Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Assessing Dave Obey

If you want to know Dave Obey, you can read this excerpt from a WSJ opinion piece.

...These committee chairmen are all creatures of the Great Society and what was called the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s. They have spent their lives in government and know almost nothing about the private sector or how to grow an economy. They view the Reagan era as an historical aberration, and they have stayed in Washington for decades precisely in wait of this moment to realize 40-years of pent-up policy ambition. They believe this is their 1965, or 1933.

While Mr. Obama campaigned as a young postpartisan Democrat who wanted a new era of comity in Washington, his victory has instead empowered these ancient left-wing warriors.

...Wisconsin's David Obey, elected in 1969, is the House Appropriations chairman who steered the $787 billion stimulus to focus on Medicaid expansion and other transfer payments that have done nothing for economic growth.

Obey also wrote the budget which created and financed the "Death Panels." His track record on abortion is absolutely, positively, shameful for a "Catholic," and former Bishop Burke of the LaCrosse Diocese reportedly told Obey to stay away from Communion.

In short, Obey is a Statist fossil whose weltanschauung is straight out of Woodstock.

Save this for Dave Obey's tombstone:

[his] frenetic agenda has frightened voters and businesses about the vast expansion of government power and enormous tax increases to come. The resulting uncertainty and the anticipation of higher costs for labor, taxes and energy have undermined what ought to be a more robust pace of job creation and overall recovery.

'Dave Death-Panels' should be retired in November.

3 comments:

Tim Morrissey said...

Extra points for use of "weltanschauung", another one of those difficult-to-translate German word-concepts ("world view" is what most German speakers would say, I believe), and your spelling is so close to the standard transliteration that I can't even argue that.

Not sure if old Dave's name should be in the same sentence as "woodstock", though - I might have to think about that a bit more.

Dad29 said...

Thanks for the correction! Need a lot more coffee before doing German transliterations.....

And yah, it's 'worldview,' more or less.

The reference to Woodstock was 'drug-free.' I don't think Dave smokes or snorts.

Metaphorically, though, yes. He's smoking something.

Anonymous said...

Sean Duffy is mounting what couldbe a serious challenge to Obey.... National Review Online just did an interview with him.

For those who aren't familiar with him, the guy is solid. (For pop culture mavens, he was on MTV's the Real World one season).