G.O.P. Throwing the “Birthers” Under the Bus: A Postscript

Odd how events work out and funny how today’s release of Obama’s long form birth certificate ties into yesterday’s post. Thus it looks like yet another body blow to the full mooners on the right who have bent over backwards in trying to “prove” that Barack Obama isn’t one of us. The White House commenting on the release said: “Mr. Obama said he decided to release the document in an effort to end the “silliness” about his birth that threatened to distract from the serious issues facing the country…“Over the last two and a half years, I have watched with bemusement,” he said in brief remarks. “I’ve been puzzled by the degree to which this thing just kept on going”…Mr. Obama said there would be a “segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.” But he said that he was “speaking to the vast majority of the American people and to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness.”

Conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan once said that Barack Obama had an uncanny knack for giving his political enemies enough rope to hang themselves with and eventually that’s just what they wound up doing. Obama played the “birthers” like a banjo for the past few years and now in one deft masterstroke stroke he has rendered them completely irrelevant. Ironically in doing so he may have let the G.O.P. off the hook and reduced its internal problems to solely having to deal with it’s restive Tea Party members rather than having to maneuver among the two groups as they had heretofore had to do.

SJG

4/27/11

Obama’s ‘Long-Form’ Birth Certificate Is Released; http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/obamas-long-form-birth-certificate-released/?emc=eta1

G.O.P. Throwing the “Birthers” Under the Bus?

Well it seems as if the Republican Party has come to a fork in the road as it relates to the issue of Barack Obama’s birth and the decision they have made suggests that they are ultimately willing to throw the “Birthers” under the bus. It’s a move motivated by the fact that the G.O.P. must ultimately protect its brand name and image and the “Birthers” serve only to tarnish the reputation and integrity of the party. The whole issue turns upon the fact that there aren’t enough Republicans or Democrats for that matter for either party to win an election based on its rank and file membership alone. With the last three elections having been decided by independent voters, the G.O.P. can’t possibly risk alienating that segment of the electorate if it hopes to remain in control of the House or make gains in the Senate or take the presidency in 2012.

Its generally believed that most independent voters are turned off by the birther debate and polling results tend to prove that as well. According to political pollster Geoff Garin when it comes to the risk posed by the “Birthers”: “It’s a real challenge for the Republican Party and virtually every Republican candidate for president… If it’s not handled well, all-important independent voters might see Republicans as extreme or irrelevant…The big question about the birthplace issue is the extent to which it drives a wedge within the Republican Party” and turns off independents in November 2012.” Thus we can clearly see that the G.O.P. knows that it’s very survival as a legitimate party is now at stake and I believe that as the election of 2012 grows nearer, the denunciation of the “Birthers” will only grow louder.

The list of believers now includes such stalwart Republicans like Arizona’s Jan Brewer, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Haley Barbour, Tim Pawlenty and even Michele Bachmann. In fact even Sarah Palin stated: “I think that he was born in Hawaii because there was a birth announcement put in the newspaper.” Governor Brewer who may have issued the most dire warning among conservatives to date said on CNN “The Birther issue was leading the country down a path of destruction.” It would seem that the political tide has turned against the “Birthers” and soon they too will be relegated to the same trash bin of history where the “truthers” currently reside. The “truthers” as you will recall are those who believed that George W. Bush was behind the 9/11 terror attacks. Well at least they will now have the “Birthers” to keep them company.

S.J.G

4/26/11

Sources:

‘Birther’ Claims Force GOP Leaders To Take A Stand
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/23/birther-claims-force-gop-_0_n_852859.html

Polling Report.com: Obama’s Birthplace: http://www.pollingreport.com/obama_ad.htm

Jan Brewer: Birther Issue Leading Country ‘Down A Path Of Destruction’
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/25/jan-brewer-birther-issue-path-of-destruction_n_853596.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=042611&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

CNN Videos for Jan Brewer; http://topics.cnn.com/topics/jan_brewer

George Stephanopoulos And Michele Bachmann ‘Settle’ The Obama Birth Certificate Issue
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/20/stephanopoulos-bachmann-obama-birth-certificate_n_851529.html

Another Setback for the Opponents of “Obamacare”

Those on the right who had hoped for a speedy review of President Obama’s healthcare reform before the U.S. Supreme Court will be rather disappointed by this latest bit of news: “Supreme Court rejects call to put review of health care law on fast track”; http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/supreme-court-rejects-call-to-put-review-of-health-care-law-on-fast-track/2011/04/25/AF7Y42hE_story.html and also, Supreme Court Rejects Early Review of Health Care Law; http://thepage.time.com/2011/04/25/supreme-court-rejects-early-review-of-health-care-law/#ixzz1KaiBWgLF

You see it is out of the ordinary for the SCOTUS to fast track judicial review outside of moments of wartime or in the event of a constitutional crisis. Quoting from the article:”The Supreme Court rejected a call Monday from Virginia’s attorney general to depart from its usual practice and put review of the health care law on a fast track. Instead, judicial review of President Barack Obama’s signature legislation will continue in federal appeals courts…So far, five federal judges have ruled on challenges to the law. Two Republican appointees, in Florida and Virginia, have declared it unconstitutional in whole or in part. Three Democratic appointees, in Michigan, Virginia and Washington, D.C., have upheld it.” At the current rate “Obamacare won’t reach the high court until sometime next summer. What’s apparent in all of this is that for all of the blather on the far right about Obama circumventing and jeopardizing the Constitution, those who are charged with it’s interpretation know otherwise and thus have dismissed this sort of nonsense for what it is.

SJG
4/25/11

The Fading Allure of the Tea Party Movement

For the newly elected Tea Party backed Republicans and their supporters, the easy part is over. Now that they have arrived on Capitol Hill and in statehouses across the country, the hard part is just beginning. At this early date, the news for the Tea Party movement has already become less than encouraging. A series of new polling reveals that the movement has sunk to a level of favorability on par with political parties that it came to Washington to either reform or replace. Recent results from a CBS/New York Times poll conducted between April 15 and the 20th reveals a movement that has sunk to a 26 percent favorability rating. These results are lower than those presented just last month by CNN and Washington Post polls, which found: “Forty-seven percent of people questioned say they have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party, up four points from December and an increase of 21 points from January 2010.” At that time, the percentage of people who saw the Tea Party in a favorable light had slumped to 32 percent, its lowest positive rating up until that time. These findings are consistent with those of the New York Times, which show that the Tea Party has been growing steadily less popular over the past year. Consistent with the aforementioned findings, the fall off in popularity for the Tea Party movement had likewise been documented by conservative sources like RealClear Politics.com and the UK Guardian starting in the summer of 2010.

Chris Cillizza, of the Washington Post suggests that the “familiarity breeds contempt” concept may be at work here as well: “It also could be that as the tea party has become better known and better defined some people who initially said they liked the movement even though they knew little about it have grown disenchanted as they have learned more.” Cillizza’s view is backed up by the latest Pew Research findings on the topic of the movement’s declining popularity. To wit: “As the Tea Party has evolved from a grassroots movement to become a major force on Capitol Hill, public views of the Tea Party have grown more negative. Slightly more disagree with the Tea Party than agree with the movement — a reversal in public evaluations from a year ago.” The Pew findings show that the rise in the Tea Party’s unpopularity is largely a function of dissatisfaction among independent voters and Democrats either who may have initially been sympathetic to the movement’s goals or who had not previously held a strong opinion on the movement and its political program. Pollsters also attribute the decline to a drop off in support from those earning less than $50,000 a year, a threshold that represents roughly the mid point in American incomes.

A compendium of polling results presently available on PollingReport.com also reinforces the image of a Tea Party movement increasingly unpopular with the wider public. While one poll shows that 50 percent of those surveyed felt that the movement has had a positive effect on the country thus far, consistent majorities in the neighborhood of 60 percent plus continue to say that they are not supporters of the movement. Thus, it would appear that roughly half of the American public feels that the shake up provided to the system by the Tea Party has been of value; roughly, two thirds of these people still do not see that fact as motivation enough to lead them to identify positively with the movement. I myself undertook an analysis of twenty-nine different polling organizations, including the conservative Fox News Polls, Rasmussen Reports and the Marist Polls and nowhere did I find any polling results contrary to the evidence of a decline in popularity for the Tea Party movement as presented above.

While polls are but a snapshot in time, and as such are subject to divergent analysis, the overall trend in popularity for the Tea Party movement remains on a downward trajectory. I believe there is little in the way of likely future developments that will reverse this trend. My belief is that the fortunes of the Tea Party movement will continue to decline because of several factors, which the movement cannot address without a major restructuring of its core ideology. That restructuring would require elemental adjustments beyond its ideological foundation, which would redefine the movement to such an extent that it, would cease to be politically relevant. For one, the movement’s newly elected lawmakers will not be able to stick to their pledge of not raising taxes as part of deficit reduction measures unless they want to be on the losing side of the political outcome. Their divergent views with the general public vis a vis entitlement programs and the penchant for obstruction verses compromise are at variance with public opinion generally. Intra-party conflicts within the G.O.P. and problems related to the quality of the Tea Party’s leadership cadre further complicate the long-term viability of the movement in the larger competition for the allegiance of independent voters. The propensity towards anti-intellectual and anti-elitist rhetoric in an age of increasing globalization and technological complexity can only hamper the Tea Party movement in its development of political and economic programs. Lastly, the lingering allegations that the movement is tainted with racist and anti-immigrant sentiments is a major negative in a society where white voters will soon cease to be a majority. Each of the aforementioned deserves separate and focused analysis, which will appear in subsequent articles. Till then stay tuned and have a happy Easter and Passover holiday.

Steven J. Gulitti
4/23/2011

Sources:

CNN Poll: Unfavorable view of tea party on the rise

CNN Poll: Unfavorable view of tea party on the rise

Washington Post-ABC News Poll (Item 36)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_03142011.html

Tea Party: Better Known, Less Popular
More Negative Views Among Independents, Moderate Republicans
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1956/tea-party-declining-popularity-democrats-independents-moderate-republicans

PollingReport.com
http://www.pollingreport.com/politics.htm

Chris Cillizza: Tea party unpopularity on the rise
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/tea-party-unpopularity-on-the-rise/2011/03/30/AFlitS3B_blog.html

Tea Party movement dips in popularity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/08/us-tea-party-loses-support

Is the Tea Party’s Popularity Slipping?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/10/05/is_the_tea_partys_popularity_slipping.html

Scott Walker’s Trials and Travails Continue

By now, everyone is aware that Scott Walker’s anti-union legislation is tied up in court proceedings related to whether or not its passage violated procedural matters and the fact that it was published without the necessary concomitant actions required by the Wisconsin Secretary of State, Doug La Follette. Citing an attorney for the Wisconsin Legislative Council: “While certain statutory obligations regarding publication of Act 10 have been satisfied by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the statutory obligation that relates to the effective date of Act 10 has not yet been satisfied by the Secretary of State, and at this time the Secretary’s actions remain subject to the temporary restraining order issued in Dane County Circuit Court.” The legislation has now been twice enjoined and more likely than not will end up before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Governor Walker’s problems have now mushroomed past the mere specifics and technicalities that exist in the legal realm. For one thing, actions beyond his electoral mandate have served to galvanize support for the rights of collective bargaining in spite of the fact that many people remain skeptical about the role of unions. Citing a New York Times/CBS News poll from late February: “Americans oppose weakening the bargaining rights of public employee unions by a margin of nearly two to one: 60 percent to 33 percent. While a slim majority of Republicans favored taking away some bargaining rights, they were outnumbered by large majorities of Democrats and independents who said they opposed weakening them. Those surveyed said they opposed, 56 percent to 37 percent, cutting the pay or benefits of public employees to reduce deficits… The poll found that an overwhelming 71 percent of Democrats opposed weakening collective bargaining rights. But there was also strong opposition from independents: 62 percent of them said they opposed taking bargaining rights away from public employee unions.” A compendium of poll results available on this issue appearing in PollingReport.com reveals that the public generally supports the right to engage in collective bargaining, often by large margins.

Walkers woes are not just growing because of the changing attitudes on the part of his natural enemies and newly disaffected independents, he now has problems within the ranks of those who would normally be considered his allies. In Wisconsin and beyond, many fiscal conservatives are now voicing concern that drastic fiscal measures may ultimately imperial the quality of education. To wit: “Although they consider themselves fiscal conservatives, many of the same people who put Walker and other GOP leaders into office are now having second thoughts, largely because the cuts they are seeking could put the quality of their cherished local schools at risk… His two-year spending plan includes an 8 percent cut in aid to schools – about $835 million. And he wants to require districts to reduce their property-tax authority by an average of $550 per pupil – a move that makes it more difficult for schools to compensate for the lost money.” Another group that has parted company with Walker are cops and firefighters. According to a recent report by Jeanne Cummings of Politico: “Already, rank-and-file police officers and firefighters who long viewed themselves as separate from the rest of the movement are carrying picket signs, signing petitions and standing side-by-side with their labor brethren.” In a direct rebuke to Walker, Wisconsin police officers refused to take actions against peaceful demonstrators and then lined up with them in their protest. Likewise, Wisconsin firefighters have now cast their lot with anti-Walker forces: “Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Wisconsin Professional Firefighters Association, said his members turned against Walker when the legislation went beyond expectations to include the ban on future collective bargaining rights. It’s not about money anymore. It’s about taking away workers’ rights to sit down with employees. We couldn’t sit idly by and let that happen,” he said.”

Likewise, the tide in the political realm has now turned against Scott Walker. In yesterday’s special elections, the conservative running to fill Scott Walker’s seat as Milwaukee County Executive, Republican Jeff Stone, was overwhelmed in a landslide by challenger Chris Abele in what has become a proxy vote on the Walker administration. Likewise, the battle for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, also seen as a proxy, was too close to call. Walker’s ally, incumbent David Prosser, is in a battle to remain on the court in an election he was supposed to win without much effort now heading to the first recount in the state in more than 20 years. Among the rank and file Republicans of Wisconsin the mood seems to be far from optimistic as well: “Both national and Wisconsin-based Republican operatives tell the Huffington Post the party is being dramatically outworked and out-organized by Democrats in the recall campaigns being launched against state Senators…While the Wisconsin Democratic Party, with major assists from progressive groups and unions, has harnessed resentment towards the governor into a full-throttled effort to recall eight GOP Senators, neither the enthusiasm nor organizational acumen exists on the Republican side of the aisle.” In one instance, Wisconsin Democrats have already attained 100% of the signatures required to recall Republican State Senator Dan Kapanke, an event seen to be energizing the collection of signatures aimed at recalling other Republican State Senators as well. And in what may be one of the most tragi-comic twists to the whole recall campaign, the wife of one State Senator, Randy Hopper, has now joined the recall effort against him. You see Hopper left his wife to live outside of his district with his 25 year old mistress. She apparently had been given a job as a “communications liaison” within the Walker Administration at 35% more money than was received by her predecessor. So much for the fiscal restraint, family values and the social rectitude of some Wisconsin conservatives.

It would appear that the tide has more than turned against the political extremism of Scott Walker and that the full drama has yet to play out. Many of my friends on the far right like to reiterate the now shopworn phrase that “elections have consequences’ and state that Scott Walker is merely working within the parameters of his electoral mandate. However, while elections do have consequences, the actions on the part of the elected that violate that mandate by going beyond what the voters voted for have consequences as well. I have read over several pieces of Scott Walker’s campaign material and examined his website as well and nowhere did I find any evidence that Walker ran on a platform that contained any reference to dismantling public unions or curtailing collective bargaining to wages within a cost of living index. In the final analysis, Walker’s bold gamble to exceed his mandate to fulfill his personal anti-union agenda and that of others may ultimately be his own undoing, representing as it may, one of the high watermarks of rightwing political extremism, which resulted from the 2010 election cycle.

Steven J. Gulitti
4/6/11

Sources:

Wisconsin Court Denies State Bid to Withdraw Challenge in Labor Law Fight
http://www.lawadvice.ws/wisconsin-court-denies-state-bid-to-withdraw-challenge-in-labor-law-fight-bloomberg/

Judge again blocks GOP collective-bargaining plan
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118839999.html

Wisconsin Union Law Fight Heads To Court
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/29/wisconsin-union-law-fight_1_n_841837.html?ref=email_share

Wisconsin Union Law Fight Sees Fresh Controversy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/wisconsin-union-law-fight_n_841442.html?ref=email_share

Majority in Poll Back Employees in Public Sector Unions

Americans Oppose Republican Attack on Unions in Poll Divided Over Benefits
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-09/americans-oppose-republican-attack-on-unions-in-poll-divided-over-benefits.html

Polling Report.com
http://www.pollingreport.com/work.htm

Scott Walker’s Proposed Budget Cuts To Schools Raise Doubts Among Some GOP Voters
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/24/scott-walkers-budget-cuts_n_840362.html?ref=email_share

Cops, firefighters turn on GOP in labor fight
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52359.html

Wisconsin’s Governor Wins, but Is He Now Dead Man Walker?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2058601,00.html?artId=2058601?contType=article?chn

Abele defeats Stone for Milwaukee County executive
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/119299589.html

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Results for contested races
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118885959.html

Conservatives: We Are Being Outworked And Out-Organized In Wisconsin Recall Campaigns
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/16/conservatives-we-are-bein_n_836794.html

WI Repub lives outside district with mistress, says wife
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/13/wi-repub-lives-outside-district-with-mistress-says-wife/

Women’s College Basketball, Well Worth Watching

I just finished watching the Texas A & M Aggies beat Notre Dame for the Women’s NCAA Division I National Championship and, as I often have in the past, I found the game a thriller and exciting till the very end. As in the past, I have encouraged my sports watching cronies to pay as much attention to the women’s side of March Madness as to the men’s. Yet for all of the times I have promoted the women’s game as being equal to the men’s in terms of excitement, all of my sports watching pals have continued to dismiss my opinion as being just a little bit too P.C. Thus, few if any of them take the time to watch the women’s side of the tournament. Well this year anyone who watched Connecticut stymie Butler Monday night in what was one of the most forgettable Men’s NCAA finals would have surely been more than entertained by the Women’s finals on Tuesday night. There’s no doubt about it, the Women’s NCAA finals this year were head and shoulders above the Monday night debacle in terms of both play and excitement.

Try as I might, I could never understand why so many men are prone to write off women’s sports as somehow second rate. Women’s downhill skiing is certainly as exciting as that of the men. The women’s hockey final in the 2010 Olympics was as exciting as that of the men’s. While women’s pro football would not be as equally exciting as that of the NFL, there are more than enough sports where the two sexes play up to the same level of skill and intensity and for my money, that makes it all worth watching. Personally, being a construction worker, I don’t have any issues with my masculinity and as such, I don’t feel threatened by admitting that I can find women’s sports as exciting as men’s. Someone once said that sports is history without a script unfolding before your very eyes. If you enjoy both the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory that comes with sports, why not avail yourself to the whole spectrum of it, both men’s and women’s athletic competition? To do otherwise is to simply cheat yourself out of the thrills and excitement of athletic competion that women’s sports now provides on a level that is in many ways equal to and sometimes superior to that of men’s sports.

SJG

4/6/11