What John said .. .

John Aravosis is dead on right about this. "Unless Democrats take this extremism on, and embarrass the GOP into stopping the (literal) madness, it's only going to continue."

Aravosis: GOP party head in Florida says it's "socialism" to have the president talk to school kids about working hard

The thing is, it's crazy, but crazy like a fox. What's important here isn't that the majority of us think these guys are nuts. Rather, we have yet another GOP leader speaking to his base and repeating the key word "socialist," mixed with a juicy threat to your children (which the GOP usually reserves for gay-baiting, but it's also useful when stirring up hate against a black man). The goal is to further radicalize the GOP base, period. Why? Because Democrats have proven that the rabidization of the tea bag class works.

The Republicans have sent their paranoid minions to townhall meetings across the country and not just scared the bejeesus out of Democrats, but they've effectively knocked the health care reform express off the tracks. Unless Democrats take this extremism on, and embarrass the GOP into stopping the (literal) madness, it's only going to continue, and will probably even ramp up some, causing even more consternation among Democrats, and more damage to our agenda. (Here's what Obama is actually doing with the kids next week.)

WWJD about health care and the GOP? Sept. 21: Are Republican exploiting religion and religious fervor in the health care reform debate? Author Dan Savage joins Countdown.

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If this is true, the Obama administration is on the ragged edge of losing me.
Sargent: Politico: Nameless Obama Aides Want Him To Confront Left To Look Tough

So some Obama advisers think there’s a political upside in foregoing the public option, getting the left to scream, then having Obama stand up to the screamers in order to look tough? That’s what Politico is reporting, citing unnamed administration aides.

It’s hard to tell whether this really represents West Wing thinking or whether it’s just Politico writing the story they want to write. But some Obama officials seem to be saying this:

On health care, Obama’s willingness to forgo the public option is sure to anger his party’s liberal base. But some administration officials welcome a showdown with liberal lawmakers if they argue they would rather have no health care law than an incremental one. The confrontation would allow Obama to show he is willing to stare down his own party to get things done.

“We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition,” an aide said. “There are lots of different ways to get there.”

Liberals will ask why unnamed advisers aren’t showing the same zeal for “staring down” Republicans and centrist Dems. After all, the GOP’s approval rating still languishes; GOP leaders have ruled out compromise unless Obama dramatically scales down his ambitions; and the GOP Senator leading negotiations is openly working to defeat “Obamacare.”

But the unbreakable rule is that when Dems confront the left, it’s the right kind of tough, and when they stand up to Republicans, it’s the bad, shrill kind. And of course party leaders can’t take on moderate Dems, because that would be showing disrespect for the “center.”

Given that Obama aides frequently ridicule D.C. conventional wisdom, it’s hard to imagine them in the grip of thinking as tired and conventional as this. But someone or some faction in the administration (or perhaps mainly Politico) seems to want this idea out there.

• Atrios on Punching Hippies

  For some in Washington it's always 1994... but they strangely don't seem to have any clue what actually happened in 1994.