Gordon Smith's Dog and Pony Show

Today Senator Gordon Smith was able to confirm solid support from the editorial board at the Oregonian for his reelection campaign.  The O, in an editorial, enthusiastically purports that Smith is "saving" Medicaid and food stamps from being cut.  Sure, he's come out against the proposed 50 billion dollars in draconian cuts from the House's budget plan, but the fact is there are still cuts in the Senate version, as in 10 billion dollars of them.  In the meantime, Senator Smith refuses to roll back any of the tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.  No fuzzy math here: 10 billion in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps + continued tax cuts for millionaires = right wing conservatism.

Simply put, this is a dog and pony show put together by the GOP leadership for the small handful of threatened Republican Senators in blue states.  It's all prescripted and preplanned so that faux moderate Republican Senators, like Smith, can pretend to be standing up for the working poor.  It's a ploy to fool and pull the wool over our eyes, and the O is a willing contributor to the show.

For those lucky enough to listen to Terry Gross' interview last evening on Fresh Air, you know what I'm talking about here.  Gross interviewed the authors of "Off Center" a new book on how the Republican machine is able to successfully govern from the far right despite the prevailing moderate values of Americans.  The current script for the the budget bill is a perfect example of the operation:  Smith comes out looking like a hero, even though he's actually voting for cuts to the poor while supporting tax cuts for the wealthy.

What ever you do, don't buy tickets to this dog and pony show.

Comments

[BlueNote]

We are a special state. A Democrat Governor who acts like a Republican, and a Republican Senator who tries to look like a Democrat. Maybe they could switch places and nobody would notice the difference.

[Jeff Bull]

I'm just not getting the outrage I'm hearing on the progressive side here. The man is a Republican. Why this fails to compute either here or on Blue Oregon, I simply don't know. What do you expect out of the man?

In any case, I'm considerably less offended (see here and here). If you like Medicaid as is, it simply makes sense to be more happy than not; there's not a better politically live deal out there that I'm seeing. And the pressure to cut the budget, silly as it is, is very real for the GOP and they're holding the gears.

As for not buying tickets to the dog and pony show, that's exactly it; the man has a record, so talk about it, don't vote for the guy, and encourage others to do the same. But, really, the outrage surrounding this is just silly.

[ron ledbury]

It was a gusher all right. Like a happy dog with slobber to spare and share.

Pity the poor.

If Affordable Housing NOW took a good look at 42 USC Sec. 1485 they might find that it works for cooperatives where the residents get to keep the property when the cheap loan is paid off rather than some connected punk who continues to rent to the landless poor.

If the CoP and Metro said no more, no more aid to the rich, and supported only such cooperatives, and taxed them favorably at their rental justified value only (see Nov 3rd SC opinion) what would happen to the rusher and gushers of growth . . . all in the name of the poor?

Never mind.

What if, in the interest of equal privilege and immunities, all speculative priced single family detached homes, where there was an owner-occupancy requirement also got the lower tax rate?

Never mind.

The poor and semi-poor and young are used as so much fodder it is disgusting.

If Mr. Smith went to Washington, the real Mr. Smith from the movies, he might demand credit protection for the little guy in the same way that child labor was given protection at the federal level. He might halt the race to bottom (among the states) in the creditor attack by saying that all Americans shall have a base level of assets that are protected from creditors, uniformly. The pension schemes that allow some folks to immunize themselves, some more than others, from creditors is just a legalization of prior schemes that would be criminal tax avoidance and creditor avoidance schemes. Only the poor are not free -- same as before.

So, what shall we call a gift of food to debt slaves? Is it really more magnanimous than the burden of having to feed a prisoner?

The debt peddlers just work on margin, not savings, and only from the Federal Reserve's supposed largess in inflating the money supply under some wild notion of a steady state economy where everyone must work, or shall I say must have an available job (nearly full employment, whatever). If we have become so much more productive -- folks do like to trumpet increased productivity numbers – should we all simply have more time to soak up more rain or sun at the beach rather than just work longer hours to cover debt (housing debt, etc.)?

Our Mr. Smith could not do what he does without the help and complicity from the left.

Sorry, Sid, for the rant . . .

[Sid]

Jeff-

My outrage isn't that Smith is being a Republican, rather that people actually buy into the falsity that he's a moderate Republican and that the O promotes this. The smoke and mirrors is the outrage.

Ron-
I wouldn't expect anything less! No need for apologies.

[libbie]

Smith has become a Republican Robot and it is time for him to go.

[ron ledbury]

libbie,

D's also use "pity the poor" as a front. I hope you are not suggesting that if someone paints a D on their forehead, rather than an R, that they get a by.

Many D's voted to give artificial entities (little green men) a special claim upon the fruits of the labor of real people . . . in the bankruptcy legislation. The notion of mutuality might encompass disallowing any gifts by the artificial entities to real people from the date of the creation of the corporation. That is, skip over, or disregard, the artificiality.

It seems that Mr. Smith is all for artificially boosting the price of medical care, like a happy monopolist.

[Torrid]

I think the point is you don't gush about someone's failure to do something stupid and politically unpopular among your constituents. It's like bragging about not hitting your kids. "Look at me! I could be an abuser of defenseless people, but I'm not (mostly)!"

Cheering sanity as courageous is needlessly sycophantic, and the O should be embarrassed. Of course, if they had that capacity they never would have put the PGE story above the fold, being as it was a story told by Randy Leonard on the basis of information from Meeks and Jaquiss. Now THAT'S journalism--third hand reportage.

[Sid]

Ron-

yes, you are right, there were D's who voted for the bankruptcy bill, but there were many who didn't and as I recall it had full GOP support. I'm not defending the Dem party as a whole by saying this because there's a whole lot o' fixin' that needs to be done within the party. There are many Dems, however, who are principled, so let's support them.

[Garlynn]

I would take this discussion one step further:

1) Yes, of course, Gordon Smith is a Republican Senator, and you should always expect the worst (that is, typical Republican behavior) from him. Smoke-and-mirrors, and getting the O to write supportive editorials, is just part of the package.
2) The Oregonian is a Republican-owned-and-edited publication. Anybody who doesn't get this yet... isn't paying attention. The O is *Conservative* with a capital C. The only reason they have any liberal content *at all* is that they recognize that in order to sell papers and advertising in the Multnomah County market (their largest), they need to *bluewash* (as in "Blue Oregon" or "Blue State"; make acceptable to a liberal readership) their copy in order to make it palatable to their readership. They *also* need to *bluewash* their candidates in order to get them re-elected. Gordon Smith is a fellow Republican, and I'm 99.9% positive that he was endorsed by the O both times that he ran for office. When is he up for relection, BTW?

...and when will Portland develop a better newsdaily? The Oregonian makes Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle look like a darling of the liberal left by comparison, IMHO, and it really shouldn't be...

cheers,
~Garlynn

[ron ledbury]

torrid,

I had sent a letter to KATU during the time of Bush One about his support for Head Start, notwithstanding the cuts to the program early in the Reagan days. Two steps back and one step forward. . . look at my last step! (It got read, in part, on air. It won't likely happen again.)

Garlynn,

I do wish to challenge the exception for multi-issue PACs such as the Oregonian from the rules about disclosure that are applicable to everyone else.

Sid,

The R's need to be called out on fake arguments about capitalism, as it gives it a bad name. They argue in such a manner that every private farmer is a pig if they should be so lucky as to have a good year. The only game in town now seems to be that of crafting fancy legal entities with the same frenzy for making new Pokemon cards to keep everyone entertained . . . and confused.