After 28 years in office, the South Carolina Democrat reflects on life in Congress, on his proudest moment (balancing the budget), on “obscene” campaign spending , on having no regrets from voting for health reform – and on his conclusion that Congress has become “less than the sum of its parts.” (Roll Call Video)
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
27 Responses to Exit Interview: Rep. John Spratt
Now on The Trail
I’ve heard it bandied about that Spratt and his wife had a rather unique dining methodology………
I better quit while I’m behind……….
“his conclusion that Congress has become “less than the sum of its parts”
yeah, and departs the slum of its mess
Sturg, you kill me (but it looks like his dining habits may have changed somewhat as he aged.). Jack, thanks for the heads up.
Spratt may have been taking dining lessons from Peter, Peter Pumpkin eater.
The Citizens United decision has gone a long way toward ruining this nation because it makes it possible for corporate entities to elect nonentities to do their will rather than that of the people.
sorry to crab mr spratt’s gig here but here’s a short history of that beach pavillion in the sixties……i’ll bet mr spratt was in attendance at least once …………..
http://www.moultrienews.com/historian/Horton-4-2
art and his wife had a very successful joint on the beach called the Seaside, which became re-named The Old Side, and when Art and his wife split he went down the beach a ways and built a huge cinderblock barn and called it Art’s New Seaside……to support the joint, after he would run it into the ground, he would ship out as a merchant seaman leaving his son richard in charge…….art would run off all the business and then leave richard to re-build it and then art would come back and run it down again…….went on for many years…..the fish camp in the picture is richard’s joint now.
Sturg, what a great catch -- I haven’t thought of the Tams in ages. I was on one (well a few) other sides of the music spectrum back then, but I just loved the Tams. I’ve been hurt, hurt, hurt…, Yes I’ve been hurt…” Great sound. There were a bunch of great soul groups out there, but the Tamns came to the Oporto Armory and to the UofA more than a couple of times in the late 60s and throughout the 70s and notwithstanding my Beatles, Stones, Hendrix…., bent I loved seeing them.
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2010/12/07/this_modern_world
“Middle-Man strikes back!
What better way to take on his arch-rivals than with an apology?”
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/the-deal/?hp
“The Deal”
God, TT is dead on. LMAO
Obambi as “Middle-Man”….. HA!
thanks for the laugh, Tony….
I wonder if Boner really has an Orange-Man suit in the back of his closet….
Vote for “Lie of the Year”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/dec/06/finalists-lie-year/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-k-galbraith/whose-side-is-the-white-h_b_792473.html?view=print
‘Whose Side Is the White House On?”
“I want to raise a hard question — a question on which Americans are divided. It seems to me, though, we will get nowhere unless we realize where we are, what has actually happened, and what the future most likely holds.
Recovery begins with realism and there is nothing to be gained by kidding ourselves. On the topics that I know most about, the administration is beyond being a disappointment. It’s beyond inept, unprepared, weak, and ineffective. Four and again two years ago, the people demanded change. As a candidate, the President promised change. In foreign policy and the core economic policies, he delivered continuity instead. That was true on Afghanistan and it was and is true in economic policy, especially in respect to the banks. What we got was George W. Bush’s policies without Bush’s toughness, without his in-your-face refusal to compromise prematurely. Without what he himself calls his understanding that you do not negotiate with yourself.”
http://gay.americablog.com/2010/12/sen-manchin-d-wv-using-bogus-argument.html
“Sen. Manchin (D-WV) using bogus argument about chaplains as reason to delay action on DADT”
“To be clear, the Pentagon’s Working Group survey met Manchin’s first requirement — that is, it concluded that repeal would not undermine unit cohesion — and addressed his new concerns.
I really hate when members of Congress invoke fake religious arguments as a reason to oppose equality. Manchin is letting a few homophobic chaplains determine policy for the military. That’s real leadership, huh?
Didn’t take long for Manchin to become just another useless member of the Democratic caucus.”
jamie -- Now that’s what I call an embarassment of riches. How to choose, how to choose?
—
< the sum of its parts…sounds like Congress learned math in public school (like me).
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46027.html
“GOP’s odd bid to kill health reform”
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/07/obamas-compromise-not-reaganesque-or-clintonian/
“Obama’s Compromise: Neither Reaganesque nor Clintonian”
“Regarding President Obama’s announcement of a proposed compromise with Republicans on taxes and extending unemployment benefits, it strikes me that there were two things he could have done politically: stand up to Republicans and try to stare them down over the notion of them holding the middle-class tax cuts hostage by wanting to give millionaires a tax break — while not extending jobless benefits (at Christmas!) — or claim the whole compromise idea as his own and declare victory.
Either option would have signaled a coherent strategy moving forward. We might not have agreed with his move, but it would have at least made strategic sense.
Instead, Obama chose a third way — he conceded defeat, accepting a compromise that he admitted he didn’t much care for. As Jonah Goldberg put it on Fox News, Obama was “not a guy declaring a victory. This is a guy made to eat spinach.”
I can’t f**king stand that Jonah Goldberg or his mother!!
It’s hard for an empty suit to stand up for anything.
Hmm, they way Prez Obama surrenders at the drop of a hat, maybe he’s not Kenyan, but French.
Dump Obama 2012!
Blue….
Obambi… French?…. maybe he’s really a NY Jet….
new thread
Tony, I never thought Manchin would be much of a progressive if at all. He’s pretty moderate, and I believe he’s Catholic, so finding a religious reason to oppose anything that smacks of sin in the eyes of the church should be very easy for him. From a progressive perspective the most that can be said for him is that he is not a ‘can’t.
new thread
NEW THREAD