On the night Barack Obama was being inaugurated 44th President of the United States a devious and cynical cabal of right-wing Republicans met in secret to formalize a strategy that sought to destroy the presidency of Barack Obama even before it began.
Robert Draper’s much-discussed and heavily-reported new book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives.“According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith. Notably absent were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R‑Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R‑Ohio) — who, Draper writes, had an acrimonious relationship with Luntz.For several hours in the Caucus Room (a high-end D.C. establishment), the book says they plotted out ways to not just win back political power, but to also put the brakes on Obama’s legislative platform.http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Now in the closing moments of the Presidential Elections Mitt Romney’s closing argument is that President Obama has not delivered on his promises.
Romney/Ryan:
So the plan was to gum up the works so badly that Obama would have zero legislative accomplishment, win the mid-term elections of 2010 , continue and win the White House in 2012. This plan has worked to a fault.
Republicans who worked in the Senate with Vice President Joe Biden for decades, told him “Sorry Joe we cannot help you because of this guy”, this guy being the black guy, the president of the United States.
Mitch McConnell/Newt Gingrich:
Mitch McConnell and Newt Gingrich we understand these two are direct relic of the old South, for them the Civil war is still raging, they believe the South will rise again. Can you imagine what it must feel like to be Newt Gingrich or Mitch McConnell? I sometimes feel ‚McConnell’s face will simply explode, just look at him, it has got to be horrible to have to bottle up all of that racial hatred. Can you imagine what it must feel like for these to relics to see a black family in the White House?
It’s instructive that they have executed this policy ‚then they go out and accuse the president of not being able to work with republicans.
Eric Cantor/John Boehner
Barack Obama could have rammed through the Affordable Care Act, he had the House and the Senate, he tried to get Republicans to work on the Health Care Bill,they pulled their hands away , they refused even to agree on procedural measures relating to the Bill as such he passed the Bill without them.
The same is true on Immigration, on issue after issue they have run away from positions they proposed or supported. The standard-bearer of their party is the architect of the Affordable Care Act, yet if you listen to him you would believe that the Affordable Care Act was incubated in the halls of the Kremlin or the Legislative Yuan, and not the ultra right-wing Heritage Foundation.
President Obama worked on a grand bargain with Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio, yet at the last-minute Boehner turned his back on what he had just agreed, after he learned that the Tea Party elements within his Caucus would not agree to any deal with the president.
That made it painfully obvious to everyone that it was not about policy it was about race. These ideological and racial zealots, would not agree to a 1 – 10 deal which would have seen one part revenue for the president and nine part cuts for the Republicans. That means the President was will to work with getting 10% of what he wanted and giving them 90% of what they wanted.
Like Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon they pulled the ball away at the last moment. Even if they had agreed to the grand bargain the president would have given in to a conservative agenda, a move which angered a lot within the president’s own base, it wasn’t enough for Republicans , they wanted no part of any deal with him.
Obama came to office promising to extend a hand to everyone, if they would un clinch their fist , he has done so. The President of the United States of America has done immense good under trying circumstances, in the face of absolute obstructionism from those who would have you believe they are patriots. What they have revealed themselves to be are tools of the very rich, all of them.
The tragedy for the rest of the country is the ability of Republicans to convince so many, to vote against their own self-interest.