September 27, 2013

Tom Harkin, unuseful idiot

Contests can't declare themselves impartial observers Tom Harkin.
Tom Harkin, in speaking about how the United States congress is looking more and more like a pre-civil war America ratchets up the hate speech.  In an alarming lack of understanding of his own hypocrisy, he blasts Ted Cruz and the Tea Party for causing such angry partisanship and acrimony - by insulting them.
On the Senate floor before 10 a.m. Friday, the senator gave a speech describing how American politics have reached the level at which "a small group of willful men and women who have a certain ideology"—read: the tea party and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas—have been able to take over the congressional budget debate in the last week. "Since they can't get their way," Harkin said, "they're going to create this confusion and discourse and hope that the public will be so mixed up in who is to blame for this, that they'll blame both sides."

This isn't just congressional business as usual, Harkin said. It's much, much more dire:
It's dangerous. It's very dangerous. I believe, Mr. President, we are at one of the most dangerous points in our history right now. Every bit as dangerous as the break-up of the Union before the Civil War.
This isn't the first time the senator has spoken out about the spiraling budget and the fight over Obamacare. Harkin suggested Thursday that Cruz looked "foolish" for his "little tirade" that lasted from Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday morning. Harkin called out Cruz as being part of "the most extreme tea-party wing" of his party, and for his "ideology-driven obstructionism."
That's really helpful Senator. Thanks for that - way to throw gasoline on a brush fire.
 
I titled my post "Tom Harkin, unuseful idiot". I have always argued that name calling adds exactly zero to debates. In case you missed it, the title is intended to be ironic.
 
Tom Harkin will not read that and think, "Gee, you know what, I am being an unuseful idiot and I should change my tone to a more civil one if I want to change the minds of my political adversaries. If I really want to promote civility in politics and ratchet down the hyper-partisanship, I probably shouldn't resort to name calling."

Then again, Tom Harkin is actually as much a part of the problem of hyper-partisanship as anyone in the Senate, if not more.  So I wouldn't expect him to read more civil critique of his actions and change his mind either.

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