Cafe de Mello

House Minority Leader John Boehner (I don’t care what he says, his name should be pronounced “Boner” today accused President Obama of having a pre-911 mentality based on his administration’s handling of the Christmas “underwear” bombers arrest and detention. The trouble is the policies Attorney General Eric Holder and the rest of the administration followed were set in place after 911 by the Bush administration and have resulted in the conviction of about 300 terrorists.

Since Boehner/Boner has forgotten everything that has happened since 911, doesn’t that mean he, not the President has the pre-911 mentality?

This is another of the facts optional attacks that the Republicans have thrown at President Obama which show the Republicans to be more interested in scoring political points than what is true or what is good for the country. These folks are corrupt to their very souls.

[I started this post to respond to a wretched article in the Washington Post, but I got carried away. I will follow this with my response to that article.]

As though everyone has joined the tea-party and drank tea mixed with some very odd herbs, it has become popular to characterize Obama’s first year as a failure. As a die-hard liberal, I have three words for other liberals and progressives. “Cut it out!”

As I pointed out in yesterday’s post, President Obama won a four-year (not a one-year) term and has a solid record of accomplishments for which he is being given little credit.

Click to read more ...

As I write this, voters in a Massachusetts special election are deciding whether the state’s Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley, or Republican (You fill in your favorite adjective here.) state Senator Scott Brown. With true Democratic Party grace Coakley, had the election in the bag (a 30 point lead at the start), tripped on her over confidence and let the damned thing get away from her.  Now most polls give Brown the edge and even most favorable polls put the race at dead even. If Coakley wins it will only be because the Democratic Party in Massachusetts does a superior job in turning out the vote.

Despite Republican Party efforts to frame this as a referendum on the Obama administration, this remains a single state race in which the Democratic candidate’s campaign errors are more than sufficient to explain her loss. [Disappointment with Obama, however, may play a role in the outcome, see my next post “Magical Thinking About Barack the Magic _________________ (Fill in the blank as you see fit.)”]

For all of that, Coakley’s problems in this election should serve as a strong warning to all Democratic Politicians facing elections this year.

Click to read more ...

Today Senator John McCain joined the Republican chorus, led by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, decrying the Democratic Party’s double standard on “racially insensitive remarks,” which has led them to stand behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid instead of calling for his ouster as they did in 2002 when then Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott made remarks that the Republicans view as equivalent. While the Republican outrage is intended to show their racial sensitivity, their apparent inability to see the difference between the remarks reveals these Republican Senators to, at best, be cynical partisan opportunists attempting to exploit this country’s racial issues for partisan gain.

The nature and impact of the remarks made by Harry Reid and Trent Lott are as different as using the words niggard (essentially a synonym for miser with no etymological relation to the other word) and the racial slur that starts with “N.”

Click to read more ...

Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and other commentators on the left have had a screaming good time pointing to errors Republican politicians have made in criticizing President Obama’s response to the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on Northwest flight 253 into Detroit.

True, Senator Jim Demint falsely said Obama has downplayed terrorism and doesn’t use the word terrorism any more. Representative Peter Hoekstra, among other things, falsely said the Obama administration used the term “man made disasters” instead of “terrorism;” and Representative Peter King falsely claimed Obama had banned the use of the word “terrorism” and had even failed to mention terrorism during his address to West Point. All of these assertions can, and have been, easily rebutted with numerous video clips showing Obama and Secretary Clinton talking about the threat of terrorism (as an example, here’s his speech at West Point).

And while it is reassuring for Olbermann, Maddow and their ilk to show us the clips that rebut these Republicans buttholes (doe a butthole really need rebutted?), it has no effect on the right-leaning mass of American voters.

Click to read more ...