Empathy Trumped

Newt Gingrich makes a legitimate point about President Joe Biden, then turns reality on its head.

Gingrich: How can you have a commander in chief who is totally out of touch with reality, who makes up a story which is a lie, who has no understanding of the scale of the disaster which has occurred, who has literally has no empathy for the human beings around him. pic.twitter.com/GwGUBnyISw

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 23, 2023

Well, maybe the President has insufficient understanding of natural disasters. It is debatable whether he should have flown to Maui sooner than he did. His mere presence would have contributed little to actual relief efforts but, if nothing else, was politically tone-deaf.  Biden has not yet visited East Palestine, an error not only in politics but also in policy. There are issues, which he is reluctant to discuss, with the train derailment aside from climate change, and with the Maui disaster, beyond being an "act of God."

Moreover, Biden probably has less understanding of either of those situations than did President Trump about the danger posed by SARS-CoV-2, inasmuch as

President Donald Trump acknowledged the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic in a February interview with journalist Bob Woodward and acknowledged downplaying the threat in an interview a month later, according to an account of Woodward's new book.

“I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to create a panic," Trump said in a March 19 call with Woodward, according to an audio clip posted Wednesday on The Washington Post's website. The newspaper obtained a copy of the book, "Rage," which is scheduled to be released next week.

In the same interview, Trump acknowledged that the disease was more deadly than he previously thought.

"Now it's turning out it's not just old people, Bob. But just today, and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It's not just old, older," Trump said, according to an audio clip, and then added, "young people, too, plenty of young people."

And while then-President Trump on 38 conditions stated that SARS-CoV-2 would "go away" or "disappear" or was on its way to disappearing, 1,099,066 residents of the USA died from it on his watch. Much of that was tragic, thus unavoidable, and much of it was because the President knew and understood the danger of Covid-19 and was (generously speaking)  unconcerned.

In a portion of Gingrich's comments not included in the snippet above, the ex-congressman remarked  "He is out of touch with reality. How can you stand in Lahaina surrounded by death and talk about your '67 Corvette? 

This illustrates the absurdity of Gingrich's charge that Joe Biden "literally has no empathy for the human beings around him." The President had told of being in Washington, DC fifteen years earlier when "Lightning struck at home, on a little lake that's outside of our home—not a lake, a big pond,—and hit a wire that came up underneath our home into the heating ducts and air conditioning ducts. To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my '67 Corvette, and my cat."

It didn't come off well because the President seemed to be trivializing the devastating wildfires. Yet, he was describing how the memory of the lightning surrounding his home personalized to him the catastrophe in Hawaii.  It was not lack of empathy, but if anything, a misplaced emphasis on empathy.

We can see that at work in the controversy surrounding Biden's son, Hunter. Hunter was an alcoholic, is or was a drug addict, and appears to be a rapacious, even corrupt businessman. He rationalized his affairwith the widow of his late brother as "the idea that we could keep Beau alive by being together- that by loving each other we somehow could love him back into existence." That is some might powerful malarkey.

Nevertheless, Joe Biden has stuck with his surviving son, who if not a public figure would in times past have been dismissed as a "bad seed."  In April, amid congressional and criminal investigations into overseas business dealings, Hunter was permitted to join the President of the United States of America, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces when actually called into service, on a trip to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. (As Biden himself would put it, "not a joke!")

On behalf of an out-of-touch Administration, a spokesman blew it off with  "Historically, family members of presidents and first ladies have frequently joined them during international travel,. Current practices are consistent with those used by prior administrations."

Most prior presidents did not have a son or a daughter quite like Hunter. The fierce, even blind, loyalty of Joe Biden to his son reflects a stunning empathy, not absence of empathy. It represents also a reckless disregard of political reality and, arguably, of a President's duty to the nation he alone heads.

Joseph Robinette Biden is a family man and father- of a 53-year-old man. Astoundingly empathetic, he owes an overwhelming responsibility to the most powerful nation on earth. Empathy is admirable- in a President, leadership is far more important.

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Suck It Up

Newt Gingrich is right.

I haven't said that before, and hope I never have to again. But these are strange times, indeed.

On Friday night President Trump unoficially campaigned for US Senate candidate Roy Moore by speaking, 59 miles east in Pensacola, Florida before an exuberant crowd in the Mobile, Alabama media market.

Appearing in the Florida Panhandle, in which the President is very popular, gave Trump the opportunity to promote Moore in a state- Alabama- in which the President is very popular.  It was a gift to the media and, especially, to the people of the United States of America.

Whatever Donald Trump's ignorance or emotional state, he can read polls and understand political strategy.  This race has been over for a few weeks now, once Moore stablized his support and his numbers after an initial dropoff due to his courtship, or failed courtship, of underaged females.

Yet, if polls are to be believed- which in this case they shouldn't- the outcome Tuesday probably will be close, and is quite uncertain. 

Thankfully for all, when the final tally is in, the media will be able to flatter the people of Alabama- and by extension, the American people- by suggesting that Trump made a difference. Though unpopular nationally, he is not only popular in Alabama but is, still and significantly, President of the United States of America and (not really) leader of  the free world. Voters will be said to have been aroused by the strong support he gave to his fellow conservative Republican, which compensated for (alleged) outrage at immoral behavior.

Ultimately, Roy Moore will have won because it's very difficult for a liberal or even moderate to beat a conservative or even moderate in Alabama, which may have become the most reliably Republican state in the Union. However, there will have been an additional reason, obscured by the convenient intervention of the President, for the victory of a man dubbed a "child predator."

We should have noticed when after candidate Trump's numbers declined following release of the Access Hollywood tape, they bounced back and Trump ultimately went on to a stunning victory.

Nevertheless, we didn't understand then and- whatever our recognition now- will not acknowledge it after Moore's victory.  (If Doug Jones pulls it out, I'll concede error, and be shocked. So will Trump be shocked but he won't admit it: "I wasn't even in Alabama!")

The additional reason will be: people don't care. Oh, of course, some people do care- but they already were planning to vote for the Democrat, in a situation very similar to that of the presidential race.

Disturbingly, it's Newt Gingrich who apparently understands. As a loyal Republican, he won't admit that Moore won because people are relatively unconcerned about sexual misbehavior. But he does realize that the outrage of those in the political class is not matched by actual human voters.

Ignore (if you can), the ex-congressman's evocation of the term "'lynch' mob," which should be used roughly as scarcely as "Nazi," "Holocaust," "slavery," or "Hitler." Conversing with Laura Ingraham, he cites a "weird puritanism," and starts making sense (beginning at 5:46 of the video below) with

Al Franken was a comedian. Comedians often do weird things. He was in the entertainment business. He was doing the kind of things people in the entertainment business do. Now, maybe I'm wrong but I haven't seen anything they say he's done since he was a senator.

The pont is, we're in one of those weird American moments when running around lynching people feels good...

(Representative John) Conyers had a lot of good reasons to reture, but on the other hand- no hearings, no witness. This is Venezuela, this is Cuba, this is every third world banana republic.

That may be a bit of hyperbole but is a reasonable observation, as is

I think they do it because they get together at a cocktail party, look each other in the eye and go "oh, my God, can you imagine...." 

I mean, we're in an age which by any reasonable, I mean, this is cultural anthropology to me. This is when the natives go nuts.





Gingrich went with "cocktail party" because his party of elitists is always anxious to paint the Democratic Party as the party of elitists.  However, he realizes what most people in the public eye won't admit.  It's beyond difficult for a man (to a lesser extent, a woman) to be in a situation- especially a public situation- with a woman and suggest "this really has gotten out of hand" or "we should consider the cirumstances" or even "not all crass behavior is alike."

Many people- and this includes voters- believe one of those three things, a combination of them, or at least something else which propels them to believe the current outrage far exceeds the odiousness of the behavior.

Most of those individuals will vote Republican. It is not that these folks think Trump never abused women or that Moore never atttempted to abuse girls.  They are smarter than they sometimes appear to those of us on the left- and even when not, believe some of the behavior did occur.

They believe, however, that the actions are being exploited by the left for political gain, which they would not believe if they thought that this behavior were as noxious as the media and individuals in public life clearly believe they are. In that case, they would regard the uproar and condemnation as justified or at least not brazenly, politically exploitative.

Folks are being excoriated, fired or forced to resign or otherwise penalized, for acts ranging from the brazenly criminal to the insignificant, committed recently or in the distant past.  If the likely happens Tuesday, Roy Moore will become one of 100 individuals serving in the more esteemed legislative body of the most prestigious and powerful nation in the world.  Thirteen months earlier, Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States of America and still is President of the United States of America.

A backlash is coming. It is coming because the reality for many people is: they just don't care.



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Gingrich Takes Offense

It would take a chapter in a book to catalog all the cockeyed things Newt Gingrich said Sunday on "Fox & Friends", and the entire book to ridicule them sufficiently. Among the points he tried to make was

But I suspect there are millions of Americans who look at these very arrogant young millionaires- let's be clear, that's what they are, the'tre agorgant young millionaires who think that they should now basically inflict their politics in what has historically been a non-political moment.





How dare they! Or rather "how dare they?' Individuals are employed by National Football League teams for the same reason the teller at your local bank or megabank is employed- they create value for their employer.

There are two differences. While some people could perform the job of a bank teller, there are fewer than 2,000 people in the USA who could perform credibly in the NFL.  We know that because every year, there are millions of boys (and some girls) who dream of playing professional football, go on to play at some level, and eventually succumb to the realization that they are unable to compete professionally. The spirit may still be willing but the body, and the talent fall short.  NFL players are the cream of the crop, most gifted at birth with large bodies, but who hone their skills by working ceaselessly for many years.

We know that: otherwise you the reader and I would appear in a team's camp with the opportunity to land a job. We may be unable to be a bank teller, but we most assuredly are unable to tackle Kareem Hunt, block DeMarcus Lawrence, or defend a pass thrown by Aaron Rodgers. The elite group of 1700 performers are paid in part huge sums in part because of their unique skills.

They are paid large sums also because their employers can afford it.  The sports business reporter at The Wall Street Journal explains

The average NFL franchise is worth $2.5 billion, up 8% by FORBES’ count over last year. The Dallas Cowboys were the only NFL team worth $2 billion five years ago. Now all but five of the NFL’s 32 teams are worth at least $2 billion (the Buffalo Bills bring up the rear at $1.6 billion).

NFL owners are minting money thanks to hefty TV contracts and a favorable labor deal with the players. Operating profits (earnings, before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) were a record $101 million per team last season, with every team north of $40 million. The $3.2 billion in league-wide income is $500 million more than the combined earnings of teams in the NBA, NHL and MLB.

While Newt Gingrich implies that aside from the current protests, sports have been apolitical. The 16 stadia which hosted the opeining weekend of the 2015 season were built with nearly $3 billion of taxpayer funds granted through the political process.

Additionally, the protest movement begun by Kaepernick lay nearly dormant when on Saturday the President remarked

Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired. He’s FIRED!’ You know, some owner is gonna do that. He’s gonna say, ‘That guy disrespects our flag; he’s fired.’ And that owner, they don’t know it. They don’t know it. They’re friends of mine, many of them. They don’t know it. They’ll be the most popular person, for a week. They’ll be the most popular person in this country.

Earth to Gingrich: the President of the United States of America is a political figure.

However, the National Football League was embroiled in politics before the petulant one was elected President. We learned late last year

The Department of Defense doled out as much as $6.8 million in taxpayer money to professional sports teams to honor the military at games and events over the past four years, an amount it has “downplayed” amid scrutiny, a report unveiled by two Senate Republicans on Wednesday found....

The 145-page report released Wednesday dives deeper, revealing that 72 of the 122 professional sports contracts analyzed contained items deemed “paid patriotism” — the payment of taxpayer or Defense funds to teams in exchange for tributes like NFL’s “Salute to Service.” Honors paid for by the DOD were found not only in the NFL, but also the NBA, NHL, MLB and MLS. They included on-field color guard ceremonies, performances of the national anthem, and ceremonial first pitches and puck drops. 

It takes money to make money, and the Pentagon's investment appears to have paid off.

There is little doubt, as the former House Speaker stated, that millions of Americans are angry at whom they view as "very arrogant young millionaires." They now have the opportunity to boycott the NFL, as President Trump has recommended.  But they won't do it, any more than Trump or Newt Gingrich will cease and desist in their effort to sow disunity and division.





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Deficit Amnesia

Oh, but for the good old days when Republicans were in favor of nothing but cutting income taxes- and practically admitted it.

Think Progress takes us back to those times, before President Clinton on August 10, 1993 signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, nicknamed (not really) by Republicans as "The Path to Hell.Act."

In February of that year, Representative Bill Archer of Texas maintained he wished Clinton's program would "increase jobs and the standard of living (but) his massive tax increases will do just the opposite."   Representative Thomas Ewing of Illinois contended "the Clinton plan will hurt the economy and kill new job creation... by crippling small- and medium-sized businesses, the plan will kill jobs."

The following month, Rep. Phil Crane of Illinois argued "the budget proposal offered by the Democrats is a recipe for economic and fiscal disaster."  Representative Jim Ranstad of Minnesota claimed "Economists across the ideological spectrum are convinced that the Clinton tax increases will lead to widespread job loss."

May brought California's Christoper Cox labeling the tax increase a "Dr. Kevorkian plan for our economy" (which) "will kill jobs, kill businesses, and yes, kill even the higher tax revenues that these suicidal tax increasers hope to gain." Texas' Bill Archer argued the plan would cut jobs "and the standard of living for Americans."

In July, Representative Bob Goodlatte of Georgia contended small businesses "will be the hardest hit by the Clinton tax-and-spend budget because when you raise taxes, you kill jobs."  The following month, the budget plan was condemned by Representatives Kasich, Dornan, Armey, and Helflin, the latter notably claiming it "will raise your taxes, increase the deficit, and kill over 1 million jobs."

The pattern of criticism had been launched in February when the leader of those gentlemen, then-Minority Whip Gingrich, had complained

We have all too many people in the Democratic administration who are talking about bigger Government, bigger bureaucracy, more programs, and higher taxes. I believe that that will in fact kill the current recovery and put us back in a recession. It might take 1 1/2 or 2 years, but it will happen.

And those Republicans backed their words with action, for every Republican in the House of Representatives voted against the budget.  The GOP's solidarity held firm in the Senate, with the increase opposed by each of its members, including Oklahoma's Don Nickles, Utah's Orrin Hatch, Iowa's Chuck Grassley, and Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, who predicted the "package will not reduce the Federal debt, or even balance one annual budget for that matter."

In retrospect, the tax increase was the centerpiece of President Clinton's economic plan, which helped create the longest period of economic growth in United States history and balanced budgets, one of which was handed to President George W. Bush, who quickly (and intentionally) squandered it.

A party whose leaders have backbone would acknowledge their error.  It would embrace its position of 1993 and emphasize that the Republican Party is the party of lower taxes, or that the stock market boom and/or dot-com bubble was largely responsible.

But no, because dishonesty is the easy way out, and if Republicans cannot misinform their supporters, they really have no reason to exist.  Last December, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell asked Gingrich for an apology for predicting the Clinton budget would produce a recession, whereupon the former Speaker and future Crossfire host claimed "When we balanced the budget, we balanced the budget with a tax cut, not a tax increase. Four consecutive balanced budget with a tax cut, not a tax increase. "

Gingrich is not alone in rewriting history.  Interviewed by Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday, Senator Ted Cruz stated

I think you're exactly right about the history of 1995, that there was some short-term political pain. But, at the same time, because Republicans stood together, we saw year after year of balanced budgets which never would have happened if Republicans had folded like they're trying to fold right now.

You knew nothing could be accurate when it starts with "(Rush), I think you're exactly right."

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Common Thread


Some people just don't get the message. Deciding in May not to pursue the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, Mitch Daniels cited "the interests and wishes of my family." More bluntly, Chris Cillizza explained

Even as the presidential speculation reached a fever pitch, however, Daniels remained a a man divided. His family — his wife, Cheri, and his their four daughters — were publicly opposed to the race.

It may have been unavoidable for Daniels, given that the five most important women in his life urged him not to make a run. Further, the Indiana governor is married to a woman to whom he had been wed and who had left him, only to return. A special consideration of family cohesion may have been called for.

With Daniels' decision, attention turned to other possible entrants, including Chris Christie. A few weeks ago, the New Jersey governor took the famed helicopter ride to his son's baseball game (stopping 100 yards short so he could ride in a luxury vehicle, rather than walk, to the ballfield), left in the fifth inning, and returned to the governor's mansion to meet with potential donors from Iowa. Now, in the state arguably most crucial to an aspirant for the GOP presidential nomination

Multiple South Carolina state representatives plan on holding a news conference next week to urge New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to enter the presidential race.

Republican state Rep. Kris Crawford told POLITICO the goal was to entice a candidate capable of going "toe to toe with the Obama political machine," and at least a few state lawmakers think Christie fits the bill.

Crawford and state Rep. Phyllis Henderson — who previously told Roll Call she hoped to spark a Christie draft — have scheduled a "Draft Chris Christie for President" event from the statehouse steps at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Crawford said he and Henderson are taking point for the event, but hope that between half a dozen and a dozen legislators show up.

Chris Christie cannot run against Barack Obama inasmuch as he has admitted, however insincerely, that he's "not ready to be president," which sounds a lot like "not qualified" to be president. But he has told us why he will not run in 2012, when at on March 2 in one of his rare appearances in New Jersey

a member of the crowd at the end of the meeting shouted that he should run for president.

Christie joked that today his wife Mary Pat Christie was in attendance and while he tells her that people shout at him to run for president, he doesn't always know if she believes him.

"I say this same thing all the time, I say my wife would kill me if I tried to do that," Christie said, pointing to Mary Pat. "She's smiling really nicely now. I'm not going anywhere."

Ha-ha. We all laughed. The joke would not have been as funny if the governor had reminded his rapt audience that he decided in December to flee New Jersey as a blizzard hit because

“I had made a promise to my children that at the end of my first year as governor, that I was going to take them to Disney World the week between Christmas and New Year’s,” Christie said. “My first and most important responsibility in my view is as a husband and a father, and I think I made that pretty clear to the people of New Jersey when I was running … I was not going to rescind my child’s Christmas wish.”

Given his responsibility during a state emergency as the most powerful figure in New Jersey government (in which a governor is more powerful than in probably any other state), Mr. Christie recognized that the sentiments of his wife, a finance industry executive, took precedence over his own. (Little reported, but probably significant, was the presence of Mrs. Christie during the infamous road trip to the baseball game.)

Daniels, a relatively humble politician, and Christie, who continually figuratively throws his weight around (which accounts for much of Draft Christie sentiment), are not alone. It seems Newt Gingrich also leaves much of the responsibility for determining his professional career to the lady in his life, resulting in the exodus from his presidential campaign of top aides when

The last straw for the campaign staff was Gingrich’s decision to go on a two-week cruise in the Mediterranean, from which he returned on Tuesday. His advisers urged him not to go and take so much time from a campaign that was already in trouble. But his wife wanted him to go and she won the argument.

Vacationing in the Mediterranean is almost never a bad idea, and probably suggests sound judgement. But doing so upon embarking on a presidential campaign may be an exception, especially when the people you're depending on are strongly advising against it.

As liberal Democrats, we may rage, or laugh, at today's Republicans. But give prominent Republicans credit: they give a whole new meaning to the word feminist.

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