The Thumbs Have It

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“With just 50 days to go until the midterm election, a 9.6 percent unemployment rate and polling favoring Republicans on nearly every measure, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday he wants to broaden the conversation away from President Obama's policies to what Republicans would do if they win back a congressional majority. And in doing so, the administration is aiming point blank at House Minority Leader John Boehner, the man who would be speaker should the November election swing the balance of power away from the Democratic monopoly. "He outlines an economic philosophy that sounds like a lot of what got us into this. The American people want to know who would be in charge of he House, who's leading the Republicans in this election season," Gibbs told NBC's "Today" show. It's a risk to elevate Boehner to the president's stature in the national dialogue, especially since his name recognition doesn't come close to Obama's. But the administration can't seem to help itself as polls show it may have everything to lose if it doesn't find a way to take the spotlight off an economy that just won't jumpstart -- in spite of nearly $1 trillion in new spending and billions more in new proposals on the table.”
— Published September 13, 2010 | FoxNews.com

One of the principal characteristics that distinguishes humanity from most other beings who cogitate (at least some of the time) is the opposable thumb. Thus, small wonder that we have expressions such as "rule of thumb" and "thumb up your ass". The former expression is often used by those who cogitate frequently; the latter applies to those who don't.

Unless you are a glutton for punishment, you tend to shy away from the school-yard taunts that political hacks like Bobby Gibbs specialize in, especially when the desperation hits the fan. If, however, there is an obvious advantage to engaging someone like Gibbs, then a good rule of thumb is to call-out a Gibbs-like a-hole to demonstrate to the public at large where Bobby likes to rest his thumb when he is not sucking on it. But I digress ...

When political desperation hits the fan, what comes flying out is the proverbial brown sandstorm. Moreover, inveterate Kool-Aid drinkers will know enough neither to come in out of the storm, nor to extract their thumbs from their comfy hiding places. These people will vote Democrat, be it a run of the mill miscreant like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Charley Rangel, and Maxine Waters, or a plain old yellow dog.

So the rule-of-thumb in such situations applies only to non-drinkers of Kool-Aid. And that guiding principle is: the details of House-initiated legislation are far too complex to predict, but, broadly speaking, the revenue bills under a Republican majority will emphasize fiscal restraint, reduction in government spending, tax relief, and market-based job creation and economic growth. All of which legislation will be a very welcome change from the indefensible multi-thousand-page legislation to spend trillions of tax dollars on government-growing programs, for the purpose of handing out so-called "free lunch" to go with the flowing Kool-Aid.

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