Frontline of the Class War: Doubling Down, Obstructionism, and Semantics

The Republicans are right, there is a class war going on in this country. And they're the ones waging it against the middle and working class:

• So at this point everyone should have seen Romney saying that we need to fire more "firefighters, police, and teachers."  Now I think most of us assumed that this was a glitch in his programming and he couldn't possibly think that attacking professional lifesavers and people who dedicate their lives to other people's children was a winning issue.  We were wrong:
• New Hampshire Campaign Chair former Governor John Sununu: "I think this is a real issue. And people ought to stop jumping on it as a gaffe and understand there’s wisdom in the comment."
• Campaign surrogate Newt Gingrich: "We have to come to grips with how big the challenge is, and does that mean there will be fewer teachers? The honest answer is yes. Does it mean that you’re not going to get quite the same pension plan people have been getting? The honest answer is yes."
• Rush Limbaugh: "As nice as they are to have, teaching jobs, firemen, and policemen they are all payed for out of money from the private sector, they are payed for with tax revenue from citizens.  They cut into the amount of money left for private sector jobs.  They don't grow the number of private sector jobs, they reduce the number of private sector jobs.

• Meanwhile, Romney is claiming a bigger tax deduction from his dancing horse going to the olympics than most Americans earn in a year.

• Foster Friess, Santorum billionaire SuperPAC backer and aspirin aficionado, thinks the lesson of the primary is that billionaire mega-donors should "have pooled our resources and done a much better, more professional than our somewhat amateurish, video. I wish that would happen more, but it doesn’t and it should.”  So that's not terrifying at all.

• Former Romney advisor Rob Gray says that Republicans are intentionally hurting the economy: "Well, I’m not buying that they’re dragging their heels. I am buying that they’re rooting against the economy somewhat because they think that the short-term pain of, you know, the next four months is much better than having additional four years of pain under Obama. They believe the government should spend less and that they have better economic ideas than the president does. So, you know, if we have to suffer between now and November to get a better president for four years, they’re all for it."  He is probably no longer on Romney's Christmas card list.  Lou Dobbs offers the counterpoint that Republicans refusing to move on jobs legislation is "prudence and judgment and responsiblity," because rebooting the economy might increase the deficit.

• Speaking of the unemployment rate, Mitt Romney finds it really awkard that they're improving dramatically in swing states like Florida and Ohio, so he's asked their Republican Governors to stop talking about how things are improving in their state.  Don't worry though, Romney has a solution to improving jobs numbers: fire more cashiers and replace them with computers.  Another business savvy idea from candidate Romney: incentive pay for politicians.  What could go wrong?

• While we're on the subject of Romney's business experience, it probably surprises no one that under his leadership Bain was considered an innovator in the field of outsourcing American jobs.  Romney has responded to that Washington Post article by explaining to the press that he wasn't "outsourcing" jobs he was just sending them "offshore"....you know, like his bank accounts.

Welcome to the Working Week!