We’re there. And yet, it is the pragmatists who are now running for cover.
Shocking, I know. But Andrew McCarthy has a message for them, and it’s one with which I agree. As you all know by now. Still, let’s hear it again:
In the end, would there be deficit spending and a consequent need to raise the debt ceiling? Undoubtedly — but not right away, and not until it became obvious that we can easily do without much that government does. And here is the difference: This scenario drastically alters the underlying assumption of funding government; the baselines revert to zero. Funding has to be justified, item by item. We don’t just hope and pray that cuts will happen someday — they have to happen now, because there simply won’t be money for everything.
President Obama will be politically accountable. If he raids the defense budget to pay for “green energy” or the priorities of his union cronies, he will have to run on that record, just as Republicans will have to run on the merits or demerits of forcing him into this predicament. Meanwhile, the credit markets get to see that we are serious about putting our house in order, which is crucial, because, if our borrowing costs rise to more historically normal levels, our interest payments will more than double.
That is the only kind of plan that has a chance to work: a crisis that makes reduced spending unavoidable. The Framers did not rely on the good intentions of Washington politicians, however earnest. They divided authority and empowered accountable public officials to check each other’s recklessness. The duty of Republicans in Congress is not to set the table for the next election. It is to use their power to stop President Obama’s destruction of the economy. If we are ruined, what good will it do for Republicans to natter that it was all Obama’s fault?
Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief-of-staff, who got out while the getting was good, perspicaciously observed that a crisis should never be allowed to “go to waste.” “It’s an opportunity,” he explained, “to do things you could not do before.” The difference now is that the crisis is real and potentially fatal. It is time to do what could not be done before, not rationalize why not doing it is good politics.
[my emphasis]
In other words, adhering to conservative ideals and principles is the pragmatic move here, and it makes the most sense politically.
Which, if I recall correctly, somebody counseled a little while back. Before he was recast as a crazed destroyer of reputations and a violent maniac not fit for polite society:
But back to politics: if, as I’ve argued, political realism as a strategy is doomed — not because we can’t be more careful with our words, but rather because it is not always rhetorically effective to do so, nor does such care prevent us from being misrepresented, no matter how precise we try to be — what is the alternative? As many pundits will patiently explain to you, ideological purity and idealism doesn’t win elections, so if not pragmatism, what?
To which I reply, pragmatism is fine. But why not use our idealism pragmatically — which is to say, why not make it our strategy to use idealism as our cudgel against the media and the left in such a way that their tactic of misrepresentation and outrage no longer pays dividends? Why not make it our strategy to destroy their tactics — and in so doing, reaffirm the very principles at the heart of classical liberalism?
Sure, other sites won the traffic wars and have built themselves up now as the clearing houses for driving “conservative” narratives.
But I have the satisfaction of knowing I stuck to my principles. And I’m good with that.
(h/t JHo)
McCain is a cowardly whore who pimped his cum-stained uniform for political power what he used to assault America’s freedoms and dignity and prosperity harder than the mostest rabid viet congy cong ever dreamed of doing
Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State
http://www.amazon.com/Never-Enough-Americas-Limitless-Welfare/dp/1594033765/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310929906&sr=1-1
What else is said to be limitless today? Well, let’s see.
There’s Science.
And human mutability.
Aha, so that’s where that came from.
There should be a way to block that #1 comment, as it is steeped in both ignorance and hatred.
Whatever failings John McCain has now does not take a damned thing away from his service to this country.
Somebody’s going to be eating alone in the NRO breakroom.
John McCain was a fuck-up as a soldier and a goddamn disaster as a political leaders
and pimping military service for tawdry political gain is all kinds of perverted I don’t care if you’re john kerry or Meghan’s coward daddy or wesley clark or who the fuck cares – if you have to whore out the uniform to make a case for yourself you already have a hell of a lot less to offer than you think
Proof of concept: There’s nothing that was said about Obama’s rank socialism and (thus) his craven dishonesty around these parts before the election that is not in synch with what he is today. Further, no retractions have been made or need be made. Those charges were and are entirely consistent with the man. He is a tragedy for this country and always was so.
That’s what we call the record speaking for itself, and that’s what we call stating the obvious. Look it up.
I wish I could defend my own doubt about Palin by that same token. I spent about six months vaguely questioning her media shine as precursor to her relative electability before months of near-silence. I finally came around to realize that she is the opposite of the socialist in chief. And probably uniquely so or nearly that.
That’s not a small point. Feets, I dislike your point of view on the latter. I do, however, prefer when you talk straight and thereby take full responsibility for your remarks. McCain isn’t who you paint him as personally but nationally he is indeed one damned dangerous figure.
I take it you’ve worn the uniform, ‘feets? Because if you haven’t, you’ve no feet on which to stand. And this…
is completely worthy of Daily KOS, where you would be lauded and proclaimed a ‘diarist of note’, or whatever award they give their deepest-of-throats.
Speaking of running for the wrong goal line, DrewM at Ace’s again. If you’re going to make what you hope is a constitutional point, at least get your perspective aligned, man.
you can lurv lurv lurv Meghan’s coward daddy all you want me I think he’s worse than worthless as both a politician and as an American
So, Drew’s visited Mecca I take it?
Until there’s two-way traffic between Mecca and Murfreesboro, I’m with Cain on this one.
I don’t ‘lurv lurv lurv’ McCain at all, ‘feets. He is a confuzzled politician.
But I’ve enough respect for his service and of the uniform he wore (because of what it represents to others, not just to him) not to attack him using the cum-drizzled language you use.
I just took that post at Ace’s as another transparent attempt by DrewM to trash every potential GOP candidate that isn’t “his man”, whomever that might be. (Is he one of the Romney guys? Whatever.)
Last week it was Bachmann for that crap involving some group having the audacity to point out a True-if-Unfortunate Fact about what the D’s have done to the black family.
Now, this Cain nonsense. “Despicable”? Really?!?
ok and I respect your decision but me I think that McCain’s saucily aristocratic pursuit of unfreedom does little to burnish the uniform
Yeah, well it’s a good thing he’s not wearing the uniform, isn’t it.
Dude! I wore the vary same uniform you speak of being DNA ridden…And while no “mud-dauber”, was still a member of the tailhook fraternity.
I’d be much obliged if you stuck to ridiculing McMav based on his political stances, and not any impression you may have of his performance as an A-4 pilot.
About the only thing separating his experience with one I might have possibly suffered was approximately 25 years, about 9000 miles, and the fact that the Tomcat’s dash speed at sea level was high enough that the SA-6 mobile batteries couldn’t continually calculate and update the guidance solution for the missiles. ‘Cuz we got shot at more than once on “Peeping Tom” TARPS missions in the Balkans.
Believe me, if one isn’t there you can’t really know what happened, and should probably extend the benefit of the doubt.
Apparently DrewM seeks to restore the long-severed connection between libertarianism and political correctness at long last, John Bradley. Unrepresented in high office, he’ll be neck-deep in material for a long time.
yeah but you’re cool Mr. Bob – you have a for real ethos of service – like Alan West! McCain though like Kerry sought to rule those he had purported to serve.
Boy has entitlement issues. HUGE entitlement issues.
I’ll second that.
Haterfeet, you got issues.
I don’t have issues the vast majority of America looked at this turd and said no thank you we’d rather have a socialist cocksucker in charge than a cowardly dirty whore like yourself
There’s no point in re-fighting the McCain fight, ‘feets. He lost to BHO, as would probably any other Republican nominee in ’08 (save Thompson, but it wasn’t McCain who took out Thompson; credit the NYT for McCain’s win).
McCain did give us Sarah Palin. Who did reward him for his choice by supporting his re-election to the Arizona Senate. For that I have no issues with Sarah (she owed him as much, and she refused to stab him in the back). But you, you, you little ball of confuzzled twitchy hatreds, have held that repayment of debt against Sarah Palin. And you’ve suckled up enough to Nishi’s eugenics and teat-feed to catch her advanced case of anti-Palin rabies.
What you need is to be given proper penance, offered as a cure. So, go here and donate, to atone for your bitter vulgarisms against Sarah Palin.
Then, go forth and sin no more!
I appreciate the compliment happyfeet, but I’m not in Colonel West’s league, in my opinion; notwithstanding the idea that all men equal under the law. But I’m flattered that you would think so.
Colonel West is just a dude in the house of representatives he’s not in any rarefied league really he’s just trying to help mostly except for that weird affinity he has for spending money on WIC
crap I burned my chorizo
Mr. serr8d if Mr. McCain had let Mrs. Palin finish her term in peace she’d be in a much better position today I think with a more solid resume and more governing experience and a more solid record of accomplishment plus me and her would be all good like we used to be back when we used to fight socialisms together before she quit her job and went where I could not follow, not being much of a cable news aficionado and all
damn I wonder if that pan is ruined
I never suckled nishi neither I just like how she brings her own point of view and she’s such a rascal
if you have to whore out the uniform to make a case for yourself
goodbye ‘feets
goodbye Mr. motionview
good-bye to all of that
but I still think it’s people like Meghan’s coward daddy and John Kerry who so shamelessly whore out their military service what makes it utterly impossible anymore to take military service seriously as a credential for higher office
you just never know what you’re gonna get with those ones – you have to really listen to what they say and disregard their resume – I think having a small business background is a much better indicator of stalwart and true political leadership than military service
You can criticize McCain’s political record all you want, and it looks like most everyone here will agree with you.
Pissing on his military service is just uncalled for.
no more uncalled for than how the sleazy coward pimped his military service for so he could jam cap n trade up America’s ass and et cetera and et cetera
ok and I respect your decision
not hardly
grampa on fence building
“Then he added, unable to help himself, “By the way, I think the fence is least effective. But I’ll build the goddamned fence if they want it.”
link
I’m not asking for anyone’s defenses of McCain to be stricken from the internet Darleen I think it’s a defensible point of view I just don’t agree I think war hero McCain’s disgustingly poncey vanity campaign is one of the things what is directly responsible for bumblefuck’s four years long rape of America
You’re all just a cult and when Obama finally gets his “failure to communicate” under control he’s just a few lies and some bold actions away from taking charge and kicking ass again. Happy days are just around the bend, you betcha. Just climb on board the long black (high speed) train to nowhere.
I like it when the progressives start saying what they really think. It’s sure to be a big hit in flyover country.
this says so much, from jen the rube:
Interview: Margaret Hoover, the GOP’s and the millennials
I went a step further than Rush – I didn’t even have to hope his programs would fail. I knew they would. And I told anyone who would listen. It was a very sad time when normally intelligent people I knew would say things such as, “A black president will be good for America.” and “So what is so wrong with socialism? I’ve been to Europe, it doesn’t seem so bad.” And to be honest I think there are alot of people out there that still think that. White guilt is a weird thing to me because I don’t have any. My family tree is probably full of as many broken backs and dreams as any “african-americans” is. Not saying that the experiences are equal, but they are damn sure similar in the heartbreak. Hell, I bet a few of my ancestors wish they were slaves so they could be treated better. But NO ONE dares say that do they? Being white is ALWAYS easier.
I would make a reasonable statement if I was to say that IF Barack was white, his numbers would be at least 10 points lower right now.
Anyway, I sometimes wonder about McCain. I think the terror he experienced while prisoner shaped his mind and made him think that he was a person that could “reach out to the enemy and make them understand”. The problem with that is the more you do it the more you start to resemble your enemy. And there are far too many Republicans that don’t understand that. They want to “kill em with kindness” but seriously, when has that ever REALLY worked?
Me, I now make every effort in any argument I have politically to belittle and embarrass my opponent. I want THEM to feel guilty and stupid. And I hope that I do.
Link added by me. Parts of the video were shot on rails used by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum‘s steam train rides. My wife’s uncle in Chattanooga is a steam rail aficionado and had some connection to the museum (still may, though he’s not active now).
Ditto.
If only Obama’s efforts to get them enacted had also failed.
Hopelessfeet, I’m not aware of McCain ever saying a damn thing about his military service while he was pushing crap & trade.
I could be wrong, but the only times I remember Maverick playing the “I served” card was to back his opinion on “torture”, and then it was really more of a “I got tortured” card. He’s earned the right to express that if it strikes him to do so.
There’s a huge difference between McCain who actually was held as a POW and refused to be let out early, and Kerry who has lied repeatedly about his service, including his seared seared into memory Christmas-in-Cambodia whopper.
mr. heinz-kerry also has the hat
Pablo McCain whored his military service more shamelessly than a whimpering little pound puppy pick me pick me he said I’m a war hero!
Thanks McGeehee. Love that song and singer.
funny dat grampa and mr. heinz-kerry married rich dames and played the game.
Folks, hf’s stuck in his hatred, and no matter how many of us prior or current service folk try (or have tried) to talk him back to Earth – it ain’t going to happen. Just let him rock in the corner muttering about McCain, like it is still late 2008…
Jeff, you have the advantage of having stood on priciples – you are already in the right spot on this. The best we can hope for for some of the Establicrats (R) is to have them driven by events, into a similar stance. How you fix them in that position for more than a few days/weeks/months is going to be even harder than your initial stand. Good thing you’ve been working out… and some of us would like to back you up too.
“I’m not aware of McCain ever saying a damn thing about his military service while he was pushing crap & trade.”
i don’t think mr. heinz-kerry said anything about the hat when pushing the crap & trade
There’s a huge difference between McCain who actually was held as a POW and refused to be let out early, and Kerry who has lied repeatedly about his service
I think Kerry only has 8 houses
i don’t thinks the happyfoot is slamming the military per se. the foot what is happy is slamming sleazy politicians that use their military service to try end debate. eff ’em. because you can’t question jane fonda on qvc for the free speach don’t ya know.
“There’s a huge difference between McCain who actually was held as a POW and refused to be let out early, and Kerry who has lied repeatedly about his service”
so whoring your military service in order to silence the opposition is ok. you didn’t serve so you can’t question. yea right.
thank you Mr. newrouter sometimes I feel so misunderstood
I heart military service I think it’s very noble and incredibly brave and also sweet-hearted and adventuresome I just think it’s dishonest to posit a happy happy yay yay post hoc ergo propter relationship between military service and wise political leadership cause the empirical evidence of that is vanishingly small and largely anecdotal
and also I think for Mr. McCain to bleat on and on in 2008 about his military service while offering up the fact that “the economy is not my strong suit” was jaw-droppingly you-are-too-dumb-to-be-on-my-team clueless
here is more epic cluelessness from the mccainster
him sawed the climate changings wif his own eyes!
has anyone asked jane fonda whether grampa was lying about his torture?
maybe ask margaret hoover too?
margaret hoover looks like a delightful vivacious sharp fun lady
she’s darling!
You make a lovely couple.
choo choo
grampa did an honorable thing 40 years ago. it doesn’t give him a carte blanche now to cover his whoring. yes “build the gd fence” “limit free speech” eff’ him and magaret hoover.
she bleached for the cause
“You make a lovely couple.”
jane fonda called him a liar. what say meghan big butt?
So it’s a solicitor/client type affair, then.
are all flightless birds this cynical
probably
“So it’s a solicitor/client type affair, then.”
link
megan big butts call your bluff
“So it’s a solicitor/client type affair, then.”
nein we talk ak hoochie or gay oxymoron it goes diddle daddle quickly
WTF?
That looks, walks and quacks like a non sequitur, right there.
“That looks, walks and quacks like a non sequitur, right there.”
nein it is more like the grampa puts on a good show and you folks applaud him for his “service”. grampa is a progg tool and i really don’t give 2 shats about his torture until he denounces jane fonda for her slander and megan for her big butt. go figure showing up rethugclican progg losers in polite circles. oh noes he’s a good rethugclican.
omg becky look at her butt
Hey, did you know the Republicans took a hard right shift in the debt talks that put the deal at risk? That they actually turned right with a vengeance That’s solid news reporting right there.
At the same time, Pentagon appropriations are assumed to grow even as Supplemental Security Income payments for the elderly and the disabled would be exposed to future sequesters to enforce the caps.
I don’t know for reals that there’s any Tea Party-related reason that defense spending is untouchable in fact I would seriously doubt that a majority of teadoodles would agree to that proposition
No, he doesn’t. When did he put on a good show? It certainly wasn’t during the election, which, I should remind you, was three years ago. Might be time to move on.
Politico: “Reagan, he was just so Obama.”
@69
“But Republican congressional leaders still want a 10-year, $1.8 trillion cut from nondefense appropriations and have added a balanced-budget constitutional amendment that so restricts future tax legislation that even President Ronald Reagan might have opposed it in the 1980s.”
hahahahaha zombie reagan on the prowl!
“No, he doesn’t. When did he put on a good show?”
“build the god damned fence” eff mccain and the fat progg he produced.
and the mccain-feingold thing was fun too.
I thought it was time to move on too but noooooooo Sarah Palin had to up and endorse(!) the idea of him subjecting all of us to SIX MORES YEARS of his geriatric faux-earnest mavericky douchebag pontificationings
You bought that shit? Rube.
Romney is the answer.
From motionview’s linky…
Blisteringly true statement, and that bill is a good thing. Who, exactly, decided that Ronald Reagan’s deft knifework to the debt back in the ’80’s should be the limiting factor today? We’ve created much more debt, calling for drastically hurtful cuts in spending right now. Ronald Reagan’s cuts were good enough for his day; we’ve must put them to shame.
“Might be time to move on.”
Won’t Get Fooled Again
Romney is irrelevant he was already rejected once in favor of an ungodly douche ring ring goes the clue phone but Romney is busy trying to figure out if today is a with the tie day or without the tie day
“You bought that shit? Rube.”
grampa-feingold was the law of the land when progg gw bush signed it. it took a 5-4 scotus to repeal to the howls of proggs nation wide. dude these asshats in the rethugclican party suck some feces.
“said the bill “stands out as one of the most ideologically extreme pieces of major budget legislation to come before Congress in years, if not decades.”
oh noes baracky care doesn’t rate
I’m pretty sure Meghan’s coward daddy extorted Bush by saying he’d tank the Iraq war effort if Bush didn’t sign his fascist pew center/soros campaign finance bill
If their proposed budget is indeed extreme, it’s about effing time. I have the feeling it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
BTW, I have yet to read anything from Politico that didn’t have a progressive slant to it. There’s always some kind of snide aside about the rubes and nutballs, though they couch it in prettier language. I can see them sneering as they write.
Then again, I have an agenda as well, and it’s at cross-purposes to theirs.
“I’m pretty sure Meghan’s coward daddy extorted Bush by saying he’d tank the Iraq war effort if Bush didn’t sign his fascist pew center/soros campaign finance bill”
no ted kennedy and his “no corpseman left behind ” bill
happy, when you have put yourself in harms way, get back to how McCain was a coward during the war.
McCain’s policies? Fair game. Of course, McCain is not running for anything this year. And McCain is okay on fiscal issues.
Oh wait, I forgot happy. You really hate McCain over promoting Sarah Palin.
who said McCain was a coward during The War who in fact gives a shit what the douchebag was during The War he’s a coward now and his cowardice has had frightfully bale consequences for our rapidly failing little country
Haters gotta hate.
[…] common sense.And now, links!When it comes to the pragmatism vs. idealism argument on the right, I’ve long sided with Jeff Goldstein, and it’s put a few relationships on shaky ground. My argument, though, is simple: making a […]
OT, but William Yelverton was busily infesting One Cosmos, plagiarizing again; I helpfully linked JeffG’s ‘Trophy Room’ post. Hilarity ensues. But even before that, they were batting him about quite nicely.
I’m at the point of recommending to ‘feets pills of various colors for to relieve the obvious torment that’s affecting his fierce but tiny mind.
I’ll echo that to friend newrouter.
Like I said in the 2008 primary campaign, there are enough substantive reasons to attack McCain that slandering his Navy service is unnecessary and uncalled for.
Anyone who thinks this wingnut has ever been pro-McCain (except Stacy) is out of his cotton picking mind.
fuck his Navy service he can suck a dick
The colonel is correct. The principles are right and true, and worth fighting for. None of which guarantees victory, but the establishment is already alarmed, they have seen the first wave of change in the last elections and they (especially those who have read Codevilla’s book) know that more is coming. Obama is desperate for a solution to this issue that pushes it beyond the next election precisely because he knows what it would mean to have it front and center come next year.
The winners of the dextrosphere’s perpetual popularity contest come and go. We need to keep our eyes on the real prize.
Oh, and Haterfeet is clearly on a down cycle in whatever mental illnesses complicate his fragile eggshell mind.
Either that or he’s going for another Off Topic Griefer Banning to add to his collection.
balderdash!
I think #95 rather bolsters #97.
As we no longer have “Trollhammer”, I’ll just have to do the “scroll n’ ignore”.
I think #95 does less than nothing to bolster #97 cause of #97 is balderdash
Thanks for linking that, serr8d. I keep falling out of habit of reading One Cosmos, and I saw in the thread that Bob like some of my comments on that post here about our pal Willie. A warm fuzzy is a nice way to start the day.
No. feets you still have to admire his courage in Vietnam. You can’t take that away from him, but as a politician he’s pretty much a useless dickhead. He’d a been better if he just rested on his war rep and got a teaching job.
Is that the one with peach schnapps?
I used to admire his courage in Vietnam Mr. Mueller then I realized I was being dishonest with myself and others
I bet he would have made one hell of a gym teacher.
or a mailman
Wow, HappyFeet.
That’s just way out of line. The dude fought when a lot of others, a LOT of others ran, hid or gamed the system. I’m not defending Vietnam as a war but he suffered for who he was out of all proportion to what he had done. The Nazi’s, in other words, were thrice as humane as the VC.
The guy can’t raise his arms because of torture.
Look, there aren’t any McCain supporters here but man, what a reprehensible slur upon the fellow.
You need to learn how to express yourself better or when to back down.
if I expressed how I feel about McCain any more better I’d be in a whole heap o’ trouble Mr. macgruder
I have zero respect for him to where there is nothing in his past what will redeem him in my eyes cause of he is just that vile of a person I think.
Gack.
For Team R the nomination of this douche was like that week before a dirty filthy crack whore finally realizes they need help. Or at least I pray that that’s what it was like.
Getting back to the cited NRO article, I like it. That’s an an approach I could support. The House needs to pass a bill assigning payment in the order described – debt, then SS, then defense, etc. until the projected funds are gone. No default, no starving seniors. But how to pay for all that other stuff once the money is gone?
They can tell Obama he’s gonna need to come back and specify exactly how much he needs and who he needs it for before Congress will approve any increases in the Federal Debt. Forget about asking what he wants cut, make him explain everything he wants funded.
And if Obama wants to spend the already allocated funds in a manner not specified by Congress? Fine, let him be the one to take the heat for defaulting or making Granny eat kibble.
I think we’ve seen furlough work before.
Exactly.
Just like Governor Dayton found out – people don’t really miss a whole lot of the non-essentials once they find out just what they haven’t been missing. And they begin to realize how nice it is to not be paying for stuff they never really gave a rat’s ass about.