Partisan Cheese

Ho ho! The job market is so bad that the unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a percentage point, and only 69,000 jobs were created in May - less than half of the number of jobs that was expected to be created.  So naturally the Republicans have been angrily denouncing President Obama  for his failed economic policies.  The only problem is, Obama has been relentlessly pushing an economic policy designed to put people back to work building bridges, highways, and railways.  I don't blame the Republicans for not wanting to pass it - that's politics.  But when someone in the media actually asks them what they would do, they always say the same thing - tax cuts and austerity measures, even though that clearly hasn't worked.  And if Mitt Romney gets elected President in November, they're going to do even more damage with their right-wing agenda, cracking down on workers while rewarding the fat cats who run this country.  I got so angry watching House Republican leaders speak on MSNBC yesterday, I threw something at my television set - twice!

In Wisconsin, Tom Barrett got so angry in his race against Republican governor Scott Walker in the  gubernatorial recall election, he tore into Walker in a debate about an ongoing investigation into when the governor was the Milwaukee County executive and allegations that county workers campaigned for him in the 2010 election on government time . . . and embezzled money from veterans' groups.  Walker has had to establish a legal defense fund.  Barrett also bashed Walker for running an ad that showed a dead two-year-old child, implying that, as mayor, Barrett was negligent in prosecuting the murder of the child.  In fact, the prime suspect in the case was arrested for it.  Barrett's aggressive tone in the final week of the campaign suggests that he's a fighter who's not afraid to take a firm stand.  Naturally, the media are lamenting that Barrett is acting like a nasty bastard in contrast to his nice-guy image and suggest that this could hurt him.    

I am sickened and disgusted even more by the the Republican attack on workers' rights and the attack on the opposition's ability to fight back.  The decimation of unions in Wisconsin and elsewhere have made it extremely difficult for Democrats to raise enough money to run a competent campaign (not that the Democrats could run a competent campaign, even if they had the dough for it), portending a time when Republicans will have so much in the way of campaign resources that they'll have permanent legislative majorities and permanent locks on the Presidency and on state governorships for . . . well, as Rachel Maddow put it, forever.  And you can count on me to be here until the end of time to bitch about it. 

And if the Republicans have a problem with a jobs bill designed to put people back to work building things,  they can't keep complaining that it's because it's "runaway government spending" on "pork-barrel projects."  They're going to have to come up with something better than that.