Shovelling the Poop

“A striking example of the prevailing cravenness was Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who has authored end-of-life counseling provisions and told the Washington Post that comparing such counseling to euthanasia was nuts — but then quickly retreated when he realized that he had sided with the reality-based community against his Rush Limbaugh-led party. Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner for President according to most polls, actually created a universal-health-care plan in Massachusetts that looks very much like the proposed Obamacare, but he spends much of his time trying to fudge the similarities and was AWOL on the ‘death panels.’ Why are these men so reluctant to be rational in public?”

“An argument can be made that this is nothing new. Dwight Eisenhower tiptoed around Joe McCarthy. Obama reminded an audience in Colorado that opponents of Social Security in the 1930s ‘said that everybody was going to have to wear dog tags and that this was a plot for the government to keep track of everybody … These struggles have always boiled down to a contest between hope and fear.’ True enough. There was McCarthyism in the 1950s, the John Birch Society in the 1960s. But there was a difference in those times: the crazies were a faction — often a powerful faction — of the Republican Party, but they didn’t run it. The neofascist Father Coughlin had a huge radio audience in the 1930s, but he didn’t have the power to control and silence the elected leaders of the party that Limbaugh — who, if not the party’s leader, is certainly the most powerful Republican extant — does now. Until recently, the Republican Party contained a strong moderate wing. It was a Republican, the lawyer Joseph Welch, who delivered the coup de grâce to Senator McCarthy when he said, ‘Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?’ Where is the Republican who would dare say that to Rush Limbaugh, who has compared the President of the United States to Adolf Hitler?”

Read more: The GOP Has Become a Party of Nihilists

Via: Talking Points Memo.

There’s this McClatchy story detailing organizations funding attacks on healthcare reform:

“FreedomWorks, which has been advocating against the overhaul but has not launched TV ads, is chaired by Dick Armey, the former Republican majority leader of the House of Representatives from Texas.

But also noteworthy are the group’s other backers and board members. They include billionaire flat-tax proponent and former GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes; Richard J. Stephenson, who founded Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which offers alternative as well as standard therapies, sometimes not covered by insurance; and Frank M. Sands, Sr., chief executive officer of an investment management firm whose offerings include a Healthcare Leaders portfolio.

‘They’re on our board because they support lower taxes, less government and more freedom,’ said FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon.”

Who’s behind the attacks on a health care overhaul? | McClatchy

Via: Talking Points Memo.

On this past Monday night, Rachel Maddow outlined brilliantly the same thing:

Which appears to be standard operating procedure for conservatives:

Which brings us back to the TIME.com piece I linked above.

I wouldn’t blame Obama or the Democrats if they decided to fix healthcare without the Republicans. Which looks better in a campaign ad, “We fixed healthcare” or “We opposed healthcare because Obama is evil”?

Conservatives, the clock is ticking and you are looking crazier everyday.