Time’s Stengel: GOP Nominee Will Treat Tea Party Like Sister Souljah, ‘Tragedy’ That GOP Wants to Cut AmeriCorps
Appearing as a panel member on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show on Sunday, as host Matthews led the group in discussing potential Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s recent gaffe about President Obama growing up in Kenya, Time magazine managing editor Richard Stengel predicted that the eventual Republican nominee would have a "Sister Souljah moment with the Tea Party." Stengel:
Right, what we've seen in presidential politics always, always, always is that pragmatism trumps purity. These guys are now trying to be too pure. What we’re going to have somewhere... I mean, Huckabee, all of these folks are trying to be ideologically aligned with the Tea Party. What’s going to happen at some point is the Republican candidate will have his or her Sister Souljah moment with the Tea Party and say, you know what, we have to-
After Matthews jumped in and asked if Stengel meant "standing up against ... nativism," the Time managing editor agreed, "Absolutely."
Panel member Norah O’Donnell of MSNBC noted that the Tea Party is more associated with economic issues than cultural or racial issues.
Later on, Stengel complained that the Republican Party wishes to cut spending on AmeriCorps, calling it a "tragedy." Stengel:
As we all know, nondefense discretionary spending is a measly 17 percent of the national budget. Republicans want to cut a lot of that. One of the things they want to cut is AmeriCorps, which actually supports programs like City Year and Teach for America which are designed to halt American decline. That's a tragedy.
Matthews added, "I agree."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portions of the Sunday, March 6, syndicated Chris Matthews Show:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: George Will says this is going to skunk the Republican Party next year, all this talk about Kenya and all this ethnic stuff that's clearly nasty, intended to be nasty, has nothing do with fixing this country's economic wagon.
RICHARD STENGEL, TIME MAGAZINE: Right, what we've seen in presidential politics always, always, always is that pragmatism trumps purity. These guys are now trying to be too pure. What we’re going to have somewhere-
MATTHEWS: Who’s that? What do you mean by that?
STENGEL: I mean, Huckabee, all of these folks are trying to be ideologically aligned with the Tea Party. What’s going to happen at some point is the Republican candidate will have his or her Sister Souljah moment with the Tea Party and say, you know what, we have to-
MATTHEWS: Oh, stand up against this (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and this nativism?
STENGEL: Absolutely.
...
STENGEL: As we all know, nondefense discretionary spending is a measly 17 percent of the national budget. Republicans want to cut a lot of that. One of the things they want to cut is AmeriCorps, which actually supports programs like City Year and Teach for America which are designed to halt American decline. That's a tragedy.
MATTHEWS: I agree.
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Comments
How are "city year" and
Submitted by bkeyser on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 12:31pm.
How are "city year" and "teach for America" -whatever they are- doing? What was the benchmark and what is the level of progress? Are city years longer now? Are schools being filled with AmeriCorps teachers?
Seriously. Outside of busing homeless people and undocumented "workers" to multiple polling stations to press the D button, what does AmeriCorps actually do? This is just more taxpayer funding for Democrats as far as I can tell.
Cut it. Defund it. Disband it. Make these people work for a living.
Clinton's Folly
Submitted by Galvanic on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 1:33pm.
Clinton started AmeriCorps to be one of his legacy items, modeled loosely after JFK's Peace Corps and LBJ's VISTA volunteers. I've never seen any independent data that has found these programs to be worth the investments. Most Americans don't know what it does if they even know of its existence, and far fewer can even name any of its projects, let alone successes.
The fact is that we can no longer afford these feel-good programs. Terminate it.
re: Peace Corps
Submitted by Radical1979 on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 1:36pm.
My neighbor's daughter is in the Peace Corps, she's over in Eastern Europe. She's supposed to be setting up "self sustaining" programs for kids. In a place where she is heating her apartment with a woodstove and is excited to find a can of tuna fish in the grocery store. The area is to poverty stricken to do anything but survive.
And they don't want help setting up programs. They want money and donations of things. That's what the corps represents to them. A handout.
Good evening Radical
Submitted by cocodrie on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 2:20pm.
These programs are very profitable to the administrators, useless to their recipients, and exprnsive for us. They are, however, a feather in the cap of clueless liberal spendthrifts.
Jesus Loves You so much He died for you
Exactly, Rad
Submitted by Blonde on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 4:24pm.
Americorps, Peace Corps etc. are just another tax-payer funded safari.
There are far more efficacious organizations, like Doctors Without Borders. When we were on our trip last year, we visited the most beautiful colonial town of Granada, Nicaragua. We met a nursing student there from California. She was (on her own dime, I might add) doing a two week internship. She and a bunch of other students and teachers had just spent two weeks at the dump in Managua! providing basic medical care to the vast population (mostly of homeless) children who live there. She was totally thrilled to be there, and it was an eye-opening experience for her as an American, too. We had a great time talking to her.
Then there are people like Tim Tebow, whose family has a Foundation and who do work in the Phillipines. I read a quote by Timmy, who said something like "well, the government can spend thousands of dollars creating a program teaching people how to build a business, or we can spend $100 and buy a man a chainsaw and a gas can, times a hundred".
The government is just as inept doing "charitable" work as it is at delivering the mail. We need to defund all of this nonsense. And continue the deductions for charitable contributions (as Obama is planning on doing away with them....of course he believes he's better at spending our charitable dollars than we are).
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Teach for America
Submitted by TexasMom0517 on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 1:48pm.
I've known several twenty-somethings who have worked for Teach for America and the only reason they've done it is because it is a resume enhancer and gives them "bonus points" when applying to certain graduate programs (U.Va., I think). It's the equivalent of working for an investment house for two years before going to business school.
NONE of the kids I've known have ever planned on teaching, nor did any of them remain as teachers. One, whose mother is an EMILY's List person, even left Teach for America after only one year because the school she was assigned to was so dangerous that she and her parents feared for her safety. (I DO love it when a Progressive's world view is challenged by reality!)
Defund Americorps/Teach for America.
Teach for America
Submitted by Radical1979 on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 2:50pm.
I see it as a way to get niave young people to teach in the roughest neighborhoods in the country, where no one else is willing to teach. No amount of teaching will cure the ill.
No RINOs
Submitted by Anneke9 on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 12:44pm.
"Right, what we've seen in presidential politics always, always, always is that pragmatism trumps purity.... all of these folks are trying to be ideologically aligned with the Tea Party. What’s going to happen at some point is the Republican candidate will have his or her Sister Souljah moment with the Tea Party..."
That's why we need to make sure that a RINO doesn't get nominated. I have no doubt that the Republican Party elite would love to select a RINO who would do just what Stengel is suggesting.
Let us not mince words.
Submitted by Anneke9 on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 1:49pm.
To second my own comment, I offer this article by George Will in today's Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030404613.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
"Let us not mince words. There are at most five plausible Republican presidents on the horizon - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Utah governor and departing ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, former Massachusetts governor Romney and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty."
The only one of these candidates that I could be tempted to support is Pawlenty. Hey guys, I can always vote for the Libertarian candidate in 2012.If i ever have a " Sister Souljah Moment"
Submitted by meester on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 1:50pm.
I'll have to trust them to point it out.
If I do, and you tell me so, here is my response in advance; "so what"
alternatively; I'll go with 'go away"
You stupid liberals we don't
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 3:57pm.
You stupid liberals we don't want to defund it, we are going to eliminate it altogether.
Actualy, we cant stop there
Submitted by Boudin on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 4:07pm.
We have to eliminate the other ponzi scheming policies, or it wont matter.
First order of business is, put this Country back on solid financial ground,
Then we protect it from all enemies, domestic and abroad.
Sickening...
Submitted by Tenebrous on Sun, 03/06/2011 - 7:49pm.
Leave it to liberals to 1) rewrite history and 2) malign people they don't like. First of all, the sister Souljah quote was not as bad when you considered the whole thing and didn't cherry pick it. Clinton spun it to make himself look more centrist, and it worked. Second, the assumption that the Tea Party is in favor of burning down homes and killing people (roughly, as I remember what Clinton said that Souljah said) tells you everything about the intelligence (YES, LIBERALS ARE DUMB) and the honesty of liberals. The Tea Party doesn't support lawbreaking, yet this constantly escapes the oh-so-smart liberals.
Visions and Principles blog
Show us AmeriCorps in the
Submitted by Cowboy on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 3:48am.
Show us AmeriCorps in the Constitution as an enumerated power.