Somewhere in the last week, election season kicked into full swing. I know this not because with Labor Day, Tourist season officially came to a close (which I found rather disappointing, since I was nowhere near bagging my limit in tourists this year), nor by the slight stench of decay which normally permeates the atmosphere when political speeches are emitted by candidates (after all, we've already had three Republican debates). No, it was the tone of Presidential rhetoric that announced the official change of season this year.
With the President's recent stump speeches on his jobs and debt reduction programs (BTW, the lack of capital letters is an intentional insult), gone is the push for compromise, bi-partisanship, and the spirit of shared sacrifice that rang with hollow sincerity just a few short weeks back. Now what we get is full-throated campaign mode, where getting along is no longer the goal and demonizing political opponents most definitely is.
Republicans of course, responded quickly with a round of uncompromising rhetoric of their own. Statements issued within hours by both Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell which attacked the plans put forth and the President himself for encouraging class warfare (or perhaps more accurately, no class warfare). Interestingly enough however, as Peter Nicholas and Lisa Mascaro of the Chicago Tribune pointed out in a recent piece:
"[T]hose Republican rejections may not trouble the White House, because Obama's new proposal was designed less as a solution to the deficit problem than as a political argument to put before the voters."
While this can certainly be a surprise to no one, it does once and for all sound the clarion call of open season on the inconsistent, power-seeking, and self-serving politicians at the beginning of their fall rutting season. It is they and not I who have fired the first volleys in what will now become the non-stop attempts to mate with each and every potential voter (and some of them unfortunately, more than metaphorically); fending off their competition with rhetorical head butting, while attempting to evade sharpshooters like me. This is a herd of vermin that once more cries out to be thinned by shining the light of absurdity (Limbaugh is still hogging the light of truth) on their dis-ingenuous duplicity, and demagoguery. This is a task for which I am well-suited, and this is not my first rodeo. (Of course it would be if it were in fact an actual rodeo, but ... oh, never mind.)
For those of you now blushing or appalled at my choice of violent sounding verbiage; language that certainly does not fit the PC criteria to which Conservatives have been recently limited to ... get over it. I'm long past being sick and tired of a society that's so afraid of speaking its mind for fear of offending someone that it can barely speak at all. I believe that people (well OK, some people) are intelligent enough to be able to tell the difference between well articulated castigation and incitement to violence. (And if you're not, it's your problem, deal with it.) Besides, it seems that if politicians of both major parties are free to take pot shots at each other, that some license is granted to us in the peanut gallery to let off a few rounds of our own.
Perhaps I'm just sick and tired of the bluster and bombast of politicians during what has become an all but perpetual election season. Don't get me wrong, there are actually a few good people running for office at local, state, and national levels. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by throngs of damaged goods who come awfully close to proving that human beings could not possibly have evolved from lower forms of life, since there are no forms of life lower than the members of the herd. The unfortunate few seek a position held in the same regard as used car salesmen cannot help but be cast in an unfortunate light; the pathetic remnant of that shone on their conceited, power-mad counterparts. Much of the light left is likewise obscured by the willing sycophants of the 24 hour news outlets; who prostitute themselves whenever required for the chance of a great sound bite.
You know, I've always like the political season. The weather has grown cooler, which permits me indulge my addiction to smoking cigars without enduring conditions that allow me to light them by exposing one end to direct sunlight. I can bask in an hour of cloudy enjoyment without turning the end of the cigar clenched in my teeth to a sweat-drenched monstrosity and myself into someone appearing to have only barely survived a WWII death march in the process of enjoying my no doubt cancer-causing folly. Mostly however, I truly love this time of year for allowing me to pursue that most guilty of pleasures. So I must ask you please:
Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. Heh Heh, I'm hunting powiticians ....
(GDH 9/21/71 +40. Gone, but never to be forgotten.)
It's tin foil hat time again here at Just Blowing Smoke ladies and gentlemen, so bear with me as I set aside my tam, seat its metal counterpart firmly in place, and once again speculate on something that occurred to me in the wake of the now almost week-long celebration that the political left is having since the passage of health care reform ...
While few of those on the right would like to give President Obama credit for much of anything, most would agree that over his relatively short career in public life he has been a pretty savvy political strategist. Who can argue this when watching a relatively obscure Illinois state senator in 1996 rise to win election to the highest office in the land by 2008?
How then do we explain the ugly, lengthy, and often painful to watch strategy used to see health care reform legislation passed?
Was it a failure to properly utilize crushing majorities in both houses of Congress?
Was is poor planning on the President's part to let Congress fumble about the task for months before stepping in himself to lead the parade?
Was it a failure of purpose on the part of the House and Senate leadership to see this drag through Congressional recesses in 2009, knowing that some would face difficult meetings with constituents during those breaks? Could it instead have been yet another bit of brilliant political maneuvering on the part of a President and his team to get this legislation passed and provide just enough political cover for legislators who are running for re-election?
Consider that while it seemed to take forever to get this supposed #1 presidential priority signed into law, it is now in fact the law of the land. Consider that while a super-majority was squandered in the Senate, enough votes were found in the end to achieve passage. Consider that though enough backroom deals were brought to light in the process to make the abuses and maneuverings of Tammany Hall seem tame by comparison, that they had no effect in the end on passage of this bill. Consider that once again, Congress voted on legislation that it had not properly read, did not understand, and passed anyway.
Consider as well that though many Conservatives have vowed to wrest public office from those who supported this legislation, those considered most responsible have only now been identified.
And though opponents of health care reform have targeted those they consider the culprits in this apparent comedy of errors for political challenge, they do so now with the clock quickly ticking away. This is, as most will note, after the date for petitions to run against them under the auspices of the two major parties had to be turned in. It is barely more than one month before primary elections for nomination of these two parties are held. It is barely more than seven months before the general elections for those seats will be held.
One can hardly help but notice that this provides little time for opponents to raise money to battle against those with already large political war chests, little time to attempt to run an effective campaign against what in many cases are firmly entrenched incumbent legislators.
Could it be that while Conservatives and Republicans (there is some overlap, but not as much as one would like) are celebrating the minor victory of at least fighting the good fight before losing this long-fought battle, that those in the Obama camp are likewise celebrating a strategy that has drug out the process long enough to pick the time and place of the next one?
Could it be that while political right is vowing to carry the fight to the coming election, confident that the health care vote will be their key to victory, that the left recognizes that their strategy has in turn made that battle more difficult to win?
Could it be that what was considered by many to be a flawed legislative strategy by the left was in fact a master stroke, in that it lured the political right into a strategically weak position (in time) through these apparent minor defeats?
Whether you approve or disapprove of the health care reform legislation or approve or disapprove of the president, I fear that we may all need to tip out hats (even the tin foil ones) to what perhaps might have been an absolutely brilliant bit of political strategy. For in warfare and in politics, as in much else in life ... timing is everything.
