Dick Armey is a dick.

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This is your Republican party, between the events of this (above), the vote on the stimulus package, and the general mendacity of both the Republican House Caucus and the media, I have to wonder why even bother to let these people in to the negotiations. I mean as others around the blogosphere have stated, this main is not the fringe of the Republican party. He is the mainstream part of it. This is the sort of misogynistic crap that flows in those circles.

If you disagree with them your are by definition not reasonable or serious, you are part of the "redistributionist". He is one of the people who republican poo bahs go to for economic advice!
You can not have an argument with him because all he will do is sneer and grunt while providing no empirical evidence for his claims.

At this point the optics seem quite obvious. No matter what the Democrats do, the Republicans will attack them for it. Bipartisanship is a canard what the media and Republicans mean by it, is that democrats must move as closely to their position as possible or it is their (democrats) fault. And even if they do that, they will still be attacked.

Well as is the norm Glennzilla (read the post the Texas GOP platform is interesting to say the least, and the catalogue that Greenwald has compiled on the 'bipartisan' bills past is also a hoot) is on the case and does a better job then I expressing my palpable frustration with the process. This part in particular sums up my feelings on the situation:

Partisan disputes happen because people are very different and have very different views. Partisanship is about advocating for your own beliefs and discrediting the beliefs that you reject and believe are harmful. This doesn't mean that these disagreements must or should break down along Republican/Democratic lines. On so many critical, contentious issues, the leadership of the two parties are in perfect harmony. Many of the worst policies are embraced by the mainstream of both parties, and the real disagreements now break down on other lines, whether it be insider/outsider or diverging socioeconomic interests or rapidly-re-aligning ideological divisions. But politics is and should be about defeating ideas -- and people -- that are discredited and destructive.

To see why that's a good thing, not a bad thing, go watch the Dick Armey video or read the platform of the Texas GOP. Or re-review what has happened over the last eight years. The further away one is from that morass, the better; the closer one is to it, the worse off things will be.

When the other side has been repudiated by the country as a whole. When their doctrine has been demonstrably shown to be bankrupt and farcical. They should not be coddled. If they want to negotiate, fine. But it needs to be understood that their bargaining posture is highly dubious. The democrats should not be held to some "higher" standard ( a common trap with liberal thought, deference and civility are viewed as weaknesses by the opposition) in this. They did win a sweeping electoral victory, so as such, do get to craft the direction of the policy. And the simpering of media personalities like Mark Halperin makes it no more true.

HALPERIN: The other thing he could have done...you can go for centrist compromises and say to your own party, "Sorry, some of you liberals aren't going to like it, but I'm going to change this legislation radically to get a big centrist majority rather than an all-Democratic vote." He chose not to do that. That's the exact path that George Bush took for most of his presidency with disastrous consequences for bipartisanship and solving big problems.

Mr. Halperin shows exactly what I am talking about. Meeting with the opposition. Encouraging them to offer advice
and listening to their counsel, is exactly what we saw from the Bush administration? Where the hell were you during the last 8 years Mark? Maybe the ideas weren't embraced because they were bad ideas. Bipartisianship for the sake of bipartisianship is assinine. Sometimes ideas or policies are just bad. Like the current GOP tax-cut fetish. It is dumb. It doesn't work in this environment. And least we did forget, president Obama did cut some projects from the bill to gain their support and before they even met with him (GOP leadership), they said they would vote no. So yes. It is obviously President Obama's fault. In case the the sarcasm is not obvious I think Mark Halperin is an intellectually dishonest twat.

You do not have to be like Dick up above, to stand by principle or defend your stance . But the Democratic leadership (this includes President Obama as well) should be more forceful in defense of their policy stances.

Be forceful in the assertion of those ideas. We won. You lost. The country chose our ideas over yours. You can have say in things, and we are will to meet with you. But if you try to shovel the same tripe you have been dishing for the last eight years, prepare for a kick in the teeth.

On the upside though, at least the President did sign a good bill into law today.

-cheers