Robert Draper's Book: GOP's Anti-Obama Campaign Began The Night Of The Inauguration.
luvguins
2012/04/26 20:04:37
From where we have arrived now, some of us thought we knew when the GOP was being transparent about their campaign to sabotage the president when Mitch McConnell said their plan was to "make Obama a one term president" in October, 2010. However, we were way behind the GOP's nefarious plans according to Robert Draper's new book, "Do Not Ask What We Good We Do: Inside the House of Representatives". Draper, a contributor to GQ and the NY times, imbedded himself with House members in 2011 including the key players, and was surprised how forthcoming and candid they were about their mission and it's beginning.
As President Barack Obama was celebrating his inauguration at various balls, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency at a private dinner in Washington.
The event -- which provides a telling revelation for how quickly the post-election climate soured -- serves as the prologue of Robert Draper's much-discussed and heavily-reported new book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives."
According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith. Notably absent were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) -- who, Draper writes, had an acrimonious relationship with Luntz.
For several hours in the Caucus Room (a high-end D.C. establishment), the book says they plotted out ways to not just win back political power, but to also put the brakes on Obama's legislative platform.
"If you act like you're the minority, you're going to stay in the minority," Draper quotes McCarthy as saying. "We've gotta challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign."
The conversation got only more specific from there, Draper reports. Kyl suggested going after incoming Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for failing to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes while at the International Monetary Fund. Gingrich noted that House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) had a similar tax problem. McCarthy chimed in to declare "there's a web" before arguing that Republicans could put pressure on any Democrat who accepted campaign money from Rangel to give it back.
The dinner lasted nearly four hours. They parted company almost giddily. The Republicans had agreed on a way forward:
Go after Geithner. (And indeed Kyl did, the next day: ‘Would you answer my question rather than dancing around it—please?’)
Show united and unyielding opposition to the president’s economic policies. (Eight days later, Minority Whip Cantor would hold the House Republicans to a unanimous No against Obama’s economic stimulus plan.)
Begin attacking vulnerable Democrats on the airwaves. (The first National Republican Congressional Committee attack ads would run in less than two months.)Win the spear point of the House in 2010. Jab Obama relentlessly in 2011. Win the White House and the Senate in 2012.
"You will remember this day," Draper reports Newt Gingrich as saying on the way out. "You’ll remember this as the day the seeds of 2012 were sown."
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/robert-dr...
Top Opinion
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+46The "hate" machine against this President has been the worst I have ever seen. And yet he still stands tall and will win in 2012. From the likes of drug addled Rush and Nugent they just can not stop him. These GOP candidates will loose too.
They are "representatives" for a reason. An honest rep (IE Cao from New Orleans) can actually have to vote in a fashion contrary to their personal views if they actually take the term REP to heart. Cao is a (R) from New Orleans and has voted against his party on the request of the majority of the citizens in his district.
His backstabbing of his mentor Alice Palmer in 1996 told me all I needed to know about the man who would do anything to silence his opposition.
You give far too much credit to politicians, Americans are not the fools Obama thinks we are. We know an empty suit when we see one.
His buddy Eric Holder has done a good job to brainwash Americans and divide even their own party.
When will Obama apologize for murdering one of our own?
Americans right to bear arms is and always will be here to stop a tyrannical government like the one we have today (NDAA).
In the meantime, everyday criminals shoot other criminals and that saves us money we would have to spend on incarcerating the ignorant trash. Obama agrees and that is why he NEVER speaks out about the crime rate.
Also lots of domestic male sociopaths shoot their spouses, kids get hold of guns not locked up too shooting themselves and their siblings, and drunk hunters can't tell an animal from a human. Love that too?
If he had done as promised there would be no NDAA but he lied when he said he would veto, just like he lied when he said he'd get rid of the Patriot act or guantanomo. He's a power and war monger just like the man you love to blame for all of Obama's mistakes.
Millions of law abiding Americans own guns and respect their power and uphold their responsibility as gun owners that is not true of criminals.
To restrict the rights of the many to protect the fools in our country is not the American way, well except in progressive places like San Fran.
Have you listened to Romney's war mongering? He's out to make new enemies like Russia in time travel. What a putz, and his 2 top advisors on foreign policy are the guys that used the media to tell us how wonderful Iraq was for 5 years.
Yes, millions of citizens love their guns and fantasize about using them or have animal heads on their walls.
If we go to war with Iran it will be in aid of our alli Israel.
AS to Russia, has Romney given any indications that he would sell out our defense secrets and info to them? Just wondering......
My spellcheck is outdated.
You pick which reply you like better and run with it.
Nope Obama couldn't do it. Why? Because he was absent as the Chair for the committee on Afganistan, never holding a single meeting during the war.
When he became POTUS he learned that NO nation wanted the scum bags and Americans don't want them in our jails recruiting either.
Yes, Americans love their guns and criminals fear them as do our foreign enemies. Nothing stops a home invasion quicker than a smith and wesson sign :) I love that.
You are just surmising.
Drugged out criminals fear nothing, and usually shoot first.
His absence as the Afgan Chair is on record, not one single meeting.
Drugged out criminals kill each other, that's fine with me. It's the innocents and the police caught in the crossfire of those animals that should raise eyebrows.