Quick Quips - 4/21/10

All the President's Goldman Sachs Men - reeking political opportunism in the air:
  While President Obama assails the culture of greed and recklessness practiced by the men of Goldman Sachs, his administration is infested with them. The White House can no more disown Government Sachs than Da Boss-in-chief can disown Chicago politics...
  As Obama harangues Wall Street to clean up its house, all the president's Goldman Sachs men have their feet on the coffee table at his. Read more...

Tea Partiers a Delayed Bush Backlash by Jonah Goldberg  
   First, here's what I didn't see. I didn't see a single racist or bigoted sign or hear a single such comment. Nor did I see any evidence of "homegrown fascism." Though in fairness, such things are often in the eye of the beholder, now that dissent has gone from being the highest form of patriotism under George W. Bush to the most common form of racism under Barack Obama.
   But I did see something a lot of people, on both the left and the right, seemed to have missed: a delayed Bush backlash.
   One of the more widespread anti-tea party arguments goes like this: Republicans didn't protest very much when Bush ran up deficits and expanded government, so when Obama does the same thing (albeit on a far grander scale), Republican complaints can't be sincere.
  This lazy sophistry opens the door to liberals' preferred argument: racism. "No student of American history," writes Paul Butler in the New York Times, "would be surprised to learn that when the United States elects its first non-white president, a strong anti-government movement rises up." ...
  Going by what I saw in Cincinnati, second to a profound desire to rein in government, the chief attitude driving the 39 percent of tea partiers who describe themselves as "very conservative" isn't partisanship, racism or seizing the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. It's "we won't be fooled again." In the near term, that spells trouble for Obama and Democrats. In the long term, that lays down a serious gauntlet for Republicans.

DEMONIZATION Watch! So hypocritical. So ... Bill Clinton, Still Smearing Conservatives 

Our alleged defenders of civility in the media elite can only provide their usual hosannas for Bill Clinton. But no one blinked in 2005, when we marked the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and Republicans were in the White House. Clinton granted no interviews to warn about anti-government talk. He issued no civility warnings. These attacks on "anti-government talk" are only relevant when the president is a Democrat. We live in "crazy" anti-government times only when protesting the government is seen as standing in the way of progress, not opposing the government schemes of "neocons" and "warmongers." Read more...

Demonizer-in-chief by Frank Rich
   The Democrats are trying to run from what the Obama Administration is doing to this country, but they cannot refute the truth. They cannot ignore the Tea Party freight train roaring down the track, headed for a November 2nd midterm election climax. They can’t avoid seeing the faces of the wonderful Tea Party participants in their morning papers. Heck, there are so many of them, even the mainstream media can’t avoid showing them.
   So they do what many do when one is losing the argument: lie, deceive, distort and raise your voice even more. Try to fool as many of the people as possible into thinking that what they’re seeing isn’t so. Attempt to make people feel foolish and small for loving their country and marching and rallying on America’s behalf.
   Liberals enjoy demonizing our side. For Frank Rich, MSNBC, and much of the mainstream media, that’s just business as usual.
  This time, it’s not going to work. The Tea Party is here to stay. Sure, there will be quibbles and arguing and challenges as this movement continues to grow. Ask any Mom, giving birth is hardly a cakewalk.
   But Americans are prepared to fight for their country, a fight that will be waged with words and ideas and signs and songs and elections. Democrats are panicked, liberals everywhere are nervous.
   Because they are starting to realize what we’ve known all along: there’s a lot more of us...than there are of them.