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Biden, Jeffries, Dems - please start to break out the A Game [1]

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Date: 2023-05-11

Let me say up front that I respect, admire and am incredibly grateful that we have a House Minority Leader from the New York City area – Mr. Hakeem Jeffries. Every time he speaks on the House floor or to reporters, the assembled media or on TV I think of how well he represents the Democratic coalition and how tuned in he is to the ‘moment’ that requires his public input.

Similarly, I wake up every morning and look up in the sky to say “thank you” for the fact that the Biden administration is in the White House and that the scars of the previous occupant and his team of sycophants – Pence, Barr, Stephen Miller, Mnuchin, Wilber Ross, Stephen Miller, Betsy Devos along $2 billion man Jared – are well and truly ‘evicted’ from that seat of power through to the end of next year (at least).

That all said, I watched and listened to both President Biden and Hakeem Jeffries yesterday. Biden was responding to some press corps questions about the imminent Debt Ceiling default and “what are Democrats going to do in response to McCarthy’s proposal for raising the debt ceiling”. Mr. Jeffries was on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show and asked about the CNN Drumpf “town hall”.

So, let’s analyze the messaging.

Biden was asked about the 14th amendment yesterday and – as Josh Marshall at TPM noted – stepped out of his prior role of strategic chess player and gave a novice checker player’s reaction. He spoke about a difficult path entwined with litigation for relying on the 14th amendment as a solve for the Debt Ceiling crisis. He didn’t counteract that seemingly exasperating legal conclusion with any notion of other smart ‘solves’ that might be up the sleeve of the most powerful office on the planet. I’ll lift from TPM slightly here – “…. [Biden’s] answer is not only wrong and self-defeating, it suggests the White House simply isn’t in shape for this fight. Indeed, if this is where we’re at it suggests an attitude toward the courts and the broader political context which seems hopelessly stuck in the past.”

Talk about potentially ‘losing the plot’ – wow, we’re in deep doo doo if this is the White House A game at this phase of this dispute. Even if the “difficult litigation” conclusion is the analysis that Biden’s constitutional lawyers provided him – you don’t let the other guys see you emote over the bad hand you may have just been dealt – ‘Never let them see you sweat’.

You continue to call the bluff – or rather – call out the suicide squad for what they are. I know that no one is listening to me – but maybe, just maybe, someone will start listening to Josh Marshall. I know they are getting closer to the A game we expect, when I finally hear something along the lines of –

“Between a clean debt ceiling bill or the 14th amendment or other extraordinary measures we are considering, we will not reward the anti-American actions of the ‘Burn it all down’ caucus. One way or another my administration will defuse the debt bomb which that group of financial terrorists have constructed and thrown at the country while they go through the first – of what will surely be a series of – Trumpy temper tantrums.

Now my administration prefers to avoid default and raise the debt ceiling in a bi-partisan manner with the help of those responsible members of the GOP – reminding them that their ‘Burn it all down’ caucus will get a second chance to shut down the government when we begin the process of agreement on a Federal Budget for the next fiscal year. After all, it is their one binding principle. Heck, when the GOP controlled the Presidency, the Senate and the House – even then, they shut down the government.”

Moving on to the House Minority leader who was speaking to Lawrence O’Donnell last night about the behavior of the MAGA party leader and his cult-ish followers gathered by CNN and broadcast as an insurrectionist membership telethon, er, political ‘news event’ -

“One, facts don’t matter, two, hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior. And three, they actually believe that shamelessness is a superpower.”

Eloquent, accurate and on-point? Definitely. Impactful – not so much. More like weak tea. I hope the DK moderators allow me to bring in a lift from Josh Marshall’s critique here as well as it applies to the Minority Leader’s comments –

Those comments seem to demonstrate “…… an attitude toward ….. the broader political context which seems hopelessly stuck in the past.”

This is not your father’s Oldsmobile, Grand Old Party nor electorate. NOBODY CARES about MAGA hypocrisy and shamelessness and “lie-o-rama” public performances – it’s all baked into the equation already across the entire political spectrum. It’s not a point of differentiation, it’s as relevant to what was happening in that venue as was “the crowd was breathing air” – full stop. So, this too, was yet another (admittedly small) missed opportunity.

How about something along these lines from Mr. Jeffries, Adam Schiff, Mr. Swalwell, any of our good Dems in leadership that get the opportunity to use language that is either mocking in its construct or that cuts deeply in its descriptors and tone. Mr. Jeffries – here’s your new ‘cheat sheet’:

“Thank You Lawrence and yes - I saw CNN’s first installment of their new cutting edge political programming with tonight’s ‘Insurrectionist Group’ rally and many of the assembled mob cheering on their sexual assaulter in chief. I may have missed the section of the audience with the Shaman holding Nancy Pelosi’s desk set but, other than that guy, I think CNN did incredible work in attracting almost all of that very same crowd that appeared on a news broadcast about 2 years back – I think it was on January 6th. So many familiar faces and, without the distracting assault of capitol police getting in the way of the cameras and creating a side-show to a such a gripping political story. CNN’s telecast has obviously been vastly improved from the production of the Pilot Program on that January 6th.

And by the way Lawrence, while no one may have released this yet, I have it on good authority that next week’s CNN episode is a deep dive on ‘Congressional integrity in the Biden era’ with George Santos joining the CNN team as a moderator. It seems like a brave new world of political entertainment, er, journalism for CNN. I only hope Wolf Blitzer can find shelter.”

FFS — call them what they are — the ‘Burn it all down caucus’, Financial terrorists, Bomb-throwers. Take the God-damned gloves off — verbally — and, when you can do so smartly, mock, mock, mock them and their supporting lemmings until the mocking hits the mark and has a real impact.

You’ll know it when you see it.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/11/2168754/-Biden-Jeffries-Dems-please-start-to-break-out-the-A-Game

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