Iowa is over, so let’s be done with the goofiness
Between the Lines
We’ve watched the Republicans drop-kick President Obama for months now… the ones in Congress, the pundits on Fox, the wannabe candidates (Palin and Trump), and the gonna-be candidates for the Republican nomination in the 2012 election.
The race to get beat by Obama has been a funny one. Mean, but funny. It’s funny to watch eight people try to get the privilege of drop-kicking the president while drop-kicking each other. Their party hasn’t done anything to help them, as Republican obstructionism has become the hallmark of American politics lately.
It’s about to be on, though, as the American public gets its turn to drop-kick somebody. Iowa made a choice this week. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum survived, with Ron Paul in the lifeboat. The rest are adrift out at sea—mostly ideologues Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann. [Bachmann suspended her campaign Wednesday morning after a poor showing in Iowa.]
The Republicans finally played themselves last week when the House of Representatives tried to dictate to the Senate after the upper house left for Christmas vacation. The House threatened to not pass the bipartisan payroll tax extension passed by the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said, “Go for it. We ain’t comin’ back in session.”
With the eyes of the world on the House, Speaker John Boehner, who had been walked out on a plank several times by the Tea Party activists, particularly Rep. Eric Kantor (whom he can’t control), finally grabbed his nuts and came on in the house and in effect told his party to shut up, while he announced the House was signing the bill.
What makes the Republican primary candidates interesting to watch is waiting to see which one makes the most outlandish comments, knowing someone else is going to try to top it. I must say that the campaign has been a lot less entertaining since Herman Cain left. Cain was good for at least two five-star gaffes a week, followed by Rick Perry’s one, Mitt Romney’s “me too,” Ron Paul’s “what for?,” Newt’s “it wasn’t me,” and Michele Bachmann’s “partridge in a pear tree” stare.
Without Cain to “set it off,” we now see the candidates turning on each other and ideas about solving problems falling by the wayside. Funny how they can ignore the foolishness going on in Congress (for the most part), but can focus on President Obama for not providing leadership in Washington. What would they do with a Tea Party- led Congress? Well, we’d know what Newt would do, but the rest would have no solution for legislative obstructionism. So they should stop frontin’.
If I was in Iowa, I would ask the Republicans what they were going to do with the Tea Party? The Tea Party candidates didn’t do well at all. Iowa Republicans didn’t pretend that the Tea Party speaks for the frustrated masses. All the Tea Party has done is frustrate the political process.
That’s not governing. That’s filibustering Congress in a different way that we’re used to seeing. Between anti-tax pledges and protect-the-rich proclamations… “excuse-me job-creators” is the Republican’s new name for the rich. Sounds like more shenanigans to me and much of the American public.
Let’s see if New Hampshire follows suit.
The good thing about the Iowa caucuses is that more of these clowns will be forced to drop out now that they’ve finished out of the running. The show for some of these clowns is about to come to an end. Eventually, it will end for all but one of them. The one that’s left Obama will handle.
But we’re all ready for the goofiness to be over. Iowa is settled. Now let the next goofy show begin….
Sorry. No offense to Goofy.
Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D., is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of the upcoming book, “Real Eyez: Race, Reality and Politics in 21st Century Popular Culture.” He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com or on Twitter at @dranthonysamad.
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The events of the day have caused us to confuse what is real and what is important. It seems some people frame what’s important to them and forget what’s important to us all. There are things going on in our community that are significant and the people that say they speak for us or represent us, don’t seem to think so ... or don’t seem to care.
Every decade or so, some unconscious Negro steps forward into the national spotlight to demonstrate how insane he can sound in trying to attract the support or affinity of White folk by making the most outrageous and outlandish statements. It’s usually when some conservative initiative is in play. This year, it’s the conservative movement’s blackface response to President Barack Obama.
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