On Friday, news broke that the Heritage Foundation, an influential Republican "think tank", sent a letter to Republican members of Congress advising them not to bother with trying to "govern" (no proposing or passing responsible legislation) and instead focus their efforts on "getting" President Obama by focusing on scandals, real (IRS scandal and AP phone records, maybe), spun from almost nothing (Benghazi), and completely made up (umbrella-gate).
Note to the Heritage Foundation: Not to belabor the obvious, but "getting" the President has been the Republican plan since he was inaugurated in 2009. Advising the Rs in Congress to do what they have been doing all along probably isn't going to enhance your credibility.
Anyway, on to the story...
From theGrio, written by Joy-Ann Reid -
In a letter to members of Congress, which was obtained by NBC News, Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation (which recently found itself in hot water over the racial IQ theories of the co-author of their widely panned immigration reform study, Jason Richwine, who resigned from the think tank last Friday), urged Republicans on Capitol Hill not to govern, and instead, to focus on the would-be “scandals” plaguing the Obama administration.
The letter, which is addressed to House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, trumpets the negative media buzz surrounding the White House, saying that, “for the first time, the activities of the Obama administration are receiving a sustained public vetting. Americans’ outrage over Benghazi is amplified by the Internal Revenue Service’s intimidation of conservative grassroots organizations and a cascade of negative headlines. There is the real sense the Obama administration has been less than forthright with the American people, the press and lawmakers.”
In light of the white hot media spotlight on the administration, and to deflect attention from the many policy areas where Republicans don’t quite get along, the letter urges: “it is incumbent upon the House of Representatives to conduct oversight hearings on those actions, but it would be imprudent to do anything that shifts the focus from the Obama administration to the ideological differences within the House Republican Conference.”
This diary from DailyKos has the text of the full letter.
It didn't take long for "Foreclosure Dave" Schweikert to "snap-to" upon receiving the letter.
His latest "newsletter", from my email inbox today, from the email address david.schweikert@congressnewsletter.net -
Schweikert hit all of the high points in the current litany of Republican talking points, even throwing in a demonization of health care reform for good measure.
When dogs perform tricks at their masters' commands, they generally receive treats of some kind; I don't know what members of Congress get when the perform on cue, but I'm guessing there are dollar signs attached.
Oh, and before the Congressman's staff removes me from their email list, I hope they take a refresher course on the use of the possessive in the English language -
Normally, I'm not a grammar Nazi (as a blogger, I've published too many typos to be a hypocritical hardass about it), but this was (presumably) written by the staff of a sitting member of Congress. They're supposed to be better than this.
The way that they wrote the last sentence signifies the existence of multiple "White Houses" in the US. While there are many "white houses" (houses painted white), there's only one "White House" (the seat of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.)
Tighten it up, folks.
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