Timing Is Everything

Just when you think that Republicans might be getting the upper hand on this whole stimulus deal by acting like they won the election, shit like this happens:

Mass layoffs across almost every line of business catapulted the nation's unemployment rate to 7.6 percent in January and lent more urgency to Washington's attempt to quickly hammer out an economic stimulus package.

Friday's data from the Labor Department was a laundry list of misery milestones: The most jobs lost in one month since 1974, the highest unemployment rate since 1992, the largest one-month drop in factory jobs since 1982 and the most jobs lost in 12 months since the government began keeping records in 1939.

The report showed the terrible toll the drawn-out recession is having on workers and companies. It also puts even more pressure on President Barack Obama to revive the economy. * * *

Actually, all the bad news probably puts more pressure on the Republicans. It certainly introduces a dose of reality to the whole stimulus debate.

I must admit that I've been caught up in the old politics lately. My biggest gripe was that Obama hasn't been going on the offensive enough against the GOP sons-of-bitches who caused this mess. Although he seems to be fixing that to some extent, all of the political maneuvering almost becomes irrelevant given the latest news, which does seem to indicate that the economy is truly going into the shitter.

The whole thing reminds me of when McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate. Sure, it gave the GOP ticket a boost in the short term, but Palin became a liability once her idiocy was exposed for all to see. In other words, reality sunk in.

A similar thing is happening with regard to the stimulus debate. The GOP, with some help from Obama and the House Democrats, won a short-term victory, but all the dire economic news will soon overwhelm this victory and Obama will end up getting most -- if not all -- of what he is asking for.