* Republican hypocrisy about the deficit and healthcare reform

Bruce Bartlett wrote in Forbes (11-20-09) …

• The human capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me, so it shouldn’t surprise me that so many Republicans seem to genuinely believe that they are the party of fiscal responsibility.
• six years ago this month a Republican president and a Republican Congress enacted the Medicare drug benefit, … ”the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s.”
• the Medicare drug benefit was a pure giveaway with a gross cost greater than either the House or Senate health reform bills how being considered.
• Moreover, there is a critical distinction–
  • the drug benefit had no dedicated financing, no offsets and no revenue-raisers;
  • 100% of the cost simply added to the federal budget deficit,
  • whereas the health reform measures now being debated will be paid for with a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, adding nothing to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office
• As far as I am concerned, any Republican who voted for the (2003) Medicare drug benefit has no right to criticize anything the Democrats have done in terms of adding to the national debt (in 2009).

Read the entire article at … http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/19/republican-budget-hypocrisy-health-care-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett.html

LMW COMMENT …

It should be clear to any thinking American of either party that the Republicans of 2009 have no other objective than to oppose as viciously as possible any measure supported by President Obama. In this, they are the worst imaginable example of sore losers. They are also totally indifferent to the needs of the American people, and they have zero conscience when it comes to spewing their lies on Fox News.

How do we counter this? We continue to support our fine President. We defeat the Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections and again in 2012. And we don’t watch Fox News.

* Obama’s poll numbers rise

Beth Fouhy writes for AP (10-7-09) …

• President Barack Obama’s approval ratings are starting to rise after declining ever since his inauguration, new poll figures show as the country’s mood begins to brighten.
• But concerns about the economy, health care and war persist, and support for the war in Afghanistan is falling.
• Overall, 39 percent said they disapproved of Obama’s performance in office, down from 49 percent last month.
• To be sure, the poll found persistent and deep partisan divisions over Obama.
• While 88 percent of Democrats said they approved of his performance in office, just 18 percent of Republicans approved. But that GOP figure was up six points since September, when only 12 percent of Republicans said they approved.
• Obama’s job approval has also gone up among independents. Fifty-three percent said they approved of the president’s job performance, a nine point increase since September.
• Even more strikingly, the percentage of independents who said they disapproved plunged 16 points, from 53 percent last month to 37 percent now.

read the entire article at … http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091007/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_ap_poll

LMW COMMENT …

These poll ratings reflect what I believe has been an outstanding performance by President Obama and his administration in dealing with a horrendous set of problems handed to them by the incompetent Bush/Cheney group.

And the Republican attitude that everything about Obama is to be opposed, regardless of what’s good for the country, is a disgrace. The Republican glee that America did not get the 2016 Olympics was disgusting. And, I believe, self-defeating for a Republican party that will not succeed by opposing everything with no plans of their own and no concern for the needs of the American people.

I think most Americans known Obama is doing a good jib and that the Republican attitude is a disgrace; hence the poll numbers cited above.

I think also that many Americans see in the Republican opposition to Obama more than a touch of racism, and they find it disgusting.

* it’s time for Obama to act like a winner; he should forget about Republicans who will never be bi-partisan and get on with the agenda that elected him

* buy CASE CLOSED at amazon *

Paul Krugman writes in the NYT (8/21/09) …

• A backlash in the progressive base — which pushed President Obama over the top in the Democratic primary and played a major role in his general election victory — has been building for months.
• The fight over the public option involves real policy substance, but it’s also a proxy for broader questions about the president’s priorities and overall approach.
• on such fraught questions as torture and indefinite detention, the president has dismayed progressives with his reluctance to challenge or change Bush administration policy.
• I’ve had many conversations with people who voted for Mr. Obama, yet dismiss the stimulus as a total waste of money. When I press them, it turns out that they’re really angry about the bailouts rather than the stimulus — but that’s a distinction lost on most voters.
• Now, politics is the art of the possible. Mr. Obama was never going to get everything his supporters wanted.
• But there’s a point at which realism shades over into weakness, and progressives increasingly feel that the administration is on the wrong side of that line.
• It seems as if there is nothing Republicans can do that will draw an administration rebuke

Read the entire article at … http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/opinion/21krugman.html?ref=opinion

LMW COMMENT …

I very much want Barack Obama to succeed. Our country needs him to succeed. But I am increasingly concerned that he seems unable or unwilling to fight for what he says he wants. Obama’s principles are sound, but will he fight for them? A good place to start would be with the Republicans, by forgetting about them, on healthcare and other issues. They are not going to help. Continued bi-partisan efforts are simply naïve. It’s time to label Senator Grassley and others as the hypocrites they are. They lost. Obama won. Act like a winner.

* intelligent healthcare debate is threatened by Republican encouraged stupidity: “keep your government hands off my Medicare!”

* buy CASE CLOSED at amazon *

Bill Maher writes on Huffington Post (8/7/09) …

• New Rule: Just because a country elects a smart president doesn’t make it a smart country.
• A few weeks ago I was asked by Wolf Blitzer if I thought Sarah Palin could get elected president, and I said I hope not, but I wouldn’t put anything past this stupid country.
• ignorance has life and death consequences: On the eve of the Iraq War, 69% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Four years later, 34% still did.
• At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.”
  • a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is.
  • Nearly half of Americans don’t know that states have two senators and more than half can’t name their congressman.
  • 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth.
  • A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen
  • did you know only about half of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? That’s right, half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New Testament and cannot figure out which one came first.
• And these are the idiots we want to weigh in on the minutia of health care policy?

read the entire article at … http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-smart-president_b_253996.html

LMW COMMENT …

Ignorant citizens, stoked up and enraged by endlessly repeated Republican lies, claim they are being good Americans by refusing other Americans the right to civil discourse.

These are people who take Sarah Palin seriously, who believe a politician who makes George Bush look informed could run our country when she couldn’t even run Alaska or her own family.

We have elected a President who is intelligent, thoughtful and courageous, and yet we are embarrassed by people who are apparently too proud of their stupidity to bother to learn the facts before they begin to rant. It’s their right, of course, and questions should be raised about this complex legislation, but it is terrifying to watch the democratic process descend to mob rule, especially when one of our major political parties seems to be the cause.

Republicans elected Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush by convincing enough frustrated Americans to vote against their own interests. As long as the people are that stupid, Republicans will continue the same strategy, even as the more intelligent among them are as embarrassed as the rest of us.

The majority of Americans are smarter than that; we elected Obama, and we know that America is the only advanced country in the world that allows a substantial portion of its citizens to live uninsured and constantly on the edge of financial disaaster. Republicans have no compassion for those who are less well off.

This debate Obama will continue to win, so long as Democrats in Congress are not frightened by the Republican mobs.

* Sarah Palin: nothing then, nothing now

Gail Collins writes in the NYT (7-4-09)

LMW: if you don’t read Gail Collins … you should

• Truly, Sarah Palin has come a long way. When she ran for vice president, she frequently became disjointed and garbled when she departed from her prepared remarks. Now the prepared remarks are incoherent, too.
• “It would be apathetic to just hunker down and ‘go with the flow.’ Nah, only dead fish ‘go with the flow.”
• Basically, the point was that Palin is quitting as governor because she’s not a quitter. Or a deceased salmon.
• People, what is going on with governors in this country? Are we doomed to see them go bonkers one by one, state by state?
• Palin was the subject of a devastating article in this month’s Vanity Fair by Todd Purdum, who wrote that McCain campaign aides found it almost impossible to get Palin to prepare for her disastrous interview with Katie Couric.
• And there is no sign, Purdum reported, that Palin has made any attempt to bone up on the issues so that next time around, she could run as a candidate who actually had some grasp of the intricacies of foreign and domestic policy.

read the entire article on … http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/opinion/04collins.html

LMW COMMENT … How can any Republican, or any American, can take this ignornat and lying woman seriously. Yet some do. That is the truly frightening truth about Sara Palin.

* Sanford’s follies may have a silver lining … perhaps even Republican conservatives will begin to see that issues like these are personal matters, not the business of American government; except for dereliction of duty, which is very much the business of the citizens of South Carolina

Jim Davenport writes for AP (6-25-09) …

• After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he had secretly flown to
  

  Governor Sanford - SC

  Argentina to visit a woman with whom he was having an affair.

• Sanford, who in recent months had been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012, said he would resign as head of the Republican Governors Association.
• By leaving the country without formally transferring power, critics said he neglected his gubernatorial authority and put the state at risk. It wasn’t clear how his staff could reach him in an emergency.
• State Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, called for Sanford’s resignation. “There is no reason for him to remain as governor.”

read the entire article at … http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090625/ap_on_re_us/us_sc_governor_where_69

LMW COMMENT …

There seem to be no depths to which Republican leaders will not sink in their apparent efforts to sink their party into oblivion. I believe in the two party system, and I am distressed with the Republican failure to make any real efforts to build one.

There is also no end to the hypocrisy of the Republican party building its electoral success on specious “family values” issues which have little to do with the true purpose of government in America’s democratic system.

Although perhaps here lies the silver lining.

All humans have their frailties, Governor Sanford certainly not accepted. The lesson here is not to dwell on the governor’s personal tragedies, but to recognize that these issues are personal, to be dealt with between the parties involved in whatever way they find comfort.

The main issue I have with the governor is that he was atrociously derelict in the performance of his duties for the people of South Carolina. I think he should resign immediately.

It is not the business of government to impose moral views on its citizens. This applies to America as well as to Iran and all other countries of the world. Religion has its place, but that place is distinct from government. When we forget or blur those differences, we all suffer.

* since when are politicians entitled to court protection from political ridicule?

Lew’s new novel CASE CLOSED

explores the FBI’s failed investigation of the 2001 anthrax case …

* see CASE CLOSED VIDEO on YouTube

* purchase CASE CLOSED (paperback)

read about CASE CLOSED at http://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/

* since when are politicians entitled to

court protection from political ridicule?

Nedra Pickler writes for AP (6-18-09)

• A federal judge said Thursday that he wants to look at notes from the FBI’s interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative.
• U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s decision to review the documents followed arguments by Obama administration lawyers that sounded much like the reasons the Bush administration provided for keeping Cheney’s interview from the public.
• Justice Department lawyers told the judge that future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents and late-night comics who would ridicule them.
• “If we become a fact-finder for political enemies, they aren’t going to cooperate,” Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith said during a 90-minute hearing. “I don’t want a future vice president to say, `I’m not going to cooperate with you because I don’t want to be fodder for ‘The Daily Show.’”

read the entire article at … http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090619/ap_on_go_ot/us_cheney_cia_leak_8

LMW COMMENT … Since when do politicians need court protection to save them from political ridicule? That is indeed a ridiculous argument, whether offered by the Bush or Obama administration.

* Republicans have no ideas and no plans; instead of providing the responsible opposition our country needs, all they can do is call Obama names while seeking to raise unsupported fears; it’s pathetic.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Laurie Kellman writes for AP (6-12-09) …

• The No. 2 Republican in the House on Thursday compared President Barack Obama’s plans for the auto industry to the policies of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, saying the White Househas stripped credit holders of rights and given them to Democratic allies.
• “They said, ‘Set aside the rule of law, let’s strip secured creditors, bondholders, of their rights. Take them away outside of the bankruptcy process and give them to the political cronies and the auto workers’ unions,” Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in an interview with The Associated Press.
• “It’s almost like looking at Putin’s Russia,” added Cantor, the GOP’s House whip. “You want to reward your political friends at the expense of the certainty of law?”
• “The Democratic agenda is unraveling,” he said, elucidating what’s become the Republicans’ main talking point in recent weeks. “My sense is by November of 2010, (there will be) an electorate that really wants to see a check and a balance on unfettered power.”

read the entire article at … http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090612/ap_on_go_co/us_cantor_obama_10

LMW COMMENT …

After the Bush/Cheney/Republican policies set this country into a disastrous war of choice, and under-regulated Wall Street and the economy to the point of collapse, and caused the country to reject them in the 2008 elections, they still have nothing constructive to say about what to do next. No ideas. No plans. Nothing to do but call the most dynamic president of our age names.

The auto companies drove themselves into bankruptcy by their own incompetence. The solutions posed by the Obama administration as the price for taxpayer support to keep GM and Chrysler alive have imposed sacrifice on the companies, their shareholders and bondholders, and the labor unions whose extravagance has been part of the problem. This is as it should be.

If it wasn’t so serious, we should all just laugh at the Republicans. But the thruth is we need a viable two party system in America. We need a strong opposition party to keep Democrats in check, just as Democrats should have kept Republicans in check during the Bush/Cheney years. Democrats failed then, Republicans are failing now.

* too late Newt; we know you meant it

Julie Hirshfeld Davis of AP reports (6-3-09) …                                                             

•  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday he shouldn’t have called Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist, but said he was still concerned that she would bring bias to her decisions.
• In a letter to supporters, the Georgia Republican said that his words had been “perhaps too strong and direct” last week when he called Sotomayor a reverse “racist,” based on a 2001 speech in which she said she hoped the rulings of a “wise Latina” would be better than those of a white male without similar experiences.
• Gingrich’s remarks created a furor among Sotomayor’s backers and caused problems for GOP figures who have been pushing to bring more diversity to the party.

read the entire article at … http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090603/ap_on_go_su_co/us_sotomayor_supreme_court_38

 LMW COMMENT … Too late, Newt. You made your feelings clear, and are only recanting because you see how intemperate and impolitic it was to say what you did. By the way, did you apologize to Judge Sotomayor?

* Bob Herbert: Republican’s hypocritical racist demagoguery turns the stomach

Bob Herbert writes in today’s NYT (6-2-09) …  

• It’s hard to fathom the heights of hypocrisy currently being scaled by the foaming-in-the-mouth crazies who are leading the charge against the nomination. 
• Newt Gingrich, who never needed a factual basis for his ravings, rants on Twitter that Judge Sotomayor is a “Latina woman racist.”
• Karl Rove sneered that Ms. Sotomayor was “not necessarily” smart, thus managing to get the toxic issue of intelligence into play in the case of a woman who graduated summa cum laude from Princeton, went on to get a law degree from Yale and has more experience as a judge than any of the current justices had at the time of their nominations to the court.
• It turns the stomach.
• Rush Limbaugh — now there’s a genius! — has compared her nomination to a hypothetical nomination of David Duke, a former head of the Ku Klux Klan.
• Are we supposed to not notice that these are the tribunes of a party that rose to power on the filthy waves of racial demagoguery.
• I don’t remember hearing their voices or the voices of their intellectual heroes when the Republican Party, as part of its Southern strategy, aggressively courted the bigots who fled the Democratic Party because the Democrats had become insufficiently hostile to blacks.

read the entire column at … http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/opinion/02herbert.html?ref=opinion

LMW COMMENT … As always, Bob Herbert says it best.