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 Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: John Vosilla who wrote (113061)5/3/2012 12:52:04 PM
From: tejekRespond to of 134384
 
IMO this country needs to tack left.

Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.

    By Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, Published: April 27

    The Washington Post

    Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on videoasserting that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it’s not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side of the aisle to say something outrageous. What made West’s comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack of condemnation from Republican congressional leaders or other major party figures, including the remaining presidential candidates.

    It’s not that the GOP leadership agrees with West; it is that such extreme remarks and views are now taken for granted.


    We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

    The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

    When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

    “Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.

    It is clear that the center of gravity in the Republican Party has shifted sharply to the right. Its once-legendary moderate and center-right legislators in the House and the Senate — think Bob Michel, Mickey Edwards, John Danforth, Chuck Hagel — are virtually extinct.

    The post-McGovern Democratic Party, by contrast, while losing the bulk of its conservative Dixiecrat contingent in the decades after the civil rights revolution, has retained a more diverse base. Since the Clinton presidency, it has hewed to the center-left on issues from welfare reform to fiscal policy. While the Democrats may have moved from their 40-yard line to their 25, the Republicans have gone from their 40 to somewhere behind their goal post.

    What happened? Of course, there were larger forces at work beyond the realignment of the South. They included the mobilization of social conservatives after the 1973Roe v. Wadedecision, the anti-tax movement launched in 1978 by California’s Proposition 13, the rise of conservative talk radio after a congressional pay raise in 1989, and the emergence of Fox News and right-wing blogs. But the real move to the bedrock right starts with two names: Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist.

    washingtonpost.com 



    To: John Vosilla who wrote (113061)5/3/2012 1:00:35 PM
    From: tejekRespond to of 134384
     
    Marco Rubio's Rivera problem

    By Steve Benen
    -
    Thu May 3, 2012 9:13 AM EDT

    Associated Press


    Marco Rubio with his friend David Rivera.

    Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) hasn't had it easy lately. The conservative freshman has been investigated by the FBI, IRS, Miami-Dade Police Department's public corruption unit, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement over allegations that he abused his former seat in Florida's state House of Representatives for personal financial gain and repeatedly lied on financial disclosure forms.

    Not surprisingly, this has left Rivera's future in politics in doubt. But perhaps the more interesting question is what the congressman's scandals will do to his close, personal friend, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whose career is on a very different trajectory.

    Chris Cillizza noted this week, "You can sum up Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's biggest impediment to being chosen vice president in two words: David Rivera."

    [Fox News' Bret Baier] pushed Rubio on Rivera, noting that not only is the Florida Senator hosting a D.C. fundraiser for his friend on May 16 but that the two men also co-owned a house together, a house that went into foreclosure.

    Rubio sought to cast the foreclosure issue as a simple misunderstanding; "There was a disagreement with the bank about how much the monthly payments were," he told Baier, adding: "And it all got confusing."


    Making the story a little more "confusing" is that Rivera has been accused of misusing campaign donations for personal use, and Rubio has largely admitted to having done the same thing.

    Indeed, the far-right senator was asked this week about using a Republican Party credit card to purchase personal items. Rubio conceded it "looks bad," and acknowledged, "I shouldn't have done it that way."

    It's worth noting that we're not talking about minor purchases -- Rubio billed the state GOP for more than $100,000 during his two-year tenure as Florida's House speaker, including repairs to his family minivan.

    What's more, National Journal added that the controversy hasn't been fully resolved, despite the senator's claims to the contrary, and Rubio has not yet released relevant materials documenting the extent of his role in the controversy.

    Among Florida politicos, these questions are widely known, and at least among Republicans, generally ignored. But it's worth keeping the stories in mind as scuttlebutt continues about Rubio's possible role on the 2012 ticket. In many circles, the senator's background is not well known, and his personal characteristics -- handsome young Latino from a key swing state -- may obscure issues that a professional vetting team will probably consider important.

    If Mitt Romney and his team are hoping for a controversy-free summer, Rubio's baggage may very well prove hard to overlook.


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