Doakes Sunday: Not Cottoning To This
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Tom Cotton is one of the 87 Republicans who voted to cave. He did it because he thought Obama would voluntarily default on the national debt which would plunge the world into economic chaos, and the main-steam media would blame it on Republicans.
In other words: Cotton believed Obama would shoot the hostage so Cotton paid the ransom But Let Obama Keep The Hostage!
The continuing resolution only kicks the can down the road for a few months. Republicans can try to negotiate something in January. I get that.
But here’s the thing about setting a precedent, Tommy Boy . . . .
That precedent was set decades ago. Even Reagan made some unconscionable compromises for reasons that seem dumb in retrospect (and to conservatives seemed dumb in 1987).
The challenge is in trying, at long last, to break it.
October 20th, 2013 at 9:05 am
Doakes is over the line on this one.
If you want to call a career politician a RINO or squishie because of this vote, fine, that’s par for the course. But implying that Cotton, a combat veteran who volunteered to serve in Iraq where he was shot at on a regular basis, is a weak and spineless sellout is insulting.
How about we use logic and reason to explain why we disagree with each other, rather than running around screaming that everyone who doesn’t agree with you is a morally bankrupt coward.
October 20th, 2013 at 10:02 am
I really think it’s impossible for spending to be controlled politically in the loose monetary environment we have had since 1971 or whatever (1913?), plus all of the structural centralization of government that has taken place since Wilson. It’s just a gigantic integrated mess.
October 20th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
What davethul said….
There’s a difference between debate and argument. In a debate, we disagree and refute, but we also listen and learn.The objective of a debate is a broader understanding of an issue, which may lead to some degree of consensus.
October 21st, 2013 at 8:06 am
DaveThul, you’re right, Tom Cotton is an amazing guy. Harvard lawyer who turned down the JAG Corps for Ranger tabs, led an infantry platoon in war then came back and won a seat in Congress. 75 years ago, he’d be the kind of guy Hollywood would be making movies about.
Read my words again. This column says nothing about personal bravery, it’s about error. The tactics needed to take a hill are different from the tactics needed for hostage negotiations. Cotton gave in to The First Hostage-taker’s demands plus let him keep the hostages to use against us in February. I think that was a mistake because it sets a bad precedent for the next round of negotiations. If it’s hard to shut down the government when we owe $16 trillion and have 50 million on welfare, how much harder when we owe $20 million and have millions more on Obamacare?
Even amazing guys can make mistakes. This was one of them.