Malpractice

The Republicans have been fishing for votes in the shallow end of the IQ pool for over a decade now. I suppose the inevitable question is whether they have hooked stupid or stupid has hooked them. Either way, they now own it. What is amazing to me is how eager they are to display this stupidity. Anyone who advises the majority party in the House of Representatives to file a frivolous law suit against the President of the United States is guilty of political malpractice, and any attorney who advises the majority party in the House of Representatives to file such a suit is guilty of legal malpractice. But here we are; the party of stupid is actually going to file such a suit! From a legal standpoint, it is doubtful that the House of Representatives has the standing to file such a suit. From a political standpoint, the worst thing that could happen to the Republicans would be if a judge rules that they do have standing and the case is allowed to move forward.

The real problem for the Republicans is that their justifications for filing this suit are based on lies. Without the lies the Republicans have no grievance, and if they try to present those lies in court the truth will come out. Come on folks, the delay in implementing the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act is the sort of administrative decision many Presidents have made in order to work out the kinks before a program takes full effect. It is also well established that President Obama did not ruin Medicare in order to pay for the Affordable Care Act, nor did he eliminate the work requirement from welfare. Furthermore, if the court rules that a President who issues an executive order is exceeding his authority, it will mean that most of our Presidents since WWII have exceeded their authority. In fact some Republican Presidents, such as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, have issued more executive orders than has President Obama. But none on that means anything to the Republicans, because they are too intellectually bankrupt to acknowledge any history or to think about what any given precedent could mean to them in the future.

The one thing you can bet on is that when the results of this suit prove to be unsatisfactory to the Republican base, there will be a great wailing and rending of all reason as those sanctimonious idiots accuse the judge or judges of having a liberal bias. There will also be a demand to relitigate the case in a different forum, meaning impeachment in the House of Representative and then a trial in the Senate. We all know how well it worked out for the Republicans when they impeached Bill Clinton!  Suicide anyone?  The self destruction of the Republican Party could be amusing if they do not take the political structure down with them. Therein lies the danger. If the GOP succeeds in removing President Obama from office, no Presidential election results will ever be considered final again. The Democrats have to have control of the Senate to prevent that!  Even then the Republicans will squander valuable resources on the frivolous law suit and outrageous impeachment precedings, while our economy will continue to suffer from the neglect and obstructionist tactics of the Republican Party.

Hold The Drama Please

Once more the media has cranked the drama up to absurd levels. No less than Andrea Mitchell was expressing her bewilderment and horror over President Obama’s refusal to visit the border where all those children were crossing into Texas from Mexico. She made it sound as though the President was fiddling while Washington was burning. Other supposedly objective reporters and pundits were also shaking their heads as they talked about the “optics.” What they meant by optics is nothing more than political eyewash. It did not look good for President Obama to stay away, they said. It made him look like he did not care. Some Republicans actually said this was Obama’s Katrina. But, of course, those Republicans simply do not get it and never will. What made President Bush’s fly over seem so callus was “You’re doing a heck of a job, Browny,” Barbara Bush’s comment about those poor people camped out in the Superdome being better off than they were in their homes before the storm, and the obvious neglect leading up to the storm!

I do not think we can call anyone on television a news reporter today. At best they are news casters and at worst they are salespersons. I am sure President Obama wishes his crystal ball had told him all those kids were coming. If he had known, he could have prepared for the crises by asking congress for the same funds they say he does not need in order to deal with the problem today. The fact that Republican Congressmen refuse to do what needs to be done about this and other immigration problems is a lot more important than political eyewash. So why is the news media calling President Obama’s refusal to provide them with the sight bites they demand a failure of leadership? Could it be that real neglect and intransigence are not as dramatic as the crap the demagogues can make up and the news casters can stir up? Got to draw the marks to the pitchmen, you know! It is all about selling the products.