That's at least worth a laugh after years of Republican leaders compulsively repeating talking points about "Democrat obstruction" on the few occasions when the entire Congress didn't roll over and play dead for George Bush. Republicans removed it from most of their sites, but I still found a copy of an old GOP press release titled "Democrats: The Party Of No!"
A Republican spokesperson indignantly charges that "the Democrats have defined themselves as the party of ‘no’ in responding with obstruction and pessimism." Funny that they've finally found virtue in being the "party of no" now that they're in the minority.
In this case Democratic leaders were saying "no" to putting social security funds into the stock market. Has anyone heard a single Republican leader apologize for what a stupendously bad idea that was since the stock market crashed? Would it kill them to admit they were wrong about something? Even just one little thing?
Schoenburg quotes Shimkus protege Aaron Schock as saying at the rally,
"In fact, we have seen a level of partisanship and a level of arrogance by this administration and by this Congress never (seen) before in America,”
My first reaction was to think, "except for the time Newt Gingrich Republicans refused to compromise or negotiate on health care in 1993 because they saw political advantage in defeating it and later shut down the government." Amazingly the article goes on to say Schock,
predicted that, just as in 1994, Republicans may take control of Congress thanks to the overreaching of a first-term Democratic president — then BILL CLINTON.
In 1994 they learned that unreasoning partisan obstruction is good politics and they're determined to do it again. I guess it isn't partisanship when Republicans do it. After running on the slogan "Country First" Republican leaders have proven what an empty promise that was every day since the election.
(haha! Just kidding!)
I did a google search that turned up a book called "Achieving Success with Impossible Children" with some interesting advice about dealing with tantrums. It says:
Tantrums are not restricted to children, adults have them all the time. People throw tantrums for a variety of reasons but the most common is to express to people around them that things are not going the way the person throwing the tantrum prefers.
Sounds right. Shimkus and Republican leaders are frustrated that the people voted them out of power and gave a mandate to a President with a progressive platform. They're acting out because they don't like how things are going.
The best tantrums (from the child's perspective) are those that bring the environment to a halt and disrupt everyone and everything. For this reason, tantrums in public places are personal favorites of some children.
That pretty well sums up the strategy from talk radio, the health insurance lobby and their conservative allies. The goal is to disrupt everyone and everything because they know that an informed, civilized debate will lead to the success of Obama's agenda on health care and climate change.
Check out the rest of the book's section on tantrums for some handy advice on how to deal with them from both children and Party First Republicans.