Monday February 21, 2011
Newly elected Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker is a political fool.
And Walker's fellow Tea Party Republicans, who are streaming into Madison to support his seeming-sudden "shock and awe" battle over the bargaining rights of public employees, are political strategy dimwits.
President Obama must feel a whole lot better about his 2012 reelection prospects, given the media images of tens of thousands of infuriated teachers, nurses and other devoted public servants demonstrating and denouncing Walker and his Tea Party Republican policies.
I guarantee... absolutely guarantee... that Wisconsin independents and moderates who voted for Walker and other Tea Partiers three months ago are appalled and deeply repelled by this Republican brand of radicalism, and already regret their votes.
What Gov. Walker and his fellow conservative extremists don't seem to understand is that Democrats thrive on fighting for the rights of working folks: teachers, nurses, sanitation workers, file clerks, janitors, parks groundskeepers and the like, as well as community college and state university workers and professors.
Democrats love to demonstrate and shout and wave placards on behalf of underdogs and the downtrodden. Rank-and-file Democrats exist to exuberantly protect the rights of the little guy and gal. If Democrats have any influence, this labor fracas that Gov. Walker has started will not be disappearing anytime soon.
As Labor Leader Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President, exuded to protesters in the Wisconsin state capital rotunda last Friday:
"What you're doing here is the seed that is going to grow across the United States... All of us are looking to your leadership because you caught America's imagination in saying 'We've had enough!'
"We've all come together... Looking at the faces here, I have never felt better about America or the labor movement than I do right now."
The AFL-CIO is the largest U.S. federation of labor unions, representing more than 11 million American workers. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is one of the largest of AFL-CIO unions.
As a member of the Labor Caucus of the California Democratic Party, I know that teachers are among the feistiest and most persistently vocal of all Democratic groups. Reeling from the onerous mandates of No Child Left Behind and Obama's Race to the Top reforms, teachers across the nation were already livid.
Public school teachers historically seethe at even small assaults on their collective bargaining rights. As a result, Wisconsin teachers are on fire with fury at Gov. Walker's push to terminate most of their bargaining rights and powers. Badger state teachers are incensed that Gov. Walker is driving to kill their unions.
The Democratic Party and labor union leadership support, and will continue to support, Wisconsin teachers without reservation. President Obama and labor leader Richard Trumka will stand resolutely with them and other public employees.
Gov. Walker's foolishly aggressive ideological push is backfiring by giving liberals a golden chance to fight for working class Americans amidst high unemployment, rising food prices, shrinking middle-class wages, beleaguered real estate values, and painful home foreclosure rates.
In the wake of Democrats' 2010 shellacking at the polls, President Obama's strategists have been worrying about how to reenergize their base to sweep Mr. Obama back to the White House in 2012. They're worrying no more.
Thanks to Gov. Walker:
- Democrats nationwide are energized and united to a degree unseen since Barack Obama's exhilarating 2008 presidential campaign.
- Labor unions are receiving just the volt needed to shock their ranks into enthused political activism for Democrats.
- President Obama no longer looks like the "bad cop" political choice on education reform issues.
- President Obama also no longer looks like the "bad cop" choice for federal employees, whose wages he recently froze for two years.
- Obama even looks like the better political choice to Republicans who are public employees
- Tea Party Republicanism is revealing the radical impact of its financial policies on American families.
In the last few days, several top newspapers have written that President Obama is "facing a tricky balance between showing solidarity with longtime political supporters" and Tea Party reformers... or that "the Tea Party is winning."
Nonsense! Utter nonsense, from a political perspective.
Wisconsin Governor Walker may, indeed, win this particular battle because his party holds a state legislative majority in 2011.
But because Walker's "shock and awe" tactics have forced all working class and middle-class Americans to see and face the pain of the Tea Party's extremist agenda, Republicans will lose this war. Mark my words.
Behind closed doors, President Obama must be smiling at relief that his reelection bid just grew more secure. And AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, an American hero in my book, must be thrilled that the crusade of his life just got a giant step closer to reality.
Newly elected Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker is a political fool. He will be a one-term governor, that is if he isn't impeached before the end of his term.
(Photo of President Obama with Labor Leader Richard Trumka on August 4, 2010: Michael Reynolds/Getty Images)
Tuesday February 15, 2011
A smart way for President Obama to ameliorate complaints about his 2012 budget proposal would be by taking a hard look at the "
Empowering States to Innovate Act."
The Act, which was jointly proposed in late December 2010 by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, would substantially reduce health care reform costs which are set to kick-in commencing in 2014.
The gist of the "Empowering States to Innovate Act" is borrowed from a similar provision in the 2008 Wyden-Bennett health care reform bill that captured bipartisan support but failed to pass the Senate. The Wall Street Journal explained last month:
"The health-care law currently allows states in 2017 to receive a waiver to opt out of the individual mandate if they meet certain benchmarks. Wyden-Brown accelerates that timeline to 2014, when the mandate goes into effect.
"While Republicans hope to pass much more aggressive legislation eliminating or dramatically scaling back ObamaCare, I suspect many of them will also support Wyden-Brown as one more way to chip away at the legislation. Republicans could be joined by a number of Democrats from red-leaning states... "
The main benchmark to allow states to opt-out of the individual mandate requirement would be that the state must have a working system to ensure that all persons who would be covered by the federal mandate are, instead, reasonably covered by the state program. The states, then, would be permitted wide latitude to devise their own health care coverage programs.
Under health care reform passed by Congress, all states must comply as of 2014 with the mandate that all residents must purchase health care coverage. States can then opt-out beginning three years later. The Wyden-Brown bill would effectively eliminate the mandate feature of federal health care reform by allowing the states to take responsibility, instead.
Passage of the Wyden-Brown bill would also render moot the various state legal challenges against the mandate provision of federal health care legislation... which would save President Obama from tremendous political embarrassment should the Supreme Court lean toward striking down a federal mandate that all Americans must buy health insurance.
Four-term Sen. Ron Wyden, a pro-business liberal known for frequently partnering across the political aisle, likely has the clout to get President Obama's attention on this issue.
Wyden has long been an outspoken leader on market-based health care reform for years, but has generally been ignored by the Obama White House and Senate Democratic caucus, both which seem hellbent on the federal government being the solution. In my view and apparently that of Sen. Wyden, the federal government should be the last-resort solution.
Wyden, who was easily reelected in 2010 by blue-state Oregon voters, could become quite influential in the 112th Congress as his areas of activism and bipartisan, market-based political beliefs neatly coincide with those of President Obama as he prepares for the 2012 presidential campaign.
I'll keep you posted here about viable Congressional efforts to perfect health care reform legislation, including the Wyden-Brown "Empowering States to Innovate Act."
Meanwhile, learn more about the Democratic senator who very well may lead on this issue at Profile of Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon.
Also read First Year Changes Under Obama's Health Care Reform Bill.
(Photo of Sen. Ron Wyden: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Thursday February 10, 2011
President Obama recently sent another signal that he's already priming specific voters for his 2012 reelection run: to appease certain Christian voters, he's suddenly yakking publicly again about his religious faith. This, after two years of near silence about his Christian beliefs.
At the National Prayer Breakfast on February 3, 2011, President Obama gushed in humble tones to the multitudes gathered at the Washington D.C. Hilton:
"...like all of us, my faith journey has had its twists and turns. It hasn't always been a straight line. I've questioned what God had in store for me and been reminded that God's plans for us may not always match our own short-sighted desires. And let me tell you, these past two years, they have deepened my faith."
Mr. Obama continued on to quote (and slightly misquote) the Bible and to lavishly confide intimate details of his prayer life:
"So my prayer this morning is that we might seek His face not only in those moments, but each and every day; that every day as we go through the hustle and bustle of our lives, whether it's in Washington or Hollywood or anywhere in between, that we might every so often rise above the here and now, and kneel before the Eternal... "
(Read all at President Obama's Remarks at 2011 National Prayer Breakfast .)
Without doubt, Barack Obama is a practicing Christian. As a fellow believer, I am not questioning his personal faith. I am offended, though, by Obama's periodic use of religion as cheap political strategy.
For our President, as for many clever politicians, practicing and publicly talking about religious faith are sacred animals of two different stripes: one is private and personal, the other is a political tactic geared to appeal to a specific voter group. Obama's efforts at the latter are gratingly transparent and too conveniently timed.
The last time Mr. Obama made a substantial public show of Christian religiosity was at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, when Obama's Director of Religious Affairs grandly exuded, "We are honored that so many religious leaders are reaching across partisan and ideological lines in this Convention to address the values that matter to Americans."
Before election to the White House, Obama made several watershed speeches about Christianity and religious faiths that landed him in hot political water:
Obama's reasons for returning to eloquent "God talk" were made clear by poll last August by the nonpartisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The poll reported that "nearly 1 in 5 Americans thinks Obama Is Muslim", not a Christian. And that apparently scares a lot of voters. A Newsweek poll that same week showed only "42 percent of respondents who believe he is a Christian."
As I wrote here six months ago, since his 2008 election, "President Obama has rarely spoken of his Christian beliefs, has rarely attended church, has rarely evidenced reliance on the Bible or pastors or prayer," which is in stark contrast to his public, pre-election religious fervor from 2006 through 2008.
Mr. President, with all due respect, publicly staying mum about your Christian beliefs for two years, then flooding the airwaves with pretty (really pretty!) , pandering "God talk"... your National Prayer Breakfast remarks, the myriad of Christian references in your 2011 State of the Union address... feels like phony, dishonest pandering, not a genuine confession of abiding faith. It convinces no one, and frankly, does more harm than good.
Mr. President, your 2012 candidacy would be better off politically to keep your faith practices private and personal, as you are wont to do, rather than to trot them out once again for all to admire, like some slick suit of "special occasion" clothes.
As is, you're certainly not changing the mindset of anyone who persists in believing that you are a Muslim. And you're causing many of us devout Christians to resent your use of beloved sacred beliefs for political ends.
And please, next time your speech writers attempt to quote Isaiah 40:31, one of my favorite biblical verses, make sure they do so correctly.
Monday February 7, 2011
Conservative Democrats are a dying political breed... a prospect that doesn't break my progressive heart. Count me as someone who solidly supports House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and always has.
That said, conservative Congressional Democrats often deserve to be treated with more respect than currently accorded to them by party leadership, progressive liberals, and the liberal blog community. Of course, to earn respectful treatment, one needs to also act respectfully toward other Democrats.
Heath Shuler, Whiny Wannabe
Take Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler, three-term congressman from North Carolina and former NFL quarterback. This guy is a whiner, an ambitious attention-getter, and has bucked and shrilly criticized Nancy Pelosi's leadership for his entire term in Congress. Shuler challenged Pelosi for House Democratic leadership in this new, 112th Congress, and lost miserably.
Today, Rep. Shuler is crying to the press that conservative Blue Dog Democrats have "no communication" in this new Congress with Leader Pelosi.
Per Shuler, never mind that Congress has been in session mere weeks. Never mind that Blue Dogs now number only 26 members in the 112th Congress, making them a minor caucus, at most. Were I in Leader Pelosi's shoes, I also might find little time for self-serving Mr. Shuler.
Jane Harman, Mistreated Moderate
But then there's Rep. Jane Harman, six term Congresswoman from Southern California who has often been unfairly maligned. I witnessed remarkably uncivil mistreatment of Harman at the 2010 California Democratic convention.
Rep. Harman, a pro-business Blue Dog Democrat and accomplished, wealthy businesswoman, took pains to personally participate in a panel discussion of the Progressive Caucus, the most liberal caucus of the California Democratic Party. During the discussion, Harman was ridiculed and repeatedly humiliated by a fellow panel member who had unsuccessfully challenged her in a primary race.
To her credit, Rep. Harman behaved with graceful toughness and logic throughout the embarrassing 90-minute diatribe. While I disagreed with many of Harman's stances, I felt pained and repelled by the disrespectful, uncivil slings and arrows aimed at her. She deserved better.
In 2012, Jane Harman would have been strongly challenged by Democrat Janice Hahn, popular Los Angeles City Councilwoman and 2010 gubernatorial candidate. I understand why Rep. Harman plans to resign from Congress to head the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which is part of the Smithsonian. Jane Harman's smart, capable leadership will be sorely missed in Congress.
Conservative Democrats Moving Forward
Word came today that the conservative, pro-business Democratic Leadership Council is folding for lack of financial support, thus, lack of interest.
And in the 2010 elections, centrist-to-conservative Blue Dog Democrats in the House also took a shellacking: their ranks were decimated by voters from 52 members in the 111th Congress to only 26 Blue Dogs remaining in 2011.
Meanwhile, the moderately progressive Center for American Progress is thriving, and almost no progressive Democrats lost their House 2010 reelection bids.
The hard fact for conservative Democrats is that under President Obama, interest in their obsessively pro-business stances has dwindled. The U.S. economy has been horribly victimized by Wall Street chieftains, oil barrons and their greedy ilk, and sympathy for big business has run dry in the Democratic Party. Understandably so.
But because unabashed pro-business leanings are out of vogue, though, is no excuse for conservative Democrats to be treated with disdain and disrespect.
In civil, reasoned society of educated leaders, we have a responsibility to listen to and learn from each other, and to work together to forge workable legislative compromise. That is the democratic system of governance wisely devised by our country's founders.
To devolve into irrational, name-calling and deliberate humiliation of our opponents would make Democrats no more mature than... well, Fox News listeners and Glenn Beck followers.
(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
