After shutting down the government because they couldn’t get their way on Obamacare, Tea Party members of Congress are now complaining that President Obama is using too many hardball tactics.
That’s right, even though Republicans have shut down the government and are now threatening to push the nation into default, it is Obama who is “playing too rough” according to Tea Party congressmen, Billy House of the National Journal writes:
When tea-party Republicans arrived in Congress in 2011, many were energized and ready to shake up Washington—whatever the cost. But now, some are claiming that it is President Obama who is playing too rough.
“The difference is, I don’t think his predecessors have antagonized the other side,” says Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., who was president of the tea-party-packed House Republican freshman class last session.
“Bill Clinton did not intentionally antagonize Republicans,” Scott said. “And I think that most of those [earlier] presidents would have welcomed the opportunity to negotiate. And if they’re right on their points, then certainly they’d want to negotiate.”
Similar sentiment was echoed by several of Scott’s fellow tea partiers Wednesday.
“I was tea party before there was a tea party,” said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who has served in Congress since 2003. Obama, he said, “has tried to make some malevolent ghost, or evil spirit, out of the tea party.”
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a member of the tea-party caucus who famously yelled “You lie!” to Obama during a speech before a joint session of Congress, was among those who agreed Wednesday with Scott’s view that the president has been too antagonistic.
“Whether it’s personal or not, it’s not good for the country,” said Wilson, who apologized after his outburst on the House floor, made when Obama said the health care reform law would not cover undocumented immigrants.
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While some might see irony in a group of firebrand reformers complaining that Obama has not been a peacemaker, Scott, who remains a tea-party favorite, said he does not dispute that all presidents have a right to stand up for what they believe. Yet he also says there’s a sense among his colleagues that Obama just doesn’t like them.
“It’s obvious any time he goes on TV,” Scott said. “I mean, words he uses to describe Congress, the tone of his voice, what he says, how he says it.”
Much like Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), who couldn’t think of a single reason for the shutdown besides Republicans feeling “disrespected,” House Republicans are upset that “Obama just doesn’t like them.”
Let’s take a look at some of the Tea Party congressman who are complaining that the president is just too mean.
Take Trent Franks for example, who is angry that Obama made the Tea Party appear “evil.”
Franks has called President Obama an “enemy of humanity” and called for his impeachment, and even floated a birther lawsuit.
Rep. Scott said that he is just fine with the country hitting the debt limit, which could trigger a global financial meltdown.
And is Joe Wilson, who shouted “You lie!” twice during an Obama State of the Union Address and suggested that possible intervention in Syria was a conspiracy to distract from the IRS scandal, seriously complaining that the president “has been too antagonistic”?
Needless to say, we are full of pity for these poor, bullied Tea Party congressmen.
