Bush’s TOTUS gets fired again – shhh! Don’t tell them it’s a GOP bill!

Remember David Frum, the author of the Axis of Evil?

His wife had bragged that her husband put words in Bush’s mouth, resignation followed

In her email to friends and family, Mrs Frum wrote: “I realise this is very ‘Washington’ of me to mention but my husband is responsible for the axis of evil segment in Tuesday’s state of the union address. It’s not often a phrase one writes gains national notice… so I hope you’ll indulge my wifely pride in seeing this one repeated in headlines everywhere!”

Next thing

Robert Novak claimed on CNN that the president was so infuriated by the emails that Mr Frum was fired. This was denied by the White House and Mr Frum, who accused Mr Novak of “making stuff up” and said he had given a month’s notice on January 24, while the speech was being written.

In other words, he let the cat out of the bag on the TOTUS deal.

Frum eventually ended up at the American Entreprise Institute.

Eventually, he opened his mouth again, criticizing the GOP opposition to the GOP Romneycare that Obama enacted

But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.

While Obama did nod and wink to the GOP about the origins of the bill

The component parts of this thing are pretty similar to what Howard Baker, Bob Dole, and Tom Daschle proposed at the beginning of this debate last year.

this was not for public consumption, especially, not in a year when they are trying to take back congress by running against their own brainchild.

So, poor Frum has been fired again. For letting the cat out of the bag. Again. And this cat was way better hidden than the first one

So why are none of the talking heads on your TV screen and none of the op-ed writers in your newspaper talking about how this health plan is a big victory for Mitt Romney and Republican policy analysts? Because there has been a conspiracy of silence among those working for the bill and those working against it.

Indeed there has been. The firing of David Frum vindicated Brad de Long.

Not surprisingly, in B0botland they discuss this at length, with NOBODY bringing up the core of his revelations

Update

The secret seems to get out though – AP has it in the examiner

Republicans were for Obama’s health insurance rule before they opposed it

Interstingly it’s used to call the GOP rather than the Dems hypocrites – all in the name of CDS

The obligation in the new health care law is a Republican idea that’s been around at least two decades. It was once trumpeted as an alternative to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s failed health care overhaul in the 1990s. These days, Republicans call it government overreach.

It’s definitely an attempt to sell the damn thing.

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Blog Appearance

I thought it was a good idea to give a prominent placement to the signing of the Jane Crow order. Especially as it was done stealthily, but an official photo-p was still available. And in light of the phenomenal chutzpa of statements like this one by the AP

The president supports abortion rights.

The entire illustration that had to be cropped out was this

My original banner

will eventually return, as the stealing of our votes was the crux of all that’s happening today (No one steals an election to do good)

But for now, as our voices are being silenced on this outrage from someone who campaigned on

“The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice
Act. On this fundamental issue, I will not yield. And Planned
Parenthood will not yield.”

I feel that photo should be front and center. (I tried to post it on the side of the page, but it came up squeezed and unclear)

GOP pretends some more to oppose the Insurance bailout (Romneycare)

The Hill chronicles the seemingly epic battle in the senate where the GOP had 29 amendments defeated before finally getting one sending the bill back to the House for minor revisions. But the fact that it’s all kabuki to fool the voters is made clear in the description

In contrast to floor speeches delivered during the afternoon and on Tuesday, Wednesday night’s voting was often marked by levity and was rarely tense. At one point, after Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) gave a tongue-in-cheek speech in favor of one GOP amendment, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) responded by teasing Roberts over the University of Kansas’s recent loss in the NCAA basketball tournament.
The evening’s mood suggested a foregone conclusion; Republicans privately conceded that the bill was on its way to passage and said they weren’t surprised at the overwhelming defeat of their amendments. Democrats, meanwhile, celebrated by munching on lobster rolls from Legal Seafood in their cloakroom in honor of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who had championed healthcare reform for much of his 47-year career.

The way they all voted was as choreographed as the House voting

Nelson, who has come under fire from the conservative base of his state for his support of the healthcare reform effort, supported the GOP the most — on 20 out of 29 votes as of the 3 a.m. adjournment.

Nelson said he had informed Reid of his votes beforehand.

And what of the way those amendments were defeated? remember,Republicans have a 41 majority in the Senate?

Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.) proposed preventing Medicare cuts, for example, while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed striking all special provisions for states in the bill and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) proposed an amendment to prohibit any taxes for middle-income families. Gregg’s amendment failed, 42-56; McCain’s proposal failed, 43-54, and Crapo’s failed, 43-56.

Looks like the GOP was hardly trying. In spite of help from Democrats who needed to foil their voters

Democrats Evan Bayh of Indiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Nelson of Nebraska strayed frequently from their party during Wednesday night’s voting. Bayh, who is retiring, crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans 10 times. Lincoln, who faces a tough re-election race, supported Republicans eight times. Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia also bucked his party three times.

But at least they got a funny headline in Washington times

However, reading about the Viagra amendment I laughed less

“If this bill goes through without this amendment, your tax dollars are going to be paying for Viagra for child molesters,” Coburn, a medical doctor, said on the Senate floor as he introduced his E.D. rider.

In other words, when it comes to men, the objection to sex drugs being part of HCR goes only to sex offenders.

Unlike Contraceptives – ruled out from the stimulus at Obama’s request, or Jane Crow EO – hitting ALL WOMEN, law abiding or not

All senators felt safe in voting for show only. After all they knew that Mitch McConnell made it impossible for any GOP amendment to pass

Mitch McConnell did exactly that when he entered a unanimous consent agreement with Harry Reid about how to proceed on the health care bill. McConnell knew that agreement was going to make it impossible for Republicans to amend the bill and would put it on a fast track toward passage. McConnell accepted an agreement brilliantly designed by Reid that required 60 votes to pass an amendment.

So, while the Heritage Foundation brainchild is foisted upon us by the Democrats, they are all laughing at the very notion of Democracy.

Voters are being deceived and betrayed by their reps on both sides on the aisle, while being kept at each other throats for electoral purposes.

Update

Great minds think alike

Obama Democrats VS Tea Party Republicans: A Fake Fight Over Fake Health Care Reform

The fifteen month running battle between Obama Democrats and tea party Republicans was never much more real than televised professional wrestling. Like the opposing wrestlers, both sides work for the same bosses, for Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and the biggest medical providers. The real health care fight waged by the Obama administration has not been against Republicans, who never had the votes to stop, let alone dictate or pass anything.

The administration’s effort all along has been to pass the worst bill possible, with the greatest amounts of corporate welfare and loopholes, and the fewest protections for patients, while silencing, neutering and coercing the voices of most Democrats, who have favored some form of single payer, or Medicare For All from the beginning.

and the conclusion

In health care, as in war and peace, as in the environment and education, as in the rights of women and immigrants, the First Black President’s historic role is clear. His job is to smile and speechify and neutralize the left on every front, while taking the country further to the right than his white Republican predecessor would ever have been able.

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Tabloids: Jails, HCR back to House, Social Security, MTA

Jails seem to be a common page one subject today. Here’s the advice from The Examiner

LA Times follows the theme with a Jr.jr  piece over Obama’s backtracking on rights – with a new Guantanamo-like prison in Afghanistan

while Washington Post has a feature about Guantanamo

and the Daily News rounds it up with “jail cells” in playgrounds

In other news, we find out that HCR is now stalled in the Senate for Viagra (and inside that the bill is back in the house for “fixes”), and a nice Hillary pic with the Pakistani PM

In NY, Obama Times keeps up the drumbeat for privatizing Social Security

while the others are onto the impending cuts in the transit service

and NY Post

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