DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: Scott Bessent Flips Shutdown On Former Clinton Adviser George Stephanopoulos.
“The president continues to post about ending the filibuster,” Stephanopoulos began. “Is that the best way to end this shutdown right now? Is that what the administration position is?”
“No, George, the best way to do it — and look, you were involved in a lot of these in the ’90s. And you basically called the Republicans terrorists and, you know, you said that it is not the responsible party that keeps the government closed,” Bessent replied. “And so what we need is five brave moderate Democratic Senators to cross the aisle, because right now it is 52 to three — 52 to three — five Democrats can cross the aisle and reopen the government. That’s the best way to do it, George.”
“I can disagree with you about the history there,” Stephanopoulos said with a half smile. “We don’t have to get into a history lesson right now —”
“George —” Bessent tried to push back.
“Let’s talk about —” Stephanopoulos interrupted. “Let’s talk about what’s happening right now.”
“If you want, I’ve got all your quotes here,” Bessent offered.
“I’m sure you do, but let’s talk about the situation —” Stephanopoulos tried again.
“I read your book, so you got one purchase on Amazon this week,” Bessent quipped. “And that’s very much what you said.”
Much more like this please.
UPDATE: Rep. Gephardt spells out tax-cut plan.
In that vein, [Dick] Gephardt bitterly attacked incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and his allies, calling them “trickle-down terrorists” and asserting that their legislative program was based on “division, exclusion and fear.”
—The Tampa Bay Times, December 14th, 1994.
And from Stephanopoulos himself:
Stephanopoulos: No one knew who would get blamed more for the shutdown, Democrats or Republicans. But there was more than the shutdown involved. First, there was also this threat that they would not extend the debt limit, that this was the big hammer that would force the president to accept whatever the Republicans wanted.
Our strategy was very simple. We couldn’t buckle, and we had to say that [Republicans] were blackmailing the country to get their way. In order to get their tax cut, they were willing to shut down the government, throw the country into default for the first time in its history and cut Medicare, Social Security, education and the environment just so they could get their way. And we were trying to say that they were basically terrorists, and it worked.
—“The Clinton Years,” Frontline, PBS, January 24th, 2001.
And more recently: Sources: Biden likened tea partiers to ‘terrorists.’
—The Politico, August 1st, 2011.