Shorter Matt Dowd, nothing is ever the Republicans fault and they're just doing the will of the people with their obstruction. Another one of these a pox on both of your houses arguments and completely ignoring the media's role in drumming up public anger and hyping these tea baggers and not explaining to the American people that the reason very little is getting done is because the Republicans in the Senate have decided to block everything. I'm also tired of them acting like the Democrats ever had a true 60 vote majority when they had to court "Independent" Joe Lieberman and the ConservaDems that constantly do their best to make what legislation they get passed as terrible as possible.
Donna Brazile and Arianna Huffington did their best to try to beat back Dowd's nonsense but they may as well have been talking to the wall.
DOWD: Yes, they do love Glenn Beck. I mean, he's popular among a segment of the party.
I mean, I think this is more -- the commentary about this is more about the volatility of politics in this country today. Because if you think back a year ago, everybody said, well, what happened to the conservatives? What happened to the Republican Party?
And now people are saying, well, what happened to Barack Obama? And it's 13 months later, after the inauguration of Barack Obama.
And I don't think Republicans can sit there and say, oh, we're going to have this great success. This is not about the Republicans right now. This is about why people are mad at the Democrats in Washington and the incumbency in Washington. That's what people are mad about.
This is not a bunch of people flocking to become Republicans. But CPAC and the tea party is best representing people's anger right now, in the country, on the right. And I think that's what this is about, is people are angry, whether they're Democrats or Republicans or independents; they're mad at Washington, and anybody that represents Washington is bad.
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DOWD: Well, I think -- I think -- one of the things, I think, it's about that. But it's, I think, more fundamentally about, people don't understand why Washington can't be adults, why it's a dodge ball game and anybody that ventures to (inaudible) a solution is pelted by either side.
They just do not understand why it's a bunch of children at the Capitol or in the administration, playing all sorts of games, while they're sitting out there suffering because they can't pay for school; they don't have a job; their uncle can't -- doesn't have health care, all of that kind of stuff, while Washington sits here and yells and screams at each other and nothing gets done. That's, to me, where the anger is based.
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DOWD: Well, I think Senator Bayh obviously made his own personal decision that he didn't want to be here anymore, for whatever reason that is. To me, that's not a solution to the problem. Adults don't leave the playground and leave to it the kids to -- if he believes he's an adult and he can do this, walking off the playing field and not being part of trying to solve the problem isn't a solution to the problem.
I actually think one of the difficulties we're in -- I don't think it's an institutional problem. It's not the Senate rules and it's not how the president operates and all of those sorts of things.
It is leaders that are willing to take on elements of their own party. We have to have leaders that are willing to, sort of, confront their own party, whether it's Republicans confronting Republicans or Democrats confronting Democrats, and saying, just because it's got a D by its name doesn't mean it's necessarily the right solution, or just because it's got an R by its name doesn't mean it's the right solution.
Civil rights is a perfect example. Democrats, throughout the history of civil rights, sought to kill civil rights, throughout the whole -- throughout the whole thing.
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DOWD: I totally disagree with this. Barack Obama's problem is not the Republicans. Barack Obama's problem is the American people. The American people decided they don't want this health care bill. They don't think any jobs have been created. They don't think anything's really been done in Washington.
So the idea that the Republicans are the ones? Republicans are just representing a wave out there. They are standing on top of a wave that the American public says we don't like any of this. And I think in the end, it's not a sales job. To me that's like saying somebody owns a restaurant and nobody eats their food so we're going to do more advertising.
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DOWD: I think in the end, politicians get in trouble when they make the assumption that they're smarter than the American people. That's what the problem is. Barack Obama and the administration decided they were smarter and they knew better what the American people needed on health care reform and they knew better what they needed on job performance. They knew better than them.
The problem they have now is the American people figured it out, they don't like it. And so I were Barack Obama, President Obama, the thing I would do is start over since the American people -- the worst thing he could politically do is ram through a bill that everybody hates.
