What digby said . . .

Digby: Taste

Mike Huckabee has always had a really nasty streak, but I think he may have outdone himself with this one.

The 2008 Republican presidential candidate suggested during his radio show, "The Huckabee Report," on Thursday that, under President Obama's health care plan, Kennedy would have been told to "go home to take pain pills and die" during his last year of life.

"[I]t was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don't have as long to live might want to consider just taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them," said Huckabee. "Yet when Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die? Of course not. He freely did what most of us would do. He choose an expensive operation and painful follow up treatments. He saw his work as vitally important and so he fought for every minute he could stay on this earth doing it. He would be a very fortunate man if his heroic last few months were what future generations remember him most for."

As it happens, Huckabee made his remarks shortly after he derided Democrats for using Kennedy's death to make the pitch that "Congress must hurry and pass the health care reform bill and do it in his memory,"

"That not only defies good taste," said Huckabee, "it defies logic."

You'll note that Huckabee said "he freely did what most of us would do, he chose an expensive operation." "Most of us" must be referring to those who are lucky enough to have insurance like Kennedy had --- paid for by the government and among a huge choice of policies --- because "many of us" would have to fight our insurance companies to get that "expensive" treatment or would face bankruptcy. That's if "we" were lucky enough to have insurance at all.

Huckabee has properly defined the problem but he doesn't seem to realize that it's the problem with the current system, not the proposed one. It's an excellent way to confuse people, of course, if you're trying to scare them, but it's a bit rich to speak of logic in the same breath.

And to evoke "good taste" in the same moment you are lying through your teeth with an outrageous claim that President Obama said seniors should consider going home and taking pain pills instead of getting an operation is just plain sickening and in a perfect world would disqualify him from ever holding public office again.

Digby: Rolling Redux

I think it's time for a repeat of what Rick Perlstein wrote to me just before Senator Kennedy died this week:

The Republican old bulls will say they're honoring EMK's memory by voting against cloture for what they'll say is a failed bill that he would never have happened had he been alive and kicking... It's how they roll.

What Perlstein understands about the right wing, that nobody else ever seems to get, is that they always take the left's icons and use them for their own ends. Reagan used to famously quote Roosevelt as a great example of conservative values. And just as John Kennedy and Martin Luther King have been recently appropriated by conservatives, we can expect Ted Kennedy to be transitioned from history's most hated liberal into the Great Compromiser, who knew how to "make the right concessions." They're really good at this stuff.

There is another part to this, however, as we are seeing right now. The media villagers, who automatically assume that anyone who is beloved by the people is someone who reflects their own values (it's all about them) are saying that Kennedy always compromised because he was committed to bipartisanship as a governing principle.

He wasn't, of course. That's completely absurd. He was committed to liberal goals, which he advanced at every opportunity. Under conservative reign he got his foot in the door, eked out whatever advances were possible get and stopped the Republicans from their worst if he could. But in a moment of liberal opportunity he would never have compromised simply out of silly beltway convention, particularly on a signature issue like health care. He would have used every lever of power at his disposal to get it done.

As far as Kennedy being a great example of their beloved village consensus, everyone loving each other even as they played out some sort of ideological kabuki, maybe they need to take a step back from the unctuous paeans of the conservative marketers and remind themselves of what the conservatives really thought of him. That's the most intellectually honest piece about Kennedy I've read from a conservative since he died.

Digby: Renewed Faith

I have,sadly, become something of a cynic in my old age and it's not a happy thing to be. The world is darker, inspiration harder to find and humans are constantly disappointing me. But today, my faith in the goodness of human nature was renewed.

Howie Klein asked John Amato and I to an event last night at the Grammy Museum, which is in downtown LA near the Staples center and the convention center. It was a fabulous Q&A and concert with the great Jazz trumpet player Terrance Blanchard and his band. Unfortunately, when I got back in my car after the event I found that my wallet was missing. This venue is huge, tens of thousands of people are there at any given time from all over the area and all over the world. Whether stolen or lost, I had no hope that I would ever see it again. Just another night in the Naked City. I felt very down.

This morning I got a call from the Santa Monica Police telling me that a good Samaritan had found my wallet and they had called the police to tell them they would like to return it. (My phone number wasn't in it.) I was stunned. And I also felt a little bit elated. It's been a while since something surprised me in quite this way. (That cynicism again.) So I happily took the Good Samaritan's number and called him.

This man's name is Kurt Thompson, and he works for an aerospace supplier in Gardena, a few miles south from where I live. He told me that his employee Albert Garcia had found the wallet last night, brought it to work and asked his boss to help him track me down so he could return it. They spent the morning trying to figure out a way to get my number when they finally decided that the best route would be to call the police and see if they could get it to me. I was thrilled and immediately agreed to drive down and pick it up.

When I arrived, Kurt took me on a tour of the plant (they make some kind of special bolt for Boeing aircraft) and showed me what my credit cards and ID all look like under the blacklight, which is the way the authorities determine if they are authentic. Then he took me to meet Albert, a handsome young guy who looks to be in his early 20s.(He might be older, but he looks young.)

Anyway, I thanked Albert profusely and offered him a reward --- which he refused to accept under any circumstances. And again, I was surprised. I was happy to give it to him, the reward was well deserved and his returning my wallet saved me hours of trouble and money having to replace both my passport (don't ask) and my driver's license, not to mention the hell of dealing with credit cards and all the rest. His abject refusal to accept any money was unexpected and I was even more impressed. I just assumed that he would take it. Another chip of my hard cold cynicism broke off.

I spent a few more minutes chatting with Kurt, a very upbeat, friendly person with a huge smile and a contagious good humor and I discovered that he is mentoring Albert, helping him through school and guiding him in the workplace. (Albert, of course could have kept the wallet and never told Kurt about it, so Albert's moral compass is all his own.) Kurt is a very good person.

And I also discovered that Kurt is a Republican. (He has a mixed marriage - his wife is a Democrat.) We chatted a bit about travels, music, the thrill of Obama's election, the disillusionment of the Bush voter, the need for critical thinking, and then I took my leave. And I felt uplifted and happy in a way that I haven't felt in some time. It's not about the wallet which, after all, can be replaced. It's that I felt good about human beings again.

The burden of cynicism wears me down --- I don't like to believe that people are fundamentally dishonest and cruel. I needed this blast of decency from total strangers to shake me out of my doldrums. So, I'm immensely grateful to Kurt and Albert, both for renewing my faith in human nature and reminding me that political affiliation doesn't tell the whole story about anyone. It was a privilege to meet both of them.