I guess this is what happens when you get that sweet taste of absolute power on your lips. Your beliefs no longer matter when it fits your own purposes, and that is what we have here. President Obama back in 2005 (along with many other Senate Dem’s at the forefront of the healthcare debate) brought strong language against the Senate Republicans (the majority at the time) who had threatened to use reconciliation as a means to pass their agenda.
NO NO NO…you can’t do that!!!
Oh my what a difference a few years makes. Here is the blatant hypocrisy from the lips of Dear Leader Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer among others. Watch this all the way through. It’s precious material.
Well, I can’t fault the guy for being creative in spouting his rhetoric and propaganda concerning the healthcare boondoggle that he plans on forcing down the throats of an American public who does not want it.
Since no one ever watches these useless propagandizing weekly addresses, I’ll put it out there for you, if you can stomach it.
As the Winter Olympics draw to a close this weekend, I just want to take a minute to congratulate all the athletes who competed in these games. And I especially want to say how proud I am of all the American men and women have achieved over the last few weeks.
Whether it was the men’s hockey team’s stunning upset of the Canadians on their way to the gold-medal game, Lindsey Vonn’s heroic gold-medal comeback from a shin injury, or Apolo Ohno becoming the most decorated American winter Olympian of all time, you can’t help but be inspired by the sheer grit and athletic prowess on display in Vancouver.
And it’s not just the medal count that’s inspiring – though we’ve certainly done great on that score. What’s truly inspiring is the character of the men and women who have won those medals. The sacrifices they’ve made. The integrity they’ve shown. The indomitable Olympic spirit that says no matter who you are or where you come from or what difficulties you may face, you can work hard and train hard and still triumph in the end. That is why we watch. That is why we cheer. That is why in the middle of an extremely challenging time for America, we’ve been able to come together as one nation for a few weeks in February and swell with pride at what our citizens have achieved.
Now, when it comes to meeting the larger challenges we face as a nation, I realize that finding this unity is easier said than done – especially in Washington. But if we want to compete on the world stage as well as we’ve competed in the world’s games, we need to find common ground. We need to move past the bickering and the game-playing that holds us back and blocks progress for the American people.
We know it’s possible to do this. And we were reminded of that last week when Democrats and Republicans in the Senate came together to pass a jobs bill that will give small businesses tax credits to hire more workers. We also saw it when Democrats and Republicans in the House came together to pass a bill that will force insurance companies to abide by common-sense rules that prevent price-fixing and other practices that drive up health care costs.
We need that same spirit of cooperation and bipartisanship when it comes to finally passing reform that will bring down the cost of health care and give Americans more control over their insurance. On Thursday, we brought both parties together for a frank and productive discussion about this issue. In that discussion, we heard many areas of agreement. Both sides agreed that the rising cost of health care is a serious problem that plagues families, small businesses, and our federal budget. Many on both sides agreed that we should give small businesses and individuals the ability to participate in a new insurance marketplace – which members of Congress would also use – that would allow them to pool their purchasing power and get a better deal from insurance companies. And I heard some ideas from our Republican friends that I believe are very worthy of consideration.
But still, there were differences. We disagreed over whether insurance companies should be held accountable when they deny people care or arbitrarily raise premiums. I believe they should. We disagreed over giving tax credits to small businesses and individuals that would make health care affordable for those who don’t have it. This would be the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, and I believe we should do it. And while we agreed that Americans with pre-existing conditions should be able to get coverage, we disagreed on how to do that.
Some of these disagreements we may be able to resolve. Some we may not. And no final bill will include everything that everyone wants. That’s what compromise is. I said at the end of Thursday’s summit that I am eager and willing to move forward with members of both parties on health care if the other side is serious about coming together to resolve our differences and get this done. But I also believe that we cannot lose the opportunity to meet this challenge. The tens of millions of men and women who cannot afford their health insurance cannot wait another generation for us to act. Small businesses cannot wait. Americans with pre-existing conditions cannot wait. State and federal budgets cannot sustain these rising costs.
It is time for us to come together. It is time for us to act. It is time for those of us in Washington to live up to our responsibilities to the American people and to future generations. So let’s get this done.
Thanks for listening.
Strange, but I don’t think the Olympic spirit and the dedication of American athletes has anything at all to do with an arrogant executive forcing his will against the will of the people he works for…call me crazy.
Maybe next week you will have a better comparison Mr. President.
I didnt find myself shocked when I saw this poll from CNN.com, I did however find myself pleased to see that the American public is now fully awake and fully aware of what is going on in this country, and the threat that the Obama regime is posing to the rights of the citizens of the United States. From CNN.com
Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.
The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: Only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents and nearly seven in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.
According to CNN poll numbers released Sunday, Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken, though the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what’s broken can be fixed.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 23% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20. For President Obama, the Approval Index has been lower only once (see trends).
Americans are strongly rejecting anything and everything that Obama is proposing, anything that he says. We have awaken to the reality that elections do in fact have consequences and that the American people will be rectifying this mistake come November of 2010, and November of 2012.
Sadly, the President cannot hear all of the noise.
It’s the Chicago strong armed thuggery in the White House that we have become so accustomed to seeing. More of it on display at yesterdays health care summit.
President Obama declares that the Democrat caucus will be moving forward on a socialist takeover of the United States healthcare system, with or without the GOP support. Apparently that also means with or without the support of the American people, who have been stating their case overwhelmingly against this bill.
That’s what we have elections for he says…well Mr. President, thats also what we have revolutions for. Roll the tape.
Obama knows full well that if this ever gets passed, it will be next to impossible to undo it, hence the high intensity energetic push to get it done in a “few weeks”. Dont worry about getting it right, just get it done. Mr. President, scoring a political victory by passing a disasterous bill will not work out well for you. The American people have spoken, and should you continue to not listen…well, who knows what happens next.
Ronald Reagan once said “the closest thing to eternal life on this earth is a government program”. Obama knows this.
This one phrase and snitty remark thrown out by the President really summed up the entire sham of a summit yesterday. Ironically, the President throughout the day kept accusing Republicans of grandstanding and playing politics, when in fact the entire excercise at Blair House was nothing more than a political grandstand for the President, throwing out some faux bipartisanship in order to slap down all GOP ideas and move forward anyways.
Roll the tape, and see if you can’t put your finger on the irritation and argumentative spirit that Obama came to the table with.
I love John McCains response “I am reminded of that every day Mr. President”
I wonder if it is the shocking deficits that act as a reminder for him??
Some of you may have heard, there was a football game last night. If you hadn’t yet heard, you need to come out from underneath your rock.
Since America cannot seem to get away from our narcissist-in-chief, I suppose it was to be expected that he would definetely have to be interviewed for his take on the Super Bowl. Katie Couric got the “honor”.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Sunday that the Indianapolis Colts “have to be favored” in the Super Bowl, even though he has a “soft spot” for the New Orleans Saints.
Obama’s Super Bowl prediction was based on his opinion that the Colts have “perhaps the best quarterback in history.”
“Peyton Manning is unbelievable,” the president told CBS’ Katie Couric during a live pregame interview.
Still, Obama said he has a soft spot for New Orleans, “mainly because of what the city has gone through over these last several years” since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
Obama said he might be biased against the Colts since they beat his hometown Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.
There has been no confirmation thus far of any statements coming out of the White House blaming Bush for the inaccurate pick by the President, but we will stay vigilant. It shouldn’t take long.
At what point does MSNBC (shameless as they are) get embarrassed by continuing to trot out Chris “Tingles up my leg” Matthews to offer up political analysis…and believe me, I use the term analysis very loosely in this sense. What makes it worse, is they continue to trot him out live…and in front of a camera. The only thing MSNBC has working in their favor is the fact that nobody really watches their channel, because well…they are all nuts. But I digress.
In the aftermath of the State of the Union address, Matthews apparently “forgot he was black” speaking of President Obama, and continued on with that theme for entirely too long. Apparently the rest of the country has become color blind, except for the leftists that can’t seem to stop bringing it up. Just watch the video…it actually will do the soul some good to see Tingles Matthews embarrass himself…AGAIN.
Politico’s Micheal Calderone put together a list of some of the reactions that came flying out of the blogosphere and internet. Quite comical really.
Still, that single line quickly bounced around Twitter and the blogosphere, along with widespread criticism of Matthews on the left, on the right and in between.
The Matthews comment was met immediately on Twitter with both confusion and contempt, and later “Chris Matthews” became a top trending topic.
The New Republic’s Michael Crowley wrote: “Huh?” with The Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins asking, “W to the F?”
Meanwhile, The American Prospect’s Adam Serwer offered a terse response to the Matthews line: “F— You.” The Washington Independent’s Spencer Ackerman wrote that the MSNBC host should “get off the air.” And from the The Joshua Blog: “He needs to be gone from @MSNBC for good. Enough already
I guess the left isn’t quite as color blind as they purport themselves to be. Tingles was only able to forget he was black for an hour. Must not have been using that negro dialect right Harry Reid?
Michelle Malkin gives us a great line.
Who says such a thing? And they call Tea Party folks RAAAAAACISTS? Is there a more race-obsessed motor-mouth on TV than Chris Matthews?
Nope.
What does America’s Most Trusted Newsman have to say about all of this?? Jon Stewart, go ahead and weigh in sir!
Ahhh, the State of the Union address. The time in the political calendar in which we witness politicians falling in love with themselves all over again, year after year. There is so much to take away from last nights speech, but lets start with what has been sticking in my craw, and actually pulled me up out of my chair when it happened.
It was amazingly childish. It was awash in the hyper-partisan aura that dominated the entire evening. Frankly, it discarded the decorum of the evening, and was an act beneath the dignity of the United States President addressing the state of our union. In my time following politics, I have not yet seen something as brazen, but then again for a man who cannot seem to recognize the gravity and the duty and dignity of the office he holds, it came as no real surprise.
It was the blatant calling out of the Supreme Court in the middle of the speech, launching a political bomb at the Court as they sat stony faced in the front row. Politicization of the Court is beneath a President who has been lecturing throughout the evening on the need to discard the politicization of issues in Washington, and work on behalf of the American people. The reaction of the Democrat caucus was even more comical disgraceful, as clearly can be seen in the video. Chuck Schumer exhibits a particular lack of decency as he is almost giving an in your face to the Justices sitting nearest to him, clapping like a seal on the rocks.
POLITICO’s Kasie Hunt, who’s in the House chamber, reports that Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the words “not true” when President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision.
“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said. “Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”
The shot of the black-robed Supreme Court justices, stone-faced, was priceless.
Oh but wait. We have come to this address to the nation’s version of the Joe Wilson “YOU LIE” moment. Justice Alito, who clearly was not particularly impressed with the Presidents hutzpah, gave a reaction that has set the political world on fire today. Check out the video here.
Again, we see the President lying to the American people, using scare tactics to bully his point across, blatantly telling falsehoods to the elation of his parties caucus. As a constitutional attorney, it is almost comical that he did not seem to research out the decision as it was given, neither reading the majority opinion or the dissenting opinion. It was obvious. Even the most novice of us who follow the Washington game can recognize his failure to educate himself on an issue explicitly put in his speech to attempt to discredit the Court and score cheap political points. For a more detailed analysis, Bradley Smith, who is a distinguished professor of law at the Capital University Law School weighed in on the subject in the Corner, the blog for the National Review. Emphasis mine.
Tonight the president engaged in demogoguery of the worst kind, when he claimed that last week’s Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, “open[ed] the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.”
The president’s statement is false.
The Court held that 2 U.S.C. Section 441a, which prohibits all corporate political spending, is unconstitutional. Foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibiting from making “a contribution or donation of money or ather thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election” under 2 U.S.C. Section 441e, which was not at issue in the case. Foreign corporations are also prohibited, under 2 U.S.C. 441e, from making any contribution or donation to any committee of any political party, and they prohibited from making any “expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication.”
This is either blithering ignorance of the law or demagoguery of the worst kind
Of course, the Democrat caucus loved it. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) commented afterward to Politico.
“He [Alito] deserved to be criticized, if he didn’t like it he can mouth whatever they want,” Weiner said. “These Supreme Court justices sometimes forget that we live in the real world. They got a real world reminder tonight, if you make a boneheaded decision, someone’s going to call you out on it.”
This actually goes to show the irony of the last name of the honorable representative from New York. The President never mentioned Alito, who in fact did not even write the majority opinion in the case. However, it is good to see that the Democrats have decided to wage war on the Supreme Court. Justice Alito would eat the lunch of any and all on the issue at hand, as he heard the case, researched the case, and adjudicated on the matter. This is not a debate that the Dem’s should try to engage in, it is one they cannot win and one that would make them look silly. But, Weiner apparently wants to make a showcase of the Alito reaction. It won’t play well Congressman.
Randy Barnett from the Georgetown University School of law weighs in.
In the history of the State of the Union has any President ever called out the Supreme Court by name, and egged on the Congress to jeer a Supreme Court decision, while the Justices were seated politely before him surrounded by hundreds Congressmen? To call upon the Congress to countermand (somehow) by statute a constitutional decision, indeed a decision applying the First Amendment? What can this possibly accomplish besides alienating Justice Kennedy who wrote the opinion being attacked. Contrary to what we heard during the last administration, the Court may certainly be the object of presidential criticism without posing any threat to its independence. But this was a truly shocking lack of decorum and disrespect towards the Supreme Court for which an apology is in order. A new tone indeed.
I haven’t been able to find much in favor of Obama’s decision to throw a political grenade at the court. Even the hyper liberal WH mouthpiece NY Times offered up analysis in its blog condemning the decision and the statement, deriding the Presidents clear lack of knowledge on the subject that he wanted to make a point on.
I will have more on the State of the Union address throughout the day, but I felt like I needed to get this one off my chest first. For a general roundup, go here.
Sarah Palin is at it again. This evening she posted yet another of her now infamous facebook notes for the world to see (she has more fans on her page than the President I might add). She informs the President that it’s time for him to listen to the American people, instead of forcing the American people to constantly listen to him. The former governor is once again right on the money, even though the leftist who are suffering from Palin Derangement Syndrome will of course not see it that way and will surely attack her from all sides. She actually understands what the American people at large are all about (campaigning for John McCain aside….we will leave that one for another day!)
So, without further delay….the infamous Palin Facebook note!
We’ve now seen three landslide Republican victories in three states that President Obama carried in 2008. From the tea parties to the town halls to the Massachusetts Miracle, Americans have tried to make their opposition to Washington’s big government agenda loud and clear. But the President has decided that this current discontent isn’t his fault, it’s ours. He seems to think we just don’t understand what’s going on because he hasn’t had the chance – in his 411 speeches and 158 interviews last year – to adequately explain his policies to us.
Instead of sensibly telling the American people, “I’m listening,” the president is saying, “Listen up, people!” This approach is precisely the reason people are upset with Washington. Americans understand the president’s policies. We just don’t agree with them. But the president has refused to shift focus and come around to the center from the far left. Instead he and his old campaign advisers are regrouping to put a new spin on the same old agenda for 2010.
Americans aren’t looking for more political strategists. We’re looking for real leadership that listens and delivers results. The president’s former campaign adviser is now calling on supporters to “get on the same page,” but what’s on that page? He claims that the president is “resolved” to “keep fighting for” his agenda, but we’ve already seen what that government-growth agenda involves, and frankly the hype doesn’t give us much hope. Real health care reform requires a free market approach; real job creation involves incentivizing, not punishing, the job-creators; reining in the “big banks” means ending bailouts; and stopping “the undue influence of lobbyists” means not cutting deals with them behind closed doors.
Instead of real leadership, though, we’ve had broken promises and backroom deals. One of the worst: candidate Obama promised to go through the federal budget “with a scalpel,” but President Obama spent four times more than his predecessor. Want more? Candidate Obama promised that lobbyists “won’t find a job in my White House,” but President Obama gave at least a dozen former lobbyists top administration jobs. Candidate Obama promised us that we could view his health care deliberations openly and honestly on C-SPAN, but President Obama cut deals behind closed doors with industry lobbyists. Candidate Obama promised us that we would have at least five days to read all major legislation, but President Obama rushed through bills before members of Congress could even read them.
Candidate Obama promised us that his economic stimulus package would be targeted and pork-free, but President Obama signed a stimulus bill loaded with pork and goodies for corporate cronies. Candidate Obama railed against Wall Street greed, but President Obama cozied up to bankers as he extended and expanded their bailouts. Candidate Obama promised us that for “Every dollar that I’ve proposed [in spending], I’ve proposed an additional cut so that it matches.” We’re still waiting to see how President Obama will cut spending to match the trillion he’s spent.
More than anything, Americans were promised jobs, but the president’s stimulus package has failed to stem our rising unemployment rate. Maybe it was unfair to expect that an administration with so little private sector experience would understand something about job creation. How many Obama Administration officials have ever had to make a payroll or craft a business plan in the private sector? How many have had to worry about not having the resources to invest and expand? The president’s big government policies have made hiring a new employee a difficult commitment for employers to make. Ask yourself if the Obama Administration has done anything to make it easier for employers to hire. Have they given us any reassurance that the president will keep taxes low and not impose expensive new regulations?
Candidate Obama over-promised; President Obama has under-delivered. We understand you, Mr. President. We’ve listened to you again and again. We ask that you now listen to the American people.
Apparently the teleprompters were used for the media and not for the kids, according to the Weekly Standard.
And the beginning of the video posted on the White House website shows that there are no kids between Obama and the news media during the remarks he makes using the teleprompters.The White House confirmed to TWS that the teleprompters were used for his remarks to the press, not with students.
Public Policy Polling recently released this poll in the aftermath of the Brown upset in Massachusetts and the results are stunning. I don’t remember any poll showing Obama losing to a GOP challenger up to this point so this is a noteworthy poll.
Mike Huckabee has a 45-44 advantage over Obama, aided largely by a 44-38 lead with independents. There continues to be no evidence of any negative fallout for Huckabee after murders of police officers committed by an ex-Arkansas inmate whose sentence he had commuted. His 35/29 favorability breakdown is actually slightly better than it was in November before that incident.
Mitt Romney does the next best, trailing Obama 44-42. His favorability is 36/32, and he’s the most popular Republican among independents (41/32). Romney actually matches Huckabee with GOP voters this month and gets over 50%, ending a trend in his numbers that had seemed to spell difficulty for snagging a Republican nomination.
Sarah Palin trails Obama 49-41 largely because she loses 14% of the Republican vote to him, making her the only one of the GOP candidates we tested who Obama could get double digit crossover support against. At the same time Palin continues to be the most well liked potential GOP candidate within her party- at 71% favorability. Her problem appears to be that the Republicans who don’t care for her will go so far as to vote for Obama instead of her.
Before all the rabid Palinites declare this poll to be completely irrelevant, there are other polls that there that would corroborate the PPP assessment that Palin loses to Obama due to the Republican cross-over voting in favor of Obama. According to a recent Fox News poll, it shows Sarah Palin losing 17% of the GOP vote to Barack Obama, giving him a solid lead against the former Alaskan governor.
16. What about if the candidates were: (ROTATE NAMES)
Democrat Republican (Don’t
Barack Obama Sarah Palin (Other) (Wouldn’t vote) know)
12-13 Jan 10 55% 31 4 4 5
Democrats 89% 5 1 1 3
Republicans 17% 68 6 6 4
Independents 56% 24 7 4 8
Time to take a second look at Mike Huckabee??
And do these numbers indicate why Mrs Palin is out campaigning for John McCain? Is it a play to get back that surprisingly large percentage of GOP voters that would defect?
These guys don’t seem to get it. This is some of the better spin I have heard recently as a reaction to the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts. Believe it or not, Howard Dean is suggesting that had Obama been more of a leftist than he already is, he would have won…not the Republican centrist brown. It’s a laughable argument at best, but Dean was able to sit there with a straight face and peddle this garbage.
I suppose the Democrat Party needs to try and spin this any way they can so it does not turn into a full-blown party implosion but this…this is some priceless stuff.
In the Presidents weekly Internet address, Barack Obama took the opportunity to launch an attack at the recent Supreme Court decision that effectively abolished decades old restrictions on corporate spending for political activites.
“This week, the United States Supreme Court handed a huge victory to the special interests and their lobbyists – and a powerful blow to our efforts to rein in corporate influence,” he said of the Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. “This ruling strikes at our democracy itself.”
Obama in his address backed the efforts of Democrats in Congress as he did earlier several days ago and called for Republicans to join Democrats in supporting the measures.
“When this ruling came down, I instructed my administration to get to work immediately with members of Congress willing to fight for the American people to develop a forceful, bipartisan response to this decision,” he said. “We have begun that work, and it will be a priority for us until we repair the damage that has been done.”
Unsurprisingly, the American people disagree. Gallup released a poll today showing that a majority of Americans believe that corporate spending in elections and for political purposes is in fact free speech, which of course Mr. Obama does not agree with.
Americans’ broad views about corporate spending in elections generally accord with the Supreme Court’s decision Thursday that abolished some decades-old restrictions on corporate political activity. Fifty-seven percent of Americans consider campaign donations to be a protected form of free speech, and 55% say corporate and union donations should be treated the same way under the law as donations from individuals are. At the same time, the majority think it is more important to limit campaign donations than to protect this free-speech right.
It is ironic actually that Obama is slamming on this decision so hard. You will remember during the 2008 election that candidate Obama decided to forego the federal election funding, opting to go private instead. This of course opened the doors to all sorts of donors, large and small to donate unchecked to his campaign. It also left candidate John McCain holding the bag on his own legislation, handcuffed by his own doing on how much money he could spend on the campaign. Yet, after Obama circumvented the law, he now lashes out at the Supreme Court for their decision against McCain/Feingold. It’s hypocrisy in its purest form. Speaking of hypocrisy…aren’t the Democrats always the beneficiary of labor union largesse on an almost daily basis? The answer is yes.
McCain/Feingold was unconstitutional on its face. Shame on President Bush for ever signing the measure into law. The libertarian CATO Institute produced a video this week explaining in much greater detail the dangers of the campaign finance bill. You can’t call it censorship, thats a dirty word…but you can call it campaign finance reform. Wrapped in a pretty package, it still limits speech.
One fatal flaw in the logic of the McCain/Feingold bill. Aren’t all news outlets owned by large corporations? As stated in the video, without specific exemptions corporate news and press would be given more first ammendment rights than the rest of the country.
Obama once again shows himself to be disgraceful in his lack of respect for the Constitution. The beat goes on.
Socialist Labor union leader Andy Stern, a frequent visitor to the White House, issued a veiled threat to Washington this week. Stern, the head of the SEIU labor union, stated that the unions might “have some difficulty staying focused on national politics” if the Obama administration does not ram through the health care bill as is, including of course the sweetheart deal for the unions and their “Cadillac plans“.
SEIU chief Andy Stern took a hard shot at Dem leaders just now for considering a scaled-down health care bill, strongly hinting that labor might not work as hard for Dem candidates in 2010 if they failed to deliver real and comprehensive reform.
“It’s gonna be incredibly difficult to stay focused on national politics if by the end of 2010 we have minimal health care and minimal changes on what’s important to our members,” he said in an interview, ridiculing the emerging Dem approach as “fear masquerading as a strategy.”
Stern unloaded on Dem leaders in resonse to reports today that they’re mulling either a scaled down bill to win GOPers or a broken up bill passed in pieces. His anger suggests Dems risk paying a big price with labor if they fail to figure out how to pass the Senate bill and fix it later, as labor wants.
Stern hinted that if House and Senate members don’t move forward with the Senate bill and some kind of fix, they could see union members spending more time on races for governor, perhaps at the expense of their reelection campaigns. “If something significant doesn’t happen in Congress, I hope the legislators appreciate that there are 37 governors races important to our members,” Stern said suggestively.
Ahh, the scorned lover. We have long known that Obama and his secretive administration have been in bed with the SEIU and other labor unions, but now the it seems the Unions have found themselves in the position of the jilted lover. They have been let down by the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, and can see the writing on the wall that they will not get their big government socialist bill that they had hoped for all along.
Will Obama continue to cave to the Unions?? We will have to wait and see, but it appears we have gotten a preview yesterday in Ohio.
There are a few classy Democrats left out there. Senator Jim Webb’s office tonight released a statement in the wake of the upset in Boston. From Ben Smith.
In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process. It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.
A wonderful political play by Mr. Webb. I just have to wonder if the majority leader, as well as the President feels the same way. So far no response has been seen on these comments.
It is however the right thing to do. Paul Kirk, who has been occupying the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy since his death, is no longer a player in the debate. He had his moment to cast the 60th vote, and he rubber stamped the Obama agenda as everyone expected. Scott Brown has declared that he will not.
What oh what will you do Majority Leader Reid?
Healthcare reform (the Obama takeover plan that is) is now officially on life-support. Maybe we can have a Senate that will work as one to come up with real reform. It can still be considered the greatest deliberative body in the world. Lately it has become a disgrace.
In the words of Scott Brown tonight, we can do better. Maybe Senator Webb’s statement is a start.
UPDATE:
Barney Frank agrees??? Wow, this one took me back a step. From USA Today.
Democratic leaders now must consider whether to push for final approval of the health care bill. They have been trying to negotiate a compromise bill that would reconcile the differences between bills approved in the House and Senate.
Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, a strong supporter of the health care legislation, said Brown’s victory means Congress will have to “start over on health care.” He said he will vote against any bill rushed to the floor before Brown can be sworn in.
We’ve now seen three landslide Republican victories in three states that President Obama carried in 2008. From the tea parties to the town halls to the Massachusetts Miracle, Americans have tried to make their opposition to Washington’s big government agenda loud and clear. But the President has decided that this current discontent isn’t his fault, it’s ours. He seems to think we just don’t understand what’s going on because he hasn’t had the chance – in his 
