Pete Sessions: Obama Hurting Economy To Consolidate Power

Rep. Pete Sessions, head of the House Republican committee tasked with electing more GOP members, has a unique theory as to why unemployment continues to rise: Obama wants to wipe out capitalism.

Deep into a New York Times item Monday about rising jobless numbers comes a theory that the Times gently refers to as an "argument" that "may indeed face an uphill fight."

Sessions told the Times that Obama's plan is to "diminish employment and diminish stock prices." By doing so, Obama "intended to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not to kill it" as part of a "divide and conquer" strategy to consolidate power.

The Times then follows with another understated gem: "Polls offer little evidence that Americans are prepared to accept those arguments."

So is Obama part of some communist sleeper cell intent on destroying America? For Sessions, it's nothing new to think of politics in terrorist terms -- only in the past Sessions has argued that the Republican Party ought to emulate terrorists, not that Obama already does.

The GOP, Sessions famously argued in February, ought to model its "insurgency" after the Taliban. "Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban," he said.

"And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban -- I'm not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that's not what we're saying. I'm saying an example of how you go about is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with."

Asked to clarify if he was indeed suggesting House Republicans model themselves after the Taliban, he said: "I simply said one can see that there's a model out there for insurgency."

A Sessions spokesman didn't immediately return a call. An NRCC spokesman stood by the remark:

"The Chairman was simply reiterating what many members of the Democratic Party have echoed over the past several weeks, which is that one-party dominance in Washington has further damaged our economy and undercut our country's free enterprise system."

Ryan Grim is the author of the forthcoming book This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America

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Comments

[Tiberon]

"Hi. We're the Republican Party. We're "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!"'

[MsMicki]

LOL

[yioughta]

Wow! Will someone please 5150 these GOP freaks...like NOW!

[eraofpeace]

The Republican party strategy is to keep making these inane statements and ridiculous claims, just to keep the dems on the defensive. Doesn't anybody notice how they keep churning the trash out? Without a single spokesperson, the republican principals are all taking turns in hurling spitballs at Obama and the Dems, with Fox News playing the role of arsonist. this is the typical Republican strategy, creating confusion and chaos -- staying on the offensive.

[Johnagain]

And in doing so they cause Obama's defenders to waste countless hours of valuable time trying to refute such garbage. And before one ridiculous claim can be countered, another is hurled out there. It isn't easy, but I think it's high time we started ignoring most of what these id.iots say. We still have to keep an eye on them, since they are in fact constantly plotting Obama's downfall. But we can turn the volume off and just let them yammer to themselves.

[ProudPrimate]

good one. that's it right there. the old military doctrine, "do something, even if it's wrong. don't just stand there"

[Greywolf Borealis]

Just one more case of repulsicans shooting off their mouths and the bullet going into their foot. The party has ONLY one mission and that is to make rich people richer. Period.

[jsgaetano]

...as opposed to Republicans, who have been very up front and honest about their wish to increase unemployment.

[Querent]

Hard to tell what Sessions was talking about. I think you have to have brains as addled as his in order to find any sense in what he says.

[Cinnamonape]

I don't know which is more bat-sh*t crazy...what Sessions said or the RNC's pathetic defense of it

"The Chairman was simply reiterating what many members of the Democratic Party have echoed over the past several weeks, which is that one-party dominance in Washington has further damaged our economy and undercut our country's free enterprise system."

How in hell does that relate at all to Session's comments:

Obama's plan is to "diminish employment and diminish stock prices"and "intended to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not to kill it" as a "divide and conquer" strategy to consolidate power.

No Democrat has ever claimed that Obama had a plan top destroy the economy as a nefarious plot. Neither have they complained about Democratic party control. They are just making stuff up to make it sound that their whacked-out ideas are not extremist. marginal and just downright babblings of insane freaks.

[OrbitOfOurOwn]

Rep Sessions, it is time to put down the black tar h ero in...

BTW, where were you when the Shrub was "diminishing employment and diminishing stock prices"? I am not a super smart dude like you, but I seem to recall that all occured on his watch...

[SensibleJoe]

Instead of cooking up cloak-and-dagger conspiracy theories, Mr. Sessions and his party comrades would do better to reflect on how and why their policies failed the common good of Americans, come clean, fess up and apologize, and then get to working with the rest of America on digging ourselves out of the hole they created.

[ProudPrimate]

that would presume they had our best interests at heart, wouldn't it?

[just4shiggles]

Just when I thought the republicans couldn't possibly get any crazier they say something like this.

[darthmaul]

The trouble with these guys is that they think that everybody thinks like them. This talk is really despicable.

[coliwabl]

The Repubs will apparently stop at nothing to make a point. How much you want to bet that good old "Rush" is inciting them?

[Synnerman]

Now that's some paranoia.

[TRYKER]

Sessions' session is nearly over. See ya.

[mitsie]

Oh here we go once again, the fear mongering GOP, who sound like robots are doing it again. You have to be kidding, just keep up those statements and the GOP will pick another Rep. to do their dirty work.