After Dinner Coffee--Rt.66 Dark Roast

Well, it passed with 61 votes, including Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter. Now all the progressive blogs are gaming the Republican strategy. The young Cenk at www.theyoungturks.com has done at least two shows on this. Yes, the Republicans want the stimulus package to fail just as Rush Limbaugh said because if it succeeds the Democrats will be a majority for a generation. That's why we hear this endless dribble about FDR not really ending the Depression.

There, however, is a more ideological problem--The Republicans do not want to admit the age of Reagan is over and that new times call for new approaches--they have none. The Republicans have boxed themselves into sillyland by being Johnny One-Notes about taxes. They can not conceive of any worthwhile government spending, except for national defense. That's why you have such nonsense being said by Michael Steele that government jobs aren't real jobs; only the private sector can create real jobs--even if they don't last. The Republicans in town are absolutely delighted by their obstructionism and feel they have their mojo back.

And there are the Bush/Cheney Republicans who worry their ultimate plans for the United States will be rolled back. In the globalization they supported and profited from, the United States ultimately would become the Godfather of A Banana Republic, suffering the disparities of wealth exhibited in developing countries but retaining its clout by being the policeman of the world. Basically, if we follow this to conclusion, the United States will soon look like the former Soviet Union. It would be hyper-crony capitalism, rewarding the financial nomenklatura. Unfortunately, the herd mentality took over among the elites, which triggered the September financial collapse.

One note-- Politico, which is headed by the chairman of the Reagan Library, was quick to respond to Rep. Kanjorski's account of September 18, saying it didn't happen or (cough) not in the numbers he said. He clearly hit a nerve.

Less savvy Republicans still don't get it. Like John McCain, they really believe we are only suffering a recession and therefore the old tools like tax cuts and business incentives will get us back in the swing of things. In fact, the Bush Administration pulled its largest Katrina with the September collapse. Someone should title their memoirs of these years--The Time of Septembers.

Yes, it is also true that the Republicans salted the stimulus bill with their favorite projects, like Bob Bennett's $50 billion for nuclear energy. Part of this was a strategy so that their states will get goodies even if they voted against it.

Two great comments today: Mitch McConnell said that the bill represented 'the Europeanization of America". That needs a Talmudic scholar to interpret. And Mike Huckabee's "the stimulus package is anti-religion." The reason for this is that no construction funds can go to the rehabilitation or construction of those buildings which are or will be used exclusively for religious purposes. So we're going to become secular Europe--the new center of Godlessness. And --cue up McCain's "Lime Green Jello Speech"--"And that's not Change we can believe in."

As long as they have their echo machine--the talk radios and Fox News--providing surround sound to reinforce their positions, they won't change. In the congressional elections in 2010, they will lose more in the Senate but gain some in the House as some Democrats will get caught in affairs or some corruption. Their real gains will be in some state houses--possibly New York, New Jersey and Virginia but that will be a local phenomenon and will not have national meaning.

Barack Obama has many gifts but the one that is fatal to his enemies--is his transparent empathy. Some of us like that fact he speaks in full sentences and talks to the American people as if they could be adults. But it really is the sense he conveys of actually wanting to alleviate the suffering of the American people. This doesn't come off as Clinton's schmaltzy "I feel your pain" but something genuine. As evidenced by the events in Indiana and Florida, that buys alot of good will. And that will make him hard to oppose in the future.

The progressive blogs should avoid the conspiracy theories about Republican politics. They really are as inept as they seem. For the past ten years, they let ideology far outstrip competency and now they are Old Men Yelling At Clouds.