Obama's political hit squads

[calfoxwc]

The thing about fear is that you can see it. For an insight as to what the left today fears most, witness its attempted political assassination of Eric Cantor.

 

NBC Eric Cantor.

 

The 45-year-old Virginia congressman came to Washington in 2001, and by last year had been unanimously elected Republican Whip, under Minority Leader John Boehner. In recent months, Mr. Cantor has helped unify the GOP against much of President Barack Obama's agenda, in particular his blowout $787 billion stimulus, and yesterday, his blowout $3.6 trillion budget.

 

He's also one of the GOP's up-and-coming talents. Along with Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, or California's Kevin McCarthy, he represents a new guard, one that's sworn off earmarks and brought the conversation back to fiscal responsibility and economic opportunity. They've focused on party outreach, and are popular with younger voters and independents. They are big fund-raisers, part of a drive to recruit and elect more reformers. And they are on the rise.

 

All of which threatens the left. Democrats know their current dominance in Washington is in no small part due to public disillusionment with the GOP. They are also aware that their current tax-and-spend governance is creating plenty of opportunities for that opposition to remake itself. Thus the furious campaign -- waged by every blog, pundit, union, 527, and even the White House -- to kneecap Republicans who might help lead a makeover. Mr. Cantor is the top target.

 

This kicked off after the GOP's unanimous vote against the stimulus, which Democrats saw as an opening to brand Mr. Cantor as the public face of partisan opposition to the "bipartisan" president. The Virginian has in fact publicly reached out to the White House, and has been deeply involved in producing alternatives to administration policies. But never let the facts get in the way of a good smear.

 

Within days of the vote, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was up with radio ads targeting 28 Republicans who'd voted no. Mr. Cantor was the only member of the House GOP leadership to get hit. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the big union, and Americans United for Change, the pro-Obama group, launched their own ads against 18 members, again singling out Mr. Cantor. The groups also ran a national TV spot sporting a picture of the whip with text that read "just saying no" -- which earned Mr. Cantor a new liberal nickname: Dr. No.

 

Mr. Obama joined in at his Fiscal Responsibility Summit. As the TV cameras rolled, he deliberately turned to the whip to say: "I'm going to keep on talking to Eric Cantor. Some day, sooner or later, he's going to say 'Boy, Obama had a good idea.'"

 

The Rush Limbaugh flap inspired a new AFSCME and American United for Change ad, accompanied by a statement that when Rush says jump, "Eric Cantor and other Republicans say 'how high.'" At nearly the precise moment Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel made Sunday news by claiming Mr. Limbaugh was rooting for Obama "failure," George Stephanopoulos (who, take note, has daily calls with Mr. Emanuel) demanded on his own show that Mr. Cantor tell him if this was indeed the GOP strategy. David Plouffe, the president's campaign wizard, followed up with an anti-Limbaugh screed for the Washington Post, zeroing in on that "new Republican quarterback Eric Cantor, who says "the GOP's strategy will be to 'Just Say No.'"

 

And then there's the echo chamber. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is so obsessed with Mr. Cantor, he can barely find time to be indignant about anything else. Talking Points Memo, Huffington Post, Think Progress and other leading liberal blogs are today all-anti-Cantor-all-the-time.

 

But the real ugly was unleashed a few weeks ago, when the goon squad set on Mr. Cantor's wife. An outfit called Working Families Win began running robocalls in five districts noting that Diana Cantor was a "top executive" at a bank that had received bailout funds -- the clear implication being that Mr. Cantor's vote for said bailout hinged on this fact. "In the middle of the AIG scandal, our congressman [fill in the blank] voted to make Virginia Republican, Eric Cantor, the conservative leader in Congress," it droned (incoherently and incorrectly), before demanding voters oppose the "Cantor Family Bank bailout."

 

At least when Chuck Schumer ran ads targeting Republicans for voting for a "bailout" that his own party brought to the floor -- and passed -- he kept his attacks on the members. And the last anyone looked, the AIG intervention was being overseen by the Obama administration, not the House minority whip. This may set a new political low, not the least because Mrs. Cantor in fact works at a subsidiary of the bank in question. Not to mention that Mr. Cantor led the initial GOP revolt against the "bailout."

 

The Virginian has a new, high-profile job, and that means taking some knocks. Mr. Cantor is also where he is for a reason, and has so far weathered the onslaught. But the coordinated takedown attempt is yet more proof that the Obama-led Democrats aren't nearly as interested in changing the "tone" as they are in holding on to power.

 

 

[Mr. T]

have you ever ben inside a store when a mom and dad were shopping with the kids running up and down the toy aisle grabbing toy after toy and begging for their parents to buy it?

 

What happens when they say NO?

 

You got it, here comes the smart ass who needs his behind spanked and the spoiled little children start throwing temper tantrums! Thats how I see many Left wing Liberals. They feel that they are more deserving, and dont want to listen to logic or reason and especially they dont want to be told NO!

 

If you go out and spend all of your money and run up all of charge cards, You dont get another charge card when you cant even pay the bills you have. So dont ask. But Liberal Democrats own the Banks and own the votes and dont give a damn about being responsible.

 

FUBAR!

[choco]

sorry....but the premise that this is the first time fear was used to shape policy is laughable.

 

patriot act?

 

 

maybe try another angle.

[Guest mz.]

sorry....but the premise that this is the first time fear was used to shape policy is laughable.

 

patriot act?

 

 

maybe try another angle.

 

 

There is no other angle here besides pure disdain and intolerance of anything not White, straight, uneducated and Evangelical, so don't ask if there's another angle because there's barely one legit "angle" to begin with.

 

It's one thing to debate with someone who disagrees fundamentally with everything you believe in . It's quite another when that person merely throws togther strings of nonsense and is well, sorry XXX, just a flat out raving lunatic. Where's the intellectualy curiosity there?

[choco]

There is no other angle here besides pure disdain and intolerance of anything not White, straight, uneducated and Evangelical, so don't ask if there's another angle because there's barely one legit "angle" to begin with.

and constantly crying racism everytime someone disagrees with you is the equivalent of crying wolf. we get it....youre being repressed....which may be the result of living in a country that is anything but staunchly liberal.

 

you, on the other hand, think that unless you are being treated with special care and attention, that you're being repressed. cry me a river.....i may actually care what you thought if you cared about my money.

[calfoxwc]

Seriously, how on earth can anybody have been so "frightened" by the Patriot Act and the loss of their

"freedoms" and then laugh and be all happy about the moves to quelch the 1st and 2nd Ammendment protections?

 

how can they eqoquently appeal for womens rights, but joke and ignore the plight of children

who are aborted? And if they survive the abortion, they are put in a closet and left to

die?

 

But then those same people are horrified and aghast that we torture terrorists at Gitmo by

having them wear women's underwear on their heads?

 

Their beliefs are callously political, with no sense of adherence to ANY kinds of strongly held values?

[Guest mz.]

you, on the other hand, think that unless you are being treated with special care and attention, that you're being repressed. cry me a river.....i may actually care what you thought if you cared about my money.

 

You're right, I don 't care about your money. Why should I?

 

Anyway, I don't agree with your claim that repression (really OPPression is what I'm concerned with) is a result from whining of the (in your eyes, falsely) oppressed. I believe it comes from real live oppression. But we're just going to disagree here.

 

[Legacy Fan]

that repression (really OPPression is what I'm concerned with) is a result from whining of the (in your eyes, falsely) oppressed.

 

 

 

At the end, but worth the 3 minutes it takes to get there.