Op-Ed

The Krauthammer who stole Christmas

Mark Ellis Journalist and Writer
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Talk about a holiday party pooper.

In early December, the bacchanal in conservative enclaves over the tax extension/unemployment compromise was in full swing. According to the narrative, President Obama was being routed, first by a midterm shellacking and then by a bully Congressional minority vowing to battle up to Christmas Eve if necessary to save the Bush tax cuts.

Then, only days after the switch to light the Capitol Christmas Tree had been thrown, Washington Post columnist and Fox News analyst Charles Krauthammer published “The Swindle of the Year.”

Hold the mistletoe and pass a stiff drink.

Though it exploded on the scene like an IED, there had been harbingers of Krauthammer’s op-ed. Tea Party grumblings had surfaced, and cautionary notes were sounded by establishment Republicans smart enough to read the tea leaves. An undercurrent of opinion in conservative circles held that Republicans were wrong to compromise, especially since they would soon take control of the House. Sean Hannity dialed back his euphoria over Democrat disarray to call for an up-or-down vote on the tax-cut extension.

But the idea of compromise was also defensible: to avoid the spectacle of simultaneously digging in to stop unemployment benefits and fighting to preserve tax breaks for the wealthy. Supply-side economics aside, that strategy was risky, and presented, as Karl Rove might say, “a perception problem.”

As the clock moved on what would become the most legislatively ambitious lame-duck session in memory, the narrative became inexorable: Obama had caved big time, and broken a pledge he had repeated like a broken record so many times on the campaign trail — no tax cuts for the wealthy.

Not so fast. In Krauthammer’s view, Obama’s combination quarterback sneak and Joe Montana bomb delivered to the Republicans a pyrrhic victory, and set the president up for four more years.

The president got a stealth stimulus and beat the clock on unemployment benefits. His swindle? If the economy improves, it’s on Obama’s watch, and he sails to victory like Clinton in 1996. If it flags or dips, it’s all about Rush Limbaugh’s rascally Republicans again, with dog food for grandma and billions in windfalls for AIG. Try selling that in a double-dipper.

Is Obama that smart? Krauthammer to Bill O’Reilly: in a nutshell, yes.

So smart he apparently snookered the sanctimonious left in the bargain. In the hours after Obama’s anger-managed press conference announcing the deal, the tingles up the legs of MSNBC hosts and Internet activists turned to collective spastic colons.

Redistributionist pundits engaged in orgies of self-flagellation over the prospect of obscenely rich bankers, outsourcing corporations, and visionary plumbers walking away with gifts from Bush-era Christmases past.

After Krauthammer’s column, backpedaling from revelry and despair became the most popular Beltway winter sport. Republicans hunkered down to play out the lame-duck string, besieged on every front by Democrat cave fighters. By week’s end, Obama’s heralds were back from the End of Days, though still visibly shaken, and had invented a Second Coming.

Mr. Krauthammer did not run the punditry table. Credible analysis still suggests that, like the midterm, the compromise was a huge victory for the Right. Many are convinced that the $990 billion compromise ($630 billion of which Krauthammer points out is “above and beyond the extension of the Bush tax cuts”) can’t help but boost the economy, thus undercutting left-wing opposition and proving the conservative maxim that tax cuts help everyone.

No doubt the GOP is busy writing the playbook they hope will ensure that they get the credit if things improve, and President Barack Obama gets the blame if they don’t.

A lot can happen in two years. If entrepreneurs don’t take risks, if the rich don’t invest, if banks don’t lend, and companies don’t hire, that playbook could become moot. Appearing to have hoarded the proceeds from the re-gifting of the Bush cuts, the wealthiest Americans could get “Scrooged” come Christmas 2012.

Krauthammer may be a Grinch, but Republicans write-off his analysis at their peril. The affectionate designation “Comeback Kid” could end up sticking for this president, and make for a party that will be hard to spoil.

Mark Ellis is a Portland, Oregon, journalist and writer.