Punting the Pundits

“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.

Peter Daou: Who said this: “Barack The Terrible is a tyrant and a threat to the American people”

The story of Barack Obama’s presidency is the story of how the left turned on him. And it eats him up. You know it from Robert Gibbs, you know it from Rahm Emanuel and you know it from Obama himself:

Democrats, just congenitally, tend to get – to see the glass as half empty.  (Laughter.)  If we get an historic health care bill passed – oh, well, the public option wasn’t there.  If you get the financial reform bill passed – then, well, I don’t know about this particularly derivatives rule, I’m not sure that I’m satisfied with that.  And gosh, we haven’t yet brought about world peace and – (laughter.)  I thought that was going to happen quicker.  (Laughter.)  You know who you are.  (Laughter.)

The constant refrain that liberals don’t appreciate the administration’s accomplishments betrays deep frustration. It was a given the right would try to destroy Obama’s presidency. It was a given Republicans would be obstructionists. It was a given the media would run with sensationalist stories. It was a given there would be a natural dip from the euphoric highs of the inauguration. Obama’s team was prepared to ride out the trough(s). But they were not prepared for a determined segment of the left to ignore party and focus on principle, to ignore happy talk and demand accountability.

As president, Obama has done much good and has achieved a number of impressive legislative victories. He is a smart, thoughtful and disciplined man. He has a wonderful family. His staff (many of whom I’ve worked with in past campaigns) are good and decent people trying to improve their country and working tirelessly under extreme stress. But that doesn’t mean progressives should set aside the things they’ve fought for their entire adult life. It doesn’t mean they should stay silent if they think the White House is undermining the progressive cause.

Case in point: the extraordinarily disturbing case of Anwar al-Aulaqi:

The Obama administration urged a federal judge early Saturday to dismiss a lawsuit over its targeting of a U.S. citizen for killing overseas, saying that the case would reveal state secrets. The U.S.-born citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, is a cleric now believed to be in Yemen. Federal authorities allege that he is leading a branch of al-Qaeda there. Government lawyers called the state-secrets argument a last resort to toss out the case, and it seems likely to revive a debate over the reach of a president’s powers in the global war against al-Qaeda.

digby: On Hippie Punching

I haven’t weighed in on this because Susie pretty much said it all. But this post in the NY Times  persuaded me to say something. It details the exchange with Axelrod, where she asks him if he knows what “hippie punching” is. Tobin’s summary:

“He was apparently at a loss. So, I assume, were plenty of other people. “Madrak was referencing a phrase thrown around by bloggers who think the Obama administration has treated its liberal base with disdain,” reported CBS News’s Stephanie Condon, which seems fairly obvious in context, but isn’t much help in terms of derivation or meaning. As for being “thrown around,” I can only remember seeing the phrase once before, and not on a liberal blog.”

He then links to Ann Althouse to explain it. (I assume he did that since she’s a female and so is Madrak? There’s absolutely no other reason to consult a right wing crank like her on the matter.)

Joe Conason: Return of the ‘Contract With America’

The Republicans have announced the forthcoming release of the “Contract From America”-a set of legislative proposals presumably intended to replicate the “Contract With America” used by their leaders in the historic 1994 midterm when they won control of both houses of Congress.

The question immediately raised by this news is why John Boehner and his colleagues would remind voters of their political descent from the likes of Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, and the legacy of misconduct, fakery and error that they represent.

They may well believe that most Americans won’t remember what Republicans actually did when they regained control of Congress for the first time in decades. Certainly amnesia is a perennial pathology in American politics. But anyone who listens closely to what the Republicans are saying this year should be able to detect the clues suggesting that the more they claim to have changed, the more they remain the same.

Robert Kuttner: The Optimistic Scenario for Election Day

Tired of bleak political news? Here is an optimistic scenario of what just might happen on November second: some Republican gains, but both houses of Congress remain Democratic.

It may well be that the anticipated Republican takeover of Congress peaked a little too soon and that the Tea Parties were too successful for their own good. As Democrats get more strategic about smoking out the core differences between the two parties, disaffected voters will think twice about electing lunatic fringe candidates.

Karl Rove, nobody’s idea of a liberal, is in the doghouse with Sean Hannity and the Tea Party crowd because Rove has publicly said that some of the candidates who won Republican nominations are too far-right to get elected. If Karl Rove is worried about this risk to his grand designs, it may even be true.

The Democrats caught a few breaks, in the nomination of Tea Party nutcakes like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Joe Miller in Alaska. As the national media focuses on the campaign, the effects spread beyond increasing the likelihood of Democratic wins in these two states (which had previously been considered safe for Republicans.) The result will be to remind voters of the extremism of Republicans generally.

Democrats may also get lucky if the rumored John Boehner sleaze scandal turns out to be true, and Republicans dither while the media piles on and Boehner twists in the wind. On the other hand, if the story can’t be proven, it strengthens Boehner.

E.J. Dionne Jr.: The GOP’s Northeast Achilles’ heel

“Where are our plans for a New Deal or a Great Society?” asked Edward W. Brooke, the legendary Massachusetts Republican.

It’s not a question anyone in today’s Republican Party would dare get caught even considering, but Brooke had the temerity to raise it in “The Challenge of Change,” a book published in 1966, the year he became the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction.

The midterm election that year was very good for Republicans in general, including a Californian named Ronald Reagan. But it was an especially fine year for moderate and progressive Republicans of the Brooke stripe across the Northeast. Their prizes included governorships in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Pennsylvania.

In 2010, Republicans run away in horror at the prospect of being called moderate, let alone progressive, and that is an obstacle in the GOP’s path to a congressional majority. It will be very hard for Republicans to take the House if they don’t break the Democrats’ power in the Northeast — and they still have to prove they can do that.

Derrick Z. Jackson: Keep Frankenfish fiction

I’M NOT getting anywhere near Frankenfish. I mean, do I really want to eat an aquatic Roger Clemens?

The Food and Drug Administration is close to approving a farm-raised salmon jacked up with enough growth hormone to come to market in 18 months instead of three years. In a publicity photo, the genetically-modified salmon is a battleship to the dinghy of a normal one. I do not care that the FDA says it is safe. We seethe at athletes on steroids and growth hormones, yet we’re about to digest a food that is the equivalent of Shaquille O’Neal growing to seven feet by fourth grade? I don’t think so.

But there is a far more important reason to shun Frankenfish. We need to rethink farmed fish, period. Aquaculture messes with Mother Nature far too much for the convenience of having fish available 24/7.