Dana Milbank notes that Republicans began screeching about “appeasement” and “distracting attention from O-care” before any of the details of the recent temporary deal with Iran were announced.
A couple of minutes after 9 p.m. on Saturday, word crossed the news wires that negotiators in Geneva had reached an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. Then, at 9:08 p.m. — before any details of the pact were known — Ari Fleischer delivered his opinion on the agreement, via Twitter.
“The Iran deal and our allies: You can’t spell abandonment without OBAMA,†he wrote. …
… Three minutes after Fleischer’s tweet came one in agreement from Ron Christie, another veteran of the Bush administration. “Precisely,†he wrote, also without the benefit of knowing what was in the agreement. “A disgraceful deal.â€
An hour later — still before Obama detailed the accord in a statement from the White House — John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, had analyzed the administration’s motives in reaching the deal.
“Amazing what WH will do to distract attention from O-care,†he tweeted at 10:15 p.m., 19 minutes before the president spoke.
Of course, the fatal flaw in the recent deal was that it was negotiated by the Obama Admnistration. Milkbank goes on to document the mounting worse-than-Hitler hysteria in the rightie echo chamber, but most of you know about that, so let’s go on …
Charles Pierce reminds us what a Republican-negotiated deal looks like.
I am a simple man. Years ago, I made it a policy of mine that I would approve of any deal with Iran so long as it didn’t involve selling missiles to the mullahs. I developed this policy in January of 1981, when I was in Washington covering the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan, and the Iranians, in one last attempt to stick it to Jimmy Carter, refused to release the remaining American hostages until Reagan had taken office. Almost immediately, the propagandists in the employ of the new president started floating to a credulous media that the Iranians had done so because they were terrified of the awesome awesomeness of Ronald Reagan. Turns out, of course, that they did it in exchange for Reagan’s unfreezing their American assets and also because Reagan’s people opened up a yard sale at the Pentagon where the Iranians could get good deals on TOW missiles. Ronald Reagan, as we all know, would never negotiate with — let alone sell weapons to — nations that sponsored terrorism. That is why Ronald Reagan was a great man who has many large and ugly buildings named after him.
(Whether or not these deals were cut by officials of the Reagan campaign prior to the election — in other words, whether or not Bill Casey et. al. committed something like treason by undermining American foreign policy in order to win an election — is still very much an open question. But there were, ahem, precedents.)
So, unfreezing assets as part of a deal that might make the world safer from nuclear weapons is bad. Unfreezing assets as part of a deal to elect a Republican to the White House is good. Let’s remember to keep that straight.
“So, unfreezing assets as part of a deal that might make the world safer from nuclear weapons is bad. Unfreezing assets as part of a deal to elect a Republican to the White House is good. Let’s remember to keep that straight”
Of course anyone with half a brain will draw the same conclusions, the problem is what Ronnie Raygun actually did (trade assets to steal an election) is not part of recorded history in the minds of many. They just think that is “liberal” hyperbole and that it never really happened. Why they’ve never heard any such reports on FAUX, Sludge, Rush, etc. etc.
Always, and forever: IOKIYAR.
There are two definable approaches of modern Republicans, when a Democrat is President:
1 . Anything that’s not great that happens, is immediately labeled with the suffix “-gate.” And is far, far worse, than Watergate.
2. Any and every international deal is far, far worse than Munich.
So, everything is either a “-gate,” or a Munich.
And the next time the market’s go down, THAT will be worse than Hoover and W – COMBINED!!!
Ok, maybe not W, but they’ll happily throw poor Hoover back under the next bus.
They’re too busy still trying to airbrush any record of W’s existence as a Republican President.
I’m surprised that FOX hasn’t yet labeled him as a “D” in a crawl.
…before any details of the pact were known…
That’s the key right there. If you have objections to the contents of this deal, let’s hear them. If you have objections to the mere fact of a deal, you’re a warmonger.
Although I don’t really get how the deal can be both a humiliating defeat and a distraction from ObamaCare. I guess it’s sort of like how Obama is both a wimp and a tyrant at the same time.
OBAMA is Emmanuel Goldstein.
D’uh…
Yep – it’s exactly that simple.
OBAMA is Emmanuel Goldstein
Exactly!
The same dynamic happened when Mitt Romney held his presser on Benghazi.. He was out ahead of the pack framing the narrative before any facts were known. That’s what the Repugs do. Rather than devote effort into building up America they focus on destroying Obama.
I recently read an article where they the author claimed that Obama’s popularity had fallen to 9%. The 9% was taken from a survey of 800 people, and they didn’t say how or from where they derived their survey numbers. Even if they drew their numbers from a solid Democrat base, a survey of 800 people hardly represents an accurate reading of the opinions of 300,000,000 people.
I don’t know the first thing about survey polls and how to extrapolate reasonable numbers , but I do know enough to know that 9% is far from any approximation of a legitimate number.. The point is.. The Repugs toss out egregiously false information with the knowledge that the rubes are just going to suck it up without even attempting to question it’s validity .
This will not help the Repugs look any less horrible in the eyes of the young folk.
(P.S. From now on and forevermore, I will only refer to that Texas dirtbag as John Cornhole. Accuracy in media, that’s my motto.)
” john corn hole ” too funny, Joan !
Why Miss Joan, ah do declayah that I think that I’m in need of a hankie and a faintin’ couch!!!
Am I reading that right? Did Miss Joan cast aspersions upon the good name of a fine and upstanding Texas gentleman?
“The Repugs toss out egregiously false information with the knowledge that the rubes are just going to suck it up without even attempting to question it’s validity”
True, but it aint just the rubes, and it aint just the repugs look at Ben Ghazi and 60 seconds!
Swami – a scientific poll, (Gallup) samples a balanced mix of 1500 interviews daily to come up with poll results with a +- error factor of 3%. Obama took about a 9 point hit on the rollout – he’s at 42% approval, I think. The news of an agreement with Iran will push his numbers up some, and the web site is reported to be working which should help more.
What I’m not sure about is just how effective the GOP noise machine is. The rubes and bigots lap it all up, but the rollout was a disaster – a loss of approval was inevitable but is the loss of confidence permanent? I think not. So much of the rhetoric is over-the-top, it has little to no effect on the moderates.I’d like to see some hard numbers on how effective the noise machine is on undecided voters. A lot of money and volume might not be buying much if they are only getting angry, irrational voters more angry and more irrational.
I see that Lara Logan was given a leave of absence for he Benghazi story.. Not sure if that’s a punishment or a reward.
I have received a Cornhole glove slap, demanding satisfaction! I am to meet him and bring dueling pistols at high noon.
Who will be my second?
Who will be my second?
That depends. What is required of a second? Like just holding your coat? I have experience with muzzle loaders. I used to shoot black powder, so I know how to load a dueling pistol so that it will really pack a wallop.
Can I be responsible for the loading of said pistols? Or can I return the glove slap? please?…
I see that Lara Logan was given a leave of absence for her Benghazi story..
Yes buy the damage has been done, a “reputable” news outfit has picked up the Ben Gaahzi story, no matter that it was a complete falsehood all the purveyors of Obama Derangement syndrome have been vindicated.
Swami, if you would be so kind as to load the pistols, I will try not to shoot off my own foot. Not making any such promises for Ol’ Cornhole.
Sunmusing, would that returned glove slap be with or without an actual hand in the glove? (I think he deserves “with,” frankly.)
uncledad ..Yeah, that’s a common tactic. I don’t know the technical name for it. I describe it as two steps forward and one step back while leaving a slime trail. It’s sort like saying that someone was drunk and beat their wife and then retracting just one of the two negative accusations while leaving the other one remaining. It’s a basic Repug play that I think they learn in smearing- 101. It’s a kin to the throw everything at them and see what sticks tactic.
“It’s a kin to the throw everything at them and see what sticks tactic”
Right and the problem is so many people watch that god dam FAUX news and nothing else, though lately it seems all of the cables and networks are going with bash Obama all the time meme, save MSNBC! I predict miss Logan will be on FAUX soon, she has just what they want, looks and an agenda.
When dealing with Iran, Republicans only cheerlead for selling them missiles, where the cash is then sent to Central American drug-running warlords.