Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Introducing Tea Party Downgrade to National Conversation

Sunday morning talk shows brought about the label "Tea Party downgrade" into the national conversation, courtesy of Democratic talking points. David Axelrod, straight out of Obama re-election headquarters in Chicago, started the ball rolling and was followed by Sen John Kerry using the exact same term on Meet the Press.

It was all so Obama-esque, wasn't it?

Team Obama sends out the willing minions to do the smearing of grassroots activists for political points and Barack Obama is safely tucked away at Camp David. Obama was mute all weekend on the credit rating downgrade though he was told of it Friday morning. The true insult to us all is that the President of the United States learned of our credit rating downgrade - for the first time in history, by the way - and he didn't bother to make a statement. He boarded Marine One and flew to Camp David for the weekend.

Unbelievable.

So, out popped the nasty ones.

Even Joe Scarborough, a moderate Republican, a former U.S. Representative from his home state of Florida who bends over backwards to not offend Democrats on his morning cable talk show, has had enough with the continual Tea Party bashing.

I am not blaming the President exclusively. We have blamed the Tea Partiers here for not moving. We have blamed Republicans. We have blamed Democrats as well. But please – I know it makes you feel better, but, you know, stop using the Tea Party as a piƱata. We’ve got systemic problems in this country. The President could have done something for two years when he had Democrats controlling the House of Representatives and controlling the United States Senate. He did nothing on entitlement reform.


Senator Kerry has received the most publicity for his use of the term, being an elected official and all. Yes, an elected official stating that a large group of grassroots activists are not worthy of being listened to. And he was not even questioned about his characterization of the Tea Party. It's easy to imagine that the show host agrees and didn't think anything about it. And then proceeded to go after Senator McCain as the GOP representative there.

On Sunday's Meet the Press on NBC, host David Gregory allowed Massachusetts Senator John Kerry to blame Standard and Poor's downgrade of U.S. debt on the Tea Party without challenge. However, minutes later, in an interview with Arizona Senator John McCain, Gregory was quick to accuse Republicans of "politicizing" the issue by criticizing Democrats.

After quoting a statement from House Speaker John Boehner on the downgrade – which cited the unwillingness of Democrats to curb massive government spending as a cause – Gregory fretted to McCain: "Do you not see this downgrade as something akin to war that should galvanize political leadership on both sides of the aisle, rather than politicizing it?"

And Obama faithful reporter, Norah O'Donnell, continued with the Tea Party downgrade by spotlighting it in her Monday reporting.

On Monday's Early Show, CBS's Norah O'Donnell promoted the left-of-center talking point that Standard & Poor's recent lowering of the U.S.'s credit rating is a "Tea Party downgrade." O'Donnell played three sound bites of notable liberals using this line of attack, versus only one opposing from a center-right politician. She also spun Treasury Geithner's decision to stay as "good news for the President."

Tuesday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the three Democrats who have been selected to sit on the committee charged with finding additional spending cuts in the debt ceiling deal. These Democrats named are Max Baucus, Patty Murray and John Kerry. That's right. Kerry has been rewarded for his vile behavior and will get a choice assignment.

It is thought that Baucus will be the deal maker. The other two Democrats - Murray and Kerry - are far left liberals. Baucus has a more moderate reputation. Murray will bring an additional layer of vitriol to the talks as she is the Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). Her job is to get Senate Democrats re-elected and field viable candidates for races against Republicans up for re-election. I won't link to it out of principle, but check out the website for the DSCC - you'll get an eyeful of hyper-partisan nastiness against the GOP.

The finger pointing used by the Democrats instead of using time to find solutions to our fiscal mess has produced some good, though. It has brought more tolerant Republicans, like Scarborough back into the fold. He even now points to the fact that it is weakness on the part of Barack Obama that allows this behavior, not strength.

"A president that cannot control 45 backbenchers in the opposing Party in the House of Representatives is too weak to be President of the United States. It is that simple"

Welcome back, Joe.

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