DOWNLOADS: (135)

PLAYS: (985)

Embed

Heaven forbid CBS's Bob Schieffer might want any of their viewers to have to think too hard about who is actually mucking up the works when it comes to the gridlock and gamesmanship being played over the extension of this payroll tax holiday.

Here we go with the Villagers favorite game of "both sides" are equally at fault when it's the Republicans obstructing and making it impossible to govern -- Schieffer: "Dysfunctional" Congress does nothing -- again:

If you ever needed any proof that the congress is totally dysfunctional and unable to do anything - even something it wants - their failure to agree on a payroll tax cut extension is it.

Forget who is at fault. They all are for letting it go this far. Both sides are so determined to undermine the other that they can't even figure out how to do something they both want: Extend the payroll tax cut.

If this gridlock continues, it will be a fitting end to a year in which Congress accomplished absolutely nothing.

Nothing, unless you want to give them credit for not allowing the government to shut down. I give them no credit for that because I think that is the least we should expect of the people we send to Washington. Yet, that was what they spent most of their time arguing about.

What made this latest episode more odious than usual, is that by sending the legislation to a conference committee, House Republicans killed Senate legislation but did not have to go on record as saying they had voted to give people a tax increase. But make no mistake. That is exactly what they have done if this stands.

There is a reason that Congress has a 9-percent approval rating, and today's antics are like putting up a neon sign to remind people of it.

So he admits it's the Republicans who are playing games, but still wants to treat both parties as being equally unreasonable. Way to keep things "fair and balanced" there Bob.

I've got a chart for Bob to take a look at if he thinks all sides are equal with their responsibility for the gridlock in Washington from Kevin Drum at Mother Jones -- Chart of the Day: Republicans and the Filibuster.

Time for your weekly Professional Left Podcast with our own Driftglass and Bluegal, once again taking on our Villagers and their beltway conventional wisdom as only they can. Have a great weekend and enjoy the podcast everyone.

Featured in this episode -- Lemkin: Cokie's Law vs. Social Security..

You follow them on Facebook at The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal. And if anyone wants to wish them well, they're finally going to make it official and are tying the knot next week. Congratulations Fran and Driftie!

DOWNLOADS: (351)

PLAYS: (1043)

Embed

As Digby noted, apparently the hippie punching by Obama has the Villagers terribly excited... and losing 8% of liberals while gaining 5% of moderates adds up to a big "win" in the eyes of Chris Matthews and Chris Cillizza.

The New Compromise:

Whether or not it made Obama look "bigger" to the country is unknown. But hitting the left where it hurts certainly made him look like a big, big hero to the Villagers. And I feel quite confident that the White House knew that would happen. After all, it's not like it's an original tactic.

And as she also noted in that same post, the "gasbags" over at CNN were talking about Obama alienating his base as well and basically saying it didn't matter since they had no where else to go and I agree with her on this point.

I'd say he'd better worry just a teensy bit about liberals in the congress even if he agrees that liberals in the country can be taken for granted since "everyone" knows they have no choice but to vote for him anyway. Congresspeople have to be responsive to their constituents. And many of them represent that same liberal base. They might want very much to support the presidents long march to the right so that he can get all those moderates out there who allegedly want tax cuts for millionaires, but they may just start feeling the same kind of pressure from their liberal constituents that the conservatives face from the their Tea partiers (who for some reason, these gasbags never seem to think can be safely ignored.)

The Tea Party has shown that successful primaries against stalwart conservatives gives them power. Do the Villagers think the left didn't notice that? Do they think that the liberals in congress didn't notice it either?

She's right and even if the Obama administration thinks they can still win elections while ignoring their base, you can't say the same thing about the Congress. I hope to hell that no one who is as disgusted as I am about what's going on right now decides to sit it out during primary races. House races are the one place we have to push back that don't cost a fortune most of the time, although the Supreme Court just made that battle harder as well in some cases.

Any more gloating over the hippie punching from Matthews and his Broder wanna' be Cillizza and I'm about to break my television set. Everything is wonderful in their eyes as long as that imaginary "middle" is satisfied and the liberals are angry and marginalized. We'll see how long that "middle" stays happy if they start talking about cuts to Social Security.

Transcript via Nexis Lexis below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (82)

PLAYS: (225)

Embed

For some reason Chris Matthews doesn't want Lynn Sweet to throw Villager Queen Bee Sally Quinn under the bus for finally embarrassing herself badly enough to get the axe over as Amato put it—her idiotic column. I find it completely ironic that Ms. Quinn finally got her scalp in the form of Desiree Rogers at the same time she found herself in hot water.

The only reason this story interests me at all is because it just shows what kind of bubble anyone who is a member of the elite in D.C. live in whether they’re politicians who’ve been there too long, members of the media who’ve been there too long or part of the “social scene”there like Quinn. These people remind me of a god damned sorority or debutante ball where the rich kids decide who’s good enough to come out and be seen with the rest of them and if you’ve got powerful connections in Washington like Quinn the rest of them had better bend to your will or else.

Quinn was calling for Desiree Rogers’ head after the Salahis mess. Now that that head has come after Quinn made a fool of herself, Matthews doesn’t want to talk about it. I wonder if he’s worried about not being invited to that next cocktail party she’s planning and the kewl kids leaving him and his wife out of another Villager get together.

We’ll never know but if I was a betting person, I would not hesitate to put money on Matthews not wanting to alienate her due to D.C. Villager coziness. Matthews will gladly talk about Desiree Rogers leaving but won't dare to mention her main attacker's problems with making a fool of herself. That's just kind of pathetic IMO.

From The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur rips into Chris Matthews for his statement that the netroots are back seat bitchers and children who don't vote and aren't engaged in politics. If you think Markos was hard on him on Ed's show, you ain't seen nothing yet. Cenk lays into him and his Villager mentality of sucking up to power and good.

DOWNLOADS: (182)

PLAYS: (459)

Embed

Lawrence O'Donnell talks to Maureen Dowd about her column at the New York Times on Bill Clinton brokering the return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, titled "Let the Big Dog Run". Dowd turns the interview into another episode of beltway Villager Clenis obsession and says that her favorite part of all this was the New York Post headline "Bubba Gets the Chicks".