Posted on 12/24/2010 2:26:38 PM PST by neverdem
Obama's New Start
Republicans no longer have the wind at their backs.
Riding the lamest of ducks, President Obama just won the Triple Crown. He fulfilled (1) his most important economic priority, passage of Stimulus II, a.k.a. the tax-cut deal (the perfect pre-reelection fiscal sugar high — the piper gets paid in 2013 and beyond); (2) his most important social-policy objective, repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”; and (3) his most cherished (achievable) foreign-policy goal, ratification of the New START treaty with Russia.
Politically, these are all synergistic. The bipartisan nature of the tax deal instantly repositioned Obama back to the center. And just when conventional wisdom decided the deal had caused irreparable alienation from his liberal base, Obama almost immediately won it back — by delivering one of the gay-rights movement’s most elusive and coveted breakthroughs.
The symbolism of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal cannot be underestimated. It’s not just that for the civil-rights community, it represents a long-awaited extension of the historic arc — first blacks, then women, now gays. It was also Obama decisively transcending the triangulated trimming of Bill Clinton, who instituted “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the first place. Even more subtly and understatedly, the repeal represents the taming of the most conservative of the nation’s institutions, the military, by a movement historically among the most avant-garde. Whatever your views, that is a cultural landmark...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
H.R.2965 Latest Title: Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010
Question: On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2965)
Roll Call Vote to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
The RINOs were: Brown (R-MA), Burr (R-NC), Collins (R-ME), Ensign (R-NV), Kirk (R-IL), Murkowski (R-AK), Snowe (R-ME) and Voinovich (R-OH).
Profiles in courage: Not Voting - 4, Bunning (R-KY), Gregg (R-NH), Hatch (R-UT) and Manchin (D-WV). I think Bunning are Gregg retiring shortly, IIRC.
Didn't Maine just elect a GOP governor and legislature? The Dobbsy Twins in Maine need to be primaried if that's true, IMHO. Maine and West Virginia should be low hanging fruit for the Tea Party GOP. The defections of Burr and Ensign surprised me.
Roll Call Vote to ratify the New Start Treaty
We've got more RINOs than I realized:
Alexander (R-TN), Bennett (R-UT), Brown (R-MA), Cochran (R-MS), Collins (R-ME), Corker (R-TN), Gregg (R-NH), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Lugar (R-IN), Murkowski (R-AK), Snowe (R-ME) and Voinovich (R-OH). Good riddance to Bennett, Gregg and Voinovich.
Profiles in uselessness: Not Voting - 3, Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS) and Bunning (R-KY)
Now we have two pairs of Dobbsy twins in Maine and Tennessee.
I really have to disagree w/ Charles on this one. The repeal was merely repayment to a small constituency. The One's most important social-policy objective was the DREAM Act, which looks less likely than ever to become law.
| Senate Republican Voting Yea in Lame Duck Session | ||||
| Bill | S.510 FDA Food | DADT Repeal | START Treaty | HR3082 Budget |
| Alexander (R-TN) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
| Barrasso (R-WY) | Yea | |||
| Bennett (R-UT) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Brown (R-MA) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Bunning (R-KY) | Yea | |||
| Burr (R-NC) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Cochran (R-MS) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Collins (R-ME) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Corker (R-TN) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Ensign (R-NV) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Enzi (R-WY) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Grassley (R-IA) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Gregg (R-NH) | Yea | Yea | ||
| Hutchison (R-TX) | Yea | |||
| Isakson (R-GA) | Yea | |||
| Johanns (R-NE) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
| Kirk (R-IL) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
| Kyl (R-AZ) | Yea | |||
| LeMieux (R-FL) | Yea | |||
| Lugar (R-IN) | Yea | Yea | Yea | |
| McConnell (R-KY) | Yea | |||
| Murkowski (R-AK) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Roberts (R-KS) | Yea | |||
| Sessions (R-AL) | Yea | |||
| Shelby (R-AL) | Yea | |||
| Snowe (R-ME) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Thune (R-SD) | Yea | |||
| Vitter (R-LA) | Yea | |||
| Voinovich (R-OH) | Yea | Yea | Yea | Yea |
| Not Voting | ||||
| Bond (R-MO) | Not voting | Not voting | Not voting | |
| Brownback (R-KS) | Not voting | Not voting | Not voting | |
| Bunning (R-KY) | Not voting | Not voting | ||
| Gregg (R-NH) | Not voting | Not voting | ||
| Hatch (R-UT) | Not voting | |||
He fulfilled them, but at what cost? He has alienated most normal Americans.
Gee Charlies "people"(animals) sticking their wankers in unsanitary places as a protected class, the same as the black struggle. Charles, I hardly knew thee.
0 Failed on Amnesty act and the 1.1 Trillion megapork.
The Dem majorities looted on the rest of it. Its going to be payback when the new House shows up for work. Charles is having mental issues this week.
Sorry but people don’t like Obama. Gas is over 3 bucks a gallon,no jobs and unemployment is running out for a lot of people. People in the beltway just don’t get it.
Agreed, and it was done right after an election cycle with a lame-duck congress, so no lost skin from the departing libs and it's two years until the next election--plenty of time for the fickle public to forget all about it.
Apparently, Krauthammer is incapable of understanding that there are no tax cuts, only a continuation of tax rates that have been in place since the early 2000s. And there sure as heck is no stimulus involved with that, unless he thinks that avoiding the drag on the economy of raising tax rates can be twisted around and called a stimulus. Actually, that's just what he'd doing.
Obama's lame duck session was mostly a tie. He got a couple with DA/DT and START, and he lost a couple by continuing "tax cuts for the rich" and by losing on the Dream Act. And the failure to get his big omnibus spending bill was a big loss, no matter if Krauthammer chooses to call it a win.
Yes, Maine has a Tea Party gov and GOP senate and legislature. Unfortunately there's a lot of history between the gov-elect and the Snowe family. He's stated that he will support her. That's ticking off a lot of the Tea Partiers. Snowe will be primaried - we Mainiac conservatives hate her with a passion.
A true American with a spine is needed in Washington to represent us conservatives so we as a sovereign nation can survive under our Constitution as written by our forefathers.
Two party supported "living and breathing" dogma is killing us as a nation surely.
Don’t assume Obama will self destruct. I do think that unemployment will be lower in Nov. 2012 than it is now. Gas will probably be higher, though, and so will inflation.
And the Dems did us the favor of insisting that the Bush tax cuts be extended only for 2 years, so he’ll need to deal with that again. Good luck, given that he’s running a $1.5 trillion deficit.
He really doesn’t care what people think of him.
He may be good at analyzing a current event but his predictions skills aren't any better than mine. Or yours.
Krauthammer is not one of us. He is part of the Demopublican-Republicrat spectrum that seeks a limited range of the status quo. He is NOT a tea-partier - he is part of the cabal. He doesn’t want one side (our side) to win.
“He has alienated most normal Americans.”
It doesn’t matter. This was intended as a 1-term presidency from day 1.
They’ll probably fake his death/kill him outright in Summer 2012 anyway, to rip America apart & ensure emotion-based dem victory for 40 years.
What is this guy smoking lately?
It was bipartisan in nature because Republican fiscal policy has been proven right in the minds of the people who vote; Democrats, and Obama, recognized that they could have a chance at keeping their job if they voted for it.
Obama was dragged kicking and screaming to this point. He is no longer trusted by the people, so he can move left, right, center, it won't matter. For Charles, it's like the election didn't happen.
BO extended the tax cuts kicking and screaming. Has Charles forgotten that. BO vows to fight them in 2 years. He hated doing it and it showed loud and clear.
DADT is a game changer, we live in OFFICIALLY queer society now. This is UNBELIEVABLY HUGE. My son lives in a country where buggery has been elevated to CELEBRITY status. Trading these marginal rates for buggery? A fools play. They (R's) should have let everything slide until January. I WOULD HAVE GLADLY PAID MORE TAXES THAN TO SEE THE REPEAL OF DADT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
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