If the Democratic party doesn't turn this Bunning douche bag into the poster boy for the repukes

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

this year they're beyond help.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljoh5oW1Yb8

[Captain Hilts]

1. Problem is, they've disowned him too. It might be tough to nail him to them. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. I think the Democrats have disavowed socialism and pretty much anything

to the left of the Clintons. But somehow repigs seem to be able to make us look like Karl Mao McStalin. You wanna keep bringing a water pistol to a gun fight. Hey good luck with that.

When the hell is this party gonna wake up and put these fuckers on the defensive for a change?

[Captain Hilts]

3. Yes. Good points. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

4. Thank you. I get a little upset at times as

you may have noticed. :)

[Captain Hilts]

11. These issues also mean a great deal to me and it is maddening

to be labeled a 'hater', etc.

But I follow policies, not personalities. The Obama kids and their dog - and especially that swingset! - are cute, but they don't help me get access to health insurance.

As someone who grew up under socialism - US military - and have lived in Canada - I know what I'm missing out on.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. If Dems don't pin this directly on the right (Bunning) they can kiss 2010 and beyond goodbye

This is a made-to-order picture of how the GOP craps on Americans.

No one person should EVER have the power to affect so many good Americans just by being stubborn.

Bunning should be menacled in stocks, and on display in a public square.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. This would only be better if the guy would have been taking a piss on a US flag with

a red pentagram on his chest as he spoke. Shit, I'll direct the commercials if they want me to.... for free.

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. A gift like this is a rarity.

I hope the Dems and the press seize the moment.

I'm not holding my breath, though.

[Bitwit1234]

8. Even tho the republicans don't like this guy

I have not heard one of them set him down for what he has done.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. That's right and it doesn't matter. The other side, the Frank "Sack Of Shit" Luntz's of

the world, do it to Democrats every election cycle. Which is why so many people think liberal is a bad quality.

[Imajika]

10. You realize that as much as half the country..

...may not even want to extend unemployment benefits right?

I mean, many people actually think the US is spending far too much on such "freebies" and are quite happy about this.

The reason the GOP isn't doing a thing to stop Bunning is that they are beginning to believe the "Have Nots" are no longer influential enough to matter. You can see this in the way they are attempting to defeat HCR.

It's basically like they are saying, "hey you 60% or so that still have things pretty good, the Democrats are trying to give your money and health care away to the poor and lazy of society".

Hate to say it, but when times are tough people often become more intolerant rather than more understanding.

The GOP knows this and is beginning to frame these issues as a matter of protecting the productive and reasonably successful from the Democrats who want to steal all their money and give it away to "welfare queens" and others too lazy to work hard.

Instead of an "all in this together" approach which the Republicans usually have to at least pretend to have, the GOP seems to increasingly think they can actually win by making the "Have's" believe that mean old community organizer (aka socialist in many rightwing circles) Obama is planning to steal all their money and give it to his buddies as almost some form of clever reparations program.

Don't think I am exaggerating either. You can already hear the right wing talk show hosts beginning to allude to this exact idea. I think I read that Rush actually makes these very claims.

Things are going to get pretty bad I am afraid.

[Jennicut]

12. CNN sure seems to think the public cares more about the deficit then unemployment.

Their "Broken Govt." series went on and on about it and kept saying it was the most important issue out there. Now, it may be one issue of importance and something we need to deal with down the line. But THE most important? Ridiculous.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

13. Half the country are going to act like assholes no matter what.

Right now unemployment is at an all time high. These people vote. Many of them are also convinced that the Democrats are siding with the bankers and the rich. That's enough people to swing an election. Not to mention that many employed people have unemployed relatives and thar also makes a difference. If we are going to base political attacks on what the Pukes might do. Then we might as well hand the whole thing over to them.

Not to mention that lots of people think nothing gets done in Washington. Well here's why. It doesn't hurt to wrap some crazy ass bitter old dickhead around their necks.

Things are definitely gonna get a lot worse. I say that Democrats have nothing to lose by going on the attack. Repukes do it every time somebody loselly associated with the Democratic party farts. Guess what. It works. There are more poor people than there are spoiled suburban assholes. Democrats need to tap those resources.

[Imajika]

15. I am not disagreeing with you...

...was just commenting on why I think the Republicans are not even bothering to try to restrain Bunning.

I think they are trying to paint a picture of an out of control government with Obama the "community organizer" at its helm, out to redistribute wealth and take from the successful and give hand outs to the lazy.

It is the broader picture the GOP is trying to paint to scare the middle, upper and business classes into supporting and voting Republican as a way of protecting what they view as their money and security (to the extent they have it).

Sometimes when things get really bad for a prolonged period of time, people have a tendency to want to place blame on other groups, the weak, the poor, etc. It is sad, but such is life. We are tolerant because we are fairly well off and spend our time worrying about where we are going on vacation, where to send the kids to school, what fancy restaurant to eat at this weekend, etc. If the majority feel insecure and scared, they tend to want to blame others - intolerance rises.

The Democrats are the "we are all in this thing together" party. The idea that the most affluent give the most back to society to help give a hand to those that need it. The middle class are fine with this until they think they are being counted as "affluent". In the health care debate, the argument is being made by the Republicans that those with health care being tagged as "affluent" in this debate and that they are being asked to give something up. There are an awful lot of middle class and older people that are pretty satisfied with their health care and they are fairly negative towards HCR if they are suspicious that they may need to pay more, give up some services, etc.

Not saying we shouldn't hang Bunning around the Republican's neck, just pointing out why the GOP feels they don't necessarily have to fear that so much right now.

Their strategy is extremely divisive, but it may work for them. Which is what leads me to say things are probably going to get really nasty and perhaps a lot worse.

[senseandsensibility]

14. They are beyond help

and they like it that way. They are not interested in our help.

[onenote]

16. in the end this is likely a three or four day story about a cranky, retiring senator

and since virtually every repub (including, possibly, Bunning himself) is going to end up voting for the extenders bill, I'm betting its not going to be the focus of the off year election.

[AlinPA]

17. The media will decide what to do with Bunning's actions. It does not matter what theDemocrats

say. It will not show up on TV, radio or print.

[ShadowLiberal]

18. The problem is the media's dysfunction

I'd hate to say it, but the problem here isn't so much us (though sure democrats could fix the situation some, but we'd still be losing the overall media narrative anyway), it's the media and all of it's problems.

The media decided their narrative is going to be saying bad stuff about democrats in congress and turning people against them in order to boost their own ratings, that's why at the very beginning of the congress they invited a ratio of 7 to 1 people bashing the stimulus onto their shows then those supporting it.

That's what's become so sickening in our country, the media will sell out anyone to create their own outrages and boost their own ratings, while ignoring real stories of outrage that only get attention in online blogs for the most part.

We benefited from this for a while in 2006, then they started to turn on us in 2008, but not enough to deal any real damage because they kept up negative focus on the GOP, though they started to pass up blunders McCain made that would have been considered absolutely devastating if Obama had done it instead.

Unfortunately I think the problem for us is that the media cracked under constant assault from republicans for years about being too liberal, etc, and turned themselves into something that now everyone thinks is crap. I mean look at some of the cable news shows, some of them could pass as propaganda footage, like Glenn Beck (who among the stuff he's done tried to blame the great depression on 'liberal' Hoover, as well as 'liberal' FDR's big government methods), heck, we might as well force Fox news to change it's name to Fox Propaganda.

I think whoever predicted it a while ago was like, it's because of crap like this that new media sources like blogs are destined to take over a lot of the news telling, because of the traditional news media is just losing all credibility with everyone, and their stories are such crap. I mean I don't even watch local news most of the time, because too often they make their entire day's worth of news be "look at all of our reporters talking about the snow while standing in it", or "look at our reporters and people in the streets cheering for our local football team as if they were at a pep rally", I mean seriously, that's not news, that's just trying to save money by not sending reporters out to report actual news.