On Sean Hannity’s radio show on Thursday, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan picked up where he left off earlier in the week by criticizing President Barack Obama’s tactics in dealing with the federal government shutdown.
According to the former Nixon and Reagan administration staffer, the president’s acts show that he is motivated by winning a political fight, even if it means resorting to very unpopular means to get at his opposition.
“I think even many of the president’s supporters, at least some of them, will candidly admit he’s among the most partisan presidents we’ve ever had,” Buchanan said. “And the relationship between the Republican House and the Republicans in the Senate and the White House, and the fact he didn’t meet with [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell for 18 months, I think that president is becoming quite frankly becoming increasingly a savage partisan. What he is doing in this debate and this argument, however, I think is genuinely sadistic.”
“To go out there yesterday and suggest, you know maybe we’re going to default and rattle the markets where they plunge today, to have his aides call over there at the Park Service and tell them not to let the veterans visit the World War II Memorial when they’re on honor flight — their last chance in this life to meet and honor the guys with whom they served and to visit the memorial, which belongs to them — what kind of mind would do that?” Buchanan continued.
He added that this president’s comments diminish his office to a point he comes off as a losing partisan.
“[Y]ou hear these very solicitous comments, ‘Well, you know we got a strong economy,'” Buchanan said. “Make sure you know, you don’t rattle the market or panic the markets. He looked like he is trying deliberately to do it. And now we see he’s out there threatening the Social Security checks of the old folks. I mean, this sounds like some rabid partisan in a wholly partisan congressional district in the last 48 hours before a losing campaign.”
Buchanan, the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” said it looked to him that congressional Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, were playing into Republicans’ hands. His suggested course of action was to counter hardship stories in the media by passing legislation that would fund those parts of the government and put the onus on Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and their fellow Democratic colleagues.