Really Not Hiding It Anymore

The conservative right treats politics like warfare, warfare like a video game, and actually participating in war with a shrug and a retreat to their gated community.

South Florida Republicans held a weekly meeting at a gun range, shooting at targets including cut-outs of a Muslim holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The GOP candidate to replace U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz fired at a full-body silhouette with "DWS" written next to its head.

And you wonder why a Democratic President received the Nobel Peace Prize essentially for not being a Republican.

...for more of this in action, see The GOP Speaks. Barking mad.

Stating The Obvious

I'm very pleased that Debbie Stabenow and Debbie Wasserman Schultz called out the sexism of the GOP yesterday.

The call targeted Republican gubernatorial candidates Chris Christie in New Jersey and Bob McDonnell in Viriginia, as well as Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Republicans in general.

"I think we have an outdated view, an extreme view, a lack of understanding of what women's lives are like today and the role of women in America," Stabenow said. She wouldn't, however, use the word "sexist."

The lawmakers cited Republicans' opposition to health care reform as evidence, since women are usually in charge of their families' health care, and are disproportionately hurt by current health insurance policy.

But they also called out the NRCC's statement yesterday about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, specifically that Gen. Stanley McChrystal "should put her in her place." That, said Wasserman-Schultz, is evidence of "a total lack of respect for women."

"It's perhaps understandable they wouldn't understand the needs of women," she added, saying 80 percent of House Republicans are men. (Although no one said "sexism" on the call, Wasserman-Schultz appeared on MSNBC soon after and said the NRCC comment "shows the shocking sexism in the Republican party today.)

Stabenow, who recently got into a tussle with her Finance Committee colleague Kyl, said she was shocked by the Republicans' attitude toward things like requiring insurers to cover basic maternity care.

"One of the most shocking things of the Senate Finance Committee markup was the extent to which my Republican colleagues weren't even aware of what they were saying that was so offensive to women," she said. Maternity care "is not a frill. This is not an extra for the majority of Americans who happen to be women."

In fact, it's Chris Christie's position on women's health issues, particularly mammograms, that is killing him in New Jersey. My sister-in-law, who lives in NJ, just finished her breast cancer treatments, and under Christie her health plan wouldn't have had to cover the early detection procedure that caught the tumor. Why should he care, as a white man? He doesn't need a mammogram or a papsmear.

Wasserman Schultz went further with her criticism on MSNBC:

"I think the place for a woman is at the top of the House of Representatives," said Wasserman Schultz.

"It's evidence they long for the days when a woman's place was in the kitchen. Now a woman is third in line for the presidency... But it's not surprising, coming from a party that's 80 percent male and 100 percent white," she added, referring to the composition of the House GOP conference.

We are a terrible country when it comes to female political representation, and the crap they have to go through probably enters into that. You have one political party that feels no compunction against acting like it's 1952 and women in politics are their secretaries. And that has a real-world effect on women's health and women's pay issues, among other things. Wasserman Schultz is absolutely right to push back on this.

As I was saying. When you have sexual harrassers like Bill O'Reilly leering at you every day, why would you want to deal with that? And I know he's talking to Michele Bachmann, who's in another stratosphere and clearly doesn't care, but this is the approach of the old boy's network. It's kind of sickening.

Working Conservative Majority

A while back, Matt Stoller wrote about a working conservative majority, that coalition of Bush Dogs, Republicans and elites which control the agenda in Congress. I am reminded of that today.

In the House, you have the GOP trying to force a vote on a Democratic bill calling for yet more border security and workplace enforcement of undocumented immigrants. This is true despite the recent special election, where Jim Oberweis' hardline, anti-immigrant stance led him right to defeat in IL-14. There is no reason for any Democrat to fear a backlash on this issue, and yet 48 Bush Dogs are pushing forward this bill. Because it's actually what they believe.

Then we have yet another case of our Presidentials lining up behind John McCain, signing on to his bill calling for a moratorium on earmarks. If Clinton or Obama only had the courage to actually tell the truth, that earmarks are a tiny fraction of the overall budget, and that the real pork in federal spending is on the kind of wasteful and unnecessary defense projects that has buttered McSame's bread over the last 20 years. But they don't. They are happy to float this fiction that if only we "got rid of earmarks," some of which are pernicious but many of which fund things like safe roads and water projects and school improvements, then we'd be on our way to glory in Washington.

Finally we have this charming story, where Democratic leaders in Florida would rather prop up compatriots voting for endless war in Iraq and shredding the Fourth Amendment because... they're just so darn chummy.

Democratic party leaders have tapped Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to raise money and coach candidates in a high-stakes, aggressive bid to expand the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

But as three Miami Democrats look to unseat three of her South Florida Republican colleagues, Wasserman Schultz is staying on the sidelines. So is Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Miami Democrat and loyal ally to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

That wasn't the case just two years ago when the pair flouted a long-standing Florida delegation agreement to not campaign against colleagues and vigorously backed Ron Klein in his winning bid to oust veteran Republican Rep. Clay Shaw.

This time around, Wasserman Schultz and Meek say their relationships with the Republican incumbents, Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, leave them little choice but to sit out the three races.

''At the end of the day, we need a member who isn't going to pull any punches, who isn't going to be hesitant,'' Wasserman Schultz said.

We sure do. I generally have liked Wasserman Schultz in the past, but to maintain some kind of non-aggression pact with those who consistently shield a failed President is really out of bounds.

This is a structural problem. These politicians just aren't used to regular folks paying attention to them and their votes to this degree. The Congressional takeover was not without its merits, but when I have to be satisfied with planned hearings into the delivery of unsafe drinking water to troops in Iraq, it's pretty thin gruel. The progressive movement is a long-term project and I refuse to get discouraged. But clearly, America doesn't have the leadership they voted for.