Time for the Next Round of This Fight (Part 2: Beat Them at the Start):
Last Thursday, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a man whose upper lip might more properly be called the "taint" between his scrotal nose and asshole-like mouth, spoke at the Heritage Foundation (motto: "Fucking up your nice country with bullshit scholarship since 1973"), he pretty much gave a succinct summary of the Bizarro USA that conservatives have conceived of and propagated for the last two years. If there was anything in there that approached reality, it was McConnell's reassertion that Republicans' top goal is to prevent President Obama from having a second term. That's been their goal all along in the face of the titanic crises brought on by Republicans.

McConnell mourned the "Europeanization of America" and that "For the past two years, Democrat lawmakers chose to ignore the American people" as we have lurched towards an unwanted socialism. How does that square with what we might call, in the quaint terminology, "facts"? As Timothy Egan said in the New York Times on Wednesday, if you had invested $100,000 in the NASDAQ alone on Barack Obama's inauguration day, it would be worth $177,000 as of last Tuesday. No, that's not about jobs, that's not about Main Street, but it is a stark and vivid reminder that in order to support capitalism, one must make sure the capitalists make money, which they clearly have under the policies of the Obama administration.

But, as we learned over the last decade, facts are mere black household ants to Republicans, little nuisances that are pernicious, aggravated, and easily killed (even if they never go away). On Face the Nation yesterday, McConnell let one of those tiny bastards slip in when, pressed by Bob Schieffer (the Last Man Standing of the Old Guard of TV Journalists) about getting rid of earmarks, he said, "The problem is it doesn’t save any money...this debate doesn’t save any money which is why it’s kind of exasperating to some of us." Well, no shit, you swamp turtle-looking motherfucker. Welcome to the surface. Look around at the real world for a second before you slip back down into the murk and algae of the water. But don't worry: the rest of the caucus won't let something as socialistic as math get in the way of a good campaign ad.

Republicans are already showing their hand on their strategy to increase their congressional gains and try to win the presidency in 2012. One part of it is pretty obvious; the other is kind of fascinatingly perverse.

Rep. Eric Cantor, who has emerged as the creepy Peter Lorre of the Republican House takeover, told Chris Wallace on Fox "news" Sunday, "The chief executive, the president, is as responsible as any in terms of running this government. The president's got a responsibility as much or more so than Congress to make sure that we are continuing to function in a way that the people want." In other words, Cantor is already ascribing blame for any government shutdown, any face-off that comes down the pipe, to President Obama. It's really a pretty cuntish move, a way of lowering expectations, and it sets up the continuing campaign for 2012: "Look, Obama's in the way of us accomplishing...something or other that we really can't define."

Indeed, if you really read what these wannabe tough guys are saying, they are not about to change dick about the way government is run. Everything is vague or a hedged bet. They don't have any actual beliefs beyond cutting taxes. So Obama should take these pusillanimous fuckers head-on. The Bush tax cuts are done at the end of the year. Back in 2001, Eric Cantor voted for them to sunset. He voted for taxes to go up at the end of 2010. Any new tax cuts should be called what they properly would be: the Obama tax cuts. And the Presidenct should lay it on the line: tax cuts up to $250,000 or nothing. At that point, Republicans have to justify their support for the wealthiest 2%. They're trying to get Obama to own his agenda. So fucking own it.

(Two fine points here: 1. This has to be done during the lame duck session or the tax cuts expire, so, presumably, Democrats are still in charge and Eric Cantor's opinion on this is worth shit. 2. The Rude Pundit thinks all the tax cuts should expire, but politics is politics.)

Now, the perverse part of the anti-Obama equation: California's Darrell Issa, who will now chair the House Oversight Committee, has said that he is going to investigate all kinds of shit. But he's gonna be bipartisan about who he investigates: "When we look at the failures of Freddie [Mac] and Fannie [Mae], the Countrywide scandal, those all began during President Bush’s time. When we look at Mineral Management Service and the ultimate failure in the Gulf, that began years before." You got that? No. Well, let's let Issa clarify it: "I’m hoping to bridge the multiple administrations in as many places as possible."

Ain't that a motherfucking kick in the teeth? Issa says that he's gonna tie the Obama and Bush administration together. Put aside your sputtering outrage that Democrats were raked over the coals for even suggesting that maybe perhaps pretty they should oughta pretty please look into some of the Caligulan excesses of the Bush presidency. Instead, focus on this: Republicans are going to make Obama seem like a continuation of Bush. Spending is spending, right? They are going to make this White House responsible for the mistakes of the last one, the one that they all supported in lockstep for eight years. It is one of the most insidious strategies the Rude Pundit's seen, breathtakingly cynical and impressively destructive.

Democrats better get out in front on this in a big fucking hurry. They were cowed into silence by the GOP in 2010 and spent little time talking about how badly Bush fucked the world up, even if the public still blamed him. If the GOP gets away with this move, if Democrats can't even call the enemy by his name, they will allow themselves to be painted as mere accessories to Bush's spending spree and regulatory overthrow. Wrap your head around that fuckery.