Just So You Understand

Sultan Knish may be a loon but his loonism gets links, and I've just added to it. You need to understand that the voting may be done but that doesn't add up to reconciliation or anything that begins to resemble it. This isn't to suggest that these people have an importance beyond their self-assigned idea of it, what it is to suggest is that this stuff is going to be boiling around underneath the Republican politics.

But we are a long way from surrender. The battle is over, the war begins. The United States government now falls into the hands of the enemies of this country and civilization for a time or forever. And that is part of what the war is about. The country has been in the hands of people we disagreed with, but never in the hands of people whose views are as diametrically opposed to ours as anything in the Third Reich or the Kremlin. In their hands Federal power becomes enemy power. The more ineffective and tied up they are, the less damage they can do.

Boehner doesn't like Rahm Emanuel, not even a little bit. He didn't like him in the House and he likes him less as WH Chief of Staff. Emanuel is a hard edged pragmatic partisan politician of great ability. Mistaking him for a rigid ideologue is a mistake. The RNC calling this a broken promise two months before Inauguration might be called a Partisan Attack. But one has to be understanding that they are standing in the ruins of political aspirations to a "permanent majority." Oh, the hell with that, they've earned it, they deserve it, and their credibility talking about broken promises is nil.

The House Republicans are pretty much a lost cause looking for cooperation, fortunately the Senate rolls are renewed on a rolling two year cycle so some responsible Republicans are still home there. If the Republican Senators are offered something of import that is not an absolute kick to the ideological crotch and don't want to play; it might be important to have someone just like Rahm Emanuel on hand. It isn't hard to imagine a scenario where Rahm points out to a Republican that he's been given some political cover, that this is important, and that the Obama election lists and credibility have not gone away and that it is entirely possible to make their political life short.

It is important to remember that there are the "sultans," the Boehners, and also reasonable and responsible Republicans. It pays to remember that two years ago Boehner sent around a memo stating that their entire purpose was to obstruct Democrats for political advantage. Boehner is one of those Republicans and in general politicians who seems unable to avoid make unnecessary enemies out of opponents. Lindsey Gramm actually finds Emanuel a good choice, something which points up the distances involved in Republican politics.

These are the shoals President Obama will have to negotiate. There is a noisy lunatic fringe, the politically ignorant element in Congress, and possible shifting alliances. Sweetness and light is not on the horizon, but careful politics may allow this country to move forward. Just don't expect it to be peaceful.