Sheldon Whitehouse: Sharpton Wannabe

Even when they get their way and obtain the desperately-needed health care vote, all wasn’t hunky dory in the land of the progressive politician. Democrats desperately wanted at least one Republican vote in the senate for the bill so they could call it bi-partisan. That way, if the health care program turns out to be a bust, they can whine “Republicans were for it, too!” But alas, no Republican voted for the senate version, and the Democrats (as they say) own it.

All that’s left to do is lash out…

Voting ‘no’ and hiding from the vote are the same result. Those of us on the floor see it. It was clear the three of them who did not cast their yes votes until all 60 Senate votes had been tallied and it was clear that the result was a foregone conclusion. And why? Why all this discord and discourtesy, all this unprecedented destructive action? All to break the momentum of our new young president.

They are desperate to break this president. They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist. That is one powerful reason. It is not the only one.

— Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), floor speech, 12/20/09

And what kind of response would he expect that to invoke? Silence…?

While this may sound second grade, Senator Sheldon’s side was even worse to President Bush, but since it’s his guy now, everyone’s supposed to forget all about that.

Because President Obama’s almost-constant apologies to the world for the United States’ actions, his reckless foreign and domestic socialist and dismal economic policies, have energized a normally lethargic American people into storming the steps of the Capitol and gather in American cities… many times, Senator Sheldon would have us all just shut up and give Obama his political victories. Not doing so makes us all guilty of unprecedented rudeness and (dare I say it) racism.

Despite the Democrat Party’s historically dismal and revisionist civil rights history, when things with this president fall apart, it’s time to resort to playing the race card from Al Sharpton’s deck. The problem is, whether it’s the Black Panthers in Philly or Professor Gates, Barack Obama and his administration have conducted themselves so poorly in office, the race label doesn’t bruise the skin of the opposition anymore.

If President Obama had not entered the presidency with his signature arrogance (mirrored by the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader), the American people may have had more patience. But all of those prominent Democrats have talked down to the American people like we were stepchildren they were forced to tolerate, and statements like those of Senator Whitehouse only further harden the resolve of the right to clean house next fall.