Thursday, January 10, 2013
Arkansas Politics How extreme is Tom Cotton? Part IV
Posted by Max Brantley on Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 1:24 PM
- KATV
- DEBT DEFAULT NO BIGGIE: So suggests Rep. Tom Cotton
Ed Kilgore elaborated on a comment I noted with an exclamation point when linking to a Politico profile of Cotton.
In an interview in his still-bare office a few hours before being sworn in, Cotton told us he would have voted against both Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” tax on millionaires, and the final tax hike that got the country off the fiscal cliff. He vowed to vote against raising the debt limit in two months, absent the sort of massive cuts the president opposes. He said he is more concerned about the “cataclysmic” consequences of inaction than the “short-term market corrections” of default. “I’d like to take the medicine now,” he said.
Easy for Cotton to say, I guess, that a debt default that triggered billions in market losses would be just a correction. Writes Kilgore:
If the greater meaning of Cotton’s statement isn’t clear enough, he’s calling a potential return to national and global recession a “short-term market correction,” and “medicine,” the latter reference suggesting that phenomena like millions of people losing their livelihoods is good for the country if it ultimately leads to millions of people losing government benefits.VandeHei and Allen do not mention the controversy Cotton aroused back in 2006 when he was serving as an infantry officer in Iraq. Having read a New York Times article on a covert Bush administration operation to gain access to the financial records of American citizens without warrant or subpoena in an effort to find possible links to terrorist networks, Cotton penned a letter to the Times suggesting that reporters and editors responsible for the story be prosecuted for espionage.
This is clearly not a man of nuanced views.
And Kilgore wasn't done there.
Cotton is emblematic of a brand of movement conservatism that has slowly taken over the Republican Party after decades of struggle; saw its ultimate validation in the 2010 midterm elections; and isn’t about to loosen its grip on its trophy of ideological war. Its shock troops believe in a rigid, permanent model of governance that is impervious not only to Washington power games and deal-making, but to the social and economic consequences of its preferred policies and indeed to all contrary empirical evidence. Most of them believe the destruction of the Welfare State is the only path consistent with patriotism and constitutional government; many (I don’t know enough about Cotton to know if he shares this particular motivation) believe their ideology reflects obedience to the eternal laws of Almighty God.So yeah, it kind of matters that so many people like Cotton carry so much weight in the House Republican Caucus. Asking them to be “realistic” is like staring into the eyes of a goat and expecting to find a glimmer of comprehension. It just ain’t happening, and the punditocracy had best remember that next time it is surprised by right wing intransigence, which will shine on brightly through all the haze of conventional politics.
From the days in college when he doubted the educational value of the Internet, to opposition to tax increases for billionaires, to opposition to aid for disaster victims, to opposition to any form of gun legislation, to opposition to women in combat roles, to encouraging the idea of an Iraq role in 9/11, to support for prosecution of journalists as spies, to this blithe lack of concern for a government debt default, a picture of Cotton does begin to emerge doesn't it? Tiny Tim, come home from Searcy. Maybe you aren't so bad after all. We could live in the 4th.
PS — Slate piles on Cotton for his anti-woman remark. If women in general are less fit than men for combat roles — IF, mind you, because Cotton has not offered any evidence — why stop them from testing for the jobs?
Speaking of...
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Morning report: Leaks, guns and welfare kings
May 14, 2013The morning roundup: * WHEN WILL REP. TOM COTTON PRAISE OBAMA'S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT? Republican mouthpieces are howling about the news that AP reporters' phone records were gathered by the Justice Department in an apparent investigation of leaks about a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner. /more/
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Who wants to be a U.S. senator?
May 4, 2013The New York Times reports this morning on the wave of retirements from the U.S. Senate and a lack of clamor from people anxious to join the filibuster-frozen body. /more/
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Tom Cotton burnishes his warhawk image
April 30, 2013"Media sweetheart" is how this piece in Politico puts it and they should know, having been pumping U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Club for Growth) since forever. /more/
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Monday night line
April 29, 2013The comment line is open. Final words: * TOM COTTON STATEMENT ON OBAMA: 'MOSTLY FALSE': Politifact has reviewed U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton's overhyped statement on the House floor on terrorism during the administration of President Obama versus what he claimed were zero events under George W. Bush (not counting that little 9/11 thing). /more/
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The Extremism Edition
April 26, 2013A Republican even crazier than Nate Bell, the last vetoes of the session, the latest outrage from Tom Cotton and Bloomberg versus Pryor — all covered on this week's podcast. /more/
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Tom Cotton's 'odd' argument on terrorism fight
April 26, 2013U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton of the Club for Growth was right proud the other day of his rush to make political hay of the Boston bombing by lumping it with some other incidents that he said represented failure of counter-terrorism efforts of the Obama administration. /more/
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Wednesday night line
April 24, 2013Sorry, folks. I've been working on a project and away from blogging duties. /more/
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'The spineless gun vote': Why?
April 20, 2013Joe Nocera writes this morning about the vote to block legislation to expand gun purchase background checks and his pursuit of an answer to why from the four Democrats, including Sen. Mark Pryor, who stood in the way of a vote. /more/
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UPDATE: Ethics amendment defeated
April 15, 2013The legislature has killed a proposed constitutional amendment to strengthen ethics laws. /more/
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Mark Pryor's money talks
April 11, 2013U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor's own messaging isn't always so hot. But he carries a big stick. /more/
- More »
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