Obama 'Stood His Ground' With Tax Deal, Says Dana Milbank

 
 Hey! Obama finally did it, you guys! He has won over the key Dana Milbank constituency: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of President Obama." Sure, Dana Milbank was proud of Barack Obama when he was a child , but never as an adult. What could have prompted this important event in the adult lifetime of this important humor columnist? It is that Obama finally stood up for himself and his beliefs with his Republican plan to extend the Bush tax cuts, a truly inspiring moment in history for Washington Post columnists who care deeply about the crap they make up about politics.

I'm not particularly proud of the tax-cut deal he and the Republicans negotiated. But I'm proud that he has finally stood firm against the likes of Peter DeFazio.

DeFazio, a backbencher from Oregon and one of the hard-core liberals in the House, authored Thursday's Democratic caucus resolution that attempts to prevent the tax compromise from coming to a vote.

Oh, that's where he stood his ground -- the switching of sides and standing against those who shared his beliefs on the issue. Yes, why don't we honor Benedict Arnold more? Politics, like war, is not about what you fight for, it's about the fighting itself.

Liberals, if they can see beyond their pique, should realize that the emergence of Obama's forceful leadership could be good for them. This time, he stood against his Democratic colleagues, but there's reason to hope that he'll show his newly discovered spine to the Republicans the next time.

There's reason to believe Dana Milbank vomited a can of alphabet soup that magically arranged itself into this conclusion that makes no sense.

One White House official told me that Obama will build a "shifting set of coalitions, issue by issue" over the next two years. If so, and if Obama will no longer allow those in the Capitol to run his presidency, he'll have a strong couple of years.

Wait, no! Milbank has a reason for making that conclusion! "One White House official" told him something about "shifting coalitions," and adult-lifetime Milbank decided to regurgitate that statement without subjecting it to critical thinking. Sure, if he actually thought about the facts of political polarization for a minute, he would realize there are no longer enough moderates or independent thinkers in Congress to make this possible.

But sure, Obama "stood his ground" by completely giving up what he previously stood for when it got too hard. Milbank has never come up with such a solid contrarian argument, even in his child lifetime. [ WP ]