In my law school negotiations class, the professor stressed one thing, never offer first. The president tried to play that game through his “I’m not going to negotiate with myself” talk in reference to his failure to put out a true proposal. In fact, there has never been a WH proposal or proposed legislation on SS reform. The problem with the President, is that the Dems held firm and did not offer first either. Despite the precious pleas of the liberal punditocrracy that the Dems needed to issue a proposal to have any credibility. It is nice to know that they held firm and did not play themselves into that game.
It is truly specious that the President would not propose legislation to Congress on what was supposed to be his highest policy proposal. It is more enlightening that the President, or at least those that counsel him in the WH did not believe W’s political capital talk and knew it was just a handful of junk bonds. If W had any political capital to speak of following the election, if he had any balls for that matter, he would have spelled out his policy position on SS (with a premium for negotiation) and then worked Congress to get it passed. The problem with his negotiating position is that he was not interested in finding solvency, but ending SS. If your objective is elimination, I wonder what your BATNA is?
There has never before been a President, to my recollection, that has not vetoed a single bill. This shows either a lack of political courage or a lack of concern for out of control appropriations or more likely both. These guys have never been concerned with honest governance and it shows in their political strategy. Party discipline for the GOP is all about getting pork and probably more so personal paydays for staff, families and selves a la Abramoff, Delay, Scanlon and the Duke.
If I understand contemporary politics, I would have to bet that the next GOP hopeful is going to run against insider Washington and profligate tax and spend liberals, despite the fact that his party has been partying at the public trough for a decade. It is all so shameful, if of course they knew any shame.

Posted by: Bubb Rubb | Jul 14 2005 22:46 utc | 3

about 20 minutes now

Posted by: annie | Jul 14 2005 23:06 utc | 5

I just read a couple threads down and apparently Billmon got some “Blog of the Day” mention on CNN.
Too much traffic = server madness. It probably blew up his bandwidth bill or he could have taken it down to avoid the bandwidth costs.
Only in Blogistan does fame = high personal cost to yourself. It is free market liberal economics perfectly executed, no free riders in the blog universe.

Posted by: Bubb Rubb | Jul 14 2005 23:10 utc | 7

sorry about the double post, I tried making corrections and something messed up.

Posted by: jdp | Jul 14 2005 23:12 utc | 9

jdp:
As Rove would say, “I wouldn’t get too far out” on that thesis.
(Fat)thews probably had trouble rolling his fat ass out of bed this morning. More likely he probably needed to have his gout examined, a preventative high pressure firehose enema or hundreds of polyps removed from his colon.
It is summer after all and these guys hold themsleves to the same work ethic as their colleagues – um I mean Congress. Only in their own perverted minds do they hold themsleves in the same esteem as elected officials.
(Fat)thews is probably vacationing in his French bungalow with neighbor Richard Perle.

Posted by: Bubb Rubb | Jul 14 2005 23:18 utc | 11

was worried it was part of the VRWC

Posted by: annie | Jul 15 2005 1:36 utc | 13

Don’t want to seem to anal, but…..
“Joe Wilson wasn’t not on an obvious snipe hunt went he went to Niger.”
“Saying is only damages the credibility of the anti-Rovian forces.”
“It appears the Keystone Cops running our heroic Chamber of People’s Deputies haven’t been able to decide with version of “reform” to get behind — “ponies for everybody” (private accounts without benefit cuts or tax increases) or “root canal work for the middle class” (benefit cuts and tax increases with private accounts.)”
You may want to revisit these sentences and clarify,
matt

Posted by: matt | Jul 15 2005 2:56 utc | 15

matt, @ 10:56 PM, you treat errors of spelling and typing as if they were errors of syntax, and of course they’re nothing of the sort. I think I commit such errors in every post I file, but this doesn’t keep other posters from tracking my errors of logic and/or attitude–which is all that matters in small, informal sites such as this one (minor mistakes only counting on major sites). And I think your point about “wingnuts” on the other thread is also wide of the mark: this site can’t hold any interest for wingnuts, and even if it did, most of them would surely know that correcting errors of typing and spelling only interferes with the making of killer points.

Posted by: alabama | Jul 15 2005 3:49 utc | 17

i printed out your post and showed it to two buddies at the track . . . their reaction was… wow this guy is too negative…he should stop watching tv and stop reading the papers.
I sometimes think they’re right — although for different reasons.
matt, @ 10:56 PM, you treat errors of spelling and typing as if they were errors of syntax, and of course they’re nothing of the sort. I think I commit such errors in every post I file, but this doesn’t keep other posters from tracking my errors of logic and/or attitude–which is all that matters in small, informal sites such as this one
Alabama — matt was correcting my typos, which I really appreciate, since I hate copy proofing and am not very good at it.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 15 2005 5:02 utc | 19

matt, @ 10:56 PM I think too anal was the phrase you were seeking, rather than to anal which would probably mean something else if anal could be used as a verb (sorry doing word).
Some of us proof, some of us don’t, some of us proof and still make typos aplenty (c’est moi) but I believe we need to understand that as far as net communication goes the standard of language here is probably better than 90% of sites. This is the INTERnet and the inter bit is important since not everyone has english as a first language and even in sites that do, one can witness the evolution of language in way that until recently was the preserve of oral communication. In here the medium ain’t the message. The message is the message or that’s what most of us are trying for.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 15 2005 5:23 utc | 21

I was interested to read cash’s point since it is an attitude that is becoming prevalent amongst us MaM’s (middle aged males).
I bumped into it the first time when I befriended a bloke who had just moved here (to New Zealand) from Roanoke Virginia.
As we get older and have less time/energy to explore the contradictions between what the world was meant to be and what the 6 o’clock news tells us it has become; opting out seems like a viable option.
One of my brothers has picked it up. In his younger days he was always able to to see the person in the street’s point of view. Like so many of us his job sorta corrupted/conflicted him in the ’80s. He was doing some gig in some country as a Prime Ministerial advisor on infrastructure reform. In other words he was earning a dollar by organising that less other people earn a dollar. He could quote that weeks Top Ten Hits of economic rationalisation straight out of The Economist.
At first I thought it must just be a pose so he could self justify his shameful (IMHO) occupation. However months of intense debate over a range of ethanols and other substances convinced me that he had indeed come to believe the B.S.
Once he discovered for himself a small slice of a bigger pie actually meant a smaller slice of the only pie in town, he seemed to shut down.
No more Economist, TV documentaries or the MSM for that fella. Our converation languishes when we meet cause I gave up reading fiction a few years ago and he gave up reading or watching reality a bit before.
These are a good chunk of the peeps who don’t set foot in a polling booth come hell or high water. Is it possible/worth reactivating them? I dunno. It would take a lot more than a John Kerry or some other county’s equivalent which is all that is on offer.
One person’s sad fact of life is another person’s challenge.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 15 2005 5:45 utc | 23