Republicans are beginning to act as though Barack Obama isn’t even the president

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/03/09/republicans-are-beginning-to-act-as-though-barack-obama-isnt-even-the-president/

Republicans are beginning to act as though Barack Obama isn’t even the president
By Paul Waldman March 9 at 12:16 PM


It’s safe to say that no president in modern times has had his legitimacy questioned by the opposition party as much as Barack Obama. But as his term in office enters its final phase, Republicans are embarking on an entirely new enterprise: They have decided that as long as he holds the office of the presidency, it’s no longer necessary to respect the office itself.

snip//

And it isn’t just in foreign affairs. In an op-ed last week in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Mitch McConnell urged states to refuse to comply with proposed rules on greenhouse gas emissions from the Environmental Protection Agency. Never mind that agency regulations like these have the force of law, and the Supreme Court has upheld the EPA’s responsibility under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon emissions — if you don’t like the law, just act as though it doesn’t apply to you. “I can’t recall a majority leader calling on states to disobey the law,” said Barbara Boxer, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, “and I’ve been here almost 24 years.”

The American political system runs according to a whole series of norms, many of which we don’t notice until they’re violated. For instance, the Speaker of the House can invite a foreign leader to address Congress for the sole purpose of criticizing the administration, and he can even do it without letting the White House know in advance. There’s no law against it. But doing so violates a norm not only of simple respect and courtesy, but one that says that the exercise of foreign policy belongs to the administration. Congress can advise, criticize, and legislate to shape it, but if they simply take it upon themselves to make their own foreign policy, they’ve gone too far.

But as has happened so many times before, Republicans seem to have concluded that there is one set of rules and norms that apply in ordinary times, and an entirely different set that applies when Barack Obama is the president. You no longer need to show the president even a modicum of respect. You can tell states to ignore the law. You can sabotage delicate negotiations with a hostile foreign power by communicating directly with that power.

I wonder what they’d say if you asked them whether it would be acceptable for Democrats to treat the next Republican president that way. My guess is that the question wouldn’t even make sense to them. After all, that person would be a Republican. So how could anyone even think of such a thing?


Paul Waldman is a contributor to The Plum Line blog, and a senior writer at The American Prospect.

[deminks]

1. Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?

Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Treason

from the OP:

(snip)

The only direct precedent I can think of for this occurred in 1968, when as a presidential candidate Richard Nixon secretly communicated with the government of South Vietnam in an attempt to scuttle peace negotiations the Johnson administration was engaged in. It worked: those negotiations failed, and the war dragged on for another seven years. Many people are convinced that what Nixon did was an act of treason; at the very least it was a clear violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits American citizens from communicating with foreign governments to conduct their own foreign policy.

(end snip)

None dare call it treason. And the MEdia knows who butters its bread.

[malaise]

2. Well the Feds will ahve to send in the Marshals

That simple

[randome]

3. It's the slow senescence of the Republican party. Not pleasant to watch.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[pampango]

4. "one set of rules and norms that apply in ordinary times, and an entirely different set that applies

when Barack Obama is the president."

That pretty much spells out the republican approach to 'governing' and the 'rule of law'.

[pinto]

5. Plus this - "Senator Who Organized Letter To Iran Has Said He Wants To Sabotage Negotiations"

GD post -

Senator Who Organized Letter To Iran Has Said He Wants To Sabotage Negotiations

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141034031

[randome]

6. If one President is good, imagine how much better it will be with 47 Presidents!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[HereSince1628]

7. Yes, well it takes some people longer to notice

than others.

[guillaumeb]

8. and to many in the GOP Obama can never be President

Given that many GOP operatives were plotting to obstruct Obama's Presidency on Inauguration Day, and

Given that the Senate obstructed the President with over 400 filibusters, and

Given the massive increase in racist rhetoric by so many prominent GOP members,

Is it any wonder that to the GOP, President Obama can never be accepted as the President?

[Skidmore]

9. And then we have our side which refuses to

get his back when it is needed.

[malaise]

10. or to lock up the criminal ReTHUGs

[NightWatcher]

11. "beginning"? His 2nd term is almost over and he hasn't been respected since Day 1

Hell, when he was taking the oath the first time, they were holding secret meetings where they stated their goal to usurp him.