Gov. Scott Walker is the Lionel Logue of Wisconsin. He and the conservative majority have taught our prog-liberal acquaintances (for they ARE ...) to pronounce a very difficult word without stammering, stuttering, or sputtering. Well, maybe not without sputtering.
Governor Walker has taught the Left to say the J word: "J- J- Jobs."
This is real progress, since the Obama-Pelosi interregnum (2009-2010) could not be bothered to address the common folk, distracted as they were by nationalized health care, global warming climate change, gay marriage and other tangents.
It must have been pure agony for our progressive and liberal acquaintances to be tongue-tied during the last two years as jobs hemorrhaged under the unforgettable Gov. Jim Boyle and Obama-Pelosi. Their long silences were surely embarrassing. (On the parade grounds, a horse whinnied.) But November 2 seems to have loosened their vocal cords. Now their speech trippeth off their tongues as marbles from the mouth of Demosthenes.
Indeed, on the very day of Gov. Walker's inauguration, one week ago today, a few hundred liberals bused in to Madison loudly to demand jobs. When did they want them? Now!
They are in luck. Just in time, the jobs therapist is open for business.
Jessica Vanegeren does a fine job for The Capital Times. But The liberal blogosphere has gone a bit overboard in exalting her observation that "The unemployed don't make it into Walker's [inaugural] speech." Proof to such as Madame Brenda that the man has a compassion impediment!
No, Scott Walker did not pronounce the word "unemployment." But forsooth! In his brief inaugural address, Scott Walker did use the word "jobs" 17 times. Seventeen times!
Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.
Is that not speaking the eloquent language of love to the unemployed? Maybe, our prog-lib acquaintances were looking for Walker to roll out some huge new unemployment benefit program costing millions of dollars like a good liberal, ye olde victimization ruse, instead of focusing on, y'know, actual jobs.
Ed bloody well can't stand it!
I can see Ed Garvey, D-Teachers Union, rolling on the carpet, trying to shake his partisan palsy. I can almost hear him spewing a string of imprecations to loosen his jowls. Catch the snark on almost any of his daily blogs.
All summer, Fighting Ed could barely utter the word "jobs," using it in his blog maybe once or twice a month. But come the November 2 election, Ed's mind was suddenly concentrated. Spit it out, boy!
In November, Ed vocalized the word "jobs" 67 times. In December, he said jobs 70 times. So far this January he is on pace to utter "jobs" 79 times! So you see, there IS hope for our prog-lib acquaintances. (For they ARE ...)
Is Obama coming toward the light?
The appointment of Bill Daley to the top staff job in the Obama White House has dealt the final blow to a dearly held fantasy of parts of the left: that a truly liberal president has been ill-served and misinterpreted by Rahm Emanuel and other center-right aides. -- Politico 1-8-11
We have reached a pivotal moment in government and politics, and it feels like the last, groaning spasms of New Deal liberalism. -- William Greider, The Nation.
Making political hay from tragedy
Shame on John Nichols ("Palin Put a Gun Target on Giffords's District") for trying to score partisan points off a crazy man's actions. Shame on Greg Humphrey ("Which GOP candidate ... will break with Sarah Palin ...?")
The language of politics is "loaded." A candidate is "targeted" for defeat. A challenger "takes aim" at the incumbent's record. A big victory is a "landslide." My worthy "opponent." Jack Shafer in Slate makes In Defense of Inflamed Rhetoric:
The awesome stupidity of the calls to tamp down political speech in the wake of the Giffords shooting.
Yesterday, some folks lept into scoring political points even before the surgeons got to Gabrielle Giffords's brain, before the body of the 9-year-old Christina Green had arrived at the funeral home. They couldn't wait to tell us what's wrong with America - as if there weren't something wrong with them for failing to hold off for a day, while other people were manifesting basic human decency.
From everything we've seen so far, the gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, is deranged. Like many insane people, he connected up ideas that don't really connect:
A series of short videos posted on the Internet, apparently by Mr. Loughner, consist of changing blocks of text that are largely rambling and incoherent.
... Jared Loughner is probably just a crazy guy whose acts say nothing about anybody else.
Of course, some folks' outrage is mighty selective, as this graphic from the state Democrat's website, now altered, shows. Charlie Sykes deconstructs:
What did I say after the Chicago Bears game? Run Starks! (The very last item.)
