Kaine: Socialist Taunts Hurt Tea Party More Than Obama

DNC Chairman Tim Kaine took to the National Press Club on Wednesday to gloat about the showing of Democrats in primary contests the night before. In the process he offered the usual platitudes: the party was rewarded for offering solutions to the economic malaise; enthusiasm is up as evidence of turnout in the Kentucky Democratic primary; Republicans find themselves in an ideological civil war, with Tea Party candidates knocking out establishment candidates, and so on.

The most interesting (least spun) tidbit of wisdom, however, came when Kaine was asked to address the common conservative complaint that the Obama administration represents socialism in disguise. Had the label hurt the party or the president, a questioner wanted to know.

"People love to throw label around and I think for most thinking Americans, throwing that label around actually doesn't hurt us," Kaine replied. "It suggests an extremism and an ideological rigidity that isn't where most Americans are. We are problem solvers."

"A party that just relies on throwing labels around and refusing to cooperate, they might get a headline but they won't get support of people," he added. "We are going to promote smart solutions to these problems and If the other guys want to rely on labels rather than roll up their sleeves and actually help us govern a nation at a time when governance is needed -- it is an abdication of responsibility but they are not going to help their case by doing that."

This seems to get at a rather telling definition of politics in the first term of the Obama administration. The president clearly campaigned on the notion of bringing civility and comity to the political process. He got neither. But for all the damage that this failure would seem to engender, in many respects it's helped Democrats as much as it's hurt them. For starters, the wild name-calling and rhetoric has compelled the party to stop legislating with bipartisanship as the goal. Politically, as Kaine suggests, it's had the effect of stripping an element of seriousness from the Tea Party veneer.

It's a proposition that some sober-minded conservatives have noted as well -- and one that the movement's godfather, Rep. Ron Paul, has basically endorsed.

Comments

[aresponse2dotcom]

01:23 PM on 05/22/2010

Mr. Kaines statement that the Tea Party would not get the support of the people is substantially either ignorant or outright mis-speak. Most poles show Tea Party acceptance to be somewhere in the 60 percentile of voting Americans. We are not mad at Democrats we are not mad at Republicans. I can only speak for myself, I support the Tea Party movement and the reasons that I do are many.
I am tired of politicians who will say or do anything to get themselves re-elected to the detriment of our country. I am tired of politicians who base their ideals on conjecture, ideology, and fear mongering. I am tired of politicians who propogate the new slavery of entitlements to gain votes. I am tired of politicians who are stuck in the radicalism of the 1960’s. I am tired of the politicians who use difference to create devisiveness. I am tired of politicians who use hatred and fear to set us racially apart from one another.

[Nagarjuna]

07:28 AM on 05/24/2010

It sounds like you're tired of the Tea Party.

[PWM]

10:11 AM on 05/21/2010

I know what he means. A few times I tried to have a political discussion with the Republicans I know, they would start spouting stuff like Obama is a fascist, and a socalist, and other such things. They ruin their credibility on the spot by misusing words. If one cannot be trusted to use words correctly, then why trust that anything they have to say about the subject is not equally misinformed.

[nypapajoe]

09:51 AM on 05/21/2010

People need to start realizing that what the republicans and the Tea Party is advocating is up holding the might of the banks, corporations and Wall St! They are also upset about losing control of the White House to a Black Man and if they have it their way they would overturn the Civil Rights Bill because they beleive that they are "losing their country"! Listen to them and you will hear sedition and racial discord!

[aresponse2dotcom]

01:24 PM on 05/22/2010

. Most poles show Tea Party acceptance to be somewhere in the 60 percentile of voting Americans. We are not mad at Democrats we are not mad at Republicans. I can only speak for myself, I support the Tea Party movement and the reasons that I do are many.
I am tired of politicians who will say or do anything to get themselves re-elected to the detriment of our country. I am tired of politicians who base their ideals on conjecture, ideology, and fear mongering. I am tired of politicians who propogate the new slavery of entitlements to gain votes. I am tired of politicians who are stuck in the radicalism of the 1960’s. I am tired of the politicians who use difference to create devisiveness. I am tired of politicians who use hatred and fear to set us racially apart from one another.

[Dana Bronson]

01:38 PM on 05/23/2010

You just described the tea party!

[StuManChu]

09:16 AM on 05/21/2010

Of course it does. Here's you water, don't forget to swallow your medication.

[hungrynomadiclion]

12:44 AM on 05/21/2010

If Obama was a socialist, wouldn't real socialists like him a bit more?

[PWM]

10:12 AM on 05/21/2010

Exactly. Obama is a liberal and towards the right of a liberal centralist.

[aresponse2dotcom]

01:27 PM on 05/22/2010

not even socialists like someone who constantly rebukes himself and shows himself to be a weak blow-hard. Someone who will threaten without any back-up.

[Avanti2]

06:26 PM on 05/20/2010

Well if the Tea Party has the attention of Tim Kaine, then he is worried about there impact on the Democrats.

[Horus45]

06:45 PM on 05/20/2010

Do you read and not comprehend?
He is saying they are not a problem.

[aresponse2dotcom]

01:28 PM on 05/22/2010

Amazing, truly amazing that DNC chairman Tim Kaine would continue to put his head in the sand regarding the Tea Party. Refusing to give credence to those of us, in our Society that can add 2+2 and still have it equal 4. If Mr. Obama is not a socialist he certainly is promoting a Socialistic agenda which brings to mind the old adage “ if it waddles and quacks guess what?”
The Tea Party is not just against Democrats it is primarily against Progressives who have taken over the Democratic party at this point President Kennedy would most likely be a republican.
Mr. Kaines statement that the Tea Party would not get the support of the people is substantially either ignorant or outright mis-speak. Most poles show Tea Party acceptance to be somewhere in the 60 percentile of voting Americans.

[PWM]

10:13 AM on 05/21/2010

Dems are not worried.

[justoverit333]

03:56 PM on 05/20/2010

Everybody sees through the Party of Denial's talking points.
Steele will say something, Palin picks up on it, McStain
repeats it, blah blah blah. Old school.

[myvoice09]

04:54 AM on 05/21/2010

You must mean that's how the Dems work - like the way they all responded with their talking points saying that obama responded to the BP oil spill "from day one!" all over the Sunday morning talk shows! Napiltano said it, all the rest of them repeated it like trained parrots.

[BigRex]

09:40 AM on 05/21/2010

How should the President have responded to the oil-spill disaster then?

[SocialistCanadian]

03:37 PM on 05/20/2010

He's simply laying the ground work for the Republicans new tactic, which is to deny completely that Conservatives have ever called Obama a Socialist, I mean they have already declared that Bush was histories Greatest leader, that Reagan was the founder of the Tea Party (even though by today's political standards Reagan would be a Democrat) and that 9-11 occurred on Obama's watch, this one should be easy for them to pull off with Fox noise leading the charge.

[aresponse2dotcom]

01:41 PM on 05/22/2010

hmmn. What planet are socialist canadians from. You apparently have never listened to anything other than the progressive babblespeak on msnbc or the like. It's to bad that you don't have the time or the inclination to research actual facts before you show off you ignorance. Hope you're not from Canada. Hope you stay there!

[FarOutFish]

02:51 PM on 05/20/2010

You know you are winning when the opposition charges you are only hurting your own cause. Translation: They are killing us.

[justoverit333]

03:58 PM on 05/20/2010

um sorry faroutfish. You are mistaken. The Repubs
have been quite tight lipped lately. They are bragging
about how well they will do, but they are scared
shi tless. LOL

[rubberneckduck]

02:17 PM on 05/20/2010

If only Obama were a socialist then the false media associations to FDR might have a grain of truth. Privatizing our public schools, NASA, our healthcare system is HARDLY socialist. It is neo-liberal pro-corporate.
FDR kept us out of war for 9 years, created Social Security and a host of work projects. Obama has remained in Iraq (the withdrawal has been delayed yet again and Gitmo remains open) has dramatically expanded the war for the TAPI pipeline route in Af-Pak and is fighting in Yemen, and Somalia too as well as continuing the Bush policy towards Iran. He actually fought against the Kaufman Amendment and never raised a finger of support for the Durbin "Cramdown" Bill and now we see another record in foreclosure filings. Hardly the work of a socialist. More like the work of Bush 3.

[lindaj3884]

01:46 PM on 05/20/2010

I agree with Tim Kaine. As far as the Rethugs are concerned, anyone that does not agree with them 1. hates the country, 2. is a socialist or communist sympathizer or 3. is a Nazi. That's all the right has. Good luck.

[GlenRast]

03:00 PM on 05/20/2010

You left out Godless heathen.

[soisay]

08:05 PM on 05/20/2010

And hates the troops.

[hagagaga]

12:27 PM on 05/20/2010

Wait...Tim Kaine said something?

[Bushwhacked]

12:00 PM on 05/20/2010

Oh my goodness, Tim Kaine does exist. And he speaks too. What do you know. WHERE'VE you been Tim?

[AyeChart]

11:56 AM on 05/20/2010

One of those cold days in Hell, I guess, if Kaine is actually giving Republicans good advice! Seriously, if he's trying to STOP conservatives from pointing out the variable-speed socialism of the Democrats, it's because the charge is sticking and hurting.

[PWM]

10:14 AM on 05/21/2010

The Dems are not socalists in any sense of the correct meaning of that term.

[den1953]

11:47 AM on 05/20/2010

So the answer to all of America's problems according to the tea bag parties idea's would be to set this country back to pre civil war and start over!

[AyeChart]

11:57 AM on 05/20/2010

My suggestion would be to go back to 1787 and then immediately abolish slavery and start from that point!

[rubberneckduck]

02:27 PM on 05/20/2010

My suggestion would be to declare at least partial nationalization of our natural resources and retain a larger share of the profits for the common weal, funding true public healthcare and education instead of a bottomless pit of military spending. A return to progressive taxation would be a good move instead of a system where Warren Buffet and hedge fund managers pay about 15 to 19% and a salaried secretary pays some 30%.

[aresponse2dotcom]

01:49 PM on 05/22/2010

amen