The press keeps chasing unicorns — “moderate” Republicans offering “compromise”
They're not a thing
 |
If you’d prefer to listen to today’s newsletter, click play.
Note to loyal readers: Please consider subscribing for $6 a month. Thanks for keeping PRESS RUN ad-free!
Stay healthy.
Be kind.
Busy pursuing the mythical creature known as the Republican "moderate" — that rare species of conservative who's willing to work with Democrats— the Beltway press recently announced a key sighting. A gaggle of influential "moderates" were willing to work with President Joe Biden to pass a sweeping infrastructure bill.
Those handful of GOP senators include Shelly Capito (R-W.V.), Patrick Toomey (R-PA), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), and they've been eagerly portrayed in the press as middle-of-the-road deal-makers in search of bipartisan compromise. Slight problem, there's nothing "moderate" about these Republicans, all of whom were Trump loyalists for four years and served as his lapdogs in the Senate. Also, the comically small infrastructure "compromise" they offered up last week was deeply unserious.
This kind of misleading coverage has been a long running staple of the Beltway media, which loves the idea of "moderate" Republican stepping forward, in part because journalists have been ceaselessly harping on the idea that all legislation in the Biden era needs to be bipartisan because the Democrat had promised to "unite" the country during the campaign. Also, because the press embraces the narrative that there's a group of thoughtful centrists at the heart of today's GOP — pragmatic do-gooders, happy to occupy the middle ground.
The media bar is set so low for Republicans that apparently the simple act of being willing to discuss a pressing piece of lawmaking with a Democratic White House makes GOP senators "moderates.” But are the Republicans actually "moderates"? Do they hold a worldview that places them in the middle of the political spectrum, and do they often work with both sides of the aisle?
No, no, and no. In fact, it's not even close. The so-called moderates spent the last four years voting with Trump 80 and 90 percent of the time. There's nothing centrist about their view, not when they were in bed with the most radical player in modern American politics. Still, the press loves to tell a pleasing tale about Republicans.
Just look at how the press treated Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) when he announced in February that he's retiring from the Senate. A Republican who served as a reliable rubber stamp during four years of Trump insanity, voting with the White House nearly 90% of the time, Portman was lauded in the press at the time of his retirement announcement as being "pragmatic," "serious," and a man who privately bristled at Trump's dangerous behavior.
Yet just days after announcing his looming retirement, and without facing the political pressures of running for re-election, Portman voted to acquit Trump of inciting a deadly insurrectionist mob at the U.S. Capitol, because he said the Senate impeachment trial was "unconstitutional." (It clearly was not.) So that's how "moderate" Rob Portman actually is.
Speaking of impeachment, during Trump's first Senate trial, the New York Times tried to present Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), as a "moderate" while he ferociously defended Trump's attempt to help a foreign country interfere with a U.S. election.
If the current infrastructure "compromise" looks familiar, it's because we just saw this same off-base coverage surrounding the Covid relief bill. When ten Republican senators reached out to the Biden White House this winter to discuss a possible compromise on the Democrats' proposed $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, the media quickly identified the players as "moderates," and pushed the idea about a possible bipartisan deal. The Associated Press singled out Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) as a key "moderate" who hoped for a bipartisan deal — Katko sided with Trump eight out of ten times in the House.
Over the winter, the Times stressed that, "Moderate Republicans in competitive districts are navigating a careful balance in addressing the coronavirus crisis, eager to put some distance between themselves and a president whose response has been criticized." That's simply not true — not one Republican member of the House voted for Covid relief.
And the "compromise" they offered was laughable, just like the recent GOP "compromise" proposal on infrastructure was laughable. On Covid, the so-called moderates backed a $600 billion relief package, compared to the $1.9 trillion pandemic bill Biden signed into the law. Being the party out of power and urging the president to strip away 70 percent of his Covid and infrastructure bills simply did not represent a sincere negotiating position. And that's why Biden ignores Republican offers. (On infrastructure, Biden wants to spend $2.3 trillion; Republicans are backing a $568 billion proposal.)
But for news consumers, the story presented by the media is that there's an honest back-and-forth negotiation going on, because "moderates" have offered a "compromise." The press constantly plays along with the charade. Weeks ago, Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) signaled Republicans would support a comically small $800 billion infrastructure plan, compared to the $2.3 trillion one Biden supports. Yet the Wall Street Journal, among many, treated the offer as being legitimate, claiming the minuscule counter-proposal underscored the "GOP interest in a bipartisan fix for the nation’s aging roads and patchy broadband service," and that "Republicans are seeking a compromise on infrastructure."
Spoiler: They're not. A serious, GOP counter-proposal for Biden’s $2.3 trillion proposal would be in the $1.6 billion range.
This media trend isn't new. When Jeb Bush ran for president in 2016 and was a contender before the arrival of Trump in the GOP primary field, the campaign press worked overtime positioning him as a "moderate" — a pragmatic label Bush embraced as he eyed a general election against a Democrat. Yet when he served as governor of Florida, the Sunshine State became one of the nation's most pro-gun states, with a variety of laws that lessened restrictions on ownership. After leaving office, Bush remained a far-right politician regarding taxes, climate change, abortion, repealing Obamacare (it's "clearly a job killer"), civil rights, right-to-die, gun control, relations with Cuba, and legalizing marijuana.
Why on earth was the press touting him as a "moderate" in 2016? Same reason they’re scrambling today to describe some Republicans who voted with Trump 95% of the time as “moderates.” In the hands of the Beltway press, it’s become a meaningless compliment.
👩🏾🦱 GOOD STUFF:
Interesting read here, from CNN’s “Kamala Harris Cements Her Place in Biden's Inner Circle During a Consequential Week”:
Nearly 100 days into their tenure, Biden and Harris have worked to deepen their relationship, spending five hours or more together per day in meetings at the White House, according to aides. Both Biden and Harris shunned work travel in the early days to set an example during the pandemic -- forcing them into closer proximity than their predecessors.
She began her tenure attending nearly every one of Biden's events, provided her own speaking slot and always in-frame as the President delivered remarks, an unmissable -- and intentional -- level of visibility.
Her position as the country's highest-ranking woman of color, she said in an interview last week, brings with it a heavy weight.
🎸 FUN STUFF — BECAUSE WE ALL NEED A BREAK
Eric Church, “Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones”
Church just released two, highly anticipated full-length albums, and they were worth the wait.
Here, it’s a sterling piece of storytelling about a mother who named her son after her favorite band, and a lifetime of unanswered family questions. It’s just Church with a guitar, a sprinkle of piano, and it’s mesmerizing.
Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones
Spelled with all 4 y's
Was born in 70-something
Between "Sweet Home" & "You Got That Right"
His mama met his daddy
At a Tallahassee show
But just like Tuesday
Daddy wound up gone on down the road
🎙 Click here to listen to the music that’s been featured on PRESS RUN, via a Spotify playlist.
Click hereto listen via Apple Music.
I woke up this morning and turned on Morning Joe to see what the Beltway Club was chattering about and was treated to a discussion about bipartisanship between Joe and Richard Haas. Both men clearly believe there are Republican moderates who can be worked with. At least Joe bothered to point out that Republicans only get concerned about debt when Democrats are in power but other than that it was nauseating.
Axios has also been pushing some serious bothsiderism with this description of what happened last summer with the police reform bills that had been introduced:
“....... the debate largely devolved into partisan bickering”.
https://www.axios.com/police-reform-bill-tim-scott-reintroduce-2a2a07a7-d2a3-4bc0-a33d-db45f9d8b123.html
Apparently Democrats demanding that we make it easier to hold police accountable, demilitarize the police and ban dangerous practices like choke holds and no-knock warrants for drug raids is considered “bickering”
As for Jeb Bush I totally agree. His record in Florida was anything but conservative. For example he pushed hard to profitize our schools. And then there was Jeb using his daddy’s administration to make it easier for for Florida crooks like Miguel Recarey and Camilo Padreda to cheat our government out of millions as to get the terrorist Orlando Bosch out of the slammer. The media hushed all of that dirt up.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/dec/02/usa.books
I am still puzzled by the kid glove treatment the media has always given the Bush family. They are hell bent on crowning them “American Royalty” and a family of great principle which requires overlooking all kinds of family dirt — Prescott’s financing of Hitler and getting his bank’s assets seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act; Poppy’s involvement in Iraqgate and Iran Contra and his pardons of his fellow conspirators, his personally approving the racist Willie Horton ad then lying about it, vetoing the Motor Voter bill because it would make it easier for minorities to register to vote and more. And then their was the media’s unwillingness to tell the truth about Dubya which Eric covered in depth in his book “Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush”.
I know that the media gives a pass to Republicans in general but it seems to me that they are willing to go even further to whitewash and normalize the Bushes.
The media refuses to use the term that best describes the congressional GOP approach: negotiating in bad faith. No finer example than Chuck Grassley on Obamacare, demanding and obtaining concession after concession, and then voting against his own changes. Grassley iced that cake by telling the media that his ultimate no vote was prompted by the fact that he and his fellow Republicans had been shut out of the legislative process. The Old Testament god would have unleashed a lightning bolt at that point.