Democrats are not distinguishing themselves from these Republican swine enough for the people to see any discernible difference into many issues then you Add Miss Popularity to the mix as the nominee and we could loose despite everything these god awful Republicans have done...
Obama also may not win in the general either due to racism and experience..
Edwards needs to adopt more of Kucinich's agenda and stance and grow some hair, where nobody gets paid $400 dollars to cut it..!
He's just not there yet, but if so Edwards may be not just our best hope, but only hope..
He needs more advisers hard hitting like Joe Trippi who can bring the fight to the Republican Taliban Mafia Nazi swine..corporate fascists that they are..
If Hillary is Bush lite which she is, Edwards is Hillary lite..I fear..!
Grow some hair there John, and get with the real program..!
The war reauthorization vote from 5/29 (the senate vote was something like 82-14 for) , the 6 month extension of the warrantless wiretapping(total chickenshit cop-out) and the litany of BS over the last 15 years(really its like 25) from the Dems(notice I don't mention'publickins, that is a given)shows their true colors. They talk an awful lot like populists, or the very least "Democrats", but they are ALL corporate whores, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, Dennis Kucinich, Sherrod Brown(I think). I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to John Edwards due to his roots and how he made his $ fighting corporations who poisoned, butchered, and defrauded folks.
However even Clinton, (who I'd take back in a heartbeat over siver spoon up his nose and beer bottle up his ass Shrub) in '92 campaigned on a very populist message then turned hard right from his campaiging once elected. He gave us NAFTA, GATT, WTO, with corporate thug pupets like Rubin and Greenspan whispering in his ear.
Bottom line is this: WE THE PEOPLE need to stand up and take back our country. With our political system, on all levels, turned into a whorehouse for the $ from corporations, with the supreme court giving corporations(abstractions) the same rights as people, based on literally a phantom "decision" that never was, Our system through manipulation is/has failed us.
We as a people need to gavanize into a cohesive entity and force these assholes to do OUR bidding, lord knows they won't do it on their own.
Hillary Clinton is a corporate whore, I am not totally sure about Obama, Oh wait he did vote for the '05 Bankruptcy bill, WHORE!! Sadly, one of the candidates who speaks with the most clairity constitutionally is Ron Paul! If only we had a Democratic party (as a whole) that spoke with the constitutional clairity that Ron Paul does. Or if only Ron Paul wasn't a member of a party that hated the idea of helping anyone other than rich white asshole bigots and Corporate theives.
Its up to us folks!! Lets wake up and quick! time is short.
Benameliasdad, Ron Paul also voted for the BANKRUPTCY BILL. In any case, if you actually took a look at Ron's voting record, save most of the "free" trade deals, you might notice that he hated the idea of helping anyone other than rich white asshole bigots and Corporate thieves too.
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