Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Be bipartisan and vote for my stuff, stupid jerks!

Ah, I'm enjoying the President's exhortations for the Republicans to vote for unpopular legislation. There's CNN with "Obama rips Republicans for 'obstruction'" and Fox News with "Obama to Republicans: 'Show me what you got'".

This kind of persuasive argument reminds me of the "Branch Wars" episode of "The Office":

Pam: I have Ben Nugent on the line, he is the top salesman in Utica.
Michael: Hi Ben, Michael Scott.
Ben: Hi Michael.
Michael: I'm going to cut right to the chase here. Do you like magic? Because I'm a genie in a bottle, and I'm going to grant you three wishes. To move to Scranton, to have a great job, and to be my best friend.
Ben: Aren't you the guy that hit the woman with your car?
Pam: [giggles]
Michael: [to Pam] Get out. [to Ben] Uh, yeah. I also saved her life, but I guess that's not as grabby.
Ben: Everyone says Scranton branch is worse than Camden. Didn't everyone from Stanford quit, like immediately?
Michael: No, I fired them, and your next. ... So what do you say?
Ben: Seriously?

Yeah, seriously, Obama's castigating the GOP in one breath and then insisting – insisting! – that they "work with him" in the next to vote for bills that a majority of Americans oppose. Well, the Republicans floated a trial balloon on entitlement reform, which even Obama has admitted needs to be fixed, and the Democrats pounced:

In a new example of their efforts to showcase Republican ideas, House Democrats on Tuesday quickly jumped on one conservative Republican House leader's suggestion that promised Social Security and Medicare benefits need to be rethought for Americans under 55.

"I think it is very important that people see what the Republican proposals are," said Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland. "It is not that they are the party of no, they are the party of no new ideas. They want to turn back the clock and adopt the same Bush policies that got us back in this mess in the first place."
Can you feel the bipartisanship?

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