Best of the Web Today Gs Louise Stop hatin all the time, teRrorists! By James Taranto connect July 31, 2014 One thing to like about President Obamas speech in Kansas City, Mo., yesterday is that it prompted some entertaining confusion on the part of National Journals Ron Fournier. The foregoing is an example of damning with faint praise, but Fournier cant decide between praise and damnation, so he ends up offering extremes of both under the head-scratching headline A (Qualified) Salute to President Obamas Style. Well get to Fourniers stylistic observations in due course, but first a word about substance. The president mentioned the Houses plan--approved a few hours later by a vote of 225-201--providing for authority to initiate litigation for actions by the President or other executive branch officials inconsistent with their duties under the Constitution of the United States. Think about this, Obama exhorted his audience: They have announced that theyre going to sue me for taking executive actions to help people. So theyre mad because Im doing my job. They would say theyre mad because hes failing to do his job, namely to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Thats from Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which sets out the presidents job description. Theres nothing in there about actions to help people. Well, fine. Almost by definition, a defendant in a lawsuit is going to have a different view of the dispute from the plaintiffs. The courts will sort out whos right, assuming that Congress has standing to sue. Perhaps in the expectation of a negative answer to that question, Obama goes on to disparage the entire enterprise: I mean, everybody recognizes this is a political stunt. He goes on: But its worse than that, because every vote theyre taking like that means a vote theyre not taking to actually help you. When they have taken 50 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, that was time that could have been spent working constructively to help you on some things. Talk about a false dilemma. What Obama doesnt mention is the substantive basis of the prospective lawsuit, which is spelled out in the text of the House resolution. The litigation will seek to compel Obama and other officials to act lawfully with respect to implementation of any provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, title I or subtitle B of title II of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 . . . including a failure to implement any such provision. So Obama is acting to help people by refusing to enforce the same law he faults congressional Republicans for voting to repeal. (Its also worth repeating that the count of 50 repeal votes is grossly exaggerated, as Byron York demonstrated months ago.) As for Fournier, he lavishes extravagant praise on Obamas style: Calm, confident, and charming, Obama was Harry S. Truman with a megawatt smile. Give em hell, yes, but not too much. No anger or scorn, no condescending lectures that too often coarse [sic] through Obamas speeches and turn off all but hardened Democrats. Fournier gives a few examples, the last of which is the interesting one: We could do so much more if Congress would just come on and help out a little bit. Now he turns on the well-practiced charm. Just--just come on. Come on and help out a little bit. Beaming, he gestures toward the stage, rhetorically waving Republicans aboard. Stop being mad all the time. The partisan crowd cheers, his smile widens. Stop. Stop. Stop just hatin all the time. Dropping the g is a politicians way of sounding just like us, and for Obama it might soften the edges on what is otherwise a harsh attack. Hes calling House Republicans haters. Come on. Lets get some work done together. The White House transcript does not reflect the dropped g, but the headlines do: Reuters, NBC News, even the Financial Express of Bangladesh (though the Bangladeshis omit the apostrophe). We agree with Fournier that this verbal tic has expressive content, but his interpretation of it is odd. We dont recall anyone interpreting Sarah Palins dropped gs as efforts to soften the edges. Fournier proceeds to execute a 180-degree turn, faulting Obama for his harsh partisanship: A caveat: This rhetoric is ironic, if not hypocritical. Obama despises GOP leaders at least as much as they do him. He wallows in his frustration, his actions too often guided by his darker emotions. Lets get some work done? Thats rich. Almost as soon as he assumed the presidency, Obama abandoned his fundamental promise to create a bipartisan working environment in Washington. All true, although Beltway types like Fournier err in assuming that a bipartisan working environment in Washington is a worthy end in itself. Fifty summers ago, such an environment produced the Civil Rights Act, but also the Gulf of Tonkin resolution--the latter with even wider bipartisan support than the former. Further, it doesnt seem to occur to Fournier that the exhortation to stop hatin all the time isnt just a harsh attack but one that epitomizes Obamas self-pitying attitude and penchant for demonizing his opponents. To be sure, the equation of criticism or opposition with hatred has long been a trope of Obama supporters, as we are reminded by a newly released emails exchange involving former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner. From The Wall Street Journal: In the chain, Ms. Lerner wrote from her IRS email account on Nov. 9, three days after the 2012 election, that she overheard two women saying the U.S. had bankrupted itself and is going down the tubes. Well, you should hear the whacko wing of the GOP, the person conversing with her responded. The right wing radio shows are scary to listen to. Great, Ms. Lerner replied. Maybe we are through if there are that many ---holes. The word used by Ms. Lerner is redacted, with the first three letters blacked out by the committee. The name of her email correspondent is also redacted. At one point in the conversation, Ms. Lerner said: So we dont need to worry about alien teRrorists [sic]. Its our own crazies that will take us down. Of course rhetoric like this is plentiful on both sides; were prepared to believe that what Lerners correspondent heard on right wing radio shows was as truculent and unhinged as this email exchange. But members of only one partys whacko wing are in the position to use the federal governments vast and fearsome power against their opponents. Back in May 2013, CNN quoted Obama as describing the IRSs conduct as inexcusable and saying: Americans have a right to be angry about it, and Im angry about it. Now he says, Stop being mad all the time. He was right then and is wrong now.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 21:21:09 +0000
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