No, really… this is an editorial from the Seattle Times:
LISTENING to Republican senators mouth scripted lines opposing financial regulatory reforms is to hear them auditioning for jobs as industry lobbyists after Congress.
… [Senate Republican leader Mitch] McConnell and his colleagues do not offer any suggestions or ideas about how to rein in the most reckless — and lucrative — behavior by commercial and investment banks.
Nor do Republicans offer any leadership in providing American consumers and investors with trustworthy, accessible information about investment products, and their hazards to the treasury. How or why the GOP would oppose such elementary transparency must puzzle voters.
Huh. And on a similar note, how or why the Times would consistently endorse such Republicans must puzzle its readers.
The unsigned editorial goes on to laud U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell for her leadership on this issue, a Democrat whose candidacy the Times has twice opposed despite the fact that during the run up to her 2006 reelection the editorial board agreed with Cantwell on nearly every single issue except her opposition to repealing the estate tax.
Does anyone believe that had Times-endorsed, insurance industry executive Mike McGavick won the 2006 campaign, he’d cast anything but a party-line vote against financial regulatory reform, let alone provide the kind of effective legislative leadership we’ve seen from Cantwell? I don’t think so.
The Times’ endorsements have proven incredibly predictable in recent years, even the Democratic bones they toss readers in an effort to maintain a semblance of nonpartisanship. (This cycle it will be Patty Murray, even if Dino Rossi enters the race. Mark my words.) So if they’re going to complain about “Republicans missing in action,” shouldn’t they be focusing on Western Washington’s only congressional Republican, Rep. Dave Reichert, who recently voted against financial regulatory reform along with every single other House Republican?
No doubt when they endorse him again next October, the Times will praise Reichert for his moderation and bipartisanship — you know, his “conscience-driven independence” — but apart from some environmental issues, and that one vote on Terri Schiavo, when has he ever bucked his party leadership when it really mattered?
The Times implies that Republican opposition to financial regulatory reform stems from greed — the lure of an eventual windfall as a Wall Street lobbyist — and who am I to dispute such a cynical assertion? But given the bigger picture, one in which House and Senate Republicans vote as a unified block against nearly everything President Obama proposes or supports, one can only understand their uncompromising obstructionism as part of an even more cynical political strategy.
So the question is, at what point will Republican boosters like the Times editorial board hold the candidates they endorse responsible for the votes they cast? At what point, instead of simply castigating Republicans in general, will the Times call out Republican Reichert for his own lockstep politics and lack of leadership?
Personally, I’m not holding my breath.
Goldy, isn’t it supposed to be Mike! McGavick? It is hard to come to any conclusion other than the one you reach regarding the Times focus on Senate leaders concerning this issue when their boy Reichert is in full agreement with McConnell.
The Times is simply being Republican, Goldy. They will talk in general terms of slapping hands but when it comes to voting with their endorsement they move to obstruct.
They and their party of choice suffers by not being critical of individuals, allowing the lazy and dumb to keep on going.
It’s not at all clear that we’ll have meaningful financial reform by the end of the year.
That is reason enough to vote for Suzan DelBene.
We deserve representatives that are willing to tackle our problems. The Republicans will block all efforts at reform. They have no interest in putting country ahead of party.
the Times is and always has been left leaning. Perhaps you are too far left to realize it, but the times has never been a supporter of true conservative issues or causes. They are pro establisment, usually in seattle means pro Dem, sometimes just pro money.
by the way, why is my tax money used to fund the leftist KUOW, public tv and public radio? isn’t it enough you control all the other print and tv/radio media (save for kvi, ktth and fox)?
@4 Not any more, sweetie pie…unless you’re willing to admit that under the present Republican redefinition of the political spectrum, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon and perhaps even Saint Ronnie would qualify as flaming leftists.
Not to say there isn’t worse. I recently registered with the Reuters Web site to be allowed to post comments there. I was offered an absolutely free trial of Investor’s Business Daily delivered to our doorstep for two weeks–well, actually they usually toss it under the car in our driveway. Anyway, when the inevitable phone call comes asking if we want to pay several hundred dollars for a year, I’m going to tell them no. There’s a lot of information in there which would be very useful to someone who was sole manager of their own portfolio–which we’re not. The editorial slant of the front section, however, is pure Tea Party–curiously unlike the Reuters mother ship. I’ll politely indicate to them that that’s the real deal breaker.
The Times lets people other than Blethens write editorials sometimes. But when it comes to endorsements, the Blethens are the only voice that matters.
Do the Republicans really think Dino Rossi could win a state wide race? Jesus, they must all be swilling funky Larry Craig juice out of the airport bathroom stalls.
But then again, trying to get into the head of any Republican is just……torture.
The Republican Party is the Slinky Pull-toy of the big money firms on Wall Street. Hands down.
The Times is merely hedging its bets a little just in case the whole thing goes viral in the next few weeks.
That way, if indictments come down, they can crow about their prescience. If the investigation peters out and nothing comes of it; they’ll just scrub the site of the editorial and claim it never happened.
Blethen Journamalism at its whorey best!
uh, #6, the last 2 closest elections, were Slate Gorton and Dino Rossi; both arguably stolen by corrupt Dem elections officials. Slate was a good senator, and who knows about Rossi, but i doubt he would have laid a turd on us the way Queen Gregoire managed to squander a surplus.
BusDriver @6
I thought that pulling the bandaids off of the arm of Republicans was torture.
suzan delbene should relate well to the people of wa 08 from her waterfront ceo mansion in medina:
3621 Evergreen Point Rd, medina, wa
http://maps.google.com/
how does she feel about bankers?
sheriff who supports torture vs. economic elite. woohoo.
i suggest a middle class guy who actually votes in elections: http://www.tomcramer.org/?q=node/1
sounds like sarge is all in for the “obama pragmatism” of endless pointless war and privatization. let me guess, delbene is down with this program too.
@8: It’s Slade, you ignorant wingnut.
Most of us, though, prefer Skeletor.
How did that one slip through the Republican Times’ editorial review process?
Or maybe, enough people cancelled their subscriptions and the reasons why and they changed their editorial content.
Sarge, since ou are one of the slobberers over Odumba, not ask why Odumba has directed the Library of Congress to archive every twitter tweet? There’s a great use of guvmint resources!
With approximately 50 million tweets each day, Puddy guesses there are just a few with positive Odumba comments worth preserving.
What an ass you are, Puddy.
There’s absolutely nothing in your link that might suggest the President had anything whatsoever to do with the LOC’s decision to accept Twitter’s donation of its archive. Nor does any part of the LOC’s press release on the donation suggest involvement by the President.
As the greatest repository of written (including electronic) communications in the world, the LOC is clearly the most appropriate possible location for the Twitter archive. That you’d fail to comprehend its potential value as a record of contemporary society, and then seek to invent some nefarious Presidential cabal behind it, is absolutely typical of your small-minded obsessiveness.
This explains why Puddy says you leftist drink the kook-aid…
Fool@16,
Everything happens in this guvmint with Odumba’s blessing through Rahmbo. This has been proven by David Axelrod’s own words. And archiving every tweet for the last 4 years and into the future at 50 million tweets a day?
Ask the arschloch for the original links…
Wait a minute… arschloch’s database is as data useless as his hateful name changing morphing pornographic self.
Puddy was recently near the Florida space coast and now we all see how Odumba is destroying the space program. Well he’s keeping a promise. Hey arschloch, check your “vaulted” database for the otehr stories.
If you are an astronaut would you trust Soviet technology to get you to the space station? Well Odumba is buying six seats a year from the Cosmodome. Puddy is sure some Polish president’s relatives will gladly discuss Soviet “technology”.
Lockheed Martin gave Odumba and the DUMMOCRAPTS Nat’l Commie $800K. Boeing gave Odumba and the DUMMOCRAPTS Nat’l Commie $900K. Now we see Odumba is giving an additional $6 Billion to these companies for “development”. Looks like another thank you for the jock strap payback!
OMFG what a shrill little torture loving turd you have turned into as you circle that Tea Bagging toilet bowl, puddingdick.
Everything you accuse Obama of doing was started by his predecessor Junior Bush.
Now go take a shower, old man.
Really pusdrivendyke@20? Bush authorized LOC twitter storage? Proof? Go back to being a union whackjob! It fits you!
So pusdrivendyke,
Apparently you haven’t been paying attention to your favrit preznit and his lackey actions…
You’d be screaming to high heaven if Bush’s DoJ acted like this. Butt, no one is even paying attention here!
So this is a direct quote from YOUR FUCKING SOURCE, asshat.
“In contrast to the nation’s largest telecoms’ eager cooperation with Bush’s illegal surveillance programs”
I am glad you quote sources that say Junior Bush is a criminal. but somehow, I do not think that was your intent.
You are such a sanctimonious dumbass.
Hey, remember when I told you Obama would be the nominee, then the president? You went on and on about how Sarah Palin was going to get McCain into office.
I can hardly wait for November, when Pelosi retains the speakers gavel, and you are still a small little man with a shrill little voice.
George W. Bush, your boy, gave the Democrats a lasting majority. He is our whipping post, and the gift that will keep on giving. You don’t even get it. The Democrats have hope, there is no hope for the Republicans.
Got to remember that the Times is having to pander (somewhat) to all those Post Intelligencer folks they inherited – that are itching to unload the right wing fish wrapper paper subscriptions.
Times started attempting to look ‘fair & balanced’ – but heck. Their intent is pretty transparent. Nauseating.
Once again Klynical disappears when President Obama is improving in his Poll. President Obama was -17 yesterday and now he’s only -15.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 27% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15
That fool is afraid to admit we are on a roll.
Duh, what a moron. That was over the “so called illegal overseas wiretaps” your preznit kept.
The LoC tweets are something new fool!
Hmmm…? Better ask the arschloch for that info since Puddy is on record here at HA Libtardos as being anti-McCain in 2008. Go on ask the arschloch… although Puddy has proven his “database” has missing records.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Mitch McConnell
Puddy wonders when will DUMMOCRAPTS hold DUMMOCRAPTS accountable for their actions? PuddyResearch at work.
John Albert Gardner III, the scumbag who raped, abused and killed those two innocent young high school teenage girls in San Diego County, CA was originally sentenced and jailed in 2000 for molesting a 13 year old teen. The court appointed psychologist recommended DUMMOCRAPTIC Judge Peter Deddeh sentence Gardner at least 11 years and up to 30 years because Gardner showed no remorse in his psychological interview. The libtardo judge Peter Deddeh gave him 6 years and he was out in five. The rest is history and two young girls are now pushing up daisies because a of soft on crime libtardo DUMMOCRAPTIC judge who screamed “Not my fault” when they should throw the book at scumbags like Gardner!
Hmmm… A libtardo commentator ventures into a Tea Party meeting…
I went to the “tea party” rally at the Washington Monument on Thursday to check out just how reactionary and potentially violent the movement truly was.
Answer: Not very.
Based on what I saw and heard, tea party members are not seething, ready-to-explode racists, as some liberal commentators have caricatured them.
Hey Robert McCartney… most of them pay taxes too.
“Commentators on MSNBC and elsewhere have called the movement racist and likened it to the Klan.”
“Perhaps people were concealing their true views, but I didn’t see evidence of racism at Thursday’s rally. A sign read: “Not prejudiced. Not racist. Not violent. Not disenfranchised. Not silent anymore.””
Now will that loser network PMSNBC send one of their losers to a Tea Party meeting?
Hey Libtardos, Republican indoctrination? Nope…
“Same-sex “marriage” activist organizations are counting on new graduates, mainly those graduating from school by 2012 who have been indoctrinated in their schools to accept the homosexual lifestyle, going to the polls.” And you wonder why the US places so low in world achievement in our schools.
Typical Puddy junk – Puddy neglects to mention why HE supports the republican party and their slavish corruption that carries the water for Wall Street manipulations.
reforms?
Nope – the recent crash has already faded from the memory of the republican party. Even republicans wewre talking about the lack of regulation when it happenned – but now when it is time to fix the banks and brokerage houses and prevent them from orchestrating another economic meltdown due to their greed…Puddy and his republican sycophants are silent once again and support the corporate line.
Way to show what is important republicans …..money, greed and hate are all you sell. Jesus would be very proud of you….in hell.
Corrected.
Correctnotright hasn’t explained how the DUMMOCRAPTS led by Bawney Fwank and Chris Dodd stymied Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reforms asked for by GW Bush. Now we see F&F need billions more.
Good job correctnotright. You love corruption!
@33: Nice evasion – once again you are defending the corrupt republicans who are in the pocket of Wall Street.
Did you forget all about Phil Gramm and credit default swaps?
What happened to your vaunted memory? Alzheimers?
Once again, the problem was the bill passed by Phil Gramm – Fannie Mae just was required to clean up the messes. Credit default swaps and bad bank loans…that was unfettered vbanking that the democrats are trying to fix and the Wall street (and republicans oppose).
Who is in the pocket of Wall Street? Wall Street opposes this bill. Republkicans are supporting wall street and opposing needed regulations.
Do the math here Puddy – who is corrupt?
Republicans. Even you can figure this one out.