Thom Hartmann: How Dick Morris is Toe Sucking the Economy...

Dick Morris was a campaign strategist for Bill Clinton back in 1996 before resigning after news broke that he was sucking the toes of a prostitute. After leaving the Democratic Party in disgrace, Dick - like most other freaks and perverts found a new home in the Republican Party... and eventually on Fox so-called News...often appearing with loufa-obsessed Bill O'Reilly. By 2008, Dick was a rockstar on the Right, and one of the go-to Republican strategists for Fox News. And right after President Obama won the election that year - Dick wrote a very interesting column for "The Hill" titled: "An election that the Republicans needed to lose - good luck Obama." If you want to know why the economy is where it is today - why Republicans are acting the way they're acting - and why President Obama's re-election chances aren't all that great - then it's worth reading toe-sucker Dick Morris's 2008 column. Rewind back to 2008 - remember those days?

When President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulsen were routinely addressing the nation about the dire financial crisis Bush looked scared to death - Paulsen hands trembled. 2.6 million Americans lost their jobs that year. The foreclosure crisis was speeding up, banks were failing, and businesses were closing their doors. It was economic doomsday. And Dick Morris and the rest of the top Republican strategists knew it. That's why Morris wrote in his column after the election: "If ever there was an election that was not worth winning, it was the contest of 2008. While it was hard-fought on both sides, had McCain won, it might have spelled the end of the Republican Party. As it is, the party is well-situated to come back in 2010 and in 2012, if it learns the lessons of this year."

I had wondered why the Republican Party - with so many wealthy donors in its ranks - would sit back and let the Democratic Party out-fundraise them. It didn't make any sense. Well - it's because they didn't really want to win in 2008. As Rick wrote in his 2008 column: "Simply put, all hell is about to break loose in the markets and the economy... Had McCain won, he would be the latter-day Hoover, blamed for the disaster that unfolded on his watch. Now it is Obama’s problem. With the Republicans suffering a wipeout in congressional elections...the ball is now squarely in the Democratic court. Good luck!"

Republicans knew things would get worse - and the Democrats would be blamed for it. And they knew it because the fundamentals of our economy - the sort of stuff that kept us safe from a financial crash, that grew an enormous middle class, and that kept wealth inequality low - had been hollowed out over the last 30 years starting with Ronald Reagan. Wall Street was a deregulated mess and had blown a seven trillion dollar hole in the economy. American workers - without the protection of unions - were no longer making enough money to buy stuff and stimulate the economy. And thanks to the Reagan and Bush tax cuts - working people were falling farther and farther behind a new class of super-rich Americans like Mitt Romney. And because of an addiction to so-called free trade, even when Americans bought stuff - most of the profits went overseas - stimulating foreign economies.

Republicans knew all of this going into President Obama's first term. So they sat back and waited for him to meltdown. A group of them - including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Newt Gingrich, and Fox News pollster Frank Luntz - even met together the night of President Obama's inauguration at a fancy DC steakhouse named the Caucus Room - and laid out their strategy over the next two years - which was simply to do nothing and let the economy tank, so they can win back Congress in 2010. They also figured - because of all of these problems with the economy - the President's stimulus wouldn't work. So a couple of Senate Republicans let it pass - after whittling it down and devoting a full-third of it to tax cuts that don't stimulate the economy.But - they misjudged.

Like a tourniquet - President Obama's injection of federal money into the economy through his stimulus - slowed the homoraghing of jobs. The private sector started to find its footing again, job losses immediately slowed, and within months it looked like President Obama had the economy on track to begin CREATING jobs again for the first time in years. So Republicans knew they had to kick it up a notch - they could just sit back anymore and let Democrats drown trying to fix the economy. They actually had to go on the offensive, and sabotage the Democrats - actually hold President Obama's head under water. What followed was obstruction after obstruction, filibuster after filibuster, and lie after lie.

Toe sucker Dick Morris's Fox so-called News gave Republicans cover for the sabotage cover by broadcasting these lies over and over again. Republicans knew if they were successful - then they could blame all the failures of Reagan and Bushonomics on Obama - and fulfill Senator Mitch McConnell's number one goal: to defeat Obama. After the stimulus passed - Republicans dug in - and set a new record for filibusters in the Senate - blocking every single one of President Obama's attempts to further stimulate the economy. Democrats in the House passed legislation to cut off tax breaks for corporate job outsourcers. Unfortunately - Republicans in the Senate filibustered it. It paid off - the economy didn't grow fast enough in those first two years - leading to Republicans winning big in the midterms.

And when Republicans took control of the House in 2011 - they kicked their economy crashing agenda into high gear. They pledged to repeal Obamacare - which would kill 400,000 jobs every year for the next decade. They passed the austerity-soaked Paul Ryan Budget this year - which according to the Economic Policy Institute would kill 4.1 million jobs over the next two year. Senate Republicans filibustered the American Jobs Act - which included heavy investments in infrastructure and would have created 2 million new jobs. And with each new showdown over the budget or the debt-limit - Republicans have succeeded in extracting even more spending cuts that suck money out of the economy. And on a state-wide level - Republican Governors pushing their own austerity agendas have killed more than 600,000 public sector jobs - further dragging the economy down.

So we're now months away from the 2012 election. Months away from knowing if Dick Morris was right back in 2008 - that Barack Obama will become today's Herbert Hoover - and the Republican Party will finish off it's comeback. If they succeed - then it will be a sad day for the United States. A day when we all learn that a major political party could commit treason, could sabotage our economy - throw millions of Americans out of their homes and out of work just for political gain - and actually succeed. Let's hope they don't get away with it.

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