Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) "There's a real Democratic/Tea Party Republican alliance to be born" !!??

[Better Believe It]

(And more b.s. from Congressman John Larson. BBI)


'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Wednesday, Nov. 17th, 2010
Guest Host: Michael Smerconish

Congressman John Larson (Conn.) is the House Democratic Caucus chairman

LARSON: And I think you‘re going to see a more determined House come around in terms of our relationship with the Senate and our ability to work with the executive branch. And she certainly does represent that.

But more importantly, we know how to work together with people. We‘re willing to reach across the aisle to the Republicans. They‘ve got a difficult task in front of us. We‘ve got to put aside differences of Democrat and Republican and work to put America back to work. That‘s what our charge is. We will not turn back the clock. We will stick with our principles. We will not allow the privatization of Social Security and the vouchering of Medicare, and we will fight for American jobs. That‘s as we see our goals. (Those are pretty modest goals since legislation isn't being seriously proposed to privatize Social Security and going to vouchers for Medicare. I'm sure Congressman Larson will also fight like hell against legislation exempting all millionaires and billionaires from paying any income taxes!) We won‘t turn back the clock again on Wall Street reforms, either. (Oh, you mean the leadership of Democrats in Congress won't vote to repeal the weak Wall Street "reform" bill. That's reassuring.) That‘s what we stand for. That‘s why I‘m proud to be a Democrat.

SMERCONISH: You make reference to Congressman Boren. And of course, I think of Congressman Boren as Blue Dog Democrat. Does this spell the death knell, politically speaking, of Blue Dog Democrats, the result of this vote today? Is there a place for them in your party?

LARSON: Not at all. There‘s a big tent in our party and a huge spot for the Blue Dogs. They were articulate. They did a great job both yesterday in our five-hour-long caucus and today in our organizational meeting. And the important thing in our caucus is that we can sit down and reason together, even where we disagree. And we‘re not always going to have agreement. That‘s why we have such a huge tent. But what we know is that we can work together towards a common goal, and a common goal that we share is jobs. (You bet. Their "jobs" in Congress.)

SMERCONISH: Thank you very much, Congressman John Larson. We‘re going to talk to Blue Dog Democrat Dan Boren in a moment. But first, take a listen to Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur last week right here on HARDBALL.

REP. MARCY KAPTUR (D), OHIO: I was just going to say, if I might just mention, I look forward to alliances with some of the Tea Party Republicans that have just been elected because when NAFTA passed in 1993, we only had a 12-vote margin that would have made the difference. And look at the terrible hemorrhage of jobs that occurred because of that. I‘ll tell you, I think that there‘s a real Democratic/Tea Party Republican alliance to be born in this new Congress. (She's kidding .... right? And how did that alliance with Tea Party Republicans work out today to extend unemployment compensation?) And if it doesn‘t happen, the people who don‘t support jobs in this country won‘t be reelected two years from now.


Full transcript at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40258654/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews/

[marmar]

1. selfdelete, correction made.

nt

[Better Believe It]

2. I know. Got her mixed up with Larson! Thanks. :)

[OhioBlue]

3. She is calling them out

A lot of the tea party people ran as populists. They made the "big corporate bailouts" a talking point. Marcy is a populist. She's essentially telling them to put their votes where their rhetoric is and do some work for the working class.

[Better Believe It]

5. And how did that clever "tactic" work today on the unemployment compensation vote?

If that's her intention, she must have really hammered the Tea Party Republicans hard in Congress today!

I'm looking forward to reading her remarks after they voted against unemployment benefits.

What did you think of Larson's comments? They were even worse in my opinion.

Obviously I don't like any clever or not so clever remarks that lend any credibility to the extreme right-wing Tea Party faction of the Republican party.

So I think congresswoman Marcy is making a mistake and hope she soon drops that political line.

[Toucano]

6. She's talking about people who haven't been seated yet.

The tea party republicans are coming in 2011, which is what Marcy is referring to.

She specifically offers help on one thing: NAFTA.

Do you like NAFTA?

Tea Party doesn't like it because they're racist xenophobes. I don't like it because it concentrates wealth and hurts the working class.

Maybe since we both don't like it, we can repeal it.

[OhioBlue]

9. Marcy Kaptur is a populist

I'm just telling you who she is... she isn't necessarily a liberal - but she is a huge populist.

When you see the name Marcy Kaptur... think farmers, unions and blue collar workers. Those are the areas where she is going to work and if she can find alliances with tea party people who claimed to be for farmers and blue collar workers (not so much unions, obviously), she will find them and move her issues forward on things like trade deals, minimum wage, anti-corporate welfare, etc.

We know and I'm sure she knows too that they ran on rhetoric with no intention of helping the working class. And...I would bet that we will see her interviewed in the coming months calling them out on their lack of support for working class issues that they campaigned on. Which is why I would guess she made the last comment about how people would likely be voted out if they don't stand up for jobs.

Again... I'm just trying to tell you who she is and where I think she is coming from. I'm not defending her choice of words and not defending Larson.

[Old and In the Way]

4. That'll happen when the TP figures out they're fronting the 5% Party

All they'll be getting for their vote in the meantime is the same screwing we're getting.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. I could see an alliance like that.

Provided the teabaggers start taking their antipsychotics.

[customerserviceguy]

8. She's got a point

There are numerous areas where the tea partiers and progressive Democratic congresspersons can find common cause.

First, I would imagine that neither faction has a great love of financing military bases in peaceful places overseas, such as Europe. And it's easy to see that our troops in South Korea are sitting ducks if Kim Jong whoever decides to make trouble. While the tea partiers may not be gung ho on getting out of the Middle East, I'm sure they're just as tired of a no-win war as we are.

Next, there's the whole Patriot Act/TSA fiasco. We've given up a lot of freedom for a negligible or even nonexistent gain in 'security'. There's an area where the two sides can find common ground.

Last on my list is the benefits given to "too big to fail" businesses over small firms. We can make common cause with the tea partiers on bailouts.

There are probably numerous other areas where the two sides can figure out how to govern, leaving establishment Republicons and corporatist Blue Dogs in the dust.