It All Sounds So Familiar

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Two things came across to me in watching this back and forth between KO and Howard Dean. First Howard Dean's arguments for why they should move the Park 51 project in an effort to "compromise" echoed almost exactly the arguments you hear for why gays should accept civil unions instead of actual marriage or why DADT shouldn't be repealed. In short he never really comes up with a good reason for the people behind the project to accept such a "compromise" other than the fact that other people are upset about it.

One has to wonder how many "compromises" minorities and women would have taken over the years had Dean been in charge. I mean plenty of people were upset about the Civil Rights Act and it even split up a political party. Guess maybe Dean would have said instead of the right to vote we could have "compromised" and just uped it from the slavery days of 3/5ths of a vote to 4/5ths.

SMDH

The second thing is maybe the more stunning revelation for a guy like Dean. After all wasn't it Howard Dean who kept slamming President Obama for continually reaching out his hands to Republicans on the health care bill only to be rebuffed? Now Dean is imagining some sane people opposed to Park 51 who would actually have enough power to negotiate on that side of argument's behalf? Really? Notice that when Keith keeps pressing him on exactly who that is Dean just keeps running from the question. Its because there ISN'T anybody that fits that description. And Dean is quoting from a flawed poll to justify all this bullshit.

Maybe it's just me but I think that interview may have been the end of folks seeing Howard Dean as some kind of progressive lion. You half ass expect this kind of mindless pandering from Harry Reid who is scared shitless of getting booted out of the Senate. But Dean literally had nothing to win with his stance and took it anyway.

Welp, more power to you on that one. And happy trails.

There Will Be Blood

Now this is something we should ALL get behind.

Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean fired one of the clearest warning shots at hesitant Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, insisting that if the party was unable to produce a health care bill with a public plan, there would be electoral consequences.

"I do think there will be primaries as the result of all this, if the bill doesn't pass with a public option," Dean said, in a phone interview with the Huffington Post.

The former Vermont governor added the caveat that he thought "cooler heads" would ultimately prevail and that a government run option for insurance coverage would be passed. But his remarks are some of the most threatening yet to be directed at Democrats from within the party.

Dean, who is a keynote speaker at the Netroots Nation conference at Pittsburgh this week, said he was "in favor" of holding recalcitrant senators and congressman accountable on health care related issues.

As he has done before, Dean criticized talk of substituting a government run program with co-operative insurance plans, calling the latter a "fig leaf."

"This talk about co-ops is a political compromise it is not a policy compromise," he said, of the discussions currently underway in the Senate Finance Committee. "And I think most people, on both sides of the aisle know that co-ops won't work."

Now this isn't just some random DFH blogger talking. This is the man who oversaw the Democrats retaking both houses of Congress and the Presidency. So when he talks about people getting primaried that has heft to it. And he has the clout to help recruit those primary challengers to make sure we have a viable progressive candidate to support.

Democrats need to be Democrats or risk getting held to account for a change. It is what it is!

Want To See What An Ass Kicking Looks Like?

One thing I have never understood is why Villagers always refer Newt Gingrich as being a smart guy. Many will even go as far as to say he is "very smart". He has always and will always come off to me as a bullshit artist who is good when there is nobody to challenge his talking points but awful when there is even the slightest bit of push back.

Well for some odd reason he agreed to go on "This Week with George Stephanopolous" opposite Governor Howard Dean. Needless to say it didn't go so well for him...



Now that was bad enough, but then Newt decided he wanted to try to defend Sarah Palin's "death squad" attack. But George wasn't having any of it and neither was Governor Dean.

STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the other claims being made about the bill -- and it's related to cost control -- is an -- and opponents are spreading the idea that the president's plan will encourage euthanasia. Most recently, Sarah Palin, on her Facebook page yesterday -- I think it was Friday night actually -- said that, "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Now, as you know, Mr. Speaker, the president called that outlandish. He said...

GINGRICH: But why -- why didn't you put up what Dr. Zeke Emanuel said? Because Dr. Zeke Emanuel, who's the chief adviser to the president and brother of the chief of staff, said in writing...

STEPHANOPOULOS: He's not the chief health care adviser. He's written three articles between 1996 and 2008 that include some of those phrases...

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: ... standards.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Those phrases appear nowhere in the bill. The only thing...

GINGRICH: But...

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... but let me just explain what's in the bill and then get you to respond to that. The only thing in the bill is they would allow Medicare to pay for what they say is voluntary counseling on end-of-life issues.

GINGRICH: I think people are very concerned, when you start talking about cost controls, that a bureaucracy -- we don't -- you're asking us to trust the government. Now, I'm not talking about the Obama administration. I'm talking about the government. You're asking us to decide that we believe that the government is to be trusted.

We know people who have said routinely, well, you're going to have to make decisions. You're going to have to decide. Communal standards historically is a very dangerous concept.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It's not in the bill.

GINGRICH: But the bill's -- the bill's 1,000 pages of setting up mechanisms. It sets up 45 different agencies. It has all sorts of panels. You're asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there clearly are people in America who believe in -- in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.

DEAN: Well, look, this is something Newt and I agree on. I don't want somebody in between the doctor and the patient. I don't want the possibility of losing your health insurance. I don't want people setting standards or denying care. That's all what we have now under the private health insurance system. That's what happens.

Look, I've practiced -- I've practiced for 10 years. My wife is still practicing. Never once did I have a Medicare bureaucrat tell me what I could or couldn't do for a patient, but all the time we have bureaucrats from the insurance companies calling up and saying, "We're not going to cover this, and we're not going to pay for that, and we're denying coverage of that."

The system we have right now is broken. We need to fix it. I think giving the American people some choices about how to fix it makes sense.

Newt Gingrich is a moron and its pretty close to being media malpractice to continue trying to hold this guy up as an "ideas man". His only claim to fame comes down to messaging not governing. It is what it is.

Dean Breaks Out The Whupping Stick

Governer Howard Dean is now blogging at the Huffington Post which in my mind is even more of a reason for him to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. Dean doesn't play that civilized comity game and he calls people out when they are bullshitting. We need somebody in that position who isn't scared to stand up to right wing smears and who will have a laser like focus to get universal healthcare passed. To put it mildly Governer Dean didn't mince any words while killing the zombie WingNut healthcare lie about the American Recovery and Reinvestment act. Some highlights.

Opponents of fixing our broken health care system are at it again, attempting to use their same old scare tactics and falsehoods to kill a common-sense health care provision is the economic recovery package. Fortunately Congressional leaders have recognized these tactics for what they are and have wisely kept this provision in the legislation.

Under attack is a provision that is in the package that will help your doctor be better informed and more effective at the job they signed up to do in the first place - taking care of you and your family.

snip

Mr. Limbaugh and his cohorts would have you believe that this research will be used to deny needed care to your great Aunt May and be run by the politburo. But the Bill passed by Congress states right up front that the Government can not make coverage decisions based on this research.

I was surprised to see Senator Coburn (R-Ok) who is also a doctor make a statement against medical research which in part stated "this bill lays the groundwork for a Soviet-style Federal Health Board that will put bureaucrats and politicians in charge of our nation's health care system." Sadly, it seems that Senator Coburn has his political hat on and not his white coat when he relies on Rush Limbaugh to "help" his patients.

This claptrap is really about the far right laying the ground work for a far greater and more sustained attack on the Democrats' attempt to fix our health care system. As we move forward with the American people to finally fulfill the promise of Harry Truman, who over sixty years ago suggested that every American ought to have a reasonable health care plan, we will rely on the voters to remind the right wing that change is what we promised, and change is what we will deliver.

Now I know Governer Dean has many detractors even on the left, but isn't this the kind of guy you want in charge of trying to finally bring universal healthcare to our country? Our children deserve someone with his kind of courage to get in there and get the job done!

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(h/t slinkerwink)

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