“Your coming to power is undoubtedly a historic event. For the first time this old Gallo-Roman country will be governed by a Jew. I dare say out loud what the country is thinking, deep inside: it is preferable for this country to be led by a man whose origins belong to his soil… than by a cunning talmudist.”
Chris Matthews is fond of saying ”Bring in the cots” when daring Congress to duke it out in a filibuster.
Watching an older (1997) Ken Burns series on Thomas Jefferson, I cracked up at the description of the 1800 election, when the House of Representatives convened to break an electoral college tie, but then the House found itself in a tie. It went on for days, and the congressmen ”had to send home for their nightcaps.” After 36 ballots, Jefferson edged out Aaron Burr.
The had to part is what got me giggling, along with picturing the current session’s members all snug in their nightcaps and powdering gowns, and on C-SPAN. Presumably you couldn’t spend the night away from your nightcap, and it would have to be your own cap.
If the GOP has the gall to threaten filibuster in the Senate on the reform bill, and the Dems have the guts to call them on it, we might see that midnight cap run. I suppose the 21st century version would be roomy new fleece hoodies for all, with promotional logos. Still better, Snuggies all around, red or blue. They’d look like two church choirs competing in a festival. Maybe Goldman Sachs would oblige.
I think I’ve finally exhausted myself with obsessing over outrages by the right wing. So much resentment poisons you, makes you bitter about everything. I still disagree with Republicans and especially its Tea Party wing, but I’m going to try not to let it run my life, try not to spend my mornings before leaving for work searching for something to be peeved about, try to avoid media outlets that make the divide their guiding principle. It might be a good pledge for a lot of us to take.
Fox and MSNBC shows: you might think about swearing off basing your story lineups on “Can you believe what they tried to pull off today?” Yes, even Rachel Maddow, who I think is great and with whom I almost always agree, aren’t you getting to be a more thoughtful flip side of Sarah Palin? Smiling through the jibes, cheerfully sniping, looking for outrages—hoping for them, even?
Newspaper columnists and bloggers: try talking as much about your own agendas as you do about the other team’s positions. I’d like to hear more about what the camps really stand for, less about what they’re against. Crazy when you have to learn about party positions by reading the other side.
I might not succeed. I’m going to find another channel; I’m outlining some fiction about a small-town conservative politician who has some redeeming qualities. The obsession started during the presidential campaign and it’s hard to break free. Probably a good thing, though, if we could…
Are you keeping your ears tuned, Luntz-like, for phrases that frame the political debate? The possible upcoming battle to pass parts of healthcare reform through the Senate’s budget reconciliation process is going to be characterized as “ramming it through”—as an arrogant move.
Arianna Huffington on This Week told George Will she hoped it would be rammed through, helping to blunt the negative intent.
If it’s arrogant to be the party in power and push through what you want, then hasn’t that pretty much been happening in democracy all along, certainly during the Bush years, and probably back to the Greeks?
Also, given the public’s contempt for congressional dillydallying, only the most dug-in naysayers are going to disparage a little healthy muscle. The rest of us are going to say “About time, you wienies.” Really, Dems, it’s FINE to want what you want, don’t let them tell you it’s not. Don’t let them fake you back into the wimperers corner. [but… but… cloture… but elections… afraid…]
I’ve been on a mission to get clean: paid off my overdraft protection last year and just last month paid off both credit cards. It felt great. And Capital One even granted a reward!
To itself.
On the next statement following the $0 balance they raised my interest rate by 8%. They thought they’d squeeze me a little before Feb. 22 when the new law goes into effect. I called to cancel. The customer service rep asked me why. I explained. She sighed: big breath exhalation. I’m guessing her sigh meant she had heard customers tell the same tale more than once already today.
Meanwhile, Capital One seems to be on a mission of its own—to discover whether there really is a need for small business loans. I don’t mean the kind where you take your hat in hand and sit down with a banker to go over your balance sheet and pay an interest rate a few points above the bank’s cost. I’m talking about the modern kind where they intice your small business to sign up for a credit card to get by and hopefully you fall behind on payments.
Last month I got three promos for such a card in one day, all addressed to a business name I haven’t used for 15 years. They’re wasting a lot of marketing funds on dumb mailings like that. Wonder how they’re working out. It probably works with desperate little businesses.
Soon all they will have left is desperate business customers to go along with their desperate consumer customers. That doesn’t bode well for anybody, not even Captial One and its investors, not in the long term.
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