GOP Congressional Committee Announces New Line of Psychopharmaceuticals
Agitated? Irritable? Hostile? Aggressive? Impulsive? Restless?By Dana Milbank
Thursday, May 15, 2008; A03House Republicans may be heading off a cliff in November, but give them credit for perseverance. Even after the new slogan they floated -- "The Change You Deserve" -- was discovered to be trademarked ad copy for the antidepressant drug Effexor, GOP leaders decided to go with the rollout anyway.
"The Republican agenda, 'The Change You Deserve,' is directed at America's families," Rep. Kay Granger (R-Tex.) announced at a televised news conference with House Republican leaders yesterday morning. "And you may be a little surprised at this agenda."
Why, yes, we are. And Democrats are manic over the medicinal mantra.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) called reporters into his office. "Democrats, not drugs, is what the American people need," he said. He flashed the Effexor side effects on a large flat-screen television. "Nausea, up to 58 percent," Hoyer said. "Actually it's higher than that for Republicans."
Among the few to emerge smiling was Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia; he's retiring from Congress and just presented his colleagues with a memo about the many Republican ailments. Reporters asked Davis to diagnose his party."Well, this is the floor," Davis said, stomping on the concrete beneath him. "And we're underneath the floor." Without strong medicine, he said, Republicans will lose 25 seats in November. "We're the airplane flying into the mountain."
Davis disappeared, and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the man in charge of the House Republicans' campaign effort, appeared. He looked to be a candidate for mood elevation as he described the meeting he just left. "People are concerned, and legitimately so," he said. "Clearly we've got problems that are deep and serious in terms of how we're going to do in the fall elections."
John Boehner, the House minority leader, had a similar case of Election Anxiety Disorder when he arrived a few minutes later in the House television studio. "Well, it was another wake-up call," he said of Tuesday's loss in Mississippi, using the same words he used after last week's loss in Louisiana. His eyes watery, Boehner allowed that "we've got to do a better job."
"Last question," a staffer called out. The news conference, including opening statements by four officials, was just nine minutes old.
Will "The Change You Deserve" give Republicans the relief they need? Democrats thought it to be a prescription for ridicule. "John Boehner," Hoyer said at his news briefing, flashing the Effexor brand on the screen, "says he has a new mantra . . . 'Change You Deserve.' Interesting where he got that."
And Hoyer didn't even mention the warning label, which states that patients should be watched to see if they are "becoming agitated, irritable, hostile, aggressive, impulsive, or restless."
I swear. This could be right out of the Onion.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Bunch of frikkin children...
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
BF2142 Stats
Like the last time around, I honestly think that the conventional wisdom may be tremendously underplaying ongoing the political shift. I can very easily see a 10 seat shift in the Senate (creating a Democratic supermajority) and similar movements in the House.
Ironically, the biggest losers will likely be moderate Republicans who will be paying the price for allowing the Texas fcuktard takeover. Susan Collins and Gordon Smith may very well be Connie Morella'ed in their districts because of the idiocy of Bush and his Texas turdblossom.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Funny that the Republicans are at the point where they can't do a simple trademark search...
“Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” Atty Gen'l John Ashcroft, on secret NSC torture guideline discussions.
Interesting and telling. It tells me that the rank and file have broken loose. The party is in disarray and are just phoning in their loyalty and discipline.
I know I've talked you deaf on this, but it is still worth noting. The structural advantage the GOP has had in the last 20 years has had to do with the same three legs of the tripod: 1) quantitative advantage in fundraising, 2) unification of message, and 3) patronage and party discipline.
What GOP strategists see (and apparently the MSM doesn't) is that all three have been shattered. They see the coming cataclysm, irrespective of whether others don't.
Barack Obama and the DNC now have war chests that dwarf the GOP. Folks are even giving to local races in crimson red states. Areas where being a democrat would result in your car being firebombed are now electing democrats in special sessions. The well is dry and it's a long hot summer.
Folks realize that the platform is a loser. Tax cuts for the rich in an economy where EVERYONE is stressing the income disparity and declining middle class is a fecal sandwich any way you look at it. No one is buying the "rising tide" argument -- especially now that they see that the very social services they will need to rely on to get by now are unfunded due to budget deficits. As a result, Republicans facing tough elections are breaking ranks and demanding flexibility in message.
Finally, without money, there is no patronage. Without patronage, there is no discipline. The Farm Bill demonstrates exactly how weak the party has become.
Perhaps you can't see it because you wish it to happen, but I see it clear as day. McCain will be lucky to do as well as Dole did irrespective of whether he faces a Clinton or an Obama. Congressional Republicans will be lucky to hold off a Senatorial supermajority.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Palecon,
I'll disagree with you ont he "Tax cuts for the rich" notion. The problem is that the Democrats have just as many problems on their end, with the economy in the tank and then they want to spend even more money than the Republicans (who spent money like it was going out of style (which ironically enough, it may have been)), money that they need to "aquire" from somewhere. They'll try to squeeze the rich, but the rich have the funds you need to get the hell out of here, and they'll take their tax base with them leaving the middle class to soak up all that shortfall. Even if the rich don't physically leave, I willing to bet a good chunk of their money takes a nice long Swiss/Carribean vacation
"Also, I have four legs and am covered in wool. Baa!" *Legion* reveals his inner furry.
That line has pretty well been played out. The fiction that cutting taxes on the rich would somehow magically increase the total tax revenue (largely held as Republican orthodoxy since the Reagan Era, but proven emphatically false by Bush's nearly fundamentalist religious adherence to it) is now well and truly dead. Aside from a few die hards who insist that the emperor's clothes are really just light, the nation sees a bankrupt treasury, the Indian trainwreck of unregulated markets, and the aftermath of government as either a toothless entity or a willing advocate of large entities whose interests clearly do no coincide with the nation's.
And though there are those who will take Bush's incompetence as evidence of the "evil nature of government", I am pretty confident that the majority of people will draw the correct conclusion that the remedy for incompetence is not anarchy, but competence.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
So what year had the highest total tax revenue? If as you say it is a total myth and failure, the fundamentalist religious adherence to it, should mean that nearly the entire preceding history of the US should bear out that fact.
"Also, I have four legs and am covered in wool. Baa!" *Legion* reveals his inner furry.