Stupid Shit David Gergen Says

Americans sick of budget soap opera

In travels this week -- to Boston, Chicago, New York -- friends and strangers alike have said the same thing: They are turned off and tuned out of the sequestration mess in Washington. To a person, they are sick of the antics of those to whom they have entrusted enormous power.
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One of the foremost duties of Congress is to pass a budget: It has failed for four straight years. Republicans, especially in the House, have continually refused to meet the White House halfway. Meanwhile, a president who promised to be a solution has become part of the problem. Ever since his re-election, Barack Obama has seemed more intent on campaigning than governing.
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-- David Gergen, February 27, 2013, once again speaking authoritatively for all 313,914,040 of us Americans

The reason it is fairly easy to lay off covering the literal "David Brooks" for Lent in that the disease he carries long ago went pneumonic. Granted he is the most ubiquitous and successful hustler working the corner of False and Equivalence, but these days so many of his lazy fellow Centrists now make their living mindlessly snapping together the same handful of mass-produced talking points assembly-line style that no matter where you point your ears you will invariably hear some paid talking head yawping on and on about Both Sides.

A tragic situation to be sure, but one which occasionally leads to much hilarity when a Beltway factory-farm-raised pundit who haven't been seen a flick of natural light or breathed a wisp of fresh air since the Ford Administration is put in catalytic proximity to an actual journalist who cover the real world.

Meanwhile, back over in the here and now, the view from Mount Centrist never fucking changes:

Our deeply unbalanced fiscal debate
Posted by Greg Sargent on March 1, 2013 at 2:01 pm

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The GOP position is explicitly that there is nothing Democrats can offer that will get them to agree to new revenues. Nothing. Therefore, any offer from Dems — no matter how much in serious spending cuts it contains — is automatically a nonstarter for Republicans if it closes any tax loopholes to generate new revenue. There is no scenario under which Republicans can be induced to compromise — if we take Republicans themselves at their word. The only option for avoiding the sequester is for Democrats to propose only cuts to replace it — cuts that Republicans themselves won’t even propose. No “leadership” can avert the sequester. Only giving Republicans 100% of what they want can.

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