I wondered what Sessions was thinking when I heard him say it. One guess is that in the hope of pumping campaign donations he was signaling the upper 1% that Republicans are going to fight hard for a continuation of the Bush tax cuts. He would have been better off using a newsletter. Another guess is that Gregory committed an unexpected act of journalism taking Sessions off guard. Sessions told the truth before thinking.

Bush/Cheney, DICK/Rumsfeld/Rove = the GOP. What did that get us? Iraq and endless war, erosion of civil and constitutional rights, Katrina, economic meltdown, and 9/11. Oh yes, lets please go back to the good ol' days of DICK and Bush. I think that crafting a message here that resonates with voters shouldn't take all that much brain power. C'mon Dems, it's here waiting for you. Use it for all it's worth!

How long before Gregory has Sessions back on the show for the opportunity to spin the agenda using more Tea Party friendly verbiage (i.e. lies aimed at stupid people)? Or even more likely, invite a Dem on for a complete ambush and then 'we'll have to leave it there'.

Karl's dance partner will eventually go back and 'dance with the guy who brung him'.

Let's hope the same ability at "message discipline" that the Republicans are so good at practicing can be adopted by the Democrats this year.

It might be a vain hope, though. Herding Dems is like herding cats.

phobes-in-santa fe,

That hearding Dems is like herding cats is one of the reasons I am a Democrat. I consider that trait to be a feature not a bug.

The most candor I've witnessed from an affiliated agent of the Republican party, maybe in a life time!

Socialism for the Rich should be the fall campaign slogan for Republicans. Sessions seems to suggest only a continued transfer of wealth, by the state, to the wealthy can lead to economic prosperity.

Once called the "trickle down theory", we middle class Americans have always known such theory as "the tinkle on practice!"

When will the leaders of the Republican party realize we're tired of them peeing on us and trying to make us believe it's only raining! -Kevo

Nothing you can say,
Can take me away,
From my guy.
Nothing you could do,
'cause I'm stuck like glue,
To my guy.
I'm sticking to my guy,
Like a stamp to a letter,
Like birds of a feather,
We, stick together,
I can tell you from the start,
I can't be torn apart from my guy.

I don't buy that it's difficult to tie in to Bush. It's only been 1.5 years, and there are copious documents, speeches, and votes to point to spotlighting how current Republican members of Congress gleefully and with purpose voted for every deficit-increasing measure that Bush threw their way, with nary a peep about 'deficit spending' or adding to it. Heck, even a continual running of Cheney snarling "deficits don't matter" should do well enough. Deficits only do matter, apparently, when Republicans are not in office.

But as has been painfully obvious since taking power, Democrats have a remarkable proclivity for being unable or unwilling (or both) to actually use the crate of silver platters that they have available to them to consistently and coherently explain to the people why Republicans are to blame for the mess we're in. And why it's not in 'bad form' or an exercise in 'blame' or 'looking back' to do so. It's true and it wasn't that freaking long ago.

Yes, democrats "have every reason to be nervous", because Americans will remember that BHO got us into the quagmire of Afghanistan and drove the deficit and debt to unprecedented levels. They will remember the bush presidency as a time when government was not an intrusive presence in our daily lives. And they will vote for a return to sanity.

Al, I hope you're a parody troll, because every word in your post is an easily proven lie.

Gummo, we just ignore Al.

This return to bush is code for "get blackie out of the Whitehouse". They want a "white, christian, corporate, neocon".

I say use the "Miss Me Yet?" campaign. Point out over and over how Republicans have NO plan for dealing with the deficit, NO plan to end the wars, NO plan for the recession, NO plan to get people back to work, NO plan for our health, welfare and safety as a nation, NO plan on anything and only plan on saying NO to anyone who does.

Remind the country who brought us to this spot in the first place.

Republicans: Out of step, out of touch, out of ideas.

Ladies and Gentlemen may I present "Al" the first graduate of Beck U. Good Gawd I hope he hasn't reproduced.

It doesn't matter that everything Al or Fake Al said is a lie. The fact that Bush policies were catastrophic for the US in just about every possible way does not matter to the right wing base. Historical facts and stats do not have a lot of meaning to cultural idealogues. What matters is that Bush portrayed himself as a big saved white heterosexual Christian. That they passed anti gay marriage legislation. That he cut taxes (no matter for who). That he exercised US military muscle, no matter that it wasn't paid for and was pointless and based on lies. That he appointed right wing Establishment (i.e. corporate oriented, pro authoritarian) Supreme Court judges.

The way to fight this kind of thinking, or non-thinking, if it is at all possible, is with big broad brush statements, and repeat them over and over. This is how propaganda works. Although the Big Truth is as good as the Big Lie. Like "The Bush years were a catastrophe for America." "Republican policies crashed the economy and took away your job." Not with Obama subltleties. You know "Some members of Congress seem to...."

It's nice to see BHO telling it like it is finally. As usual, when they were about to get what they wanted anyway.

Oh, and for God's sake, is it possible for the next Congress to do something about the Republican prostituting of the filibuster concept????

"it seems challenging, at best, to keep connecting the party to Bush two years later."

I'm not sure why people think this. The Dems ran against Hoover for years, decades even, with great success. The GOP helped by continuing to support Hoover's policies, and Hoover himself helped by becoming an bitter, outspoken crank. Painful memories of Bush are still fresh in the public mind, and the Dems should exploit them for all they're worth.

There's no reason, in theory, why the Democrats couldn't be successfuly tying Republicans to George Bush -- and to Bush's failed policies -- right now.

But, in fact, it has turned out to be hard because Obama wanted to be Mr. Nice Guy and refused to make the repeated public case against Bush that he should have made.

Reagan did it to Carter, and it was spectacularly successful. Obama failed to do it, and the Democrats will pay a very large price for that failure.

But, in fact, it has turned out to be hard because Obama wanted to be Mr. Nice Guy and refused to make the repeated public case against Bush that he should have made.

Right. And the huge right-wing uproar against Obama "blaming Bush" for everything bad... where did that come from?

Get out much?

Every two years, from the day after Labor Day until midnight before the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, we have Politics.
In between? Not so much. We hire these people, otherwise known as "politicians" and expect them to do their jobs and not bother us. If they do well, or at least not too badly, we re-elect them. If we get really pissed off, we may vote them out regardless.
But, and this is VERY important, DO NOT bother us with Politics at any other time! We are not glued to Fox, CNN, MSNBC or any other news outlet and do not wish to be bothered. Thank you for your consideration.
signed:
Average US voter*
*this includes most voters during off-year elections, too

So, tell me; just why the Democrats should be filling the air-waves with Republican misdeeds right now? When said misdeeds are just going to be ignored? Occasional speeches, photo-ops, fine. Some particular piece of legislation stalled? Give a good speech on why it needs passing. If it passes, great! If it doesn't pass, keep trying and use Republican opposition against the legislation during the campaign.
It will do some good then, because that's when "voters" will be keeping and ear cocked, listening for "Politics".

Hey, nice blog post, just one small question though, do you use wordpress? If you do, where can I get a template like you have for my site, or did you make it?