Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Republic, formerly known as The Arizona Republican, has always been the media arm of the Arizona Republican Party. Despite this, the editors managed a couple of hard-hitting editorials in the past couple of weeks highly critical of the GOP for governing-by-extortion and taking hostages, i.e., the GOP government shutdown and threatening to default on the debt. (This may just reflect the divide between the GOP establishment and the wild-eyed Tea Party radicals).
But now that the immediate threat of Tea-Publican economic terrorists blowing up the U.S. and world's economy has been averted, The Arizona Republic(an) is back in its comfort zone of spinning narratives for the GOP, and falling back on the tried and true use of false equivalency to blame both sides.
Today's editorial opinion is a real howler. Lesson
or logjam? Congress will decide:
Sen. Ted Cruz is a sore loser.
President Barack Obama is a sorer winner.
* * *
Obama eschewed magnanimity after he signed the compromise. Instead of an
appeal to everyone’s better angels, he lashed out at Republicans for
their obstructionist ways. That’s going to get the House moving on
immigration reform? If he believes that, he is as deluded as Cruz was in
thinking he could defund “Obamacare.”
Wait, say what now? Let me get this right. The Tea-Publicans manufactured a pair of crises of their making to engage in the undemocratic and un-American tactic of governing-by-extortion to repeal "ObamaCare," took hostages — the GOP government shutdown and threatening to default on the debt — actually shot one of the hostages (the GOP government shutdown), and took us right to the brink of shooting the second hostage (defaulting on the debt) which would have caused a global economic catastrophe, and the editors say that President Obama should have demonstrated "magnanimity"?
Translation: "Be sure to tip your terrorists and say thank you for not blowing your head off." WTF?
Were the editors expecting President Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address?
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who
shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations.
So what was it that President Obama said that got these Sally Sensitive's panties all in a bunch? Remarks by the President on the Reopening of the Government:
Because Democrats and responsible Republicans came together, the
first government shutdown in 17 years is now over. The first default in
more than 200 years will not happen. These twin threats to our economy
have now been lifted. And I want to thank those Democrats and
Republicans for getting together and ultimately getting this job done.
Now, there’s been a lot of discussion lately of the politics of this
shutdown. But let’s be clear: There are no winners here. These last
few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy.
We don’t know yet the full scope of the damage, but every analyst out
there believes it slowed our growth.
* * *
We know that families have gone without paychecks or services they
depend on. We know that potential homebuyers have gotten fewer
mortgages, and small business loans have been put on hold. We know that
consumers have cut back on spending, and that half of all CEOs say that
the shutdown and the threat of shutdown set back their plans to hire
over the next six months. We know that just the threat of default — of
America not paying all the bills that we owe on time — increased our
borrowing costs, which adds to our deficit.
And, of course, we know that the American people’s frustration with
what goes on in this town has never been higher. That's not a surprise
that the American people are completely fed up with Washington. At a
moment when our economic recovery demands more jobs, more momentum,
we've got yet another self-inflicted crisis that set our economy back.
And for what?
There was no economic rationale for all of this. Over the past four
years, our economy has been growing, our businesses have been creating
jobs, and our deficits have been cut in half. We hear some members who
pushed for the shutdown say they were doing it to save the American
economy — but nothing has done more to undermine our economy these past
three years than the kind of tactics that create these manufactured
crises.
And you don’t have to take my word for it. The agency that put
America’s credit rating on watch the other day explicitly cited all of
this, saying that our economy “remains more dynamic and resilient” than
other advanced economies, and that the only thing putting us at risk is
— and I'm quoting here — “repeated brinksmanship.” That's what the
credit rating agency said. That wasn’t a political statement; that was
an analysis of what’s hurting our economy by people whose job it is to
analyze these things.
That also happens to be the view of our diplomats who’ve been hearing
from their counterparts internationally. Some of the same folks who
pushed for the shutdown and threatened default claim their actions were
needed to get America back on the right track, to make sure we're
strong. But probably nothing has done more damage to America's
credibility in the world, our standing with other countries, than the
spectacle that we've seen these past several weeks. It's encouraged our
enemies. It's emboldened our competitors. And it's depressed our
friends who look to us for steady leadership.
Now, the good news is we'll bounce back from this. We always do. America is the bedrock of the global economy for a reason.
* * *
But to all my friends in Congress, understand that how business is done
in this town has to change. Because we've all got a lot of work to do
on behalf of the American people — and that includes the hard work of
regaining their trust. Our system of self-government doesn’t function
without it. And now that the government is reopened, and this threat to
our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the
lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the
professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the
majority of Americans sent us here to do, and that’s grow this economy;
create good jobs; strengthen the middle class; educate our kids; lay the
foundation for broad-based prosperity and get our fiscal house in order
for the long haul. That’s why we're here. That should be our focus.
President Obama spoke the truth. But the editors of The Arizona Republic(an) "can't handle the truth" because it goes against the narratives they spin for the GOP, and it calls out the conservative media entertainment complex of which tit is a part. The editors are looking ahead to the next manufactured crises in December, January and February, and seeking a winning narrative for the GOP.
