Obama to Speak Monday Night on Stimulus While Rep. Pete Sessions Says Republicans Are the New Taliban

It looks like President Obama has been reading our blogs and is finally going to use his bully pulpit to go directly to the American people to explain his stimulus plan on his terms.

President Obama will significantly ramp up his salesmanship of his economic stimulus plan over the next week with a prime time news conference planned for Monday and an address from the Oval Office on the topic also being considered.

I've said repeatedly that the Republicans are forgetting that Obama is an incredible communicator and when Obama does use it, they will pay. If the media hadn't acted so irresponsibly the past two weeks and President Obama hadn't tried to be so bipartisan, he might not have had to take to the airwaves, but that's not the case anymore. As Michael Hirsh says:

The reason Obama is getting so few votes is that he is no longer setting the terms of the debate over how to save the economy. Instead the Republican Party--the one we thought lost the election--is doing that. And the confusion and delay this is causing could realize Obama's worst fears, turning "crisis into a catastrophe," as the president said Wednesday.

Obama's desire to begin a "post-partisan" era may have backfired. In his eagerness to accommodate Republicans and listen to their ideas over the past week, he has allowed the GOP to turn the haggling over the stimulus package into a decidedly stale, Republican-style debate over pork, waste and overspending. This makes very little economic sense when you are in a major recession that only gets worse day by day.
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The decisive issue here is leadership. The lack of it is what is plaguing the Obama administration. Every war needs a successful general, and this administration doesn't have one yet.

Digby responds:

I think the administration thought they could be mediators between the two parties rather than leaders of the Democratic party. That just won't work, particularly when the Democrats aren't very good at battling the Republicans in close combat and the Republicans can make those who stay above the fray seem lightweight and insubstantial, which is what they've managed to do. They've showed they don't respect Obama and are unimpressed with his mandate -- the administration needs to accept that and strategize with that in mind.

He said today that bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake is not desirable. He should just drop that whole schtick. He can have the cocktail parties and the get-togethers and talk to them all he wants. And if they happen to have a good idea (very doubtful) then fine. But they are going to represent their narrow interests because that's what they believe their constituents want. That's the way the system works. They aren't partners, they're political adversaries and they remain adversaries even when there is an emergency at hand. Accept that and fight it out on the merits.

I was hoping for the Republicans to obstruct him like they have so he would stop serving them cookies and crumpets to try and coax the right wing punditocracy to help him pass his legislation. That was never going to happen. Republican Pete Sessions said that the House Republicans are the new Taliban now. I kid you not..

That's when Texas Rep. Pete Sessions compared House Republicans to the Taliban, the fundamentalist Muslim terrorist group that has targeted U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Sessions' staff insists he wasn't lauding the Taliban's goals, only their tactics. See what you think:

Insurgency we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. 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 front line 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.

At least he didn't use a Nazi metaphor.

Sessions should apologize immediately for this statement. How insane is it that Sessions identifies his own party with the group that housed Osama Bin Laden? I thought they wanted to catch Bin Laden, not be like him. Are the Taliban going to run ads now that say I want to be like Bin Laden? So the American Taliban (House Republicans) want President Obama to fail and they will act like the Taliban to do it. I saw the press asking Gibbs if Obama was dropping bipartisanship earlier today. When will the press ask the New Taliban why they want to be associated with our enemies in battle.
This has been a big lesson for President Obama. May he learn it well.

John Amato is the founder of CrooksandLiars.com.

Comments

[texanna]

Well, let's hope Mr. Obama is at Camp David reviewing tapes of his best campaign rhetoric so that he's ready with his best effort on Monday night. Because so far, the Repubs have been winning the PR war. It's crunch time, Mr. Pres, show us what you got.

[MsFeminist]

Our President Obama should not be out there all alone with the Rethug army pretending bipartisan cooperation while actually dedicated to destroying his presidency.

It's time for every single person who voted for President Obama to step up to the plate.

President Obama's stimulous plan is common sense and backed by an army of economists.

*****It's not rocket science; if the average Joe and the poor , get some money, get some jobs -- government backed ones are the fastest to get -- which pay them money, they will spend it because they need to spend -- and therefore send it back into our economy which is what we need to do right now. We need to stimulate the economy; That's why it's called a stimulous bill. .*****

One forefather said our republic would never be destroyed by outsiders; if we were destroyed, it would be from within. The Republicans seem dedicated to doing that.

Each of us who voted for President Obama need to stand up and be counted today.
This is the Capitol Hill Switchboard. 1-202-224-3121

Stand up and be counted. Call your senator first thing Monday Morning. Tell him or her to vote for this stimulous bill Now. No more words. . Vote for it now.
1 202 224 3121.

STAND BEHIND OUR PRESIDENT NOW. .

We trusted him then. Trust him now. A military vet for President Obama's Stimulous Plan.

[springsm]

Until the media tries to also debate the good things and report them as such, the republicans in this country will never change. They are perceived to be victims and losers by Congress and by themselves...and so they vote that way. As long as Obama tries to make this country "purple" and cojoined...the Obstructionists will grab on and take hold. This Stimulus Bill now belongs to the GOP but they will manage to give Obama the blame in 2010. More's the pity. MSM, Newspapers, people in general have to be exclaiming loudly with facts to the main streets because in the past week, we have become again, very divided. Have you had the misfortunate of listening to MSNBC most of the day. Contessa, Nora, Joe of course..all of them are shrill shills for the GOP stance. Contessa LOVES this mayhem. Gosh..I can't think of one good word to print for these people. They are manipulating this Stimulus Bill just as they did the campaign of the last two years. They are muck rackers, gossip mongers and disingenuous.

[Cathyv]

Republicans are Communists when ti comes to hardworking folks who actually labor for thier wage - Autoworkers - were supposed to agree to salary cuts in order to get a bailout. But, Congress accepted a wage increase they voted themselves in the midst of the an economic crisis, thus establishing their superiority over all of us. Now, when our President says banks management of banks that accept bailout money also have to accept salary caps, suddenly it's ''un-American' to dictate salary to any American. Consistent, aren't they?

Who voted for these idiots?

IRemember: If tax cuts alone could fix the economy, the economy wouldn't need fixing.

[tigerakabj]

Great article. However, I have to say that given Obama's track record in dealing with opposition, he saw it coming. I remember back in January 2008 after the Iowa caucuses when he said that "Washington was going to fight with everything its got to keep things as they are." Obama then, after beating Hillary, laid out exactly what the Republicans would do (i.e. smear, slime, lie, swiftboat).

Obama knows exactly what he is up against. I'll go further in that he knows the GOP better than they know themselves. Why do you think he planned to forgo public financing? He had a plan then, and he still has one. If anything, I will bet that he has planned for his entire administration (8 years) and has anticipated every move from the establishment (media, GOP, etc.). Being naive and unaware does not characterize Obama, a man who rose from a state senator a few years ago, to steamrolling the most powerful politcal machine in the last 50 years, to wiping out a war hero and his band of thugs. I saw exactly what his hand at bipartisanship was: to expose his opposition for what they are (you would be surprised at how many Republicans I know are gawking and pissed off at their party). As I knew he would, he boxed them into a corner, and is now going to go in for the kill.

[vernonbc]

You're so right about Obama not being naive or unaware. This man is a master. He will completely outsmart and outcharm his opposition and get his policies passed and his approval ratings with American voters will remain sky high. The Republicans (and the media) mock him at their peril.

[keepacoolhead]

Actually for a brief moment I had thought that we would be a United States of America but not too soon and the shrill screeching that too many Republicans engaged in during the Clinton administration is back and these people have no interest in America but in party politiking obstructionsism which will blow right back into their face. Who knows once they realize their old games don't work anymore some of them still may come around.

In the meantime we'll just let them screech and work on getting our country back on track.

[Skepticat]

Both the Taliban and current Republicans are trapped by an obsolete dysfunctional ideology that unfortunately can still cause lots of harm. It may not be possible to completely eradicate fundementalist jihadism but it should be possible to thoroughly discredit the neocon wing of the GOP.

[Meah]

Yes, and they will lose lots of elections in the future, also.

[MyNameIsJames]

Obama is learning a VERY valuable lesson early.

He needs to be the leader of the American people. He needs to isolate the Republican Party and paint them as being against the long-term interests of our nation. And use the GW Bush tie-in the describe their policy prescription.

[RobertHenryEller]

What the Republicans are up to PART TWO

Is there a solution? This year, perhaps not. This year, the Republicans may succeed in "helping" us into that abyss. But in two years, there is an answer. The top priority of the Obama administration, and the people who supported them, will be to escort the Republicans and the conservatives into the political wilderness of complete disenfranchisement.

In the face of the Republican "platform," the destruction of the American economy as the path they perceive to their own power, we must reduce them to a completely ineffective minority in the Congress and the Senate, and in the States if necessary.

The Republicans have told us exactly who they are, and what they wnat to do. We must pay attention, as we did not in 2000 and 2004. We won only a battle, not the war, on Nov. 4. It is time for Obama, who said on Election Night and at the Inauguration, "To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you," to recognize exactly "who would tear the world down."

Bush, et al, told us the terrorists would follow us home, if we didn't fight them "over there." But the terrorists are already here. They did not follow us home. They've been here, all along. Bush spoke the truth: We are in a War on Terrorism. Now we know exactly who the terrorists are.

We now know what we must do to win, and end, that war.

[nicole473]

I completely concur. I also think we need to start working on that now.

[JoeBear55]

Oh how I agree with your sentiment

[RobertHenryEller]

What the Republicans are up to, PART ONE

What's going on is very simple to understand.

The Republicans, led by Limbaugh, have told us exactly what they are trying to do. They want Obama to fail. And they know exactly what that means. It means we all fail. By "we" I mean all of us except those who identify themselves as the Republican, conservative elite. They believe that this will bring them back into power, only this time, in power over an America completely powerless to oppose them. They believe American failure will mean Republican and conservative success.

The quest for the "permanent Republican majority," as espoused by Rove, would be revealed to all (as it has always been apparent to some) as the quest for the permanent Republican minority-in-power. Like the Iraqi Sunni Baathists. Like Mugabe and his henchmen in Zimbabwe.

Does this sound crazy? Is Robert Mugabe starving, or suffering from cholera, or homeless, in the midst of his country's destruction? No. And, he's still in power. Meet the new Republicans; Same as the old Republicans. And pretty soon, at this rate, the rest of us will be able to say: We're all Shiites now; we're all Zimbabweans now.

[mountainmama]

Robert Henry Eller,

I agree with you. My thoughts have been that the Republicans want the economy to complete its crash into a depression that lasts for years and that eventually begins to look like a Democratic depression to the voters (despite the fact that this scenario did not happen with the Great Depression). But I don't give the leadership of the Republican Party much credit for deep thinking or sensible thinking or an understanding of history or of the mindset of the working class.

If they are really following a talk-show celebrity with a limited mental reach, then they are not going to win through.

No, your analogies do not sound crazy. I part company with you, though, at the final one: I think American won't lose ground to inanity and insanity like the Iraqis and the Zimbabweans have. Or is that just whistling past the graveyard? I very much hope not.

[MsFeminist]

Robert You are not crazy. Or as mom said, crazy as a fox. Until this election, Texas was owned by the Republican party. You couldn't get elected dog catcher unless you joined the Repub Thugs party. They bragged about their one party state.

Even Sen Hall, a respected democrat for years, became a Republican when Bush promised him a no competition election. Read the Dallas Morning News Archives. They ran a series of stories while I was there about a young man who registered to run against Hall and was threatened by top level Repubs. The story said he was told to back off or "or this will follow you the rest of your life." He backed off.

The Repubs have their own version of the Mafia.

They are now dedicated to destroying Obama's presidency. Why:? They are aware that if he succeeds, if his stimulous plan succeeds, it will destroy the Republicn party as we know it.

Who would need to vote for the Black Knights if we were all employed, had food and shelter, health insurance and good education for our kids and happy as clams?

Fight back. Call the oBSTRUCTIONIST SENATORS AND DEMOCRAT SENATORS WHO ARE FALLING FOR THEIR BULL AND DEMAND THEY VOTE FOR THIS BILL NOW.

1 202 224 3121 Capitol Hill switchboard number ; they can and will connect you with all elected officials. Let's hit the barricades and knock them down.
Another military vet for President Obama --- That One.

[spartanmom]

I think all of you guys are underestimating and misreading the situation.

Obama gives the rethugs a chance and they use it to make themselves look stupid.

He is playing chess and they are trying to beat him by playing checkers.

[curiousasheck]

Just rubber stamp it like Bush Co did for 8 years damn it.

We're beginning the weekend no one will notice.

[GraceNeeded]

President Obama has done his best "to turn the other cheek" and NOW it is time for righteous indignation!!! How dare these Republicans question his or anybody else's motives? How dare they squelch any other solutions but their infernal tax cuts that got us into this mess to begin with? It is time to throw THOSE money changers out of the temple OR power in government and tell them with no mincing of words, you folks don't know what government is supposed to do. It isn't supposed to help the rich get richer while the rest suffer. It isn't supposed to support corporate greed over the middle class interests. Government is supposed to be run by the people, for the people and of the people, according to our Constitution. They don't represent the majority of the people if they can't even show they care about our interests versus their own and corporations with lobbyists who sponsor them. WE HAVE HAD IT!!! If they expect to be reelected, they better get their stuff together and get a Stimulus Plan passed that aids ALL of US, but especially the poor, widows, orphans and aliens (That's who the Bible says we should favor.)

[daisydukes]

Well with their fight now to object to capping the salaries of the financial bigwigs, they have pretty much semented their attitudes of "me first" and to heck with the public. They never had any intention of working with the President to get us out of the fiasco that their policies of the last 8 years put us in. On the contrary they were more determined than ever to push their failed policies. Mr President, it is time that the Rethugs be made known that THEY LOST THE ELECTION. Let us see some democratic policies taking over. YOu reached out to these people and they rejected it. We need the help more than what these Rethugs need the "feel good" feelings. Step over them and push this thing through, people are suffering. Mcain and his ilk have 7 homes and 10 cars while the average people are fighting to hold on to the one home, not to mention their jobs. Come next election we will reduce their numbers even more and soon this GOP will be extinct. We have your back Mr President, do what you need to do, as you said to them, your door is always open. All they have to do is put on their $500 shoes and walk through it if they want to work together.

[MsFeminist]

Fight back. Call the oBSTRUCTIONIST SENATORS AND DEMOCRAT SENATORS WHO ARE FALLING FOR THEIR BULL AND DEMAND THEY VOTE FOR THIS BILL NOW.

1 202 224 3121 Capitol Hill switchboard number ; they can and will connect you with all elected officials. Let's hit the barricades and knock them down.
Another military vet for President Obama --- That One.

[rnelsonbrown]

"They aren't partners, they're political adversaries and they remain adversaries even when there is an emergency at hand." In other words, don't carry a snake across the river, for it is bound to bite you, (and you will both drown).
Sadly, this seems to be so. So starkly exampled by Limbog and Coulter et al who actively hope, wish, want or whatever Obama to fail in his attempt to put USA back on its feet.
And yet, we are not talking vipers, we are talking rational human beings. Or are the republicans actually a new genus: homo abegnatius rationalus?
For it seems that to hope the leader of your sinking ship to fail, rings true in the case of the republicans. They don't care if they get across the river, or even if it's possible to get across the river, unless they get across it their way.

[chosenson]

Make your voices heard on the latest cuts to the stimulus package:

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/latest-cuts-to-the-stim-package-head-start-child-nutrition-food-stamps-public-transit/