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Boehner’s ‘New’ GOP Strategy: Same Policies, ‘Refurbished’ Message

By Satyam Khanna on May 14, 2008 at 4:43 pm

Last week, an ABC News poll found that 82 percent of the public thinks the country is on the “wrong track.” Conservative candidates have lost three special congressional races in recent weeks, some in conservative districts. The Republican response? Better messaging.

The Washington Times reports today that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said that “his party does not need to change its core principles,” but instead will bank on a “refurbished” message. “It’s a change election,” Boehner admitted, and according to him, only the Republican “brand” needs changing:

“It’s not that the party’s going to change, it’s what we talk about and how we talk about it,” he said. “You look at the Republican brand name being where it is, let’s be frank about it. Iraq has been very unpopular, right? It’s associated with Republicans. The president’s job approval is somewhere down around 30. Those are the two big issues that hurt the brand.“

In order to “counter the Democratic push for change,” GOP leaders adopted “The Change You Deserve” for their new slogan. Boehner tried out his new slogan on Fox News today. Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/05/boehnerchange.320.240.flv]

But “the change you deserve” is also the advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug used to treat depression. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said today, “‘Change you deserve’ is of course a trademark of a an antidepressant. It does have side effects…it can make you sick. 82% of Americans have indicated that they are sick and tired of the policies that have been pursued by the Bush/Boehner Administration and they want a change.”

While the brand is hurting, conservative policies are causing even more pain. As Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) explained, conservative policies have resulted in “$3 trillion in new debt, millions more Americans without health insurance, energy and gas prices skyrocketing and incomes stagnant.” Only 30 percent of the public supports the Iraq war, an all time low, and economic anxiety is at its “highest level on record since 1981.”

Yglesias

Aid From Above

By ThinkProgress on May 14, 2008 at 4:22 pm

Someone asked me the other day why we can’t just drop relief supplies on Burma, nevermind what SLORC has to say about it. That seemed like a good question to me, and I didn’t have an answer. Barbara Stocking, the director of the UK branch of Oxfam, says this won’t work logistically and that there’s no alternative to either somehow pressuring the junta into letting relief workers enter the country. Or else, more likely I suppose, to watching more Burmese be essentially slaughtered by the obstructionism of their rulers.

Politics

Administration: Polar bear ‘threatened’ by global warming, but Arctic drilling can continue.

By Brad Johnson on May 14, 2008 at 4:13 pm

polar-bear-cubs.jpg After years of delay, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne finally declared the polar bear a “threatened species,” under the Endangered Species Act, due to global warming. Yet at the same time, Kempthorne also decreed that drilling in the Arctic can still continue:

This rule, effective immediately, will ensure the protection of the bear while allowing us to continue to develop our natural resources in the arctic region in an environmentally sound way.

Kempthorne’s decision calls into question the legality of a Feb. 6 sale of oil and gas drilling right in polar bear habitat, when the ESA decision was being illegally delayed. Go to the Wonk Room for in-depth analysis.

Politics

GOP Uses GI Bill As A ‘Political Gimmick’ On Senate Floor To Thwart Passage Of First Responder Legislation

By ThinkProgress on May 14, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Today, the Senate debated the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007 (H.R. 980), a bill strengthening the collective bargaining powers of firefighters, police officers, and first responders.

At noon, the Senate quickly “devolved into a procedural mess” when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attempted to attach Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) watered-down GI Bill — which is strongly backed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — as an amendment. McConnell also immediately seconded his measure, but then filed cloture, “prohibiting Democrats from filing their own version of the proposal.”

This amendment is a poison pill. It not only kills the Public Safety bill, but also blocks Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) more generous GI Bill from being considered. In one swift maneuver, conservatives trampled over first responders and veterans. In a fiery speech, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) responded on the floor:

We have seen this parliamentary gimmick that has taken place offered by the Republican leadership that is a slap in the face to every firefighter and police officer and first responder in the country. [...]

We’re saying to the firefighters of this nation and to the police officers of this nation and the first responders of the nation: Your interest, the safety and security of our communities across the nation, should be put aside in favor of some political gimmick by the Republican leader here in the United States Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) angrily reacted to the GOP maneuver by issuing a quorum call and denying Sen. Judd Gregg’s (R-NH) right to speak three times. Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/05/gistunt.320.240.flv]

This morning, Politico reported that McCain and his allies were “reaching out” to Webb “in the hope of finding a compromise on a GI Bill.” It seems, however, that McCain became desperate to avoid a “potential embarrassment” and resorted to this political stunt. Unlike McCain’s bill, Webb’s has strong bipartisan support and the backing of a majority of the American public.

Why not focus on the GI bill after the first responders bill is over? Kennedy asked. “Do it Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. Maybe Sen. McCain will come back for it,” he said. “Maybe he won’t.”

McCain was not in the Senate today and questions remain whether he approved this strategy. “Maybe the leadership on the other side can tell us whether Sen. McCain approved this strategy,” added Kennedy. “Maybe you can find that out. I think the police and firefighters would like to know.”

Update

The Senate voted 55-42 to table the McCain/Graham amendment.

Yglesias

Wage Gap

By ThinkProgress on May 14, 2008 at 3:25 pm

FigA_wages%201.jpg

Kay Steiger blogs about this EPI chart showing the substantial gap in wages for male and female recent college graduates. The good news, though, is that thanks to deteriorating male wages, the gap is narrowing . . . if we just continue our 21st century economic trajectory, college educated man and college educated woman alike can be equal in penury.

Climate Progress

Bye-polar Kempthorne: Polar bear IS endangered, but “Rule will allow continuation of vital energy production in Alaska”

By Joe Romm on May 14, 2008 at 3:19 pm

polar-bear-tongue.jpegThe Department of Interior suffers from a rare form of bipolar disorder called bye-polar disorder. There is one major symptom of this disorder: You list the polar bear as “threatened” because of its melting polar sea ice habitat, but then do nothing to actually protect that polar habitat from its primary threat, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion.

The disorder is accompanied by an occasional burst of logic, as when the DOI noted:

  • The polar bears need sea ice for feeding.
  • The sea ice is being destroyed by human-caused emissions, faster than the models had predicted.
  • Thus, the polar bear is endangered.

On the other hand, the disorder makes it physically, or at least psychologically, impossible for the patient to take any action based on that burst of logic. The quote in this post’s headline is from the DOI press release’s own subhead (see here and below). Someone will need to explain how producing fossil fuels — whose combustion is destroying the polar bear’s habitat — is consistent with preserving an endangered species.

The disorder is also marked by unintentional bursts of irony, as in the use of the phrase “Rule will allow continuation of vital energy production.” The word ‘vital’ means “Necessary to the continuation of life; life-sustaining.”

Kempthorne said:

“Listing the polar bear as threatened can reduce avoidable losses of polar bears. But it should not open the door to use of the ESA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources. That would be a wholly inappropriate use of the ESA law. The ESA is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy.”

Sadly, doctors say bye-polar disorder is incurable. Worse, since global warming is opening up the Arctic to more fossil fuel drilling, victims of bye-polar disorder tend to suffer a progressively deteriorating condition.

If you want to become an expert on polar bears and their habitat, read the actual 368-page DOI rule here (big PDF). You can see the Wonk Room’s comments here. Sierra Club view here. The full press release is below:

Read more

Climate Progress

Breaking: Polar Bear ‘Threatened’ By Global Warming, But Arctic Drilling Can Continue

By Brad Johnson on May 14, 2008 at 2:59 pm

After years of delay, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne made a landmark decision on whether global warming pollution is regulated by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Kempthorne ruled that the polar bear should be classified as a “threatened species” due to the decline of polar sea ice, critical to its survival. Kempthorne stated:

They are likely to become endangered in the near future.

The Department of Interior, under Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, fought for several years in the courts since 2005 to avoid making a decision on whether the precipitous decline in Arctic sea ice due to global warming is making the polar bear an endangered species. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dale Hall testified in January that there was no significant scientific uncertainty in the endangerment posed by global warming to polar bears — the only legal justification under the Endangered Species Act for a delay.

Kempthone’s decision to follow the science is in marked contrast to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson’s action to override his staff in refusing to regulate tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions.

However, Kempthorne also argued vigorously that his decison does not compel the Bush administration to construct a plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, repeating President Bush’s entirely spurious claim that would be a “wholly inappropriate use” of the Endangered Species Act. The Interior news release announces, “Rule will allow continuation of vital energy production in Alaska.” In justifying his declaration that the ESA places no new restrictions on Arctic drilling, Kempthorne claimed that the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) is “more stringent” than the ESA. However, the court ruling that compelled him to issue today’s rule states that “the protections afforded under the ESA far surpass those provided by the MMPA.”

Read more

Yglesias

HIV Discrimination

By ThinkProgress on May 14, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Until I read about it on Andrew’s blog a while back I, like most Americans, had absolutely no idea about the bizarre restrictions on travel the United States tries (obviously, key elements of the rule are impractical to enforce) to impose on HIV-positive would-be visitors or immigrants. This is a crazy rule that doesn’t accomplish anything, an act of petty cruelty born in an era of hysteria whose time is long past.

Politics

Closing Time

By ThinkProgress on May 14, 2008 at 2:31 pm

NARAL endorses Barack Obama and if you read the page, you’ll see they’re just taking for granted that Obama’s the nominee and his opponent is John McCain. It seems that nobody’s going to “force” Hillary Clinton out of the race, but when you have her natural allies deciding that the time’s come to endorse in the Obama-McCain race you can see it’s over in more than just the mathematical sense.

Politics

Washington University refuses to back down on Schlafly award.

By Amanda Terkel on May 14, 2008 at 2:29 pm

Today, Washington University chancellor Mark Wrighton finally responded to the intense criticism the school has been receiving over its decision to award anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree. In a letter to the “Washington University Community,” Wrighton wrote:

Following the public announcement of the honorary degrees, many in the University community have called for the University to rescind that offer, stating that Mrs. Schlafly is associated with some views, opinions and statements that are inconsistent with the tolerant and inclusive values of the Washington University community. Personally, I do not endorse her views or opinions, and in many instances, I strongly disagree with them.

However, after further consultation with members of the University’s Board of Trustees, the University has concluded that it will fulfill its commitment to award the degree to Mrs. Schlafly. I apologize for the anguish this decision has caused to many members of our community.

Read the full letter below: Read more

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