Julie Mason “reporting” for the Washington Examiner got me to do an actual spit-take:
“If they pull off this crazy scenario they are putting together, they are going to destroy a lot of the comity in the House,” said Brian Darling, a congressional expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Every day needs some comic relief.
JedL: Lindsey Graham's curious logic
Lindsey Graham says he's worried that Democrats will imperil their legislative agenda if...they pass their legislative agenda. From his interview on ABC's This Week yesterday with Jake Tapper:
If they do this [pass health care reform], it's going to poison the well for anything else they would like to achieve this year or thereafter.
Gee, thanks for your concern, Sen. Graham. What other advice might you have? Maybe that the Red Sox shouldn't win too many games, otherwise they might encourage the Yankees to try and win a World Series?
digby adds: I consider Graham to be one of the most dangerous Republicans in the government. He's a very bad faith player whom the villagers love as a sort of cornpone Jimmy Stewart. I hope the Democrats don't underestimate him.
Ezra Klein: I threaten you with a continuation of current trends!
Of all the Republican threats meant to derail health-care reform, this has to be the emptiest:
While a bill-signing ceremony in the Rose Garden would provide at least a short-term boost to a beleaguered president, Republicans have made clear that the legislative procedure Democrats are using to avoid another filibuster would so anger them that they would not cooperate on other major initiatives this year.
“If they jam through health care,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, then Democrats will have “poisoned the well” on other issues. He was interviewed Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Stimulus didn't get a single Republican vote in the House. The Gang of Six didn't secure Republican votes for health-care reform. Bob Corker won't support the financial regulation plan that he admits has been fundamentally transformed to address many of his concerns. Graham himself has declared cap-and-trade dead in the Senate. If Graham doesn't think the well is already poisoned, then I dare him to take a sip from it.
Kurtz (TPM): Rhetorical Flourish Watch
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): Nancy Pelosi has Democrats "all liquored up on sake" on a "suicide run."
Japanese imperialism imagery? Check. Roman imperialism imagery? Check.
If the increasingly over-the-top rhetoric coming from the GOP is any indication, health care reform may be in better shape than even many Democrats think.
::I am wearing blue jeans and a brown sweatshirt as I type this ...
From the brain trust at Big Government:
I thought it was odd that Robert Gibbs was wearing a purple bracelet (and a purple tie) during his appearance on “Fox News Sunday” and CBS’ “Face The Nation.” SEIU president Andy Stern, the top visitor to the White House, wore a similar, if not the same, purple bracelet at one point, too ...
The bracelet is kind of a signal to tell Stern that the administration has it under control and ObamaCare will be delivered. Just a few more Democrats need to be shown the Chicago way.
Am I making too much out of nothing? Maybe. Who knows.
Actually, it's making nothing out of nothing ... check that ... it's making a total ass of one's self:
Take a look at this list of supposed "special deals" listed by Fox to supposedly illustrate the corrupt nature of health care reform:
The list, put together by Fox's "brain room" (their words, not mine), says more about the weakness of reform obstructionists than it does about reform itself. (The same can be said about Fox's refusal to broadcast President Obama's health care reform speech earlier today.)
The most obvious weakness in this list is that reconciliation -- which Fox seems to think will destroy the republic -- will actually remove the noxious "special deals" like the Cornhusker Kickback.
More importantly, the biggest item on the list -- what Fox calls the "Vermont Special" -- is actually funding for a nationwide network of community health centers. This program is utterly uncontroversial and its benefits would be spread throughout the nation. No one region would benefit more than any other.
So the bottom-line is that Fox's "brain room" put together the top five most noxious things in the bill, and the single largest item on that list, comprising the vast majority of the spending targeted by Fox, is actually something that everybody should be able to support. And the bad stuff on the list will be cut by reconciliation.
As last gasps go, this one is worthy of the hall of fame.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) took up Gov. Mark Sanford's (R-SC) Shakespearean warning today that the American people must "beware the Ides of March" when it comes to health care reform.
Sanford released a statement earlier saying that today -- March 15 -- is the day Julius Caesar was murdered, sometimes known as the Ides of March. The day is usually associated with a sense of foreboding, and Sanford warned the public to be wary of health care reform.
Trent Lott agreed today on Fox News: "Shakespeare warned us to beware the Ides of March. That's today, and I have a very ominous feeling about what's fixing to happen on health care votes."
At least, that's probably what he meant to say, though Lott's "Ides of March" sounds suspiciously like "Eyes of March" in the clip.
Judge for yourself:
In a rare burst of on-air profanity by a U.S. Senator, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina says "the American people are getting tired of this crap."
Graham was referring to comments by White House senior adviser David Axelrod. Does his language reflect GOP frustration as the reality of their defeat on health care reform settles in?
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