Good article on the meaning of Cluster Liberals from the Daily Howler

[dennis4868]

BROOKS: You don’t have to abandon your principles to cut a deal. You just have to acknowledge that there are other people in the world and even a president doesn’t get to stamp his foot and have his way.

Cluster liberals in the House and the commentariat are angry. They have no strategy for how Obama could have better played his weak hand—with a coming Republican majority, an expiring tax law and several Democratic senators from red states insisting on extending all the cuts. They just sense the waning of their moment and are howling in protest.

skip....

According to Brooks, “cluster liberals” have offered “no strategy for how Obama could have better played his weak hand”—for how he could have gotten a better deal, given prevailing circumstances. But rational thinking has played little part in some of these reactions. Some liberals act as if Obama got elected king—as if, as president, he actually does “get to stamp his foot and have his way.” Our system doesn’t work that way. But reading comments around the web, it’s striking to see how many angry liberals feel no need to explain how Obama could have rendered a better deal.

(This morning, Paul Krugman seems to say that he would prefer no deal at all. Does this mean no extension of unemployment assistance? Does he assume this would be passed as a stand-alone measure? He doesn’t say.)

Instant doomsday predictions: In the wake of the budget proposal, liberals came forth with predictions of doom—predictions which were often voiced with the certainty of true religious belief. (In Brooks’ language, these people almost seem “convinced that Democrats should never start a negotiation because they will always end up losing in the end.”) Will a temporary payroll tax holiday “destroy Social Security?” We don’t know, but some liberals have seemed quite sure; last Friday, Julian Selizer warned about that possibility at Salon. (Salon headline: “Obama is dealing away FDR's legacy/Cutting the payroll tax could boost the economy now—and it could also destroy Social Security later.”)

One day earlier, Robert Reich had played a different fear card, warning that the proposed deal could ruin our competitive standing in the world. (Salon headline: “How Obama's tax deal hurts America's global position/We're already falling behind other nations, a trend the president's latest compromise will only accelerate.”)

The entire article is here....http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh121310.shtml#RETURN

[xchrom]

1. an unrec from a cluster liberal -- who wants the cluster fuck from

reaganism cleaned out of the party not adopted by the party.

[harun]

2. "They have no strategy", laughable. I haven't heard one person

complain about it who doesn't have a better strategy.

[dennis4868]

3. and what is that stategy?

to let all the tax cuts expire on the middle class and lowest tax bracket by 50% and ni UI for 13 months and wait until the next congress when there will be even crazier repubs in the house and senate with a majority in the house? I have not heard one alternative plan that makes sense that could get 60 votes in the senate.