I will be really, really happy when these so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations are over if for no other reason, getting a break from watching Republicans take to the airways to throw hissy fits about having their fee fees hurt. This is the same party that's been calling the President of the United States boy, and every other rude, condescending, racist name in the book for the last four years, but if he dares to say anything that offends any of them in even the mildest way, they're clutching their pearls and dragging out the fainting couches.
Case in point, John McCain this Monday, first on the Senate floor: McCain to Obama: 'That's not the way presidents should lead':
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted President Obama's Monday public statement on the state of the fiscal-cliff talks as an event that will only antagonize Republicans, and said Obama is not showing the kind of presidential leadership needed to resolve the "fiscal cliff."
"At a time of crisis, on New Year's Eve ... we have the president of the United States go over and have a cheerleading, ridiculing-the-Republicans exercise in speaking to the people of the United States of America," McCain said.
"He made a couple of jokes, laughed about how people are going to be here for New Year's, sent a message of confrontation to the Republicans," McCain said. "I guess I have to wonder, and I think the American people have to wonder, whether the president really wants this issue resolved, or is it to his short-term political benefit to go over the cliff?"
McCain was reacting to the president's Monday remarks, which drew instant criticism from Republicans. He delivered his remarks among a group of people who seemed to be clear supporters, and could be heard clapping and laughing as Obama spoke. Obama at one point joked to the crowd that he would be stuck in Washington for New Year's Eve, along with many of those in the crowd.
He appeared later on Cavuto's show on Fox, still complaining about the President's remarks, all the while promising more of this stuff in the upcoming debt ceiling debate: John McCain: Advantage, Obama:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) offered “straight talk” Monday saying he was hopeful there would be a vote later in the day or Tuesday in regards to the fiscal cliff, but added that President Barack Obama has an “advantage” since he was reelected.
“There’s hopes that we vote tonight or tomorrow. I know there are concerns about the sequestration aspect of it. We’re also very concerned that there’s no spending cuts associated with a tentative deal,” the Arizona Republican said on CNN to anchor Wolf Blitzer. [...]
In a later interview on Fox, McCain said Republicans must not back down from their demand to make cuts to social programs during the likely upcoming fight on the debt ceiling extension.
“About zero,” McCain said about his certainty that a cliff deal will include spending cuts. “And that’s why this upcoming debt limit, in a couple months, the extension will be a knockdown, drag out fight. We have to convince the American people that we have to address entitlements, we have to address spending, that we’ve now given the American people at $16 trillion debt.”
Of course, because our social safety nets and our retirees must be sacrificed, but don't dare touch that defense spending. And heaven forbid don't talk about what it would take to get us back to anything close to full employment, which is the best thing we could do to lower our deficit. We all know Republicans don't actually care about the debt or the deficit though. They care about using it as an excuse to starve the beast.
