When Conservatives Ignore Conservative Talking Points

Sen. Tom Coburn on CBSNews.com's "Washington Unplugged," March 6, 2009.

/ CBS

Maybe the planets are out of alignment, or someone spiked the water supply. But how to explain a very strange sequence of events over the last two days? First, a conservative economist publicly scolded his ideological comrades for trashing the Obama economy. Then a right-wing United States Senator defended Republican bete noir Nancy Pelosi at a meeting with his (decidedly right wing) constituents. And, of course, the proverbial cherry on the sundae came when Butler defeated Duke for the NCAA crown. (OK, that one was wishful thinking, but dreams die hard.)

In normal times, this wouldn't merit more than casual comment. But these are decidedly not normal times. After a bruising fight over health care reform legislation, left and right in this country are so polarized that they are more likely to eye each other as the detested enemy than as members of a loyal political opposition.

So when Larry Kudlow, Mr. Free Market Capitalism himself, warns that the right's drumbeat of dismissal of positive economic data has put "conservative credibility" on the line, it's worthy of attention.

I'm watching many of my friends on certain cable stations attempt to trash the March employment numbers released last Friday. Don't do it, folks. The numbers were solid. In fact, while everyone keeps saying that small businesses are getting killed from taxes and regulations out of Washington, the reality is that the Labor Department's household survey has produced 1.1 million new jobs in the first quarter of 2010, or 371,000 per month. If that continues, the unemployment rate will be dropping significantly.

For comparison's sake, read this blog post the Republican National Committee put up on its Web site following Friday's employment numbers. Under the heading "Unacceptable," the blog paints the White House's jobs policy as feckless and generally paints a picture of an economy in crisis. That may have resonated more loudly in April 2009 but a year later, the data suggest a different outlook - and that's where Kudlow believes his ideological comrades are getting it wrong. Kudlow has hardly morphed into a Keynesian. For instance, he still frets about the potential impact of tax and regulatory policy pursued by the Obama administration. But those are future worries. More immediately, he says, there's an upbeat story to tell:

The current reality is that a strong rebound in corporate profits (the greatest and truest stimulus of all), ultra-easy money from the Fed, and some very small stimuli from government spending are all working to generate a cyclical recovery in a basically free-market economy that is a lot more resilient than capitalist critics would have us believe. So conservatives should not lose their cool and blow their credibility over a cyclical rebound that is backed by the statistics.

That was just the warm-up act for this stunner from Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who defended Pelosi as "a nice person" and went on to lecture the crowd not to drink the kool-aid served up by cable television - in particular, Fox News.

"Come on now. [Pelosi] is a nice. How many of y'all have met her? She is a nice person. She's a nice person. You know, let me give you a little lesson here. I hope you will listen to me. Just because somebody disagrees with you doesn't mean that they're not a good person. And I want to tell ya, I've been in the Senate for five years and I've taken a lot of that because I've been on the small side, both in the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. Just because I don't agree with them, it doesn't mean I'm bad. It means I have a legitimate point of view that's different than theirs. And what we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what's going on and make the determination yourself. So, don't catch yourself being biased by Fox News that somebody's no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don't know what they don't know."

So far, no response from Fox. The network doesn't have a history of turning the other cheek so I assume that one of their talking heads is going to have something to say about the affair before too long. (In the meantime, you can find conservative reaction from Riehl World View, National Review and Weekly Standard as well as the full gamut of opinion to Coburn's call for civility.

None of this suggests that Coburn is about to turn into the liberals' favorite conservative (the position has remained open since former title holder John McCain abdicated in time for his 2008 presidential run.) But if a step back from the brink is a harbinger of a different tone to the D.C. conversation, then more power to him.

[mikelpond]

Has it occured to you that the best interests of the gop or the country might not be at the top of the priority list for FOX? Have you considered that FOX and Rush and Glenn might not actually give a hoot about the republican party? Maybe they're more interested in the $ they're raking in?
just wondering,
mike

[StewieEsq]

Good for Coburn; now watch the GO-tea baggers eat their own.

[EternalReaganaut]

Stop being a Jackass Coburn. Self-loathing Republicans of all kinds, RINOs and those stupid enough to think that their desire for comity will be reciprocated by the Maoist Anti-American Democreeps are all equally ridiculous and appear foolish to one and all. Dems just laugh at these foolish, ingenuous remarks like Coburn's in the same way that bin Laden laughs at the insipient remarks by idiots like Bush when they call Islam "the religion of peace". A Sadist sneers at the bootlicking of a masochist and kicks the fool all the harder. Coburn's playing that type of fool. Pelosi is a hard-line Marxist Stalinist. The idea that saying nice things about her will somehow make her more willing to compromise is a fool's errand and is nothing more than an exercise in self-humiliation. Coburn should know better. Or he's so immersed in the country-club "comity" of a sleazy Congress that he disregards Pelosi's desire to burn what's left of the U.S. Constitution and Americans' civil liberties and property rights as less nafarious than a citizen's righteous indignation over that tyranny being inflincted upon him. Washington, Madison, Jefferson and both Adamses would be enraged by such fake virtue. Coburn should wise up before he loses all the goodwill and credibility he's created up to now with otherwise great legislative work on behalf of liberty and freedom...the enemy of which is the wannabe Madame Mao that he now bafflingly defends.

[tsigili]

Neither political party is working for the citizens of this country. nor do they ever intend to do so. They serve themselves, and the rich and powerful. Who do you really think the "special interests" are?

They couldn't care less about the common man, and indeed, even when the Dems pretend to do something "for the poor", when you really look at it, they make the middle class pay for it, and not themselves, as the "wealthy".

A good future will only be possible in this country, through new political parties, who will serve with the interest of all its citizens at heart, and not JUST the wealthy ones.

Reliance on either of the current political parties to do what's best for this country, will result in a continuing downward spiral, until America just becomes "Mexico Norte", and is controlled by drug cartels, and not government, of any kind. This has been the path of the last 50 yrs........and it IS continuing.

[starving1968-3]

by Continental_Soldier April 7, 2010 7:31 AM EDT
It's Liberals who are bigoted. Case in point. The blacks that are in the tea-party movement are being called Uncle Toms, oreos, and traitors - by the left. Hypocrisy!!!






Hilarious!!

Like there are ANY other people in the Tea Party, other than white racist, trailer trash, rednecks!!!

What a hoot!

[formrusmcsgt]

"..the right's drumbeat of dismissal of positive economic data has put "conservative credibility" on the line..."
---
What's sad are the chumps who buy the lies hook, line, and sinker.

[Continental_Soldier]

NETWORK EVENING NEWS DOWN -14% IN YEAR; AUDIENCE VANISH

WEEK MARCH 29, 2010
NBC 7,750,000
ABC 7,070,000
CBS 5,160,000

WEEK MARCH 30, 2009
NBC 8,740,000
ABC 7,950,000
CBS: 5,970,000

Keep it up Drive-by media. Soon the only one watching your programming will be you.

[babooph]

Kudlow,[business mans Rush],lost any credibility of reason when he touted idiot Bush....

[soap-suds]

Good stuff is good stuff, regardless of the source or other issues.

[smoknmirrors]

It's just Tom Coburn working his mojo act. He had NOthing to offer when asked to list $9 billion worth of waste, fraud or corruption in government programs to balance the $9 billion in unemployment benefits he's been filibustering against. He didn't produce a list when Bunning filibustered and he hasn't offered a list since he began his own filibuster. He had NOthing to offer to balance the $700 billion that went to bankers; he had NOthing to offer when $150 billion went to insurance giants, credit card companies and automobile makers on his watch. He's had NOthing to offer for the total $1 trillion in bailouts to his special interests to replace it but he holds up unemployment benefits of $9 billion for working stiffs. We should also remember he had NOthing to offer to balance the $1 trillion cost of the Iraqi misadventure of his boss. All of that represents debt on Tom's watch for which he had NOthing of substance to offer. Having had NOthing to offer of substance, he must of necessity engage in a little sleight of hand, misdirecting the public's attention to style points, lest they realize Emperor Tom has no clothes in his naked grab for power.