Obama Lashes Out At "Purists"

One day, Mr. President, you'll learn that it doesn't work. You'll understand that pissing off your own base by calling them names is bad politics. You'll figure out that the Republicans will still lacerate you and block your every move, the press will applaud you but promptly forget during the next news cycle, and the "independents" you chase will still vote you out because they care about jobs, not talking points. You'll understand that demoralizing those who believed in you is counterproductive at best.

You'll learn that bargaining does not mean compromising before negotiations have even begun, since you'll just end up losing even more when the real process begins.

But, sadly, it would appear that today is not going to be that day.

edit: Noam Shreiber brings us the fight from the inside.

Within the administration, the split over whether to mount a tax-cut offensive broke down largely along wonk-operative lines. The wonks spent the last year mystified that the White House was ducking the fight when the substantive merits were so one-sided. The operatives brooded that the politics could abruptly turn against them, despite polling showing little public appetite for the upper-income cuts. “They view it through the class warfare stuff—Kerry in 2004, Gore in 2000,” says one administration official. “They worry that they’ll get painted as lefties, tax-raisers.”

One day, those "operatives" (who failed spectacularly this past year, didn't they?) will learn that you're going to get painted as a lefty tax raiser no matter what you do. They'll learn (or remember?) that there's already a class war going on, and it's being waged by the ultra-rich and their Republican apologists against everybody else.
But, again, today is not that day. And as for their treatment of progressives, well...

Team Obama may also be insufficiently attentive to the left, which has erupted over the tax-cut deal. The Friday after the midterms, a senior administration official convened a meeting with representatives of several dozen prominent progressive organizations. When the meeting began at 9 a.m., the official announced the discussion would have to be quick as the White House needed the room by ten o’clock. “The White House is having a meeting with all its important allies, and the initial message is, ‘We couldn’t get a room for more than an hour,’ ” says one participant. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

This isn't policy. This isn't even compromise. This, Barry, is just an out-and-out DICK MOVE. And you should be goddamned ashamed.