Anonymous (as they almost always are) says:

So you're answer is to forcefully make the Republicans the badguys and keep it in the public's face?! Yeah, THAT will work. You apparently have no idea how politics works...the whole point of the Legislature is to make a compromise that everyone can live with.

Ahhhhh, well gee willikers, Anonymous, so that’s how it works, is it? Just like in we learned in fourth-grade social studies! (Except, of course, the grunting apes who were taught that dinosaurs were roaming the Earth when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, and who later obtained “degrees” from Liberty College and Regent U.) So, the “whole point” of the legislature is to “make a compromise” that “everyone can live with.” Well guess what: the Republicans stopped playing by those rules a very long time ago; quite simply, they launched a full-scale cultural and political civil war against the democratic majority in this country years ago, and now – as Malcolm X searingly pointed out in another context many years ago – the chickens have come home to roost.

the problem is that people will want to know WHAT it is he's vetoing...if it makes NO sense or if the Democrats refuse to compromise at all or even to talk about it, the public will see THAT as obstructionist.

The Democrats have sent up nothing that is remotely unreasonable or extreme, except in the eyes of the racist, authoritarian religious fanatics that populate the Republican base. All they need to do is keep sending up exactly the same bills over and over again. The public despises George Bush, they are sick of Republican incompetence and corruption, and while they may be thoroughly disgusted with the state of relentless hostility in the country’s political discourse, they will – when push comes to shove – blame only one side for the virtual state of war that now prevails. That side is the Republicans, and the time to start pushing -- hard – is right goddamn now.

Amusingly, (~~~~~) adds that,

simply demanding that the middle class pay for the poor isn't going to get you much traction. I'm sorry but that's just reality . . . . I would resist any upper class well wishers telling me to suck it up.

So, the bill isn't going to get much "traction?" He'll "resist" complying? The simply incredible part is that these Republican apes somehow imagine that what they think, what they care about, what they'll "resist" is still relevant to the discussion. What the hell could possibly be responsible for that delusion? These bills don't need any "traction;" they've already passed, they're enormously popular, and when Bush is flushed down the toilet next year, every one of them will be voted into law. The only thing relevant about the Republican base when it comes to passing new legislation is making sure to convey to them that every belief they hold sacred, every ideal they cherish, every dream they nurture for themselves and their children is a worthless pile of shit, in response to which the only appropriate reaction is one of complete loathing and disgust.

Goddamn it, can someone PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE explain to me why I’m supposed to give a rat’s ass about this veto? The only thing to be furious about is that sniveling Democrats compromised on the substance of the bill in order to saddle it with bipartisan support. Let’s make something clear: If you give a shit at all about cleaning the Stink of Republicanism from our political institutions, “bipartisanship” should be regarded as a capital crime. Indeed, if a large number of Republicans had offered their cooperation with the scope of the bill as originally proposed, the correct strategy should have been to increase the size of the subsidy, not reduce it, until every Republican in Congress was guaranteed to vote against it. This is a repeat of the minimum wage legislation, where – incredibly; horribly – the typically bold and decisive Democratic leadership actually inserted tax cuts into the bill in order to provide the Republicans with political cover for agreeing to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 a fucking hour.

What should happen with legislation like S-CHIP is that each and every time the grunting baboon offers a “compromise,” the Democrats should carefully and deliberately spit in his face, and then organize an enormous press conference denouncing his petulance and obstructionism. They should provoke him into another veto on a daily basis, after which not a single hour should pass without every Democrat in Congress screaming about Republican fanaticism and the Party’s commitment to corporate welfare above any other principle on the planet.

Of course, implementing this rather obvious strategy will require ignoring the conventional idiocy of the Stenographic Media which states that the public will be furious with the Democratic Congress for not “getting things done.” BULLSHIT!! The public won’t blame Congress for not “getting things done” any more than they will for not “supporting the troops,” or for “surrendering in Iraq,” or for the Move-On Petraeus ad. Quite simply, the public couldn’t possibly care any less about this brainless Republican propaganda, and no amount of portentous hand wringing from flabby, pompous blowhards like David Broder or Fred Hiatt or David Brooks will change that fact. If only the Democrats could get through their heads that what matters isn’t raising the minimum wage or expanding health insurance or even ending the war in Iraq in the year or so until the Imbecile-in-Chief is thrown out of the White House. What does matter is convincing the electorate that the Republicans are to blame for everything that is wrong with this country, making sure they perceive the Republican Party as an organization of fascist thugs, and persuading them that the way to “get things done” is to eradicate the Stink of Republicanism as an influence in the American political process.