The Somerby Speaketh…

McCain Was Mean, La La La!

and let’s just say, he’s not too happy with the state of the Obamasphere.

If you’ve never read The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby’s blog, you are missing perhaps the sharpest and most thorough media critic in the blogosphere. He is a Democrat, and that perspective comes through quite clearly: but he is not afraid to critique so-called progressive bloggers when they play games with their readers. Case in point: The revisionism of the Obama Boyz regarding the debate between Obama and McCain last week.

On September 29th, Somerby wrote about Joe Klein, Josh Marshall and Duncan Black, aka Atrios, and how their opinions on the debate seemed to change as time went by. As these progressive luminaries watched (or listened to) the two combatants battle it out, not one of them mentioned the way McCain treated Obama – with condescension, rudeness and insults. That’s because this behavior Joe, Josh and Duncan are supposedly so upset about did not happen. If anything, Obama was rude to McCain, constantly interrupting him. But so what? Political opponents often behave badly towards each other. Certainly Obama has hardly been a model of courteousness towards any of his opponents. But hey, he’s “likeable enough.”

During the live-blogging of the debate, none of the three bloggers (hilariously dubbed the “Three Tenors” by Somerby) seemed to notice McCain’s horrible behavior. But by Saturday, they were all singing from the same hymnal. McCain was meeeeeeaaaaaan to Obama. He was condescending and small; glowering, even; certainly not presidential. Obama was, of course, saintly by comparison.

Wednesday: Bailout Bill in the Senate. Will the Democrats show up?

Ohhhh, that’s right, partisanship is so outre.  Someone in the media might think it’s offensive or embarrassing, like using the wrong fork or having spinach on your teeth.

Hillary will be back in town, now that Obama has let her stop campaigning for him for a day or two.  Of course, she’s been acting like a Democrat so it’s been necessary to keep her AWAY from any negotiation session on the bailout bill.  I guess that is why the Senate bill is laden with Republican pork, because what elese would the Democratic lead Senate do to pass legislation that is deeply unpopular with the American people?  I mean, we only *loathe* Republicans now and their seats are in danger due to their overbearing nastiness, aggression and greed.  They’ve never met a bill that they haven’t been able to rewrite to stick it to the American people.  And now they are managing to give away more tax cuts and increase the amount of money that the FDIC will cover.  What’s in it for Joe Bagodonuts?  Nada.  But that’s the beauty of bipartisanship.  The Republicans see it this way:  What’s theirs is theirs and what’s yours is, er, theirs.  See how that works?  Thank you for sharing!

Democrats, now is the time to start acting like Democrats.  Now is the time to do what the American public wants you to do.  And basically that is to put in a stop gap measure now and help the little guy get back on his feet.  We have had eight years, no, make that 28 years, of Republicans feeding at the public trough and we’re sick of it.  Come to think of it, I came of age during the Reagan years.  I missed out on cheap tuition, interest deductions and five year income averaging on my taxes.  I entered the housing market when the baby boomers were selling their starter homes at a profit.  I’ve lived my entire working life on measly 3% raises with an occasional promotion or 5% thrown in (Ooooo! *5%*!  Aren’t we lucky this year?)  I’ve seen my pension plan replaced with a cash balance plan.  I’ve been told I have to work longer for social security and that someone has a great idea to put all of my social security account in the hands of, wait for it, WALL STREET!  That way, I *too* can make obscene profits.

In short, movement conservatism has been not so good.  I shouldn’t be complaining.  I have the best job in the world.  I work for a fantastic company and I love my boss, who is an intelligent, hard working woman.  But for my kids, it is a different story.  One is struggling to make ends meet.  She just can’t make enough money in this economy to live on her own, even without the mounds of educational debt that her friends have.  The other is going to get saddled with that mound of educational debt.  She’s facing a public school system that could care less whether she’s bored out of her skull under NCLB.  The beatings will continue until morale improves. (BTW, morning detention today for being late, so I have to wrap this up)

Anyway, my point is, the American people have watched their wealth and their tax dollars get frittered away by Republicans.  Only Republicans and their friends seem to benefit from legislation in the past 28 years, with the exception of the Clinton years.  But despite the Clintons’ reputations for helping the little guy and Hillary’s embarrassing habit of actually acting like a Democrat, it is Obama, Pelosi and Reid who are in charge.  It should be clear from the past couple of days that the public does not want to fork over any more money without getting something in return.  And the only person who seems to be asking for anything in return is Hillary with her HOLC plan.

So, give it to her, guys.  Put aside the pride and the desire to squash her like a bug because we are out here watching.  If the Republicans walk away with the whole pie again, you congresscritters who let them do it deserve to lose.  And that goes doubly for Barack Obama.  And we will figure out a way of ridding ourselves of you when the bill for this mess falls heavily on us again.

Stand up and act like Democrats.  Stand up for US, for a change.  Give us fireworks on the Senate floor. Do something rude and offensive to the Republicans and the Villagers.

Cause a scene.