Date Rape For Beginners

Today's Globe reports Barney Frank being, er, partisan. Seems odd that a Democrat, facing relentless, unprincipled opposition from an ever crazier Republican party, would react at all negatively. I recall FD Roosevelt reaching out to Father Coughlin, saying, 'Come, let us reason together'...

One of Obama's noteworthy, thoroughly decent and unprecedented rhetorical tropes was his mention of unbelievers amongst those of various religions. The Republicans, of course, mostly consider him a closet Muslim or a member of a caricatured Rev Wright's racist, America-hating church, either (or both--in their rhetoric, they aren't mutually exclusive) rendering him illegitimate as a believer and, thereby, as a president. The only consistency to Republican politics arises from their denial of the legitimacy of the Obama presidency and an election in which Democrats won, as if any result other than one in service of Republican power is not just to be deplored on policy grounds, but the first step on the slippery slope to tyranny. And every Republican has to kiss Limbaugh's and Beck's ring, say the Tea Partiers have a point, talk of Obama as not merely mistaken but as shredding the Constitution. Even such 'moderates' as Grassley are losing any connection to reality, and refusing to engage in actual policy debate with a view towards actually acting, rather than preventing action.

Hard to work with an opposition that won't even concede the legitimacy of your holding office. Also, I'd say, harder to present your case before the electorate as more in their interest than theirs.

Cite to Boston Globe story on Frank:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/08/15/frank_says_obama_should_have_been_harder_on_gop/