Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick: GOP Opposition To Obama Agenda 'Is Almost At The Level Of Sedition'

BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says national Republicans are bordering on "sedition" as they oppose his good friend and party ally President Barack Obama.

The Democrat on Monday decried criticism of his governing efforts during a forum for students at Suffolk University's Rappaport Center. But he says that "seems like child's play compared to what's going on in Washington."

He says partisanship in the capital "is almost at the level of sedition," or bordering on insurrection. He mocks Republicans by saying, "If the president says 'up,' we will say 'down,'" and refers to them as "folks who seem to be rooting for failure."

The governor later called his sedition comment a "rhetorical flourish" and explained his comments to reporters.

"I think that the number of people in the Grand Old Party who seem to be absolutely committed to saying 'no,' whenever he says 'yes,' no matter what it is, even if it's an idea that they came up with, is just extraordinary," Gov. Patrick said.

Jennifer Nassour, chairwoman of the Massachusetts state GOP, resonded, saying that "[a]pparently our First Amendment rights are only guaranteed if we agree with the tax-and-spend policies of Deval Patrick and Barack Obama."

She continued, "the governor should focus on the critical issues at hand, like (lowering) property taxes and controlling rampant spending, instead of defending his buddy President Obama."

Comments

[PoliticalRockChick]

08:07 AM on 05/27/2010

He says no, they say yes. He says yes, they say no. He agrees with them, they turn around and change it so he can disagree. The GOP is a joke.

[RusStyles]

01:35 PM on 05/26/2010

The fact there's a non-WASP in the WH is a staggering affront to every red-blooded repub. They just don't want him to fail, even at the expense of most Americans, they want his presidency to be a total disaster, so the country would never again trust a non-WASP to run the country. I hope enough people will see through their hate-inspired tactics...

[Lindsay Schutz]

03:16 PM on 05/26/2010

Too bad most of the haters won't admit that. Even my mom and dad refuse to say that they hate obama because of his race, but they try to blame it on things like "oh we don't like his ideology" or "he's taxing us too much" (of course when asked to elaborate, they draw blanks)...

[Lindsay Schutz]

03:35 PM on 05/26/2010

Yeah sometimes I wonder if I was adopted...

[Joan Jacobs]

01:30 PM on 05/26/2010

To the MA GOP: The Governor is not talking about opposition to the President's point of view as being seditious. What he's referring to is the lock step, close-your-eyes-and-vote-no-to-everything-the-POTUS- proposes attitude. I'm sure nobody is surprised that Republican Conservatives don't like some of the President's ideas about how to pull the country out of the bog left by Pres. Bush, but when they start opposing ideas that they themselves proposed during the last administration (sort of an "I was for it before I was agaisnt it" attitude), and block the entire country from moving forward - they've gone to far. They are harming the people of the United States of America - the same people who put them in office so that they would govern the country. It seems to me that all they want to do is run for reelection. Maybe if they did the job they were being paid for, they wouldn't have to run so hard.

[NeoStar9]

12:59 PM on 05/26/2010

Notice how no one in the media is covering this. At least it seems that way. They don't want to touch this because then will have to actually admit that is the what the GOP is doing or at the very least coming very close to. They know full well what is taking place but refuse to even acknowledge it.

[jayevans20]

01:08 PM on 05/26/2010

I agree! The media is not going to report this.

[unite4change]

01:28 PM on 05/26/2010

Just like they didn't report the policemen killed in Memphis last week were killed by anti government whites

[Oldtt]

12:55 PM on 05/26/2010

If Patrick is correct, then Dems' treatment of GWB was at the level of sedition and Nixon's resignation really amounted to an opposition coup d'etat. Let's be serious. Nothing in the Constitution says that the President should go unchallenged, even if it seems unreasonable to his supporters.

[jayevans20]

01:09 PM on 05/26/2010

Your right but none of those Presidents were Black!

[Joan Jacobs]

01:33 PM on 05/26/2010

So, if he'd been caucasion it would have been okay to bring the country's business to a halt?

[Oldtt]

05:12 PM on 05/26/2010

The next President who has to do his time in the barrel probably won't have that excuse, or at least he/she won't be the first.

[Joan Jacobs]

01:32 PM on 05/26/2010

It's not their opposition that Patrick is alluding to. It's the virtual standstill that the Republicans are bringing the country to by refusing to consider any of his ideas and at the same time not bringing any new ideas to the table themselves.

[duvster]

12:54 PM on 05/26/2010

Almost? What part of almost is "we want the president to fail" . what part of almost is"take back America".
what part of almost is "repeal the constitution"? "what part of almost is "the blood of tyrants must be shed to water the tree of liberty"?

[Lindsay Schutz]

03:18 PM on 05/26/2010

And they wonder why their appeal is at an all-time low...

[mage]

12:49 PM on 05/26/2010

I agree with him 100%. They want Obama to fail, even if the country will suffer as a result. They put Obama failure first, and country second. Democrats put country first. Remember in November to vote Democrat, country first.

[William J Unverferth Sr]

12:52 PM on 05/26/2010

It is so funny 6-8 years ago the situations were just the opposite and everyone on this site was outraged. Now with a dem in charge it's "sedition". The bald hypocrisy here both amuses and saddens me.

[mage]

01:10 PM on 05/26/2010

No hypocisy here. I never remember racist remarks, or doubting that Gw.was born in Texas, or calling him socialist, or worse(by you buddies at Fox.). I am not amused, I am saddened that you prefer not to see the truth.

[dakotawoman]

01:27 PM on 05/26/2010

False analogy.

Dubya was a usurper of the democratic process, appointed by a conservative SCOTUS, twice! besides being a criminal, a war monger/criminal, a liar, and a tool of powers attempting to create an imperial presidency, a Dominionist Fundamentalist Christian world government and "permanent conservative majority" and hegemony in Washington DC through dismantling of the Constitution.

Recall Dubya, when he was being thwarted in his agenda, referring to the Constitution as "that piece of paper" !!!!!!

The difference between liberal and conservative attitudes to politics/governance today is simple: liberals see government as a cooperative effort to work for the people and so they seek consensus with their opponents. On the other hand, conservatives view politics/government as warfare waged to gather and keep power to create a system that promotes their well-being/privilege only. The GOP right now is no different than H.i.t.l.e.r. when he scorched German land as his troops retreated in because he felt that since his people failed him, they deserved to die with him. The GOP cares not one whit for what happens to this nation if they don’t control it. Gotterdammerung. Their way or no way. Winner take all and loser take revenge.

Disgusting and UNAMERICAN.

[jayevans20]

01:10 PM on 05/26/2010

Right. Cheney is on records saying that he wants another terrorist attack on America's soil so it further hut Obama.

[pbnyc59]

12:39 PM on 05/26/2010

What the GOP did with Clinton was Sedition, with Obama it is that coupled with outright racism.

[William J Unverferth Sr]

12:48 PM on 05/26/2010

No, what the republicans did with Clinton was impeachment. Clinton was impeached and later disbarred for his obstruction of justice. It's a fact deal with it already.

[Joan Jacobs]

01:39 PM on 05/26/2010

Another fact is that President Obama was elected by an overwhelming majority of the voters and the Republicans in Congress have gone out of their way to be obstructive, not to mention rude & uncivil, ever since.

[Jared Watts]

01:00 PM on 05/29/2010

his impeachment was completely politically motivated.

[jeremyfive]

12:28 PM on 05/26/2010

Gov. Deval Patrick is 100% dead-on correct.

It is amazing to me how the Repugnant Party can maintain the poll numbers for the support that they enjoy when they offer nothing but obstruction.

George Dubya Bush was their "gold standard"--but those years were so terrible that they couldn't even run a candidate in the last election without proclaiming "maverick" to anyone who would listen. (All that was latered denied by the "maverick" in question. Do they think we are stupid?)

[dakotawoman]

01:46 PM on 05/26/2010

Yes, they definitely think we, like their own supporters, are stupid. And they also don't care whether we are or not. They will steal power/privilege where-ever, how-ever, without compunction.

They KNOW that their policies don't work for the country as a whole, but that those policies DO work for the powers behind the GOP, the Big Money, the corporations, the war industry and that is why we are engaged in this fight to take back our government. And that is why the Party of No is fighting us so hard. They loved their goodies (the opportunity to rob the average worker blind for the benefit of a few) and will have tantrums until they get 'em back.

The Tea Baggers are right about ONE thing -- the county was stolen, but they are wrong about who did the stealing. How ironic -- THEY already own the country they're screamin' they want back.

Don't believe Big Money owns us? Look at the Gulf of Mexico -- free market enterprise in action. Loving it?

[XLintLuvR]

12:23 PM on 05/26/2010

You know, if a school was on fire and the only way to save it was to raise taxes, Repubs still would complain and do everything they could to avoid doing the right thing.

[duvster]

01:01 PM on 05/26/2010

That's because there wouldn't be any republican children in that school. (Dang eelite liberal' s goin ta school an such ,serves em right fer tryn' ta be bettern' me)

[dakotawoman]

02:01 PM on 05/26/2010

Well, of course. Most of 'em don't really like the idea of public education in the first place. An ignorant, illiterate, unskilled, unschooled populace is much easier to push around, confuse, control, hijack, rob, defraud, degrade, and demoralize.

"Doing the right thing" is for fools, according to them, for bleeding heart enablers without the cojones for forcing those Millions and Millions of free-loading Welfare Queens to pull their weight (notice they don't care about the free-loading Wall Streeters looting us blind -- that kind of free-loading is ok coz they all have dreams of doing it themselves someday). And if pulling their weight kills 'em, so much the better because only the strong deserve to live, right?

I've never felt so like spitting on someone as I do today. This country is being polarized by facist sociopath thieves and rocked with natural and man-made disasters to the point of no return unless we can quit this underground civil war and WORK TOGETHER SO WE ALL SURVIVE!!

I know most conservatives could not care less who survives except themselves, but, I for one, want us ALL to survive and prosper. How's that for UNAMERICAN?!

[WhiteHat]

11:24 AM on 05/26/2010

The GOP's opposition to all things Obama does seem unproductive to the point of harmful. In his criticism of Republicans, the Gov. should have stopped there. There literally is no such thing as sedition.

The GOP has the constitutionally-protected right to say anything, as do we all. Since a president now seems to have the unlimited "right" to spy on and imprison anyone without legal review, providing a president with an excuse to do so seems...unproductive at best, and even potentially dangerous.

[ladydragon]

11:17 AM on 05/26/2010

I hope Pres. Obama wasn't so naive as to believe that any GOP'r was going to take orders from a Black man. From day one they have obstructed on every issue and they are not going to give an inch. Then you have fox news and libmaughh stoking the flames, Rick Perry in Tx talking secession, and mentally disturbed militia members threatening to kill the president and elected officials who don't agree with them. I will warn the GOP, that if one single hair on Pres. Obama's head is harmed in any way, you will be blamed, this country will explode and it will never be the same, this country will not recover from that for years to come, so you better tone down the rhetoric

[MizLiz]

11:28 AM on 05/26/2010

Fanned and faved. You nailed it...what concerns me is that this country is so apathetic even that won't rile things.

[XLintLuvR]

12:27 PM on 05/26/2010

It never ceases to amaze me that they think for some reason that this is the path back to power. For starters, more people are against the far rw than they'd imagine. The smart thing to do would be to distance yourself from the loonies so that you can capture more of the middle. Instead, they pander to them and continue this talk of socialism and communism and Nazis. They're trying to incite this country to riot as though somehow if there were a civil war, that they wouldn't feel the worst of it. At the spark of a civil war, Repubs could be assured that not only would they be crushed, there would be a guarantee that we don't make the mistake that we did last time of leaving any doubt that talk of secession won't be met with an immediate and forceful rebuke.

[duvster]

01:05 PM on 05/26/2010

To paraphrase the late Abba Eban Isreali ambassador to the un, the republicans never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

[nypapajoe]

11:17 AM on 05/26/2010

Gov. Patrict is calling it as it is racisim against a Black President! It has nothing to do with politics! As we all know Pres. Obama took over an office that had lost credibility with both the people and the world! Economically we were broke yet the republicans find fault with the current pres. That's racism cause they refuse to work hand in hand to resolve the problems!

[ALCThomas]

11:42 AM on 05/26/2010

And what about the Republican tax (cuts) and spend (2 wars) policies? When has Republican and fiscal responsibility been valid in the sentence? If the really supported this country then they would introduce legislation to start bringing jobs back home. (i.e. removing the tax cuts given to corporations to export jobs, laying the smackdown on the Chinese, promoting Buy American, and getting out of these trade agreements that DO NOT benefit our economy.) If they did that then one of two things would happen. The Dems would go along and things would get done or the Repubs would have a case for a return to power. But these solutions don't involve bribes or payoffs so I won't hold my breath.

[William J Unverferth Sr]

12:44 PM on 05/26/2010

The dem solution?? continue both wars and spend even more. That showed the republicans!

[01202009]

11:15 AM on 05/26/2010

Call traitors what they are. The nation is nearly crippled and we have to hear people like Boehner and Cantor slicing and dicing Karl Rove’s talking points. Rove should be in jail, not advising a twit like Rand Paul on how to cover his mistakes.

The GOP is in full retreat and about to become marginalized. Couldn’t happen to a nicer crew of old mummies.

[MizLiz]

11:28 AM on 05/26/2010

By "Old Mummies" I suspect you mean Mitch McConnell.....

[ALCThomas]

11:43 AM on 05/26/2010

and "Old Dummies," as well.

[Toa Reap]

11:13 AM on 05/26/2010

"Jennifer Nassour, chairwoman of the Massachusetts state GOP, resonded, saying that "[a]pparently our First Amendment rights are only guaranteed if we agree with the tax-and-spend policies of Deval Patrick and Barack Obama."

She continued, "the governor should focus on the critical issues at hand, like (lowering) property taxes and controlling rampant spending, instead of defending his buddy President Obama.""

They don't even bother denying it and instead chose any point made (valid or invalid) as an opportunity to create more dissent among their small minded supporters.

Republicans in general should be ashamed of themselves - they don't deserve to be identified with Lincoln in any way.

They are nothing like then.