Pfeiffer: White House is not ‘negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest’

[Valin]

The Lead:

Jake Tapper

9/26/13

 

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said a U.S. debt default could be catastrophic. But President Barack Obama said Thursday he will not "not negotiate on anything when it comes to the full faith and credit of the United States of America." That is, no negotiating with Republicans.

 

(Snip)

 

The White House "is for cutting spending. We're for reforming our tax code, for reforming entitlements," said senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer.

 

"What we're not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest," he added.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Well so much for "The New Tone"

[Valin]

Obamas impassioned defense of the ACA: Republicans and Fox News are poisoning the law

Erika Johnsen

September 26, 2013

 

The New York Times called the presidents speech in Maryland this afternoon a passionate, campaign-style defense of his crowning legislative achievement which I suppose is pretty apt, because offense it most certainly was not, and the fully partisan guns were blazing:

 

 

President Obama mounted a passionate, campaign-style defense of his health care program on Thursday, just days before its main elements take effect, mocking opponents for crazy arguments and accusing them of trying to blackmail a president to stop the law.

 

Addressing a friendly audience outside Washington, the president abandoned the professorial tone he sometimes takes while describing the program and departed from his text to fire up supporters. He portrayed critics as billionaires who would deny help for the sick, and politicians who have become hostage to Tea Party ideologues.

(Snip)

(snip)

 

Funnily enough, right about the time the president was speaking, his administration announced yet another glitchy little delay in the laws rollout, via WaPo but heck, Im sure thats probably Republicans and Fox News fault, too, right?

 

(Snip)

 

 

If a Republican says something and the NY Times...WaPo don't report it, are they still bad terrible evil wicked people?

[Valin]

To Hell With Dan Pfeiffer

Jonah Goldberg

September 27, 2013

 

A little over two years ago I wrote this post, titled To Hell With You People, about the sickening and near bottomless hypocrisy of the media and the Democratic party when it comes to violent rhetoric. It went wildly viral. Every now and then I am compelled to revisit the subject. Its almost impossible to exaggerate the climate of sanctimony, self-righteousness and outright mob mentality the Democrats and the media created in the wake of the Tucson shooting. This wasnt mere opportunism, it was mass psychosis, magical thinking with unconcealed rage at conservatives for using killing words at liberals. The editorialists and reporters at the New York Times, NBC, CBS, ABC et al. werent merely convinced that Republican rhetoric was to blame for the murder spree even after the evidence beclowned them in every regard they were convinced that Something Must Be Done. A few idiots and hysterics talked of the burning need to scrub martial metaphors from our language. Then the president gave his celebrated speech. As Ive always said, it was a good speech. Probably the only domestic speech hes given that Ive said that of. An excerpt:

 

(Snip)

 

Consider Dan Pfeiffer, a White House adviser sent out to carry the presidents message. Here he is rambling about the GOP being arsonists with suicide vests and blah blah blah. Its all so so stupid and hackneyed its not worth quoting at length. But it is worth noting that Dan Pfeiffer doesnt say boo without it coming off a script. And, the partisan pawn that he is, if a Republican used this kind of language you know his script would have him mouthing all sorts of sanctimonious treacle about how offended he was by such violent rhetoric and how theres no place for such incitement in politics. And, you can be just as sure, Andrea Mitchell and the rest would leap to the airwaves and the op-ed pages to decry the eliminationist rhetoric of the Right.

 

(Snip)

 

UPDATE: Oh, and to Hell with Senator Harkin, too. From the Hill (with h/t to Mark Hemingway for pointing it out to me):

 

(Snip)

 

 

[Valin]

SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D-MD) Cruz Delayed Vote For C.R. Because Of The "Teabaggers In His Tea Party"

 

 

Babs Mikulski...Civil Talk.

[Casino67]

I think Babs is probably very familiar with whatever may be the female version of a tea bagger.

[Valin]

I think Babs is probably very familiar with whatever may be the female version of a tea bagger.

I have no idea. If ignorance is bliss (as the poet says) then I'm a happy man. Or as my buddy Rick says...that's a below the waist thing...I don't need to know.

[Valin]

http://youtu.be/88j5qt-VrD4

Transcript

[SrWoodchuck]

Pfeiffer: White House is not ‘negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest’

 

Yes they are......and soon they'll be strapped to ours...or heading our way from somewhere East...

 

 

Pic via Soylent Siberia

[Valin]

Was Ted Kennedy a Terrorist?

JAMES TARANTO

9/27/13

 

Political rhetoric in Washington is heating up, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says humans are to blame. We're just kidding about the IPCC, but blaming "humans" generally would come closer to the truth than what we've been hearing from the White House and its supporters in the media, who are attempting to cast all blame on their antagonists.

 

(Snip)

 

Actually the "terrorism" metaphor has been a staple of left-liberal rhetoric for at least two years, as we noted in August 2011. What's new is that the White House is now using it openly. Back then, after a Democratic congressman claimed Joe Biden had employed the term in a closed-door meeting, a spokesman denied it: "The word was used by several members of Congress. The vice president does not believe it's an appropriate term in political discourse."

 

But, as we noted, "plenty of prominent elite liberals have sounded the theme. It's become commonplace on the opinion pages of the New York Times." And that hasn't changed. A Times editorial today likens the GOP's demands to a "ransom note" and urges the president to remain intransigent:

 

 

The absurdity of the list shows just how important it is that Mr. Obama ignore every demand and force the House extremists to decide whether they really want to be responsible for an economic catastrophe. He made a mistake by negotiating in 2011, hoping to reach a grand bargain; that produced the corrosive sequester cuts.

(Snip)

(Snip)

[Valin]

Give Me A Break Jenny!