Hyperbole Washington Style

Washington has always known how to blow things up, but the latest conflict, the debt crisis, has brought the ridiculousness to a new level.  Derek Hunter writes in Townhall and quotes some of our leaders in Congress. Those comments are below.  Can you negotiate with someone that has these type of attitudes?

Vice President Joe Biden: Republicans have “acted like terrorists.”
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: “What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.”
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer: “Unfortunately, all the chambers seem to be loaded on the House side. They want to shoot every bullet they have at the president.”
Congressman Mike Doyle: “We have negotiated with terrorists. The small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”
William Yeomans in Politico: “It has become commonplace to call the tea party faction in the House ‘hostage takers.’ But they have now become full-blown terrorists.”

Then there is the commentators and  news (??) people and their unbiased view of the discussions. So much for a press corps that reports the facts and does not put their opinion in the story about which they are writing. Here is what Paul Connor wrote:

‘Hostage’ metaphor is liberal commentators’ new talking point

Published: 6:53 PM 08/03/2011 | Updated: 5:06 PM 08/05/2011

by Paul Connor

Paul Conner is an online editor with the Daily Caller. He was a contributing writer for four years with the Greenville News covering high school sports in Upstate South Carolina before interning with TheDC last spring and summer. A Palmetto State native, he covered South Carolina politics during the 2010 midterm elections for TheDC and is a recent graduate of North Greenville University (S.C.) with a degree in interdisciplinary studies.

Listen to liberal commentators opine about the recently enacted debt ceiling deal, and you might hear a common theme: Republicans took the government hostage.
In newspaper editorial pages and on cable TV programs, left leaning talkers — some of whom are the very same folks who criticized Sarah Palin’s rhetoric — have compared Tea Party lawmakers’ resistance to a quick debt ceiling increase to hostage-taking.
Thomas Roberts, host of MSNBC’s “The ED Show,” 8/3/11:

“Democrats are very worried their leaders will buckle to political hostage-taking of the Republicans just like they did with the debt ceiling earlier.”

Rev. Al Sharpton, host of “MSNBC Live,” 8/2/11:

“The possibility of a disastrous default was held hostage to the extreme conservative ideology of choking the federal government.”

Dylan Ratigan, host of MSNBC’s “The Dylan Ratigan Show,” 8/2/11:

“We are, in many ways, forced to lead our show with the political, pro-wrestling shenanigans with the threat of a hostage crisis that could bring our country to the brink.”

Eugene Robinson, Washington Post columnist and MSNBC political analyst on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” 8/1/11:

“One of the reasons the president was so set on getting something that at least takes us past the election is that they did see, Aha, gee, they are going to hold us hostage on the debt ceiling again in the next few months.”

Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” 8/2/11:

“What we saw — what I saw, at least, was one guy with a knife and the other trying to avoid being cut. It was a thug attacking a victim. It was a mugging.”

Lawrence O’Donnell, host of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” 8/1/11:

“The president’s instincts were good on how to handle the Somali pirates when they took hostages, but here the president knew he was dealing with a hostage-taking, and he never came out and said, ‘Ok, here are the limits.’”

Laura Flanders, host Grit TV on MSNBC’s “The ED Show,” 8/1/11:

“The problem we are facing is not a handful of Tea Party hostage-takers. The problem in the country is the headlock that a few corporate interests and some very wealthy elites have put on our revenues.”

Hilary Rosen, Democratic strategist, on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight,” 8/3/11:

“They took John Boehner hostage. They forced to do a plan that was unrealistic politically, and then the grown-ups in the Senate — Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Harry Reid — had to kind of takeover and come up with a compromise and force it on the House.”

Michael Lind, policy director of the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation writing in Salon magazine, 8/2/11:

“The debt ceiling crisis is the latest case in which the radical right in the South has held America hostage until its demands are met.”

Editorial page, The New York Times, 7/31/11:

“The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012. The rest of it is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists.”

Fareed Zakaria, CNN host, on “Anderson Cooper 360,” 7/29/11:

“So, instead of accepting some compromise that can get through the democratic process, what they’re saying is we’ll blow up the country if you don’t listen to us. We’ll hold hostage the credit of the United States, the good standing of the United States and we’ll blow it up.”

Dana Milbank, columnist for The Washington Post, 8/3/11:

“But the Federalist Papers make no mention of the sort of hostage situation that unfolded in recent weeks. The Founders were silent on the rights of a small group of lawmakers, claiming they received marching orders from God, to bring the nation to the edge of default. The Constitution doesn’t specifically mention negotiating walkouts, Satan sandwiches and deeming budgets into law without votes.”

Ruth Marcus, columnist for The Washington Post, 8/3/11:

“Welcome to the new Washington normal: endless rounds of legislative carjacking … One side wanted the car, had a gun and wasn’t afraid — certainly not afraid enough — to use it. The other had a child in the back seat.”

Democrats and their supporters cannot have a discussion with throwing bombs and they are the ones who call the other side, terrorists.  It is ironic to see how impotent they are since they control the Presidency and the Senate while the Republicans control only the House. Indeed the driving force behind reducing government spending is a minority of those in the Legislative Branch. It says that the power of the Tea Party is much stronger than anyone could ever imagine. Even, John McCain could not resist attacking the "Hobbits" in the House.


Maybe all this means is that the movement toward financial sanity  not only is scaring Democrats but also ingrained Republicans.  Change is a comin' and those who want the status quo  continue are feeling the pressure.  Hopefully this is a good sign.

The Democrats and status quo Republicans must accept that they lost the argument. That their way of governing is not the future. That the entitlement programs that define what it means to be a Democrat, must be eliminated. The United States does not have the money to keep these programs. It is time for a change and we have begun to see the change. Republicans and more importantly, Tea Party members, cannot get weak willed, must stay strong and move the way that not only the S&P wants but more importantly, how Americans want the country to go.

What do you think?