Monday, September 16, 2013

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 9/13/2013

"Shields and Brooks on Kerry's Role in Syria Talks, Financial Crash Anniversary" PBS Newshour 9/13/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's top political news, including U.S. diplomatic efforts on Syria and John Kerry's influence as secretary of state, the lack of leverage for leading lawmakers among their own parties and the 2008 financial collapse.
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DAVID BROOKS:  What's going on in the House, and a bit in the Senate, too, is what you might call the rise of Ted Cruz-ism.

And Ted Cruz, the senator from Canada through Texas, is basically not a legislator in the normal sense, doesn't have an idea that he's going to Congress to create coalitions, make alliances, and he is going to pass a lot of legislation.  He's going in more as a media protest person.

And a lot of the House Republicans are in the same mode.  They're not normal members of Congress.  They're not legislators.  They want to stop things. And so they're just being -- they just want to obstruct.

And the second thing they're doing, which is alarming a lot of Republicans, is they're running against their own party.  Ted Cruz is running against Republicans in the Senate.  The House Republican Tea Party types are running against the Republican establishment.  That's how they're raising money.  That's where they're spending their money on ads.

And so they're having a very obstructive role which is going on this week, and I think it's going to make John Boehner's life even more difficult.

MARK SHIELDS:  If John Boehner wanted to pass a budget, he could do it.  There are enough Democrats and Republicans in his own caucus.

The problem is, he's terrorized by the -- these people David's talking about, the Tea Party people, the rule-or-ruin people, mostly ruin, because they're not really interested in ruling.  And what they're facing, Judy, is the worst of all.  These are people who live in a fantasy world.  They wanted to repeal Obamacare.

Obamacare will never be repealed.  Now they want to defund Obamacare.  And there is not a single vote on the Democratic side in the Senate to bring it to the floor if it even passed the House.  So, I mean, it's a -- Harry Reid said yesterday -- and I think he likes John Boehner -- he said very candidly, he said, I feel sorry for John Boehner.

That's -- there is probably nothing worse you can say to a speaker of the House.  John Boehner, I think, has to face, can he lead?
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DAVID BROOKS:  And so the leadership can't impose any discipline on a Ted Cruz.  There's nothing they can punish him with.

And, remember, what these people, Ted Cruz and some of the Tea Party people, their object is not to win Obamacare.  Their object is to take over the Republican Party.  So, they really are running against the Republicans.  And for Ted Cruz, it's potentially to get the nomination.
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MARK SHIELDS:  The legacy (of the 2008 financial collapse), Judy, is that 100 percent of the economic growth, of the income growth, 100 percent, more than, has gone to the top 5 percent; 95 percent of the income growth in this country has gone to the top 1 percent.

If it -- if more than 100 percent has gone to the top, that means the other 95 have fallen back.  There is sitting out there a populist revolt waiting to be led.  There is only one candidate who has tapped into it.  And that was Elizabeth Warren.  And she in 2012 got support and financial support from all around the country.

I will make a prediction.  A wise person who has been through several presidential candidates -- campaigns said to me today that, as Iraq was the defining issue between Democratic candidates in 2008, income inequality will be the defining and galvanizing issue among Democratic presidential candidates in 2016.

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