seems people are wising up.....

[ProblemAgain]

and realizing just what an astro-turf moment the tea party really was

Boehner to Tea Party: Shut Yourself Down

By Margaret Carlson Oct 15, 2013 8:26 AM CT

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“Thank you, Mr. President. Signed, John Boehner.”

Deep beneath the year-round tan, the Camel Ultra Lights and the merlot, there beats a grateful heart. Somebody had to take on the Tea Party that has turned Boehner’s tenure as House speaker into a living hell.

About Margaret Carlson»

Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist appearing on Wednesdays. A former White House correspondent for ... MORE

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Too bad for Republicans, that someone was a Democrat rather than one of their own, which would have signaled that the party is fit to govern. By calling the bluff of a tiny band of burn-the-place-down Tea Party activists leading their colleagues over domestic (the government shutdown) and global (the debt ceiling) cliffs, Barack Obama exposed the fact that they didn’t come to Washington to fix anything, only to tear everything but air-traffic control down.

The meltdown on Capitol Hill doesn’t mean the end of the Tea Party. In fact, most of those lawmakers accurately point out that they are doing what the constituents in their painfully drawn, one-sided, overwhelmingly white, aging, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, science-denying districts want. Still, there are emerging signs -- from declining poll numbers to the breach with the Republican Party’s traditional business allies -- that the act is getting old. Mess with Democratic totems such as Social Security and nutritional programs for pregnant mothers, send Sarah Palin to Washington periodically to pour salt on open wounds, but don’t mess with Treasury bills and the markets.

Brain Freeze

There was no convincing extremists ahead of time. Like excited children at the fair, the Tea Party had to eat too much ice cream and see the whole party get sick, and even then, they couldn’t stop themselves. But some of them had to be queasy when they saw an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll last week: Only 24 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest ever. By eight points, the public said it preferred a Congress controlled by the Democrats over one in Republican hands. Positive feelings toward the Tea Party fell to an all-time low.

That would turn the stomach of the heartiest anarchist. Rather than be an enduring movement of concerned grass-roots activists, the Tea Party has become a well-financed faction of the Republican Party bankrolled by business interests such as the Koch brothers to push a narrow agenda of regressive taxes, opposition to unions and the rollback of regulations.

They went too far. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter signed by about 250 business groups asking members of Congress to stop their shenanigans. Wall Street titans such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chairman Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, alarmed that a small band of extremists is blithely considering bringing down the global economy, are pleading with the Republican leadership to rein in the renegades.

Voters may do that for them. Evidence of a declining Tea Party is also apparent in a few of the movement’s strongholds. Take the prince of the Tea Party, Michigan Representative Justin Amash. He tried to depose Boehner as speaker and considered a measure to defund Planned Parenthood not draconian enough. Rather than having to face a challenge from the far right, here comes one from a mainline conservative and pro-business investment adviser, Brian Ellis, who says the way Amash governs is “disruptive and chaotic” -- two words businessmen dislike more than taxes or regulation.

And look what has happened to Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a Tea Party darling since his surprising defeat in 2010 of Robert Bennett, a beloved conservative senator. He’s become sidekick to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, chiming in during the recent filibuster about a childhood accident and his dream of being a pirate.

‘Wacko Birds’

Lee is one of the new lawmakers who have been dubbed “wacko birds” by Senator John McCain of Arizona. Karl Rove said Lee’s scorched-earth strategy was “the one tactic that might be able to guarantee that the Democrats pick up seats in the Congress in 2014.” Even Lee’s friend and Capitol Hill roommate, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, refused to back his plan to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Lee’s favorable rating has dropped 10 percentage points since a June Brigham Young University poll, which doesn’t skew liberal. More than half of Utah voters see him unfavorably; 57 percent said he should be more willing to compromise. In a separate survey, a majority of Utah voters now disapprove of the Tea Party’s influence.

Like Amash, Lee will be challenged from his left. Josh Romney and Dan Liljenquist are waiting in the wings. If Lee survives that primary contest, there’s an excellent chance that Democratic Representative Jim Matheson -- who’s been gerrymandered into unwinnable districts twice but still wins -- could win a statewide race in the reddest state in the country.

Utah Republicans have been heading toward buyer’s remorse for some time. At last year’s convention in Salt Lake City, a robust 125,000 Republicans turned out. This was a reaction to the 2010 convention, when 50,000 Tea Party activists took over and eliminated Bennett in favor of Lee. By 2012, the establishment was back in charge, and Bennett got a long and loud standing ovation. At that same convention, Senator Orrin Hatch easily won the nomination and re-election.

Here’s another suggestion for thank-you notes: “Dear Senator Bennett, thank you for taking one for the establishment. Signed, Senator Hatch.”

And Senator Lee, watch out. Jim Matheson may have a note for you in 2016.

(Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist.)

[ProblemAgain]

and you still avoided the funding....

[A4L]

I addressed that here:

"My honest opinion is that financing for democrats and republicans and each various faction come from many people and organizations, some with prurient interests and others because they are honest and sincere and want to do what they feel is best for their country."

I also mentioned that I don't have the time that I would like to always respond well. Now is another time. Got to go fix problems here where I am living.

You can ask my "Uncle Fred."  I usually like to write essays.

Anyway, I have not read everything that you have written, so I don't know if you got the gist of what I am hoping to do or not which is to promote sharing and understanding by working at bypassing some of the negatives if possible.

Any facts that you would like to share with the specific wrong doings of the groups mentioned seem relevant.


Just don't want tit for tat. People can easily say that the Prez associated with Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright, hosts of others that can also be "labeled."

But trying to get to the point of talking ideas and generally educating each other seems to me beneficial.

And I can not say how much I appreciate Loruch's comment that I read.

It was awesome.

Lends more to talking ideas.

Thanks for that!!!

[Ioruach]

OK! I will avoid name calling and say that Cruz is just plain wrong. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Put simply, his philosophy and beliefs are diametrically opposed to mine, probably no more or less than those of many others on the Far Right, but he happens to be one of the most vocal of that group.

Of course, his primary focus of late has been The Affordable Care Act--to defund ObamaCare. My question is why shouldn’t any decent president try to figure out a way to provide health insurance for all of the country’s citizens; what sort of country is it that wouldn’t want all of them to have access to health care? Health care is simply too damn important.  But the Far Right has been opposing these efforts all along.

So I will not call names, but Cruz is not a guy I would want to have a beer with.

[ProblemAgain]

an interesting little factoid about the aforementioned embarrassments to texas....for all the hoopla they espouse about 'the people taking the government back', those four are also about changing the constitutionally amended direct election of senators which we now practice back to having the legislatures appoint them. that is a TERRIBLE idea. the appointing of senators was changed because the practice was so rife with cronyism and under the control of the robber barons and large pockets of the time thus making the senate a rubber stamp for the deep pockets of the day. and just why would they want to go back to the cozy relationship with the big landowners and deep pockets....citizens united on steroids....

[ProblemAgain]

this sob does not WANT the government to function...

U.S. Senator Cruz blocks confirmation of new FCC chairman

By Alina Selyukh 2 hours ago

get-lbdata-from-dom

Reporters gather around U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who announces he will not filibuster, as he talks …

By Alina Selyukh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a conservative whose defiant stand against Obamacare helped prompt the U.S. government shutdown, has blocked the Senate from voting on the nomination of Tom Wheeler to be Federal Communications Commission chairman.

The Senate was scheduled to vote on Wheeler, a Democrat and telecom industry veteran, late on Wednesday. Cruz held up the vote over questions about the FCC's power to enforce disclosures of who sponsors political television advertising.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-senator-cruz-blocks-confirmation-fcc-chairm...

remember the texas ultraconservatives have been for the defunding and dissolving of OSHA, the EPA, the Dept of Education, the Dept of Energy and others. the radical conservatives were against FEMA and the aid to victims of Katrina, the victims of the hurricane that struck sandy hook and many others yet they are for aid to ranchers in the midwest who have lost livestock to the snowstorms. and remember our dear rick perry with threats to secede because 'we don't need the federal government and it's massive spending and waste' only to whine and wet himself several weeks later about why the federal government didn't base fire tanker planes in texas and why the federal government was slow to declare texas a disaster area from fires...sorry but you can't have it both ways...

this is interesting...

(Senator John) McCain also addressed the "polarization" and "lack of civility" on Capitol Hill on the heels of inflammatory comments made by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, on Friday, when he accused McCain of supporting al Qaeda in Syria.

"Sometimes those are comments like that are made out of malice, but if someone has no intelligence, I don't view it as being a malicious statement," McCain said. "You can't respond to that kind of thing."

i think you can spread that remark to cover many of the ultraconservatives. they have a very hard time dealing with such things as facts and details. you can't derive your entire political philosophy from bumper stickers and misspelled signs