Democrats Eating Their Own Over Health Care

Howard Dean’s uber lefty group, Democracy for America, has launched an attack ad against fellow Democrat  Ben Nelson.

Ben Nelson responded with a blistering letter:

“Recently, similar ads have run in Nebraska. Those ads by other special interests prompted hundreds of Nebraskans to call our offices, with 9 to 1 urging Senator Nelson to do exactly the opposite of what the special interest group wanted. In short, the ads backfired.

“If the impact is the same this time, Howard Dean’s Democracy for America will be sorely disappointed. Further, these scare tactics are certain to further divide the public on health care reform, make it less likely Congress will pass real reform and call into question the motives of those who say they want reform, but use the issue to raise money to try to buy influence inside the Beltway.

As someone once said in one of my favorite movies of all time “Oh boy, this is great!”

Cash For Clunkers Program Being Halted, Almost Out Of Money

If any of you were planning to take advantage of the Cash For Clunkers program this weekend, you are out of luck.

The Obama administration is telling lawmakers that its much-touted “cash-for-clunkers” program is already running out of money and will be suspended  Thursday night, according to three Senate aides familiar with the discussions.

The program — aimed at giving at boost to the U.S. auto industry — was supposed to expire at the end of October. But in the one week since it took effect, it appears to have run dry of the $1 billion allocated to it, aides said Thursday.

The White House will need to decide whether to push for more money at a time when it’s also pushing an ambitious and expensive domestic agenda — or let the program fade after it was touted as a way to help Detroit while improving the environment.

One Michigan Republican, Congresswoman Candice Miller, has alreayd come out in favor of extending the program, saying in a statement that “There can be no doubt that the Cash for Clunkers program is a complete success given the fact that the entire $1 billion allocated to the program was expended in less than a week.”

How about they take the $16.1 million allocated for Queen Nancy’s salt marsh harvest mice to help keep the program running?

A Tale of Two Pitches

And now lets have some fun.

A comparison and analysis of W and Barry’s first pitches.

Hat Tip: Endangered in Mass

Obamacare Protest Pictures – Raleigh, NC

Yesterday in Raleigh, NC, President Obama was greeted by hundreds of protesters who lined the sidewalks along his motorcade route to yet another health care town hall meeting.

American Elephant was there.

I spotted some scary Don’t Tread On Me flags, but no Stormfront members or Neo-Nazis lurking behind any trees.

Laura Rosen-Cohen to Jews: Muslims Just Aren’t That Into You

Excellent article in Frontpage by Laura Rosen-Cohen.

“I have the highest respect for the religion of Islam, and recognize the heroic efforts of many religious leaders in contemporary Iran to stand up to the repressions wrought by the ruling system,” says Jewish human rights activist Irwin Cotler.

“I refuse to associate these crimes generically with the mullahs of Iran, and I deplore any attempt to do so,” he continued in his July 24th letter to the editor. And thus began yet another misguided chapter of the never-ending Jewish and liberal quest for the Islamic world to “like us”. Cotler’s bizarre statements have little to do with reality.  Iran is where religious fervour , led by a religious leader-the Ayatollah Khomeni, brought upon the Islamic revolution. It is religious fervour — inspired by a perverse interpretation of Shiia Islam — that motivates Iran’s genocidal leader, with the continued blessings of the religious establishment.

Bombastic Barney to banks: slow down foreclosures or else!

Or else what, you ask?  He will re-introduce legislation to let bankruptcy judges rewrite mortgages.

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WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior House Democrat threatened banks Wednesday that if they don’t volunteer to save more homeowners from foreclosure, Congress will make them.In a sternly worded statement, Rep. Barney Frank said Congress will revive legislation that would let bankruptcy judges write down a person’s monthly mortgage payment if the number of loan modifications remain low. Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, also said his committee won’t consider legislation to help banks lend unless there is a “significant increase” in mortgage modifications.

The last time the Democrat-controlled Senate tried this it failed by 15 votes.

Democrats going down in 2010?

I know it’s early, but this is music to my ears.

Politico has the scoop.

Democrats giddy with possibilities only six months ago now confront a perilous 2010 landscape signaled by troublesome signs of President Barack Obama’s political mortality, the plunging popularity of many governors and rising disquiet among many vulnerable House Democrats.

The issue advantage has shifted as well, with Democrats facing the brunt of criticism about the pace of stimulus package spending, anxiety over rising unemployment rates and widespread uneasiness over the twin pillars of Obama’s legislative agenda: his cap-and-trade approach to climate change and the emerging health care bill.

Bolstered by historical trends that work in the GOP’s favor — midterm elections are typically hostile to the party in power — and the prospect of the first election in a decade without former President George W. Bush either on the ballot or in office, Republicans find themselves on the offensive for the first time since 2004.

Massachusetts governor and good pal of Barry O. is trailing Republican Charlie Baker by six points.  The kicker?  Baker is just making his run official today and is a virtual unknown.  Deval blames his dismal numbers on strong leadership.  Now who does that sound like?

Shocka! Obama Administration is exaggerating alliances on health reform

Barry and Co. should calibrate their words more carefully on this subject while they’re at it.

President Barack Obama and his aides have repeatedly suggested that major health organizations are with them on health care reform, but an analysis of these groups’ positions suggests few are completely on board and several may oppose the president in the end.

Obama and his aides do not explicitly say health providers like hospitals and drugmakers back the president’s proposals. But it would take a careful reading of comments out of the White House to understand this. Obama and his aides frequently associate these groups with their reform effort, creating an unmistakable impression that the health organizations that could sink the health care overhaul will not oppose Obama’s plans.

“There’s always going to be some interest out there that decides, you know what, the status quo is working for me a little bit better,” Obama said during last Wednesday’s East Room news conference. “And the fact that we have made so much progress where we’ve got doctors, nurses, hospitals, even the pharmaceutical industry, AARP, saying that this makes sense to do, I think means that the stars are aligned and we need to take advantage of that.”

At a White House event July 8, Vice President Joseph Biden also suggested an alliance with health providers.

“We have these hospitals working with us, and we have the pharmaceutical industry working with us,” Biden said. “We have doctors and nurses and health care providers with us.”

Obama and Biden were echoing comments that aides have made to lawmakers in selling his health care initiative, according to Congressional sources.

The White House has also carefully staged events with health care providers, reinforcing the impression that everyone is on the same team.

Biden’s comments came during an appearance at the White House with hospital officials at which it was announced that hospitals would agree to “contribute” $155 billion to health reform — as long as increased coverage defrays the costs of all those uninsured people being dumped into hospital emergency rooms whenever they need medical attention.

The Biden event followed a June 22 appearance at the White House with Obama and pharmaceutical industry officials where the president praised their decision to provide $80 billion to help seniors buy drugs and close the Medicare “doughnut hole.”

On May 11, Obama was at the White House with doctors, drugmakers and hospital officials to tout an initiative to keep down costs. Even private health insurers — who now fully oppose Obama’s plans for a government insurance option and who are regularly bashed by the president for getting paid too well — were on hand at the event.

And yet, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s trade group, opposes the main Democratic bill in the House, which Obama has endorsed. And while PhRMA has not come out against Obama-backed legislation passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, it has declined to support it.

Deval Patrick’s numbers take a nose dive

Deval Patrick ran for governor of Massachusetts on a touchy-feely, together we can, kumbaya platform .  Sound familiar?  Among his campaign promises were lowering property taxes and adding 1,000 police officers to the streets of our cities and towns.   Neither has materialized.  In fact, property taxes have increased every year since Patrick took office and police officers are being laid off across the state.  Last month he signed a budget which includes a 25% sales tax increase, while proposing $70 million to preserve dental care for immigrants. But these aren’t the only reasons that Patrick is viewed with such disdain.  Who can forget the Cadillac?  Or the drapes?  How about the absurd comments on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks?  I could go on and on, but the most egregious and outrageous move by Patrick – hands-down – is his appointment of early supporter and Queen of the Mass Hacks, Marianne Walsh, to a position at the Massachusetts Health and Education Facilities Authority to the tune of $175,000 per year.  This position was of such vital importance to the Commonwealth that it had been vacant for 12 years.  She eventually withdrew her nomination, but not after Patrick called the outrage over the affair “trivial.”

And that is what leads us to today’s poll numbers:

Governor Deval Patrick, fresh off signing a major tax increase and still battling through a historic budget crisis, has seen a huge drop in his standing among Massachusetts voters and faces a tough road to a second term, according to a new Boston Globe poll.

The survey, taken 16 months before the election, shows that the public has lost faith in Patrick’s ability to handle the state’s fiscal problems or bring reform to Beacon Hill, as he had promised. He is either losing or running neck-and-neck in matchups with prospective rivals, according to the poll, conducted for the Globe by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

Patrick’s favorability rating has dropped sharply over the past seven months, with just 36 percent of respondents holding a favorable opinion of him, and 52 percent viewing him unfavorably. As recently as December, 64 percent of voters viewed him favorably.

The governor’s job-approval rating, sampled after Patrick scored several major legislative victories but also approved $1 billion in new taxes, is even worse, with just 35 percent of respondents approving and 56 per cent disapproving of his performance. Just as ominously, 61 percent said the state is on the wrong track, compared with 31 percent who said it was headed in the right direction, down from 44 percent in December – numbers reminiscent of voters’ mood before Patrick captured the corner office from Republicans in 2006.

One can’t help but to see the parallels here.  Deval’s good buddy, Barry O. isn’t feeling the love these days either.  Same kind of campaign of  fluff and catch phrases, same inexperience, same dismal performance and same voter pushback as a result.

GOP Rep: It took Obama six months to pick a puppy, but he wants health care reform in six days?

This is my favorite video of the day

GOP Rep. Nathan Deal of Georgia pwnes Obama by pointing out that it took him six months to pick out a puppy yet he wants Congress to pass a 1000+ page health care bill in six days.

“Most of us believe that the decision as to major reform of how Americans get their health care in this country deserves at least as much time and deliberation as it would take to select a puppy to reside in the White House.

It took the president six months to decide…which puppy he was going to have. To expect Congress to do something on major health care reform in six days is totally irresponsible.”

Technical note:  I don’t know how to embed videos.  If anyone can help please email me at spitfire.murphy@yahoo.com.  Thanks!

Update:  Dirk you rock.