Progress Illinois’ Josh Kalven reports that at an Illinois state fair this past week, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) fully embraced the GOP’s “party of no” obstructionist strategy. Shimkus stated that the Republican “chant for now until Election Day” should be “Just Say No!” “We’ve been saying no for a long time,” he noted. “When President Obama was on the ballot, the Republican response was, ‘Just say no!‘” Watch it:
Shimkus stated that the Republican “chant for now until Election Day” should be “Just Say No!”
You mean it hasn’t been to this point?
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:29 amIt only takes a very small mind to motivate those with even smaller ones.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 amSomebody ought sit that guy down and tell him that’s not the way it works. You’ve got to be a grown-up. The country depends on it.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 amQuick, somebody say “More wars!”
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 amShimkus has a point… I mean, look how well “Just say NO!” worked in the War on Drugs…
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 am“Just Say No!”
Ah, yes. Wasn’t this Nancy RayGun’s slogan for the war on drugs? How’d that work out for you, Nancy?
No question about it. The G-Nope is “the party of RayGun” . . . in this case, Nancy RayGun. It’s no wonder the G-Nopes have failed and sunk over the past couple of decades. They have a huge anchor tied around their necks . . . and they’re proud of it!
When are they going to wake up, denounce Ronnie RayGun, apologize to us all for eight years of GDumbya and become part of the solution instead of continuing to be the entire source of the problem?
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 amAt least Timothy Leary put a polite spin on Nancy’s quaint, brain-dead phrase. He preferred to just say “no thank you”, as I do, only very rarely. ;)
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:42 am“…“When President Obama was on the ballot, the Republican response was, ‘Just say no!‘”
That worked out so well for the Republicans that they are now in the minority.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:42 amThis needs repeating…
“If the Republicans believed for one second that government run health care would fail miserably, then of course they would just let it pass and blame the inevitable failure on Obama and the Democrats. They’re fighting tooth and nail against it because they know it will succeed, and succeed brilliantly.”
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/22/770707/-Its-not-about-corporate-interests
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:43 amheh… that’s my guy…
ugh.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 amthank you, doctor-chairman-governor dean!
and thanks to face the nation for putting him on to wisen up
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 amthe viewrs after the b.s. of grASSley and conrad…
More like “The Party of No Ideas Whatsoever”.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:55 amTODAY’S REPUBLICANS ARE THE MOST UNREPENTANT, SINFUL AND SCURRILOUS HYPOCRITES ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH
Health Care Insurance is a wholly immoral, unethical and inhumane racket. It’s nothing more than legally sanctioned blackmail, fraud, extortion and profiteering. America is the only so-called enlightened civilized society in the world that values commerce over the health and lives of it’s citizens.
Today’s Republicans are an abomination to the actions and example of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t charge the sick he healed or the hungry he fed, but today’s Republicans will kill anyone who wants to stop them from protecting the mercenary greed of exploitive Insurance Companies profiting and prospering from the miseries of God’s children.
Republican faux-religious phonies are serving the unholy avarice of the money changers in a den of thieves rather than following the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. They are the worst of the worst of us.
Luke 18:35-43 – Then, as he was approaching Jericho, it happened that there was a blind man sitting by the roadside, begging. He heard the crowd passing and enquired what it was all about. And they told him, “Jesus the man from Nazareth is going past you.” So he shouted out, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”
Those who were in front tried to hush his cries. But that made him call out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!”
So Jesus stood quite still and ordered the man to be brought to him. And when he was quite close, he said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Lord, make me see again,” he cried.
“You can see again! Your faith has cured you,” returned Jesus. And his sight was restored at once, and he followed Jesus, praising God. All the people who saw it thanked God too.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:58 amIsn’t this refreshing!!!! One of the Neo’s finally admitting what they are when they’re not in power!! I love it!
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 amThis video ought to be in every non-Republican’s campaign literature who is running for office.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:07 amJust propose some more wars around the world, you know its what Jesus wanted was death and hate, and they will become the party of yes again
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 amholy crap – wait’ll you hear john mcLIAR shut down
the ‘death panel’ lies… NOT.
the same with his other lies…
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:17 amWhy don’t they just go ahead and change their name to the Republican’ts!
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:24 amWhen someone on the playground calls you a name, rather than try to fight it, it is easier to go with the nickname, no matter how ridiculous a name it might be. In fact, the more ridiculous, the better.
Many have called the Republican Party the “Party of No”, so they are just adopting the name for themselves. I bet we will start hearing “Just Say No” being chanted at their fascist rallies.
It has been said history repeats itself. I wonder if we will see Republican rallies begin to look more like Nazi rallies, with thousands of people chanting, “Just Say No” instead of “Zeig Heil”, and displaying swastikas openly.
I have already heard them singing that they are proud of being an American, because at least they know they are free to scream, “Hail Hitler” at a Jew. I have also seen them carrying pictures glorifying the memory of Hitler by drawing a Hitler style moustache on Obama’s face. They also carry around signs with the swastika, in an attempt to claim their political opponents are Nazis. They have even defaced the property of their political enemies with the swastika symbol, in an effort to label their political opposition as Nazis.
OT
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:24 amI have not been able to find evidence of a single uprising of fascism anywhere in the world that was defeated without the use of violence.
Well at least the GOP has a slogan for their 2010 and 2012 election campaigns: “The Republican Party — status quo you can believe in”.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 amAh, yes. “Just say no!” — the motto of two year olds everywhere.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:41 amWhat republicans?I thought they all are libertarians these days…
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:42 amOn one hand it is fight for health care, on the other it is about if the Republican party will cease to exist. Repubs believe that if health care succeeds they will not. Let us all believe that it is necessary that health care succeeds, so nothing can prevent the death of the GOP. A two for one.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:45 amThe party of no is rapidly becoming the party of uniformity instead of unity.
And what country sees individualism as problematic?
North Korea.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:46 amHe sounds drunk.
And wow, he really had that crowd with him… **crickets**
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 amTell Party of No guy to say YES! for a change,
http://shimkus.house.gov/index.html
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:04 pmRepiggies like him represent a small but loud constituency. We need to run a progressive in his district next year, not a blue dog, just to rattle him a bit.
Who knows? He might even lose.
Screw the repiggies, and screw the teabagger trash. Why waste time trying to compromise with them? They are not the majority in this nation.
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pm“When the Democrat leadership came to Washington, ‘Let’s bail out Wall Street,’ the Republican position was ‘Just say no.’”
Wasn’t it Republican and former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson who went to Washington and said “Let’s bail out Wall Street”? As I recall, the Republicans actually said, “Yes, of course.” I believe Shimkus has his facts confused.
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pmLove it! Everytime a Repubulikkkan says “Just say no” a progressive angel get’s it’s wings.
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pmMcCain, like many of those throwing alarmist meat around, is up for re-election in 2010.
So is Demint, who is also busy passing out scary meat.
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 pmWhen it comes to accepting money from their corporate sponsers, I wonder how many Republicans “just say no.”
August 23rd, 2009 at 1:16 pmHow about we “just say NO” to your reelection, too? Or we insert something dear to them in the healthcare bill, like “you can carry a gun into hospitals,” and watch them vote NO on it.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:00 pm“When are they going to wake up, denounce Ronnie RayGun, apologize to us all for eight years of GDumbya and become part of the solution instead of continuing to be the entire source of the problem?”
When hell freezes over?
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:03 pmWith all the vote downs, I see the Republican’ts are out in force.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:47 pm.
G(no)P
.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:48 pmYes, the Republicans are shameless and consistent with their tactic of just saying “NO.” The Democrats are completely undisciplined and incapable of using the Republican tactic against them. This is the way of sustaining support amongst the independents and motivating the base.
President Obama has gone far beyond what is necessary to demonstrate the obstructionist nature of the Republican party. It is long past time to fight back, isolate and render the Republicans irrelevant in the debate upon all significant political issues of the day. It is simple:
1. The president and the entire Democratic party must become uniform in one political message: The Republicans have place politics above the well being of this country. McConnell made this clear when the Democrats took control of Congress before the presidential elections. Shimkus and others have carried on the mantra. A number of speeches, MSM appearances and commercials will make this clear.
2. The next stage is to support the general charge with specific examples. Note the vast increase in the number of filibusters initiated by the Republicans. Use a few prime examples as when the Republicans in the Senate demanded cloture to amend a bill to correct the name of the legislation. Use the charts that compare the number of filibusters over the past 20/30 years. Note the Republican protests over the use of filibusters during their reign.
3. Demonstrate the extent to which the Democrats have attempted to compromise and make a bipartisan effort. Note the failure.
4. Provide the final nail: Republicans have forfeited their right to participate in policy through their deliberate actions to obstruct and destroy the United States. Democrats on all of the significant issues of the day have shown the willingness to be bipartisan and to debate the issues internally (Blue Dogs on health care and other issues.)
5 Cease bipartisan efforts. Make it clear that the Democrats will debate the issues, deny cloture and pass legislation.
In 2010 you will see the destruction of the Republican party.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:52 pm.
G(no)P likes the Billionaires for Wealthcare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHVwrCzRUX0
.
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:03 pmWhere the frack has Shimkus been for the last 8 months? Has there been a moment when “Just say noooooooo” hasn’t been the mantra? WTF?
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:17 pm38. Virtual Pebble sez:…
Sorry. I just got carried away and tossed that comment out before reading the thread. Should have known that just about the same sentiment would be expressed much earlier and much more eloquently.
It’s really going to take the Rs a long long time to unwedge their heads from their butts; verily, some will pass on, still firmly wedged, while others have already used barrels of K-Y jelly just getting their mouths free.
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:24 pmWayne A. Schneider says:
“When the Democrat leadership came to Washington, ‘Let’s bail out Wall Street,’ the Republican position was ‘Just say no.’”
Wasn’t it Republican and former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson who went to Washington and said “Let’s bail out Wall Street”? As I recall, the Republicans actually said, “Yes, of course.” I believe Shimkus has his facts confused.
I must issue a correction. Apparently more Republicans voted against the TARP program than voted for it. Shimkus was one of the no votes. The bill passed because a large majority of Democrats supported it. IMHO, this was not an informed vote on their part. It was Paulson’s idea, not the Democrats’. But I believe that his concern was more for rescuing Goldman Sachs than it was for the rest of the country. In the end, I think the country would have been better off if Goldman Sachs went under, just like their major competitor, Lehman Brothers, was allowed to do. If the Treasury Sec had been a former CEO of Lehman Brothers, it might have been Goldman Sachs that was allowed to go under.
Seriously, you cannot trust anyone on Wall Street to do what’s best for the country, because that’s not what’s best for Wall Street.
I apologize for the error.
August 23rd, 2009 at 5:00 pmLittle late to the party, huh?
August 23rd, 2009 at 5:02 pmThe repugs have been saying “NO” to everything for a long time now — didn’t you get the memo?
With all the problems, the G-NO-P continues to refuse to work to mitigate our problems.
August 23rd, 2009 at 6:05 pmJust say no to budget busting nonsense. With $11 trillion in national debt, the USA is the largest debtor nation in history. The debt madness has been getting worse and worse for decades. Obama, in the last 7 months, has just continued the trend. Enough.
August 23rd, 2009 at 6:56 pmJust say no to Obama and democrats.
August 23rd, 2009 at 7:07 pmI think we have already said no to the Republican Party. We are going to keep saying no to them until they are just a historical footnote. We can change our government in America, and we can make the Republican crime syndicate a thing of the past.
Yes we can.
August 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 pmkwsventures: “Just say no to budget busting nonsense. With $11 trillion in national debt, the USA is the largest debtor nation in history. The debt madness has been getting worse and worse for decades.”
And just think. It was 1979, just before the beginning of the modern conservative movment, when we were the world’s largest creditor nation. What happened? The modern conservative movement happened.
But, guys like you have absolutely NO credibility on this issue because you sat around staring off into space while Bush and Cheney were running a $12 billion a month war of choice off the budget. What did we get for your conservative administration spending $1 trillion in taxpayer money? Nothing. At least Democrats plan on giving the people something for their money.
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 pmDoesn’t that sign in the background say “We are Ill in Illinois?”
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:43 pmLet’s just say no to Phil Gramm the friendly conservative at UBS.
August 23rd, 2009 at 10:14 pmRepublicans can just say “no” to everything, and you guys still don’t have the votes. Who cares what we say.. I thought that was why you wanted stewart smalley in office so bad?
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 pmninerfan:
But, guys like you have absolutely NO credibility on this issue because you sat around staring off into space while Bush and Cheney were running a $12 billion a month war of choice off the budget. What did we get for your conservative administration spending $1 trillion in taxpayer money? Nothing. At least Democrats plan on giving the people something for their money
uhh, you controlled congress for the last 3 years..
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:13 pmIt is not just the right saying No. Read this I found:
http://americaspeaksink.com/2009/08/democrat-all-that-power-wasted/
August 24th, 2009 at 7:33 amThe Party of “No”!
August 24th, 2009 at 7:55 amAnd this is a surprise to who exactly?
The GOP is dead and rotting and truly stinks.
August 24th, 2009 at 11:14 pmconservaTROLL says:
We should just say STFU to ignorant punkass trolls like you
August 25th, 2009 at 6:28 amMIMS
Yeah imagine that a few Dems are almost as bad as virtually EVERY republican. Of course it is only the filibuster that makes this even an issue. If we were talking simple majority we would just be laughing at you morons. The thing is we KNOW the GOP so lacks any basic decency that they will filibuster to insure Americans continue to DIE to insure corporate profits
August 25th, 2009 at 6:30 amvery thanks for article!
August 29th, 2009 at 9:31 am