Joe Conason: The Tea Party Brigade: Obama Couldn't Ask for Better Enemies

[flpoljunkie]

The Tea Party Brigade: Obama Couldn't Ask for Better Enemies

By JOE CONASON

If conservative leaders no longer even try to offer serious solutions to national problems, nobody should underestimate their capacity or their will to mobilize angry Americans. Behind the April 15 "tea parties" rallying against President Barack Obama's economic program - promoted as a new phenomenon by Fox News Channel and right-wing bloggers - stands a phalanx of Republicans whose ideology is all too familiar.

At the apex of the tea-party movement, aside from such Fox revolutionaries as Rupert Murdoch, there is a well-funded organization known as FreedomWorks, headed by a former politician named Dick Armey. His past career should be instructive to any starry-eyed citizens who believe that they have at last found the true right-wing revolutionary path.

Back when the Republicans first gained control of Congress more than a decade ago, Mr. Armey, a former economics professor at a small Texas college, was hailed as the author of the Contract with America and led the Republicans as House Majority Leader until his retirement. Having risen to power on the strength of a "tax revolt" against President Bill Clinton's first budget, which raised rates on the wealthiest Americans to trim the enormous deficit he had inherited from the first Bush administration. That summer Mr. Armey warned of an economic apocalypse - and his party won the midterm election before his predictions could be proved utterly wrong.

As anyone with a functioning memory should know, the Republicans under the leadership of Mr. Armey and his cronies Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay proceeded to rack up excesses in spending and boodling that made the old Democratic Congressional leaders look quite stingy. When he was asked once why he and his G.O.P. comrades were chomping so much more federal pork than the Democrats ever did, he replied bluntly: "To the victors go the spoils."

Buzzing beneath the furious rants of the tea-party protests, it is not hard to hear the same old right-wing rhetoric about taxes and deficits and the same old schemes to cut the taxes for the wealthiest citizens, deregulate the economy and despoil the environment. The difference between the heyday of Mr. Armey and now is that we have suffered the results of those policies in practice and reject them. The appeal of the Republican Party and conservatism as a movement are lower than ever.

Months of furious propaganda on talk radio and Fox News has achieved nothing so far, according to nearly every survey. Barack Obama's approval ratings remain close to 66 percent, with most Americans trusting him and believing that the country is on the path to renewal. This president has long benefited from ineffectual and discredited adversaries - and Mr. Armey is no exception.

http://www.politickerny.com/3061/tea-party-brigade-obama-couldnt-ask-better-enemies

[Demeter]

1. It's Sarah Palin--the Sequel

[TexasObserver]

2. I agree with Joe Conason! Obama is blessed with idiotic opponents.

From Rush to the tea baggers, Obama has been blessed with a whole bunch of critics who make him look good. The comedians aren't making fun of Obama. They're making fun of his critics.

[Cha]

10. I'm having a hard time trying to

come up with any intelligent life in the republicon party?

[NJmaverick]

3. Tea bagging with Dick Armey

the headlines will just write themselves

[JayMusgrove]

4. Actually that kind of headline makes me think of

dirty pornographic stories some people read.

[certainot]

5. butt plugs for the bowels of progress

[Laelth]

6. "This president has long benefited from ineffectual and discredited adversaries."

True, but it doesn't hurt that he can speak in complete sentences, either.

:dem:

-Laelth

[LynneSin]

7. I wrote a letter to my local paper about the "Tea Bags"

and I asked this basic question: Where were these people for the last 8 years when the Bush administration took the Clinton Surplus and gave it away to the wealthiest 1% and an invasion against a nation not involved with 9/11 and has no exit strategy. Essentially these 'protesters' are out there protecting the rights of the wealthiest elite of this country even though Obama's stimulus packages favors benefits those who are protesting.

[flpoljunkie]

13. Yes, sadly these protestors are protesting the end of Rush Limbaugh's 'Bush tax cut.'

They obviously do not appreciate how they are being used by the top 1%.

[azmouse]

8. “It is a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”

MacBeth said it best.

[Cha]

9. I love Joe Conason..he's a

friend to reality and therefore he is my friend.

All those creeps behind teabagging need to have their rocks turned over so America can see what's crawling around.

[CTyankee]

11. I loved it when he was a Friday regular on Al Franken's radio show!

he has such a great voice and he was always so good. I remember when he and Katherine (last name???) did a Gentile rendition of "Oy OY OY" as "goy goy goy."

[jenmito]

12. The RW talking point is out in full force-"This is a real grass-roots effort!"

Even Hasselbeck said so on The View this morning. Every Repub. I've seen on tv has said the same exact thing.