Waterloo

[cal04]

David Frum
http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:

(1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.

(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now.

(snip)
No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

[grantcart]

1. Let the Republican Civil war now begin in ernest

[louis-t]

2. Haha! Ernest. Ernest T. Bass

Ernest Goes To Camp. OK, getting silly, time to go home.

[southernyankeebelle]

11. Am sure Ernest would have supported this bill. Afterall Ernest died of cancer.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Waterloo, Waterloo

Where will you
meet your Waterloo?

Every puppy has his day
everybody has to pay
everybody has to meet his Waterloo.

That's YOU, Jim DeMint - you and every last mother's one of your repuke cohorts. It's also for every conservatroid currently sucking the oxygen out of DU. You've met your Waterloo, so I hope the vitriol is too much for you to contain and you 'out' yourselves at the earliest opportunity.

[awoke_in_2003]

14. At least you didn't post...

the lyrics to that god awful ABBA song.

[Betty Karlson]

4. Someone cue ABBA! N/T

[CLANG]

5. Just for you, Betty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4a9iVRb0l4

[Betty Karlson]

7. Love it, thanks so much!!! N/T

[salguine]

9. Damn their catchy melodies and effervescent presentation!

[awoke_in_2003]

15. But how can they be in

the Rock and Roll HOF and Journey not be (not that I liked Journey, but look at their record sales)

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. OK, we'll look at the record sales:

ABBA: 4th in the all time list (behind the Beatles, Elvis and Michael Jackson)
Journey: about 74th (behind Nana Mouskouri and Olivia Newton-John, plus many more)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

Seriously, I've never heard of Journey, and I'm exactly the right age for them. I've listened to their 'signature song' "Don't Stop Believin'", and it rings no bells at all. Perhaps I've heard it on a movie soundtrack or two (it has that sound - to be used as a background for a medley of linking shots to indicate some situation develops as expected with some time passing), but it's made no impression on me at all.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. Please don't confuse

me with facts :) How have you been? Taking a break from being a mod?

[jwirr]

6. They mismanaged the country for 8 years if not 30 years and they

think they are going to get away with it?

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Yes, they do...

afterall, the average american has zero memory or attention skils , and zero intellectual curiosity.

[MisterP]

8. well, it certainly is a Waterloo, though not for the GOP... nt

[Tutankhamun]

10. Wasn't this David Frum douchebag a speech writer for *?

If so, I remember him on Rachel's show making an ENORMOUS ass of himself. So enormous that he had to make up bullshit excuses for himself on his blog the next day. Rachel then called him on his bullshit.

This guy is an asshat supreme, and to top it off, he's got one of the most punchable faces in D.C. I'd rank him third in face punch appeal, behind 1) Newt Gingrich and 2) Karl Rove. You can tell by looking at him (and listening to him) that he got beat up a lot in school.

[CLANG]

12. Frum nails it - read this excerpt:

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.

[CLANG]

13. Another Frum quote I like (from his blog):

"The problem for the GOP is that even though the focus of the Tea Party is healthcare, the movement has thrown its lot in with a segment of America with opinions that are utterly alien to college-educated and independent minded voters."

[tomm2thumbs]

17. Boehner must be working on his Napoleon impersonation right about now

He'll need more white, pasty make-up if he's gonna pull that off.

[grantcart]

19. kick