E.J. Dionne: Disloyal Opposition-The GOP's good cop/bad cop plan to bring down Obama

[babylonsister]

Disloyal Opposition by E.J. Dionne, Jr.
The GOP's good cop/bad cop plan to bring down Obama.
Post Date January 26, 2009


WASHINGTON -- Beneath the warm pledges of bipartisanship and the earnest calls for cooperation in the midst of a grave crisis lurks an unpleasant fact: From the moment it loses power, the opposition party turns immediately to the task of getting it back.

Party politics has not been suspended. It has just become more subtle. Republicans are already busy testing lines of attack against President Barack Obama and laying down markers that will allow them to say they warned us -- if Obama fails.

In the meantime, Obama is already countering with quiet moves to broaden his own political coalition. When opponents of abortion rallied in Washington's streets last week, Obama did not offer a simple restatement of his support for abortion rights.

Instead, his first response to the subject as president coupled his support for legal abortion with a call for "common ground." He urged action "to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make."

The consensual tone on a divisive issue reflected intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by Obama's religious supporters who asked him to delay for at least a day his executive order ending the ban on federal funds for groups involved in abortions overseas. The symbolism of the delay suggested that he intends to continue to poach on once reliably Republican constituencies.

more...

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=c3d97647-56e9-4ffa-b06e-5ad4131fef95

[ellenfl]

1. kick for later. eom

[Captain Hilts]

2. And I like that he pointed out the hostile Congress Bubba had to deal with. nt

[democracy1st]

3. K & R

[Cha]

4. This is only smart..

"Instead, his first response to the subject as president coupled his support for legal abortion with a call for "common ground." He urged action "to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make."

The trouble with the repbs is they have only sand to build their arguments on. They aren't like their opposition who are really trying to help rebuild the country after bushits almost destroyed it with their lies and greed.

[DCKit]

5. The Republics are being as subtle as a spitting cobra.

They're getting by ONLY because the MSM is still giving them support and airtime while they undercut the President. The powers that be are afraid that, if they don't get Obama under their thumb early on, it's never going to happen. Luckily for U.S. it seems the President is playing his own game and they can't keep up.

I'd ask "Who's sick of seeing Boner on, or in, the news five times a day", but I already know the answer.

[Stuart G]

6. K and R nt

[CBHagman]

7. The most chilling comments are about exploiting tragedy.

Note that Dionne employs the phrase "laying the groundwork" for Republican intentions to blame Obama if, God forbid, there is another terrorist attack in the United States.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=c3d97647-56e9-4ffa-b06e-5ad4131fef95

The most insidious line of attack involves laying the groundwork for blaming the new president in the event of a terrorist attack.

In a remarkably partisan op-ed piece in The Washington Post last Thursday, Marc A. Thiessen, who was a speechwriter for former President George W. Bush, declared flatly: "If Obama weakens any of the defenses Bush put in place and terrorists strike our country again, Americans will hold Obama responsible -- and the Democratic Party could find itself unelectable for a generation."

This is dangerous, both substantively and politically, and it suggests that some of Bush's loyalists will continue to politicize issues related to terrorism in their efforts to vindicate the former president's legacy.

I've often thought that if Al Gore had become president and 9/11 had still occurred -- I think it would have been less likely, at the very least because Gore wouldn't have stayed on vacation after the August 6th Presidential Daily Briefing -- the GOP would have urged scapegoating the president, rather than rallying around him. But it's still chilling to read that it remains in the GOP playbook.