GOP: Selective Patriotism

The GOP and their faithful seem to never miss a chance to miss a chance to be petty and disrespectful to President Obama.

They go out of their way to take unnecessary and unprecedented cheap shots.

This is the same red, blue and white crowd that holler unpatriotic when anyone challenges their politics, views or policies when they are in power.

And now this:

The news arrived at the bottom of a press release touting NASCAR's impending audience with President Barack Obama. Within hours, the story of who wouldn't be visiting the White House far outshone the story of those who would.

Jimmie Johnson and other members of the 2010 Chase for the Cup will be visiting the White House on Wednesday afternoon. However, the release indicated that five drivers — Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart — will not be attending due to what the press release called "schedule conflicts." (Kurt Busch later indicated that he never had any intention of missing the event; it's not certain how his name ended up on the initial release.)

Naturally, since this involves the White House, the issue instantly turned political: were the drivers making a statement on Obama by not attending? What could possibly be more important than a meeting with the president? Do they have legitimate scheduling conflicts? Before any of the drivers spoke on the record about the issue, speculation ran wild among both NASCAR fandom and other drivers, and the politics threatened to drown any rational discussion of the matter. read more

And:

Hoping today's dismal employment report will ignite a bipartisan fight to create jobs? Yeah, good luck with that. Tea Party congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois says he is skipping President Obama's joint session of Congress because it will be a waste of time, reports the Chicago Tribune. "I don’t see the point of being a prop for another of the president’s speeches asking for more failed stimulus spending and more subsidies for his pet projects," the GOP freshman explained in a statement.

At least he didn't call Obama an idiot again, as he did Wednesday night, notes the Northwest Herald. “How idiotic is this president?” he asked a GOP crowd. “I don’t want to be disrespectful, but he’s going to bring forth a jobs plan next week. Think about that for a minute. He’s been in office for three years. He’s destroyed job creation systematically for three years.” read more

All this anti-patriotism from the flag waving crowd.
Let's not get it twisted:

Once again, let me remind the GOP, Tea Baggers and their faithful, the economy was broken under the stewardship of Cheney/Bush. When President Obama got the keys to the White House the country was losing over 500,000 jobs a month.

The economy was rescued from going over-the-cliff under the stewardship of President Obama - with minimal support or help from the folks that broke it.

My props to NASCAR driver Tony Stewart - who added his two cents - and he has the last word:

"We have an obligation we have to fulfill. I've enjoyed every trip I've that I've been invited ... There's a lot of people who would like the opportunity. If I could have rescheduled, I would be there in a heartbeat." He didn't specify the obligation.

"I don't think it's fair to the guys who said they could go, or the guys who said they couldn't go, to make it political," Burton said late Friday. "If the president of the United states invited NASCAR to the White House to honor NASCAR , that is an honor whether you agree with policy or not ... you can have respect for the presidency and still disagree with it. Ten years ago, after 9/11, this country was unified, this country was together. Today, we're talking why somebody is or isn't going to the White House. And we wonder why the country's in trouble. We're blaming the people in Washington. Maybe we need to look in the damn mirror." source