1.) Dems agree: The downgrade is meaningless… and it’s the Tea Party’s fault! — The Democrats had two main messages this weekend: The S&P downgrade is no big deal, and it’s the Tea Party’s fault we were downgraded. TheDC’s Neil Munro reports on the first point: “Democratic National Committee communications director Brad Woodhouse created a new Twitter hashtag Friday night to criticize Standard & Poor’s, as Democrats railed against the credit rating powerhouse for its decision to downgrade the U.S. government’s fiscal status. Woodhouse tweeted out his support for the hashtag #DowngradeSandP to his 3,841 followers, including many reporters, bloggers, Democratic activists and TV personalities. ‘Who rates S&P?’ he tweeted. ‘A $2 trillion error and their abysmal failure during the financial crisis – someone should downgrade them.'” (In other words: “I know you are, but what am I?”) So their message was that the downgrade is just a misunderstanding, a big mistake. But then, less than 24 hours later, they were likening the downgrade to an earthquake or a plague. And, of course, blaming everyone but themselves. By Sunday, David Axelrod and John Kerry — two of the most trustworthy faces in the Democratic Party — completed the 180 by calling it the “Tea Party downgrade.” So stay calm, everybody. Things aren’t as bad as they look, and besides, it’s the teabaggers’ fault that things are so bad.
2.) Teabaggers reply: Downgrade this — The Tea Party is downgrading Axelrod and Kerry right back. TheDC’s Matthew Boyle reports: “FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe told The Daily Caller that liberals are using the [‘Tea Party downgrade’] slogan to distract Americans from the bad economic numbers he says President Obama’s policies have caused. ‘Well of course they want to say that,’ Kibbe said of how the Obama administration is attempting to blame the tea party movement for the credit downgrade. ‘They don’t want to talk about how Obama’s fiscal policy led to this and 9.1 percent unemployment.’ Kibbe noted that Obama never provided his own debt plan and added that he believes it was Democrats and liberal Republicans who perpetuated the ‘out-of-control spending’ that led Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ with a negative outlook for the first time in the nation’s history.” But no, see, it’s the people who want to control spending who are the problem. As Instapundit puts it, “Everyone knows that when you’re using your MasterCard to pay your Visa bill, it’s the person who doesn’t want the limit raised who’s the real source of the problem.” Remember when the Tea Party was just an ineffectual bunch of rednecks? Now, apparently, they’re responsible for everything. But that’s what happens when you move the cookie jar out of the Democrats’ reach. You’re going to hear a lot of crying and screaming and pleading.
3.) Landry talks terror — And don’t forget that the teabaggers are “terrorists”! Joe Biden certainly hasn’t. But at least one Republican isn’t going to stand for it, as Matthew Boyle reports: “Rep. Jeff Landry, Louisiana Republican, told The Daily Caller that Vice President Joe Biden should think twice before labeling him and other tea partiers ‘terrorists’ or ‘hostage-takers.’ He hints that he thinks Biden, President Barack Obama and other Democrats might be more deserving of the label themselves. ‘Let’s think about it: In my lifetime, I have created jobs and I have paid taxes in the private sector and I have helped move our economy forward,’ Landry remarked. ‘What have they done? You’ve still got above 9 percent unemployment, we’re running record deficits and on Tuesday the president signed the largest increase of United States debt in history,’ he continued. ‘Now, you tell me who’s terrorizing the country?'” It’s a fair point, although strictly speaking, what the Dems are doing to future generations qualifies them more as pedophiles than terrorists. Although there’s no reason they couldn’t be both.
4.) Heckuva job, Timmy — Despite calls for his resignation by people who “follow the news” and are “paying attention,” TurboTax Timmy Geithner is staying put. TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein reports: “Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner indicated Sunday that he intends to stay on the job, despite calls for his resignation by some Republicans in the wake of Standard & Poor’s downgrade of America’s credit rating. ‘Secretary Geithner has let the President know that he plans to stay on in his position at Treasury,’ Jenni Lecompte, the assistant secretary for public affairs at Treasury, said in a statement. ‘He looks forward to the important work ahead on the challenges facing our great country.’ Geithner defended his decision Sunday to remain at Treasury. ‘I believe in this president,’ Geithner stated in an exclusive interview with John Harwood on CNBC. ‘I believe in what he’s trying to do for the country. I love my work. And I think if a president asks you to serve, you have to do it. And we have men and women dying to protect the country in Afghanistan. We have unemployment above nine percent. Still trying to heal the scars of this crisis. We have a lot of work to do.’” So it’s the world’s biggest case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Who better to fix the problem than the guy who created it? Our fallen warriors in Afghanistan would’ve wanted it that way or something. (It’s okay to use the memory of dead servicemen to try to save your career, as long as you’re not a Republican.) P.S. Has Geithner ever been photographed without that look on his face like he’s trying to talk his way out of a swirlie?
5.) We’re pretty darn Romered — Christina Romer, who jumped ship from Obama’s economic team last year to teach at Berkeley, went on “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday and created a shovel-ready job: digging through her foul-mouthed nonsense. TheDC’s Steven Nelson reports: “Romer — who resigned in 2010 after inaccurately predicting that the $800 billion stimulus would lower the unemployment rate — said that the S&P credit downgrade was a sign that the country is ‘pretty darn f***ed.’ ‘The long run budget situation is abysmal,’ Romer said. ‘And it has been abysmal going back at least a decade. So it was never an immediate emergency. And it is something that we absolutely needed to deal with, but we didn’t need to deal with it today, we didn’t need to deal with it a week ago…’ Maher asked Romer how she felt about being ‘Palinized’ by Republicans who aren’t economists. She said, ‘Policy would be better if we listened to the experts.'” Well, sure. After all, Romer is an expert and we listened to her. That’s been working out just great. Oh yeah, and she said Obama makes good decisions, and the stimulus wasn’t big enough. Then she slithered back to Berkeley.
6.) Today’s words of wisdom from Adam Baldwin’s Twitter feed — “Opinions of #CriticalTheory numbskulls – who demonize the Tea Party while offering no practical/real world alternatives – deserve no respect.”
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