Brew City Brawler

The song I think of whenever I think of Brett Favre (not particularly often)

Is teabagging backfiring II or What is John Boehner afraid of?

Here's what House Minority Leader John Boehner had to say on July 31, clearly with no knowledge that teabaggers, incited by talk radio, would be descending upon town halls:

This is a time of anxiety and frustration for the American people, who've watched this year with mounting anger as Democratic-controlled Washington has chipped away at their freedom and squandered their hard-earned money on bigger government and special-interest payoffs.  Americans' anger will be on full display in the weeks ahead as Members of Congress leave Washington and travel the nation listening to the voices of their constituents.

Here's what House Minority Leader John Boehner had to say on August 3, as conservative activists first started disrupting town hall meetings:

Back home for the August recess, rank-and-file Democratic Members of the House are facing a backlash from their constituents, who are already fed up with Washington’s job-killing agenda and don’t support Democrats’ government takeover of health care. 

Here's what House Minority Leader John Boehner had to say on August 13:

No one condones the actions of those who disrupt public events. Every citizen should have the opportunity to express his or her views in an orderly and respectful way.

This language from Boehner to distance himself from the disruption of events -- which is exactly what the teabaggers were setting out to do --  is something new (as it was for Jeff Wagner the other day). Hailing "backlash" to talking about "orderly and respectful" expression is a walk back, my friends. And it likely has to do with a Gallup poll that showed the teabagger riots have had no impact on the view of a plurality of Americans (36%) and have made 21% more hostile toward the teabagger position. Moreover, 59% of Americans think it's an "abuse of democracy" when reform supporters are shouted down -- which again is the name of the game.

Now, the poll also found that there's no blowback, or heightened opposition, to teabagger views. But perhaps that's to be expected during these partisan times. The Brawler concurs with Nate Silver's initial suggestion that this won't radically change the health reform calculus (versus his subsequent worryism).

This was always going to be a fight.

That said, the Brawler suspects concerns over the teabag riots are overblown -- and Boehner's newfound opposition to disrupting events is, to the Brawler at least (and he may be wrong!) a tell that the riots are not having the desired effect. (The remarks could of course be an effort to distance the GOP from the worst offenses, but the Brawler suspects if that's the case the distancing would have occurred earlier).

And while some are deeply worried about the mob, the Brawler suspects PhRMA helping drop a $12 million ad campaign to support reform probably weighs more in the minds of many blue dogs (and more importantly conservative Dem senators) than a bunch of guys howling "No" who weren't going to vote for a Dem anyway.

A couple other points:

• Late in the last election season, the Republicans were hoping raw anger and resentment would put them over the top. Hence Sykes (the guy who covered his nuts while walking around the high school locker room) called Obama a snivelling snot nosed community organizer. That didn't work out so well. Why would it now?

• Hillarycare was defeated in part by the rational concerns (fine they were distortions but bear with me) of Harry & Louise, not a bunch of people shouting about death panels or worried about the rationing of toilet paper. There's a significant gap in the seriousness of the arguments and this stuff now (at a time when many Americans are checked out), in my humble opinion, lacks traction. It's the equivalent of relying on tire gauge jokes to win the election.

• We hear, on and on, about how people love their health care. But with rising job insecurity, people feeling poorer due to the bursting of the housing bubble, rising health care costs, high unemployement (and people losing jobs with good benefits they in many cases won't get in a new position), the Brawler suspects that people want greater health security. The Republicans aren't providing that.

• The Teabag riots are providing a trove of B-roll for Dem election ads in 2010.

• The longer the teabag riots go on the crazier they're going to seem.

• The Brawler doesn't think its self evident that the GOP can win seats in 2010 with a teabagger-independent coalition.

This guy (who, by the way, thinks the Packers should have kept Favre) thinks Obama's losing the health care debate. This idiot thinks the Republicans are winning August. They may be right. The Brawler, noting that Obama managed to reverse three decades of ideology by passing a large -- and thus far successful -- stimulus package, begs to differ.

 

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is an idiot

From Talking Points Memo:

Here's a thought: If you own a major supermarket chain that caters to a great deal of liberal-minded people with money, don't rail against the evils of health care reform in the Wall Street Journal.

Unfortunately, that advice comes a few hours too late for Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who did just that.

As a result of this misguided effort, it seems, his company's website has been fielding angry comments all afternoon, and has had to set up an online forum where customers can vent their frustrations, and, oh, call for a boycott!

I'm suspecting approximately 90 percent of the customers at the Whole Foods on North Avenue are Obama supporters. Whole Foods anti-union sentiment was not a secret, but wasn't over the top. This seems like a customer relations disaster.

From the boycott page:

We live in the north suburbs of Chicago.  We will begin immediately boycotting the two stores in Evanston (where we live), and the store in Deerfield (near where I work).   FYI, these stores are all located in heavily Democratic districts that went very heavily for Obama in 2008. 

Your comments in the Wall Street Journal reflect an utterly lack of compassion and sensitivity to the needs of ordinary human beings.  I was especially appalled at your statement that people have no intrinsic right to health care.  Do you mean, if a member of my family or a friend is diagnosed with MS, they have no intrinsic right to health care, even if they cannot afford the added expense on their own?

I suspect this will be good for Outpost.

Is teabagging backfiring?

A Gallup poll shows that more than a third of folks are sympathetic to teabagging demonstrations -- reflecting a hardening of anti-reform sentiment among Republicans and (likely) right-leaning "independents."

In other words, there's little sign that the teabag riots appeal beyond the core audience -- a problem.

Another problem:  people, regardless of party, recoil at the spectacle of citizens voices being drowned out by others. Given that's been the teabagger m.o. -- and that bad behavior seems to be accelerating (dude with a gun arrested at Obama town hall) and it likely will get worse as time goes on-- one would suspect prolonged exposure to teabagging displays is only going to make people less sympathetic to their "message" of no death panels and just no in general.

Teabagger sympathizer Marc Ambinder, who appears to have been talking to some conservative strategists, makes that point:

When smaller, conservative groups Astroturfed, they inevitably brought to the meetings the type of Republican activist who was itching for a fight and who would use the format to vent frustrations at President Obama himself. There were plenty of activists who really wanted to know about health care, and some who were probably misinformed -- scared out of their chairs -- to some degree, but the loudest voices tended to be the craziest, the most extreme, the least sensible, and the most easy to mock. 

The American people remain anxious and confused about health care reform. That is an underlying reality that Republican activists are so eager to exploit. But doing so required a certain restraint -- and a willingness to traffic in at least approximate truths -- and an ability to make distinctions within their own ranks about which tactics were valid and which tactics were venomous. It also required a sophistication about the media. The base condition here is an enthusiastic Republican base and a depressed Democratic base. A coherent, organized effort would have recognized that the moment the media began to take sides was the moment that the entire enterprise could be damaged. The media, being a collection of different megaphones, reported on the town hall meetings in one of two ways, both damaging to Republicans.  Either they credulously reported the louder, angrier voices (inherently damaging to Republicans in this case) or they reported on the political architecture of the town hall meetings, which plays down the substance of the protests.

Remember, the target audience for Republicans is Blue Dog Democrats in Congress. They won't panic unless they perceive organic anxiety.  The White House's goal was to prevent the Blue Dogs from panicking. The swing constituents in these congressional districts aren't angry Republicans, and the Blue Dogs know this.  They're political independents for whom the sanctity of the process is important. These are the type of voters who like President Obama because he appears willing to bring people together even though they don't agree with their policies.

 

The Brawler's first hint that concerns are rising about the effectiveness of teabagging: Jeff Wagner saying he didn't approve of people talking over others. Charlie Sykes made that point when news of the teabag riots first broke. But he didn't repeat it the next day and warned against moderate squishes who said teabagging would make Republicans look bad. Charlie's better instincts caving into the perceived tastes of his listeners, no doubt.

White guy trashes poster of Rosa Parks at town hall

Wow.

From hatingnotdebating.blogspot.com, about what went down at the Claire McCaskill town hall (in a predominantly white county). I'm suspecting the guy was not a reform supporter"

This is the only video of what actually happened at the event this afternoon. The news only showed the woman being escorted away by the police. What happened was the women walked in with signs, the crowd booed and yelled at the women. The women rolled up their posters and put them down. A photographer/reporter approached the woman on the end and wanted to see what the poster was. As the woman went to show the photographer/reporter what the poster was, a man from the bleachers stood up and snatched the poster from the woman and photographer/reporter. As the woman went to retrieve her poster the police stepped in and escorted the woman and the man from the building.

The poster was not of Obama, it was not pro health care, the poster that was taken from the woman and wrinkled up into a ball was of Rosa Parks.

National news coverage only showed the woman being escorted from the forum and left out the fact that it was the man who started the incident. Not to mention it was a poster of Rosa Parks.

Clearly, race is not a factor in this debate.

Good to see we're past this whole race thing or Who woulda thunk Mark Belling is a racist?

Now, the Brawler doesn't listen or really spend much time thinking or writing about Mark Belling. What's the point? He's clearly a brownshirt. Still, the Brawler must admit he was a bit flabbergasted by this Belling rant, as transcribed by Jim Rowen.

Rightie talker Mark Belling devoted the entire first hour of his show to a what was even for Belling a relentless attack on Congressman Gwen Moore for scheduling a health care forum scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at North Division High School - - which is a well-known public building landmark in her district, the 4th.

Belling said:

People would be "intimidated" at attending at a central city location.

People who attended at the site would fear "being shot in the head."

Suggested that if he sent his producer, Paul, to cover the event he'd be spotted as "the white guy" attending.

When a caller on the line offered a first-person account of the event, Belling said he was afraid of putting the caller on the air because if the caller were identified calling the Belling show "they might kill him."

When another called to say that the audience was mostly white - - blowing up Belling's rant - - he switched gears, suggested they were all probably east side lefties and teachers, and later mused that it would be funny if all the lefties who showed up were robbed.

Belling aimed a special string of insults at TMJ4 television reporter Shelley Walcott, whom he accused of being openly pro-Obama, like all the other reporters at TMJ4.

It wasn't clear if Walcott, who is an African-American woman, was to cover the Moore event, but Belling said twice that if Walcott were there she would be waving pom-poms.

The Brawler is always deeply amused by conservatives like Patrick McIlheran who are shocked -- shocked! -- by suggestions that racism had anything to do with white flight to the suburbs. As someone who saw it firsthand, let me assure you: it 100% did. Not in every instance, maybe not in most.  But in more than a few. How do I know? Because I listened to people explain why they were moving -- often in non-PC terms!  Belling is not an idiot and he knows his audience. This wasn't an off-the-cuff rant. He was just giving his people what they wanted.

Pundit Nation, meanwhile, is spot on (as Jimmy McNulty might say).

Front page travesty at the Journal Sentinel

Last night when the Brawler posted the picture above from the JSOnline, under the catchy headline "They're not going to kill your mother,"  he had no idea that it would wind up above the fold of the paper edition, occupying the bulk of the lefthand side.

Which is a shame, really. Because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And the words "Kill the Bill. Not my mother." are a big fat rightwing talking point (even though it is denounced by some Republicans). Instead we get a story about how an inhabitant of the fact-based community is trying to persuade the unnamed woman that there's no such thing as Death Panels:

The crowd at Rep. Gwen Moore’s health care forum Tuesday at North Division High School was partisan but mostly polite. A woman (left) who didn’t want to be named said reform would limit her mother’s care. Joan Christopherson-Schmidt (right) tried to convince her otherwise.

So, in other words, the Journal Sentinel, through photo selection, gives prime real estate to a rightwing talking point pushed by Sarah Palin. Bravo.

Graeme Zielinski (who I've heard is me) says in comments:

I worked at the (Journal) Sentinel and, when I covered the massive protests at the Republican National Convention in 2004, the right-wing toad editors there shunted the pictures to the back pages. The rationale I got from a sniveling under-editor was that they "Didn't want to exaggerate," the event even though they were the biggest protests at any major-party convention in history. Here, predictably, they made a choice to publish a poster containing an outright lie, abjuring any journalistic responsibility, probably on the theory it was provocative. If they showed any balance in this tyranny of equivalency, I'd believe them. It's sinister, this cat's paw.

I'm not going to claim there's a conspiracy or effort to shape public opinion here. Indeed, a provocative photo is a good photo. But I do know editors spend a lot of time hashing over how to lay out a front page, what to put on a front page, what the different components say, and how they're going to be perceived. The fact is they gave prime, uncontested real estate (with a she-said she-said cutline) to a rightwing talking point. If they realized that and let it go, it's a shame. If they didn't realize it, it's a miss. Either way, it's unfortunate.

Also unfortunate is Paddy Mac's column today. Picking a passage at random:

This doesn't mandate euthanasia, the House bill's backers hotly retort. True. Congress does, though, want to encourage bringing up the subject of whether you wish to be unplugged. Just, you know, in case.

Most rational people don't equate a DNR with euthanasia. But then again...

They're not going to kill your mother!

The crowd at Rep. Gwen Moore’s health care forum Tuesday at North Division High School was partisan but mostly polite. A woman (left) who didn’t want to be named said reform would limit her mother’s care. Joan Christopherson-Schmidt (right) tried to convince her otherwise.

I suppose I wouldn't want to be named either. But rightwing blogger who happens to be a MU law professor Rick Esenberg would say her paranoid fantasy is "not surprising." Fascinating.

Why does Rick Esenberg, the Shark and Shepherd, believe the stimulus has failed or What is Rick Esenberg talking about?

Rick "Shark and Shepherd" Esenberg has sniffed at bloggers whose meager ambition is to "offer entertainment to our side."

As opposed to his blog, which, lately at least, has been a source of entertainment for those with a taste for unintentional comedy on the other side.

Such as this latest masterpiece:

He (Obama) has exacerbated those perceptions with an incredibly expensive and failed stimulus plan that was a text book proof of what public choice theory tells us about the hijacking of government programs.

Ese says his purpose is to explore issues, but I see only fact free assertion with a highfalutin and unexplored reference to public choice theory thrown in. Eight months and $73 billion of payouts later and the stimulus plan is a failure already?

Paul Krugman, who is merely a Nobel Prize-winning economist, would beg to differ. As would Niall Ferguson, not the Brawler's idea of a liberal, in an otherwise unfortunate column.

Credit where it’s due: although the gold medal for staving off depression goes to Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, and the silver medal to China’s leaders for their even more impressive stimulus, the president deserves at least bronze. According to Moody’s, the ratings agency, the stimulus package has saved more than 500,000 jobs. Without the jump in government spending, GDP would still be in a nosedive.

It would be fascinating if Ese could explain why the stimulus has failed.

Just in! Alan S. Blinder: "Stimulus Is Putting Country on Road to Recovery."

Rove pimps debunked MU voter fraud story

Rove is not a genius, or even very clever: He's totally and completely immoral. It doesn't take genius to claim, as Rove ludicrously did last fall, that it was the Democrats in Congress and not George W. Bush who pushed the Iraq War resolution in 2002. It doesn't take brains to compare a triple-amputee war veteran to Osama bin Laden; you just have to be a mean, rotten cocksucker.

--Matt Taibbi, "The Return of Rove"

Indeed, Karl Rove is not a genius, as is borne out in his depositions. Milwaukee, and the allegations of voter fraud, fill up a considerable number of pages. One aspect that caught the Brawler's eye was Rove's concern about voter fraud at Marquette University in 2000 (p 256):

[Biskupic] was the one who in the aftermath of 2000 or 2004, you know, prodded -- prodded the State and local officials into doing something about the Marquette students who openly boasted of having voted multiple times ...

Thing is, those claims were pretty solidly debunked in 2000 and Rove is repeating them 9 years later:

A story appeared in the Marquette University student paper that 174 of 1,000 students surveyed said they voted more than once in the November 2000 presidential election. Another 170 claimed to have voted for write-in candidates, but the official canvass of the voting precincts surrounding the Marquette campus recorded only 12 write-in votes for president. One student told ABCNews, the and the Marquette student paper that he voted four times. He later recanted when a list of voters from his precinct did not include his name at all. The Milwaukee County District Attorney said he had no evidence of any student voting more than once. The student who told the media he voted four times was later charged with selling other students fake Ohio drivers licenses he printed using his dorm room computer.23

One marvels at the winger mindset that can claim, contrary to all evidence, that there is massive voter fraud (let alone massive coordinated voter fraud) taking place in Milwaukee. The Brawler recalls that when Biskupic resigned, Sykes conspicuously abstained from mentioning that Bisk failed to find any evidence of a voter fraud conspiracy. The rogue MPD report broke little ground (although it did reveal the extent to which the RPW's list of 5,619 shadow voters was bogus).  Reince Priebus griping he's tired of losing elections because of voter fraud. Patrick McIlheran decries vote fraud denialists as if there is evidence voter fraud is taking place -- and he still has a job while people with far more reporting skills are on the street. Do they know they're lying or are they just wrapped up in their paranoid fantasies?

Documents Point to Bush Aides' Involvement in Prosecutor Firings.