“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Eugene Robinson: Obama needs to stand up to ‘reverse racism’ ploy
After the Shirley Sherrod episode, there’s no longer any need to mince words: A cynical right-wing propaganda machine is peddling the poisonous fiction that when African Americans or other minorities reach positions of power, they seek some kind of revenge against whites.
A few of the purveyors of this bigoted nonsense might actually believe it. Most of them, however, are merely seeking political gain by inviting white voters to question the motives and good faith of the nation’s first African American president. This is really about tearing Barack Obama down.
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The Sherrod case has fully exposed the right-wing campaign to use racial fear to destroy Obama’s presidency, and I hope the effect is to finally stiffen some spines in the administration. The way to deal with bullies is to confront them, not run away. Yet Sherrod was fired before even being allowed to tell her side of the story. She said the official who carried out the execution explained that she had to resign immediately because the story was going to be on Glenn Beck’s show that evening. Ironically, Beck was the only Fox host who, upon hearing the rest of Sherrod’s speech, promptly called for her to be reinstated. On Wednesday, Vilsack offered to rehire her.
Shirley Sherrod stuck to her principles and stood her ground. I hope the White House learns a lesson.
Dana Milbamk: Putting the ‘tea’ in GOP?
Rep. Michele Bachmann is the leader of the Tea Party — literally.
Wednesday morning, with the blessing of House GOP leaders, the Minnesota Republican convened the inaugural meeting of her Tea Party Caucus, where two dozen GOP members of Congress sat down with a similar number of Tea Party activists behind closed doors in an Armed Services Committee room. Then it was Bachmann’s job to lead the group across the street to the Capitol for an appearance before TV cameras.
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Embracing the Tea Party brings some peril to the Republican Party, because it could create the perception that GOP leaders are endorsing the more extreme elements of the movement, such as the Nazi imagery and racist words. That may be why House Minority Leader John Boehner has kept his distance. Participants in Wednesday’s rally were sensitive to the problem; after Bachmann’s introduction, a black woman (with a baby), two Latinos and four more women spoke before the first white male was heard from.
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The race problem returned when Fox News’s Carl Cameron asked about the “dissent and criticism” within the Tea Party movement. Mark Meckler, a leader of the Tea Party Patriots, used that as an opening to denounce Mark Williams of the Tea Party Express for writing a “racist, offensive and vile” essay mocking the NAACP. Meckler attributed such “vile racism” to a “fringe” movement.
But where does that fringe end?
At the rally Wednesday, Republican lawmakers listened as Puig accused the Democrats of “21st-century Marxism” and said that “what I see going on is exactly what has taken place throughout Latin America under dictators such as . . . Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.” They listened as Tito Muñoz railed against the “socialist polices” of the Democrats. They listened as Keli Carender spoke of people “anonymously smearing” her and complained that “we’re not supposed to fly places, but the presidential dog gets his own jet to fly somewhere.”
They are the House Republicans, and they approved this message.
Cenk Uygur: Why Does Fox News Have More Power Than Any Progressive in the Country?
As we can all see now, when Fox says jump, the Obama administration asks how high? (Then jumps one inch less and considers it a progressive victory). Is there anyone Obama won’t fire or throw under the bus if Fox asks him to? What if they ask Obama to fire himself? Would he do it? Or would he just fire Biden and say he met them halfway?
If the firing of Shirley Sherrod was the first time they had done this, then all of the criticism they have received might be a bit much. But as we have learned from this incident (which the rest of us already knew, with the apparent exception of Fox News and Andrew Breitbart), context matters. We’ve seen the rest of the tape on the Obama administration and it isn’t pretty.
Van Jones, ACORN, Dawn Johnsen, Shirley Sherrod. First sign of trouble, throw someone overboard. When they fired Van Jones, I said they were only encouraging Fox. But that wasn’t some genius prediction; it was only the most obvious thing in the world. Do you think the bully won’t take your lunch money tomorrow if you give it to him today?
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I understand the Obama team is playing the old Washington games and think they’re very clever at it. But those games don’t work anymore. Bad news cycles are not created by genuine mistakes anymore, they’re artificially created by Fox News channel. You can’t make them go away by giving into them. You’re just feeding the beast. And more importantly, you’re starving your own side.
It isn’t about fighting Fox News to make yourself feel better. It’s about ignoring their silly attacks so you can actually bring us the progressive change you promised. Otherwise, we would be retarded to come and vote for you again.
John Del Cecato: Same as the old boss
In the fall of 1994, hundreds of Republicans stood on the Capitol steps to endorse the party’s Contract With America. The manifesto, chiefly crafted by House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), was devised to give voters a tiny peek at how a GOP Congress would change the status quo. The rhetoric that accompanied its unveiling was deliberately vague, but hinted at what was to come under a Speaker Gingrich.
Newt declared the GOP was on a political roll because “the people were tired of big government, wasteful spending, dumb bureaucracies.” But just how were Republicans going to reduce the size of government, cut spending and change the rules in Washington? Delivering the Contract’s balanced budget along with its huge tax cuts required radical choices. And five weeks before Election Day, Gingrich didn’t have much appetite for details.
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Fast-forward 16 years. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) has shaped the GOP’s midterm election message, focused again on what his party claims is the Democratic Party’s profligate ways. But like Gingrich then, Boehner’s battle cry is shamefully short on specifics.
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Having co-authored the original Contract, and having witnessed the following year’s fallout, John Boehner can feel the tightrope beneath his feet. That’s why he won’t fess up to what a GOP majority would once again do if given the chance.
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While Republicans have some political wind at their backs right now, the next 14 weeks will see a spirited debate about what GOP control of Congress would mean to priorities Americans rank just as high as their desire for less federal spending. And as both the political architect and legislative leader of the Republican Party, John Boehner is following the Gingrich playbook to a T.
Meet the new boss; same as the old boss. Here’s to hoping voters don’t get fooled again.
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