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How Clinton handled Republican blackmail - he used it to destroy Gingrich

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MannyGoldstein Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 09:25 PM
Original message
How Clinton handled Republican blackmail - he used it to destroy Gingrich
Edited on Tue Dec-07-10 09:36 PM by MannyGoldstein
If we stand up to the Republicans, we'll win in days - guaranteed:

Scene 1:

Rethugs: "Give hundreds of billions to the Predator class or we'll raise taxes on the middle class and fuck the unemployed!"

Democrats: "Go screw. We're creating a single bill with tax cuts for ONLY working Americans, and extended unemployment benefits. Vote for it or don't - go ahead, make our day"

Rethugs: "Oh yeah? We ain't voting for it, Kenyan Muslim crypto-Marxist scum!"

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Scene 2:

A few days have passed...

Rethugs: "Oh shit! Oh shit! Everyone wants to fucking kill us, and Obama's, Pelosi's and Reid's approval ratings are through the roof! I can't believe that our leadership failed to understand that more than 70% of Americans BADLY WANT tax cuts for ONLY working Americans! And they're blaming us for raising their taxes! Crap! Make it stop! Make it stop! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh..."

And soon thereafter, a new bill passes with tax cuts for ONLY working Americans, AND an extension for the unemployed, along with some small bauble so the Rethugs can claim some sort of victory."

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Think I'm full of crap? History says otherwise.

This is exactly what happened when Gingrich and company tried to blackmail Clinton into all sorts of crazy shit, saying they'd shut down government if he didn't give in. Clinton knew most Americans agreed with him, and he strode onto the TV and said "Those fuckers are trying to force me to do stuff that most Americans don't want, and so they're shutting down the government. I don't want to shut down the government, but I'm not going to put up with blackmail."

The Republicans were in flames in days, and Gingrich eventually got the boot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government_shutdown_of_1995#Result">From Wikipedia:

The Republicans blamed Clinton for the shutdown, and Clinton blamed the Republicans. Public opinion favored the president; Clinton's approval rating rose to the highest it had been since his election. The Republicans' support was further diminished two days later when Gingrich made a widely-reported complaint about being snubbed by Clinton; Tom DeLay called it "the mistake of his life".

DeLay writes in his book No Retreat, No Surrender:
"He told a room full of reporters that he forced the shutdown because Clinton had rudely made him and Bob Dole sit at the back of Air Force One... Newt had been careless to say such a thing, and now the whole moral tone of the shutdown had been lost. What had been a noble battle for fiscal sanity began to look like the tirade of a spoiled child. The revolution, I can tell you, was never the same."
Gingrich's complaint resulted in the perception that he was acting in a petty, egotistical manner, and Clinton defended the seating arrangement as a courtesy to Gingrich, the back of the plane being closer to his pickup car.<1> Later, the polls suggested that the event badly damaged Gingrich politically.

The shutdown also influenced the 1996 presidential election. Bob Dole, the Senate Majority Leader, was running for president in 1996. Because of his need to campaign, Dole wanted to solve the budget crisis in January 1996 despite the willingness of other Republicans to continue the shutdown unless their demands were met. It also has been cited as a role in Clinton's successful re-election in 1996.


If we go to the mat, we win. The Republicans will be stealing cash from, and thwarting the desire of, three-quarters of America. It will be a catastrophe for them. We've not had a better chance in ages to crush these swine, and do the right thing at the same time.

This is it, folks. Time to make a stand, not to (dear God!!!) apologize.
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Luciferous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 09:28 PM
Response to Original message
1. Exactly. If the president genuinely wanted to get rid of the tax
cuts for the wealthy and get unemployment benefits he could... and now the Republicans will pull this shit with everything, and he will continue to cave and they will get everything they want for the next two years.
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DearAbby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 09:32 PM
Response to Original message
2. This has a foul stench....
Just wonder where the GOP are going to find the next hostages, SENIOR CITIZENS perhaps? This was a sign of weakness, Now the GOP knows all they have to do is find some poor group and hold them ransom. Next time tax cuts permanent.

He should have said no, let them stupor and whine. Even shut down the government, the blowback would have been on them. You don't give in to demands of criminals (That is exactly how they acted)
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tulsakatz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 09:48 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. that's true......
you don't make deals with hostage takers because the next time they try it, they will want even more!! Giving in (which is what this is really) doesn't accomplish anything.....sometimes if you're confronted by a bully, you gotta be willing to punch their lights out if it comes to that!
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MannyGoldstein Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:12 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. Yep. An important lesson some of us learned growing up.
I grew up in New York City, in a neighborhood filled with bullies. My Dad taught me: the way you deal with a bully is to hit him in the head with a 2x4 and say "that's just to make sure that you're listening". Dad was right, that was essentially the only thing that worked.
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kath Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:00 PM
Response to Original message
4. But, but, but that would require having some semblance of a SPINE.
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uponit7771 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:28 PM
Response to Original message
6. When was the last time republicans were "pressured" into anything via public opinion?
Regards
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laughingliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:31 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. That would be the last time someone stood up to them. See OP for one example. nt
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uponit7771 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:41 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. ?!?! The story was Gingrich fucked up and KKKons gave in, Orange man isn't sayin shit now
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laughingliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 11:43 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. Why would they say anything? Right now they have what they want. However, he stood on the floor...
of the House the other day and called the passing of the bill to extend middle class tax cuts, "chicken crap." If we couldn't make hay out of that, I fear we've forgotten what 'fight' means.
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DeltaLitProf Donating Member (459 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:39 PM
Response to Original message
8. And they kept Congress in 1996
n/t
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MannyGoldstein Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:42 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. In the specific instance cited, Clinton won big nt
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TBF Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-08-10 07:09 AM
Response to Original message
12. Always stand up to bullies - and that's all republicans are. nt
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Skidmore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-08-10 07:12 AM
Response to Original message
13. And he signed the poison pill that we know as NAFTA...
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MannyGoldstein Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-08-10 07:20 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. And he did much worse - but he won in this instance nt
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dccrossman Donating Member (530 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-08-10 09:21 AM
Response to Original message
15. K&R
:kick:
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