Conservatives

Theyz teh classy.

-Ian

Tru Dat!

A little missed detail of the “Passing HCR through reconciliation” nonsense.

-Ian

Subtle

Arrogant, the new uppity.

“Todd and I both saw that,” said Palin, “and we both said, you know, how arrogant for our president to say that.” She called McCain “an American war hero who has sacrificed so much,” arguing that for him “to be dissed like that on national television did not speak well for our president’s character.”

Of course, it wasn’t arrogant of McCain and the Republicans to lie their fucking asses off about the HCR bill for a year and a half.

-Ian

No Pressure

Get er done.

“This speaker has never brought a piece of legislation to the floor and failed to pass it,” said Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), during a conference call with new media reporters on Friday. “And she is not about to start now.”

-Ian

Poor Man’s

What a clown.

“Hey, remember those talking points that I had written on my hand a couple of weeks ago at the tea party movement because I’d done seven speeches in four days and I’m running up to the podium and — you know, writing on my hand, well, that’s a poor man’s version of a teleprompter [...]

-Ian

Friday’s Random Ten

Is it that time already?

10.  Good Dancers – The Sleepy Jackson

9.  Whispering Pines – The Band

8.  Too Much Brandy – The Streets

7.  Isle of Capris – Frank Sinatra

6.  Panther Dash – The Go! Team

5.  Charlotte the Harlot – Iron Maiden

4.  The Kicker – Horace Sil

3.  Just One of Those Things – Anita O’Day

2.  Murder Me, Rachael – The National

1.  This House Is a Circus – Arctic Monkeys

Bonus:

—Jason

Wanker of the Day

Jim Bunning.

—Jason

Thought Experiment

Ok, try and imagine George Bush running a policy based summit like this for 6 hours…

Now, try and stop laughing.

Teleprompter indeed.

-Ian

QOTD

Ouch!

“Let me just make this point, John, because we’re not campaigning anymore. The election’s over.”

President Obama, sparring with Sen. John McCain at today’s White House health care summit.

-Ian

Flip Flop

The very moderate, sensible Senator Chuck Grassley…

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — the Republicans point man on health care reform in the Senate — has flirted with the idea that requiring people to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional. But fully joined the “Tenther” fringe at today’s health care summit.

“The high cost of this bill comes from a non-constitutional mandate,” Grassley said in an exchange with President Obama. [...]

This is the same Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) who told Fox News last summer, “I believe that there is a bipartisan consensus to have individual mandates…. There isn’t anything wrong with it.”

-Ian

On A Roll

Dick Durbin is putting in work today.

“You think it’s a socialist plot and it’s wrong? For goodness sakes, drop out of the federal employees health benefit program.”

Perfect.

-Ian

Moving Forward

It’s been obvious for quite a while what the only play was.

“If nothing comes of this we’re going to press forward,” Durbin said, per the pool report. Asked by a reporter whether reconciliation will start tomorrow, Durbin said: “I wouldn’t go that far. We will sit down in leadership and if we have some helpful Republicans, this could be an easy assignment. But if not, it could be a little harder.”

-Ian

Boiled Down

Shorter GOP: Healthcare reform is impossible, also unfair, also unconstitutional.  But, you know, let’s start over!

—Jason

Wanker of the Day

Carrie Brown.

Obviously, as Yglesias points out, the idea that an acceptable Republican “concession” could take the form of “lying less about Democratic proposals” is cringingly absurd, but take a look at what’s going on right now with the HCR summit.  Everything that comes out of the Republicans’ mouth screams “we just want to kill the bill,” and yet everyone has to run around pretending that this is an honest attempt to fashion bipartisan legislation.

—Jason

Logo-gate

These people are insane.

It all reminds me a bit of this.

—Jason

HCR Summit

Is underway and, oh, so painful to watch.

The Republicans are liars; the Democrats are terrible on the politics.

Update: Shorter John Kyle: Tax tax taxes taxey taxtaxtax…

Update 2: It’s much better when Obama is speaking, but so far the dynamic here is about what you’d expect: The Republicans spread as much shit as possible and the entire summit turns into an exercise in clearing up obvious falsehoods.

—Jason

Maybe It’s A Case Of The Alzheimer’s

Because none of us could possibly remember what really happened during that campaign oh-so-long ago. Obviously (like this needs to be said) there will be no punishment for the blatant lies of this political hack.

“[Bush] didn’t ask me to suspend my campaign,” said McCain. “I suspended my campaign—as did Senator Obama—to come back to Washington because the President had told me that we were in a world financial collapse. That’s why I did what I did. I always said that consistently.”

-Ian

Tru Dat

Serwer on Blackwater.

The Senate is holding a hearing today where several current and former Blackwater employees will be testifying, but honestly the only way Congress would stop giving Blackwater money is if it started registering black people to vote.

-Ian

Antitrust

Of course, it will take 7 years for debate in the Senate to happen and then Lieberman or one of the other shameless dick weasels will kill it.

The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to repeal the antitrust exemption currently granted to health insurance companies.

The vote was 406-19 to repeal the exemption, which has been in place since the end of World War II. The 19 who voted against the repeal are all Republicans.

-Ian

Truth Hurts

Hillarious.

Via TPM:

A fun moment on the House floor today as Republicans got their knickers in a bunch over Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) declaration during a health reform debate that “the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance companies.” Watch.

-Ian

The Future of American Politics Watch

—Jason

Super-Secret Shocker

Seriously, what the hell is the matter with these people?

Also: “Plots”?

—Jason

Ask Murderer*

I’m not certain why we have to spend so much time discussing the in’s and out’s and whether’s or not’s of Rush Limbaugh’s obvious, facially apparent, and unavoidable racism.

Rush is a racist.  He’s not “an entertainer” or a “clever demagogue.”  He’s a partisan media operator who routinely deploys explicitly racist tropes against his political opponents.  Whether or not he personally believes the shit is irrelevant, if I may get all actions-are-what-matters for a moment.

—Jason

*cf

Here We Come Running Again

—Jason

Party of Rove Watch

This really is amazingly sleazy and dishonest.  In other words, par for the course.

—Jason