How mighty post-partisan of Mr. Obama. It’s one thing to bend over backwards in a naive attempt at getting the Republicans to love you (hot tip: they won’t, even if you jump at their every request); it’s one thing to stick with lame ultra-conservative Democrats and pretend that they’re not just Democrats who are being hypocritial about their reactionary positions. It’s another thing entirely to go out of your way to flip the bird at the guy who represented renewal in the Democratic party when it was most needed; who was instrumental in changing the flawed approach from the Clinton era to one of aggressively pursuing D majorities in all 50 states.
The fact that Barack Obama feels a greater urge to make out with Mitch McConnell & the rest of the neo-cons who have spent the last eight years screwing up everything in sight and appear hell-bent on continuing to do so than he does about showing a minimum of courtesy and appreciation for Howard Dean who indirectly helped enabled Obama’s underdog victory really puts a damper on my enthusiasm. And after Rick Warren (“screw the gays, this preacher is too cool and could help me win over the evangelicals in 2012”), his neo-con approach to jump-starting the economy (“screw the middle class and their petty problems; tax cuts give Grover Norquist a hard-on, and he’s my kind of guy”), his silence on Gaza (“war crimes? human rights violations? Feh, watch my drive”), and the majority of his ho-hum cabinet appointments (“let’s see, if I just hire everybody who was anybody in the Clinton administration I bet people will forget that I ran on a promise of real change…”) there wasn’t that much enthusiasm left at all.
Chris Bowers over at OpenLeft sums it all up nicely:
…it is highly likely that while progressives are being snubbed, the business tax cuts were added to the stimulus in order to attract unnecessary, and entirely symbolic, support from a significant number Republicans. Symbolic bipartisanship for the sake of symbolic bipartisanship is valued more than even listening to progressives.
Bite me, Obama. Your Republican buddies should be paying the bill for the party they had at our expense for eight years, and people like Harkin et al who are voicing concerns about your tax cuts should at the very least be included in (or, even better, taking the lead in) your deliberations over which course to set for the future. But it sounds like anyone who was an asshole for the past eight years (say, your BFF Joe Lieberman) instead gets front row seats to — and a key role in — your policy of “change” while anybody (i.e. progressives like Dean) who was right about the war, the economy or — gasp! the nefarious ways of the Rethugs — is sidelined.
Good luck, Mr. President, you’ll need it. At this rate you’ll have alienated every progressive supporter you ever had by mid-summer (heck, screw that; when they’ve gotten their temporary high from watching the inauguration, I doubt most of them will be waving any flags in your honor when they realize how you’re preparing to run the show), while you’ll have failed to win over a single one of the Republicans with whom you so whole-heartedly want to get into bed. Just like you played us all like a pro and got yourself elected, the lying bastards will play you like a fiddle and laugh while they watch your pathetic attempts at bi-partisanship and finding common ground…
Too bad.