There Is More Outrage About Gibbs' Comment Than Mitch McConnell Calling Children A Special Interest

[TomCADem]

This is what I find amazing. Gibbs said that he "hear these people saying he's like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested." Mitch McConnell called the bill designed to save 300,000 teacher jobs a "special interest" measure.

Yet, on this board, the outrage is regarding Gibbs' off the cuff comment, rather than McConnell's attack on a piece of legislation that affects you and me.

Now, there are some who will defend McConnell on the ground that he is a Republican, so it is okay for him to say that. But why? Why do Republicans get a free pass for being racist, stupid, bigots, adulterers or corporate whores?

It just appears to me that many people are very invested in bringing down Democrats, and although they say they are on the left, I am not so sure. Would the real left give Republicans a free pass again and again?

[Orrex]

1. Mitch McConnell wasn't saying anything that he hadn't said 1,000 times before

Gibbs actually put the word to a policy that many suspected but which he'd never actually confirmed.

Until now.

[babylonsister]

7. What policy? nt

[Orrex]

21. A "fuck the Left" policy

I'm not going to blame Obama for it until I hear it from his mouth, but Gibbs is the voice of The Whitehouse, a professional spokesperson, so when he says something like that, one can only conclude that it is deliberate and official.

The outrage stems in part from the fact, as has been noted, that Gibbs has harsher words for his base on the Left than for his TeaBagger enemies on the Right. What could possibly justify this "go fuck yourselves" attitude?


The policy, if such it may indeed be called, is to take for granted the Left wing of the party on the basis that they sure as hell won't vote Republican. Gibbs, in explicitly deriding and dismissing the Left, effectively confirms this.

[LooseWilly]

41. "The policy... to take for granted the Left wing of the party...

on the basis that they sure as hell won't vote Republican."

One possible answer:

[Orrex]

45. I had his campaign poster in my window back in 1992

And let me tell you, that was the last time I'll vote for a Great Old One.

[LooseWilly]

48. Cheers!! I voted for the Great Old One in '92 also!!

I'm thinking the time has come again... If I'm going to vote against my interests, I might as well do it right. Again.

[TomCADem]

15. Which Is Why We Give Him and Republicans A Constant Free Pass? Fox News?

This is what gets me. Glenn Beck can call for the re-imposition of slavery on National Cable TV, and DU will generally dismiss it as Glenn Beck being Glenn Beck. No one demands that anyone on Fox News, the Republican party, etc., resign. Why? Because they are Republicans.

[Orrex]

24. That post and your OP aren't consistent

In your OP you seem to be complaining that people are more outraged about Gibbs than McConnell. And they are.

Who here is giving Gibbs "A Constant Free Pass" in your view?

[socialist_n_TN]

69. This shouldn't even be a question..............

We KNOW they're RW loons. Why waste breath pointing out the obvious EVEN THOUGH WE DO POINT OUT THE OBVIOUS ALL THE TIME. Every day there's a post, usually a LOT of posts, talking about Republican idoicy.

It's worse when someone you figured would be an ally busts your chops.

[Nite Owl]

2. Why wasn't Gibbs lashing out

at him instead of the left?

What Gibbs did was personal and uncalled for, no reason for it.

[hfojvt]

10. maybe Gibbs has been readong DU too much

and is getting sick of the bashing?

[katandmoon]

17. If he is, maybe, just maybe, he should asked himself WHY Obama's getting bashed.

But that'll never happen. The Obama administration is no less insular and arrogant than the Bush Administration and if they don't like the comparison, then they better do something to change it. But their very smugness and arrogance prevents it.

[hfojvt]

35. seems like he already knows why

Obama is getting bashed for not getting single payer. True or false?
Obama is getting bashed for not attacking capitalism. True or false?
Obama is getting bashed for not immediately ending the wars. True or false?
Obama is getting bashed because everything he does, from his cabinet to his SCOTUS picks to the stimulus to the bailout to the health care bill is NOT GOOD ENOUGH for the left. True or false?

[katandmoon]

46. True or false true or false true or false true or false! It's got no beat and you can't dance to it!

Obama is getting bashed for not getting single payer. True or false?
-- Obama didn't even try to get single payer. He even lied that he ever even campaigned on it. I've bashed him may a time for that and I will bashed him many a time in the future as I see fit.

Obama is getting bashed for not attacking capitalism. True or false?
-- WTF is bashing Obama for "not attacking capitalism"?

Obama is getting bashed for not immediately ending the wars. True or false?
-- WTF is bashing Obama for "not immediately ending the wars"? He is getting criticized because the war in Afghanistan is a disaster with no chance of being "won" and Obama is either unable or unwilling to deal with the reality that it's a totally lost cause. For that he deserves bashing!

Obama is getting bashed because everything he does, from his cabinet to his SCOTUS picks to the stimulus to the bailout to the health care bill is NOT GOOD ENOUGH for the left. True or false?
-- Absofuckinglutely true from my POV. I don't think anything he's doing is good enough. If you want to know if it's GOOD ENOUGH for "the left," don't ask me because I only speak for myself.

[hfojvt]

49. Obama did not ever campaign on single payer

If he did, McCain would probably be President right now. And your last statement seems to put Gibbs right on point.

What is "not attacking capitalism". Ask Michael Moore that. You know, the bailout. Obama was supposed to nationalize the banks or break them up into tiny little banks. Instead of a stimulus, Obama was supposed to do a WPA and just hire all the unemployed.

and if you want the beat, all you gotta do is ask
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_1BGKNk85M&feature=av2e

[LooseWilly]

47. Seems like he isn't listening/reading any more than you are.

"Obama is getting bashed for not getting single payer. True or false?"—False: He is getting bashed for not bothering to put Single Payer on the table as a negotiating tactic in order to at the very least secure the public option that he campaigned for, rather than settling for mandates that everyone has to buy private insurance from companies that have been repeatedly proven to be abusive to their customers.

"Obama is getting bashed for not attacking capitalism. True or false?"—False: He is getting bashed for caving ignominiously and completely to banking interests in the process of bailing out the irresponsible players on Wall St. who very nearly tanked the entire global economy, rather than taking the time to consider other measures that might've saved the economy without letting the bankers (capitalists?) off essentially free and clear (tidbit about Warren {Elizabeth} commission discoveries about the bailout of AIG: http://www.alternet.org/economy/147788/elizabeth_warren_uncovered_what_the_govt._did_to_'rescue'_aig,_and_it_ain't_pretty/?page=entire)

"Obama is getting bashed for not immediately ending the wars. True or false?"—False, mostly: He is being bashed for escalating (though he did talk about further prosecuting it) the war in Afghanistan... but there is also growing unease over his expansion of the war into Pakistan (presumably since the war in Afghanistan is nearly impossible to justify when there are estimated to be less than 100 al-Qaeda operatives left in the entire country) —

http://warincontext.org/2010/05/12/is-obama-moving-to-escalate-the-war-in-pakistan/

The United States is at war in Pakistan. It will be up to historians to decide when this war began.

“Drone Strikes Pound West Pakistan” says the headline above a brief report in the New York Times. After the CIA fired 18 missiles resulting in at least 14 deaths on Tuesday, the operation was described merely as “a continuation of the air campaign to degrade the capabilities of Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and the Afghan Taliban fighters now working together in North Waziristan” (my emphasis).

“Continuation” is another name for escalation when developments that should prompt alarm have already been inoculated with the name “necessity.”

"Obama is getting bashed because everything he does, from his cabinet to his SCOTUS picks to the stimulus to the bailout to the health care bill is NOT GOOD ENOUGH for the left. True or false?"—True & False: You have here chosen inflammatory and connotatively dismissive terminology. The underlying meaning of your statement is True, the overlaying of connotation and spin is disingenuous. His cabinet picks have contributed to some of the criticisms listed above. His SCOTUS picks have been an un-ambiguous rightward-shift, politically, from the justices that they will replace. The stimulus bill was "watered down", in a conciliatory move that most of the Left would've understood had it not pre-saged such a relentless trend, with tax-cuts and reduced stimulus... it could undoubtedly have been better and more "stimulatory". The Health "care" bill was a fiasco of epic proportions... the final result was more amenable to conservatives than the plan put forth by Clinton during the primaries, and made a joke of candidate-Obama's positions. All of these critiques can be worded as "NOT GOOD ENOUGH", if one intends to use the connotations of the phrase to portray the Left as spoiled children who need to be pampered... or, the critiques can be worded as: these policies are judged weak, at best, and in several cases just plain awful.

Indeed, seems like he already knows why... and the last thing he wants is for the public to really think about it. Turning to ad hominem attacks rather than respond to the issues themselves is a very neato-keen distraction. One that you seem eager to become complicit in.

[hfojvt]

53. you are certainly wrong on the first point

some people here would be satisfied with nothing less than single payer. And I doubt if putting it on the table would be a good negotiating tactic.

and really, what happens if "the public really thinks about it"?

finally, ad hominem attacks? Did you, or did you not at the end accuse me of discussing in bad faith? Is that somehow not ad hominem?

[katandmoon]

13. Bingo

[phleshdef]

16. Why aren't you lashing out at them instead of the administration?

Face it, you don't give a shit about taking on Republicans. You want to fight the establishment.

[Name removed]

66. Deleted message

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[dflprincess]

3. It's quite clear that this administration doesn't consider children a "special interest" group

- or at least not poor kids.

If it did it wouldn't be paying for teachers with cuts in the kids' food stamps.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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[dflprincess]

18. That's okay

poor folks don't need to eat. And the bill passed so apparently the Democrats voted for it.

God forbid they take the money from Obama's war.

[babylonsister]

37. You didn't answer the question. What a surprise. nt

[dflprincess]

67. I thought I did

Though I'll admit I no longer recall just what it was you asked - wasn't it something to do with pretending the Democrats didn't know the food stamp clause was in there?

[KansasVoter]

4. I knew McConnell was an ass, did not know Gibbs thought I was one!!!

[Orrex]

5. :thumbsup:

Well played!

[ProSense]

9. Gibbs could make that argument too

Everyone expects the right to attack the President and Democrats, they don't expect the left to do that, comparing him to Bush.

[Radical Activist]

6. There are people who think being left means attacking the Democratic Party.

It doesn't really matter what their positions on issues are. They've accepted that Democrats are a barrier to better change and campaigning against them is the way to go.

I prefer tangible progress to ideological dogmatism.

You also have to consider pundits who backed other candidates and have a burning need to prove that they were right all along.

[grahamhgreen]

34. No, there are people who understand GITMO IS STILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

[Radical Activist]

39. And there are people who understand that Congress blocked any funding to close it.

Why is that so difficult to understand? It's like you're getting mad at the mailman because no one picked up the trash last week.

[TheKentuckian]

8. I've been living under that piece of garbage for longer than most known who

his ass is and can't be more disgusted. I've been outraged at him for decades but that is SOP for him and his posse. That is what they are and what they have been about.

I don't expect shit from him and for the lack of a better term consider us to be between feuding and at war.

[EFerrari]

11. No one gives McConnell a pass. It's just that we know he's a scumbag

and expect him to behave like a scumbag.

[TomCADem]

20. This Is My Point - WHO HOLDS REPUBLICANS, FOX NEWS, RIGHT WING ACCOUNTABLE?

Free Republic certainly is not holding them accountable. Even DUers attacked President Obama when he criticized Fox News. Yet, many people share your view that Republicans such as McConnell are simply saying what they said a thousand times before. My question is why does this mean that we should not be outraged?

Also, who will hold Republicans, and the right wing accountable? It seems that we are so intent on holding Obama accountable for not being liberal enough that we ignore the downright facist murmurings on the right. Glenn Beck could burn a cross on his show, and many DUers would greet such news with a yawn, because it is just Beck being Beck.

Yet, when Gibbs says something that many on DU have said, some folks on DU demand his resignation.

I am not going to demand Gibbs resignation until we start a freaking campaign that Fox News, David Vitter, John Ensign, etc. resign.

[EFerrari]

32. I wrote two articles in the last two weeks exposing rw media bullshit.

You don't have to be in a blinding rage to take effective action, do you? I don't see anyone ignoring anything around here.

On the other hand, Obama keeps "reaching out" to them and is giving all their war criminals a real pass. So to answer your question, no one will hold them accountable. They are not accountable to anyone. We just have to do our best from street level.

[TomCADem]

68. Were the posts largely ignored?

I have posted numerous times noting the racist, homophobic, or downright stupid things said by Republicans. Yet, unless one attacks a Democrat, such posts are generally ignored. Look at the board now. If you quote someone comparing Obama to Bush, you will get a lot of recent. But, DeMint could burn gays in effigy, yet no one would call on him to resign. Free pass.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Yeah, well...

When your supposed friends make insulting remarks, it tends to get more attention than someone who insults you 100% of the time.

[Hydra]

19. Republicans don't get a "free pass"

We happily revile them, but we don't bother with their weekly acts of BS and general showmanship, unless it's particularly ironic(Ie: Newt and his comments on marriage, being the exceptional philan...I mean, 'husband' that he is).

When the President's primary PR person comes out and tells us we were idiots to believe in what they campaigned on, and that we need to have our heads examined, we get a little bend out of shape.

Well, some of us do. I get my popcorn out, because the WH is getting increasingly more blatant about their disgust for any of us that support rule of law or anything else that's decent. It entertains me to have them say it so clearly for us. It makes the people who still support them in their mad quest to fill the pockets of the powers that be look ridiculous.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ibegurpard]

26. neither does the adminstration

who threatened to VETO legislation that would've taken money away from Arne's plan to replace public schools with charter schools.
So now they're taking money from food stamps.

[Individualist]

30. The poutrage meme again. How special!

[Chulanowa]

44. You fucking bet

As the OP points out... when people are more upset over having something nasty said about them than they are about having something nasty done to them, well, something is amiss.

[EFerrari]

33. 31 flavors of wrong. What a treat.

Some of us are teachers. Some of us have kids. But thanks for the anti-intellectualism. It's nice to know the right doesn't have a lock on that either.

[Chulanowa]

43. Anti-intellectualism?

Not sure where you got that from, Eferrari. it's simply my experience that the "progressives" in general don't really give a shit about teachers, or jobs, or anything else tangible and measurable, preferring instead to deal solely in ideas and rhetoric.

Well, a certain category of progressives; the ones who are progressive on paper (thus my term "paper progressive") who talk the talk to look cool or hip, but when it comes down to it, are always going to favor bitching about a slight rather than working to correct actual problems :shrug:

Personally, I do give a shit. I regard teachers and education as the #1 priority in our society. Well. There's food and medicine and shelter, but if those are taken as a given, then Teachers move to #1. Anti-intellectualism. Sheesh.

[EFerrari]

62. Your experience may be somewhat limited.

Some of the most active people on this board, across the issues, are teachers. :shrug:

[hfojvt]

23. puhlease, the job of the left is not to attack the right

it is to attack the center for not being left enough. In this way centrists will be defeated and the country will move to the left once the centrists are gone and replaced with, er, Republicans. Wait, let's try that again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-k5J4RxQd

Repub season, centrist season
Repub season, centrist season
Repub season, centrist season
centrist season, left season, fire!!!

[OHdem10]

25. ?This would have been a perfect talking point. GOP believes

children, Policeman Firefighters are special interests.

The Democrats should not let this stand. Democrats
sent another big pot of tax money to bail out Unions.
This is how it gets translated on the ground.

[Hello_Kitty]

27. Doesn't help that Gibbs used RW attacks on the bill to attack the LEFT.

Gibbs:

I watch too much cable. Day after day it gets frustrating. Yesterday I watched as someone called legislation to prevent teacher layoffs a bailout -- but I know that's not a view held by many, nor were the views I was frustrated about. So what I may have said inartfully, let me say this way -- since coming to office in January 2009, this White House and Congress have worked tirelessly to put our country back on the right path.... e should all, me included, stop fighting each other and arguing about our differences on certain policies, and instead work together to make sure everyone knows what is at stake because we've come too far to turn back now.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2010/08/gibbs_lashes_out_at_profession.html

It was a prepared statement, where he could have used any actual Professional Leftist^TM criticism, including those which appeared to be longing for a Canadian health care system or the demolishing of the Pentagon to explain his comments. But no, Gibbs chose to act as though statements from Boehner, McConnell, and Spence came from Obama's liberal critics.

[Jennicut]

28. Because that is nothing new or interesting or controversial to us.

But it matters more to me then some Press Secretary experiencing a meltdown. Between Bush and Clinton there were 9 Press Secretaries. And they all annoyed me before they left.

[depakid]

29. So why aren't Gibbs and Obama focusing ridicule on that idiot (who's an ugly man to boot)

Nope- instead of public derision, McConnell gets sit down meetings in the White House-

Please, please please Mr. McConnell, won't you go along with an ity bity part of our agenda?

Pretty please?

[Overseas]

31. I hated that too. Was glad our president called him out on it. //nt

[Political Tiger]

36. Because too many people think the world revolves around them

and have a vested interest in playing the victim.

[Hissyspit]

55. Are you talking about Robert Gibbs?

He was acting like a victim throughout the whole interview because Americans apparently would like to hold their leaders accountable (you know, like the Founding Fathers had in mind). Seriously, what was the point of ANY of what he said? I mean, it's actually in contradiction of what his boss has said to us.

As an American citizen with equal rights and equal (theoretically) voice with all other American citizens, including Presidents and pharmaceutical industry CEOs and press secretaries, yeah, in a sense, the world does revolve around me.

[mmonk]

38. Why did Gibbs decide to bash the left instead of McConnell?

[mmonk]

40. Why did Gibbs decide to bash the left instead of McConnell?

[Hekate]

42. Small children kick their parents' shins and yell "I hate you" because they don't believe...

... that their parents can be hurt. Not really truly hurt.

OTOH Sometimes they do this because they really DO want to hurt their parents and even kill them -- they fantasize about how good life would be without the evil ones-- but even they believe deep down that "Bang! you're dead!" means at the end of the day Mom will put dinner on the table and Dad will turn on the TV.

I remember talking with my brother about doing this when we were very young. The fact that the kids across the street got beaten with a leather belt and we didn't -- that was beside the point. We were mad at our own personal parents.

I need another glass of wine. I don't know what the hell this means.

Oh yeah, I do. DUers have fantasized for years that someone in the White House (or the Kerry campaign, or the Edwards campaign, or the Obama campaign) actually reads the ranting posted here. It has led to a rather inflated sense of self-importance.

Well, I get the feeling we have kicked the Obama Admin in the shins one too many times, from behind the safety of our keyboards.

Hekate

[TheKentuckian]

50. The administration isn't our parents and if they don't want to do their job someone else will

and I could give a fuck if employees want to get petulant.

They are suppose too work for us and if funneling money to their buddies doesn't make everyone want to eat the peanuts out of their shit hasn't garnered thunderous applause then maybe they should look at their "accomplishments" as more than checking off a list.

[old mark]

51. I thought Gibbs got over being such an asshole - McConnell never will...

I am just angry at the timing of this; what should have been a victory day for the Democrats over the states bill has turned into another fistfight that has pissed off the people who Obama will have to depend on to vote for him.

He should be fired soon.

mark

[proud2BlibKansan]

52. I expect McConnell to be an asshole

Gibbs not so much.

But I am equally outraged over both.

[autorank]

54. We expect it from McConnel, not from Gibbs

What a smartass this Gibbs is.

Here's reality.

Obama wins' Virginia in 2008 with 1.9 mil votes, a real ass kicking.
In 2009, the Democratic candidate for governor gets 0.8 million votes.

1.0 million people stayed home because the Democrat sucked. He was a closet Republican.

Ahmm....

Get ready for the revolution of non voters. There are a lot of people who, unlike many of us, will
simply stay home if they are let down or feel betrayed. So what in the world is this fool Gibbs
doing.

Ever hear a Republican press secretary put down any faction of that party?

[FrenchieCat]

56. Cause no one will give a fuck about the Republicans,

till they are fucking us again. To them, Obama = Bush, so there you go...
their real priority is to go after those who will do the most of 'em.....
it's called acting against your best self interest. Gibbs did that today,
and the Professional Left have been doing it since January 20th, 2009....at least.

[dkf]

57. Shouldn't kids be a special interest?

We've all turned that into a term of contempt but I think that is the wrong way to go.

On the other hand Obama does seem to favor public sector jobs over the private sector. That I do believe. Private schools and preschools are having real difficulty but we don't hear of any of those jobs being saved.

[lillypaddle]

58. Bingo

And Gibbs gave many here the perfect excuse to do what they do best - not that they needed one.

Gibbs is an asshole and I wish he'd go away; however, the reaction is overly dramatic and exagerated, imho.

[eridani]

59. Fine. Let Gibbs go after that asshole McConnell then.

He attacked the left instead of McConnell because why?

[JTFrog]

60. Excellent post. Spot on. n/t

[malaise]

61. K & R

Thoughtful post

[joeybee12]

63. Unrec a worthless post...n/t

[rainlillie]

64. ITA! Excellent post.

.

[backscatter712]

65. Correction: There's more disagreement.

We all know that Mitch McConnell is reptilian subhuman garbage that needs to die of cancer. Where's the contention at DU on that point?

OTOH, we all expect Gibbs to pay his base at least some lip service.