DC Fiddles While the Country Burns

Do you remember the howls that reverberated across the nation when Sarah Palin’s famous bullseye map appeared? Or the tut-tutting and headshaking that accompanied Michele Bachmann's calls for Americans “to take our country back”?

Look in the Washington Post local edition, the New York Times Washington edition, or USA Today for Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa Jr.’s, truly ground-breaking warm-up remarks in Detroit on Labor Day before President Obama spoke to the union faithful.

“President Obama,” Hoffa ranted, "this is your army. We are ready to march … let’s take the sons-a-bitches out.”

On the same day, Vice President Joe Biden compared the Tea Party to “barbarians at the gate.”

The White House, of course, had no comment. It is busy preparing a calming, welcoming speech about bi-partisanship that the President will deliver Thursday.

Talk about “good cop, bad cop.”

It is especially interesting to note the language Hoffa Jr., used: ”take them out.” In light of the history of the Teamsters and allegations that someone “took out” his father, the younger Hoffa revealed perhaps more than he intended.

We warned in a post over Labor Day weekend that this would be a week of blah blah blah. At least every two or three years someone “announces” a new jobs plan. Back in the mid-70s, as a very junior Senate staffer, I was assigned a minor part in producing “Two Million Jobs that Last.” It was inspired by the late Sen. Jacob Javits and my boss at the time, Sen. Pete Domenici. It was succinct, had specific proposals, and served as an excellent source of talking points. It created no jobs, although the printers who put it together were paid.

Since then, the cycle has repeated itself with every election cycle.

So, why has the White House elevated the Thursday night speech to such a high level? What new, ground-breaking concept will the President produce? Or, as we posit above, is this merely a chance for the President to assume once again the mantle of “the adult in the room” compared to the “adolescents in Congress”? To ask the question is to answer it.

You won’t hear the President talk about “taking … them out.” You won’t hear him mumble about “barbarians at the gate.”  He will be stern, serious, counseling, and, at the end, ask Congress to do the hard work of forging some kind of plan. The White House calls it leadership, “leading from behind,” as often said.

To those of us who have watched this movie for almost four decades, we call it blah blah blah.

Meanwhile, more Americans have been out of work for a longer period of time than at any time since competent records have been kept. So, Washington, D.C., continues to worry about losing the next election. Most Americans worry about losing their jobs and homes.

That is the fundamental disconnect that both the President and Congress fail to recognize. Doesn’t it sort of remind you of Europe?

Sad.