The only way to beat these bastards is to out-vilify them. Phase III.
Phase I was President Obama's generic assaults on a do-nothing, dysfunctional, irresponsible Congress. Phase II was Obama's targeted assaults on do-nothing, dysfunctional, irresponsible Republicans. He now says the latter's obstruction last night, "for the second time in two weeks," of a "bill that would create jobs" is "unacceptable."
Considering the probabilities of a recession-reentry, such gentle criticism represents, perhaps, Phase II.5 in Obama's inescapable partisan war. But he'll have to do better than that; he'll have to go wholly offensive. He must label it for what it is: despicable.
The Hill finds uncertainty where there is none:
The staunchly unified GOP opposition calls into question whether the Democratic strategy has been able to exert the intended pressure on centrist Republicans.
Right. A real puzzler -- one we'll continue to ponder as the staunchly unified GOP opposition proceeds to shoot down, as well, Obama's proposals for infrastructure spending and extensions of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance.
Obama recently said he'd like to see an independent analysis of the GOP's jobs plan. Hence incorporated into his Phase III rhetoric could be the findings of Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's 'Fact Checker,' who has characterized the Republican plan in one simple, straightforward word: "ludicrous."
I'm tempted to also recommend an escalated Phase IV in the immediate afterwash of a presidential Phase III's vilification campaign against Republican despicability and ludicrousness: a nearly unprecedented but rhetorically justifiable, Perry-like Phase IV of "treasonous." What else should one call what congressional Republicans have wrought? Their obstructionism has exemplified a prodigious betrayal of trust; for 10 months the House has dithered on cultural warring rather than even a singular jobs bill, while the Senate minority-as-effective-majority has blocked bill after helpful bill for reasons purely political -- and deliberately destructive to the nation's welfare.
Of course this recommended Phase IV hasn't been a presidential style since the intensely personal, extraordinarily raucous campaign eras of Adams-Jefferson or Quincy Adams-Jackson, and perhaps that's a judicious development. Such an Obamian charge of virtual treason would, however, embody the charming attribute of utter truthfulness.