The Unintended

(Unintended Consequences, Lee Roy Beach) Everyone knows various versions of the tale where one obtains what one has long desired, but instead of the anticipated fulfillment, the results are unforeseen and sometimes disastrous. Remember Terry Jones, the minister who announced plans to burn the Qur'an? He got the attention he wanted, with unintended consequences.

Many in the GOP have been screaming for the last two years about what they would like to burn. Their takeover of the House has already generated seismic shifts in national sentiments and the electricity in the network of the nation's political discourse. John Boehner is Speaker of the House, a house with a considerable number of tea party candidates.

Rand Paul and Michele Bachmann are making proposals. Paul's include eliminating the Affordable Housing Program, the Commission on Fine Arts, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State Justice Institute. He would also eliminate the Consumer Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and slash others as follows:

Legislative branch -- 23%
Federal courts -- 32%
Agriculture Department -- 30%
Commerce Department -- 54%
Health and Human Services -- 26%
Homeland Security -- 43%
Interior Department -- 78%

Oh, and eliminate food stamps.

Bachmann's ideas add: cap Veterans Affairs health care spending, privatize the Transportation Safety Administration, Federal Aviation Administration and Amtrak, repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to leasing.

The ideas of these new representatives don't feel the same as they did when spoken at tea party rallies.

Obama's numbers are climbing (1/13-17/2011 NBC-WSJ poll), but this occurred before the State of the Union, which has only fortified his numbers. What initiated the jump? The tragedy in Tucson? Without question the horrific violence shed the hateful rhetoric in a different light, but his eulogy at the University of Arizona, even with the country's tendency to come together after a tragedy, seems insufficient to shift his approval numbers so dramatically.

The GOP's victory in the House replaced its bash Pelosi privileges with a job. It also installs President Obama as the most visible and reliable line of defense against people who apparently want to return this country to the Stone Age. Unlike Jones, Speaker Boehner doesn't have the option to proclaim, "Never mind!" and tell his folks to take the signs down and go home.

Now seen as a voice of reason and intellect protecting a center against extremism, Obama becomes the face of progress so hard won over two centuries. This will continue to fuel approval of his presidency and dramatically enhances his re-election bid in 2012.