Saturday, October 05, 2013

The Washington Post comes up with the perfect metaphor to describe the Republican party's negotiation style. And they found it in the funny papers.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

To the White House, the shutdown/debt ceiling fight is quite simple, and quite radical: Republicans are trying to create a new, deeply undemocratic pathway through which a minority party that lost the last election can enact an agenda that would never pass the normal legislative process. It's nothing less than an effort to use the threat of a financial crisis to nullify the results of the last election. And the White House isn't going to let it happen. 

The Obama administration bristles at the idea that they've been unwilling to negotiate or compromise. They went on a widely covered "charm offensive" back in the spring. The president held multiple dinners with Senate Republicans. He invited over key House Republicans. The meetings were so frequent that the participants were nicknamed "the diner's club." 

Nothing came of those meetings. Republicans still weren't willing to talk on taxes. And so the White House grimly accepted that they couldn't move the dial on spending. The CR, they note, funds the government at the GOP's number of $988 billion. It is, itself, a compromise, and one they don't like. But they made it, because they couldn't pass anything else through Congress. And then the Republicans decided to shut down the government because they couldn't pass a delay or defunding of Obamacare through Congress.

That's right folks, all that talk of the President not reaching across the aisles and not being willing to negotiate is all bullshit.

In an attempt to find just the right metaphor to describe the tactics employed by John Bohner and the House Republicans reporter Ezra Klein struck pure gold.

As the White House sees it, Speaker John Boehner has begun playing politics as game of Calvinball, in which Republicans invent new rules on the fly and then demand the media and the Democrats accept them as reality and find a way to work around them.

Yes, yes, that is EXACTLY what they have been doing! As the President has tried to find some way to play fairly and create an environment where perhaps no one side wins everything, but that ultimately the American people emerge victorious, the Republicans have been playing Calvinball!

What? You are unfamiliar with Calvinball?

Well first off you should be ashamed of yourself for not recognizing the iconic game from the best damn newspaper strip EVER created! And second, well second here is your chance to rectify your crippling ignorance.

Yep, that just about sums up the Republican's approach to deal making in the last several months.

The only question is, will President Obama continue to allow them to keep changing the rules or will he take a page out of Rosalyn the babysitter's playbook.

Inspiration can come from the most unlikely of places you know.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:29 AM

    G- just a note of thanks for all you do with this blog. IM has become a daily stop for me as I
    I always enjoy the posts. Have a great day.

    CO reader

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:30 AM

    Quick, where's that baby sitter flag?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:35 AM

    Sadly I think this is just another Charlie Brown gets suckered again when Lucy yanks away the football.

    My tea party relatives are still gloating over shuttin' the d*** gubmint dahhhhhhhnnnnnn. The disater we see, is just a big victory for them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sharon7:18 AM

    As a non-reader of comic strips....wow, this nails it!!!! There is no rhyme or reason for what they are doing....it is all about reversing the law. Just as they have refused to recognize Obama as a president, been allowed to disrespect his office for 5 years....steal Congress. We must take Congress back and get rid of Citizens United and the evil trinity....McConnell, Boehner, Cantor...lets add Ryan. Even the lowest information voter has to see this pattern, I wish the Dems pushed even harder though. The emergence of Obamacare is like a snowball running down hill, gaining speed every second and getting bigger until it is so big you have to deal with it. The funniest things I have seen is the "man on the street" interviews being done by the talk shows.
    Which do you like the best...ACA or Obamacare? OMG....the average Joe is so damn stupid (esp in LA) it makes my head spin. As Will says on Newsweek, this country USED to be informed,when the facts were reported on every channel we were more informed. The emergence of Fox and all their reaching tentacles have done so much damage, their Frankenstein creation of the Teabaggers have come back to destroy them. Can't happen soon enough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sally in MI8:18 AM

      I don't know if we were ever really informed (I had no idea about debt ceilings until the last year, and I'm 60,) but we were not so MISinformed by supposed journalists and news stations. When all we got was 30 m inutes in the evening after dinner, we got the most important news of the day. There was no 24 hour spin cycle going on. We trusted Huntley, Brinkley, and the network guys. Now 2/3 of Fox in entertainment, and the rest basic lies. And when you can lie 20 hours a day, seven days a week, people get confused or just angry. I have two siblings affected by the new ACA law, and both are certain it's going to cost them double. I'm not so sure, but with one in NC (where Haley lets two insurance companies run things, and refused to expand Medicare) and one in CO, where rates should be coming down...I just don't know. We're covered through my husband's employer. Anyway, I hope the truth can prevail, and that these Koch heads will stop trying to ruin this country forever.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:35 AM

      Good points. Thanks.

      Note: Nimrata Randhawa Haley is the TGOP gov of SC, representing the Koch Brothers.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous7:51 AM

    "Stand your ground," Mr. President!
    Enough is enough.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The characters in that strip were so alive, I found myself wondering whatever happened to Roslyn.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous8:32 AM

    OT
    ROFLMAO! The Tundra Twatwaffle's Christmas book has already been discounted hugely from $22.9 to $13.79 and it isn't even off the press.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:49 AM

      The publish date has gone from October 29, 2013 to November 12.

      She must have been too busy on Facebook and Twitter to meet her deadlines.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous9:27 AM

      It's not her, it's the gaggle of clowns who run her life and fuck up all the time.

      Delete
    3. Anita Winecooler5:35 PM

      Dollar Stores across the country STILL have her first two books in stock, along with mini-me's bodice ripping confessions of her private life.
      At this rate, it should be titled "Remainders of the Day"

      Delete
  8. Anonymous9:41 AM

    Didn't Einstein say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? The Republicans in Congress tried to repeal Obamacare 41 times, and it didn't work. Now, they are trying that trick again. Nothing is going to change. The Senate won't pass their bill and the President won't sign it, but they keep on insisting on repealing and defunding. They could be suffering from a severe psychological condition. I hope that their Congressional Health Plan covers the treatment.

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  9. Anonymous11:31 AM

    Remember, Patty Murray (Senator from WA chairs Budget Committee) attempted 18 times to schedule meetings with the Rethugs over the past year and was turned down every time.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anita Winecooler5:47 PM

    Love Calvin and Hobbes!
    I just want President Obama to stick to his guns this time. He's already given them enough using their number, and not doing the single payer option.
    I see Hobbes as an analogy to Calvin's "Imaginary friend" and Obamacare as the GOP's "Imaginary enemy".

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous4:05 AM

    I wish to take issue with aspersions cast at non-calvin-hobbs readers..........that is all....

    ReplyDelete

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