chutzpah n. shameless audacity, utter nerve, effrontery.
We could add: Republicans starting two wars, giving huge tax cuts to the wealthy, and beginning the prescription drug entitlement -- without paying for any of it. Then blaming the Democrats for the ensuing deficit.
Another: The Chicago Tribune called it "The Utter Shamelessness of Reince Priebus."
With a name like Reince Priebus, you've got to be either a clown or a serious person. From his appearance, I would have guessed that the new chairman of the Republican National Committee is a serious person.
Reince does seem to be a more careful man than his predecessor, Michael Steele; but today he released a statement -- not an off the cuff verbal gaffe, like Steele -- that makes him seem every bit as audacious and shameless. He wrote, about President Obama:
Unfortunately his campaign politics and talk about birth certificates is distracting him from our number one priority – our economy.Now that is just about as shameless chutzpah as the examples above. Republican nuts started the birther thing, then their media mouthpieces amplified it, and even some of their presidential wannabes took it up. Obama ignored it.
Then Donald Trump, with reckless abandon, flooded the airwaves with the birther thing; and he repeated it on every megaphone he could command, and the polls began to reflect a growing doubt. So Obama took a little time out of one day to put it to rest. He did what the Repubs had been demanding for months, even years. He made a special request and got a copy of his long-form birth certificate; and he showed it and talked about it -- a small part of one day.
So now it's Obama's fault for distracting us from all the problems we face by talking about his birth certificate ! ! ! !. That is really shameless.
Bah humbug.
Ralph
Erstwhile presidential candidate Tom Tancredo went a step further and claims that Obama withheld his birth certificate as long as he did IN ORDER TO make the Republicans look bad.
ReplyDeleteThese people are absolutely shameless. The problem is that their audiences eat it up -- and repeat it as the new wisdom.
Yes, the Republicans look bad; but they did it all by themselves.
Come on. Obama's birth certificate -- the same kind that anybody can get a copy of -- was made available years ago. It is the official copy you get. THEY are the ones who demanded the longer form that includes the name of the hospital, the doctor's signature, and the mother's signature.
They made this whole thing up. Maybe, just maybe, Obama knew that it might have more dramatic effect and hurt the Repubs if he held off. But he has the perfect right to do that.
When someone is beating up on you, you have the right to maneuver the action around in front of a tv camera. That doesn't make you responsible for the fight.
It's doubly shameless of Repubs to accuse Obama of using it as a distraction -- because that is exactly what they have been doing.
ReplyDeleteIt's the core of their strategy: "distract and deceive," in the words of Charles M. Blow's NY Times op-ed today.