During Republican Rep. Wally Herger's Town Hall this month, one of his constituents describes himself as a "proud right-wing terrorist." Now you'd think this would be a good time for a US Congressman to explain to his audience that identifying with any type of terrorist is not particularly productive to our democracy. But then you wouldn't be thinking like a conservative.
Herger opts to praise the man, saying:
"Amen, God bless you. There is a great American."
Source.
Republican Party Chair Michael Steel talks with NPR's Steve Inskeep about healthcare reform and, unsurprisingly, makes no freakin' sense at all:
Steve Inskeep: “You warn that some of the health care proposals out there would , quote ‘create government boards that would decide what treatments would and would not be funded’, and you ‘want that decision to be between the doctor and the patient’. When a private insurance company pays now, what is your impression of who decides what that private insurance company is going to cover? Is that purely between the doctor and the patient now . . ?
Steele: “Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. It depends on the type of treatement and the medicines that are at stake and I’ve had this same experience my own self, where I needed a certain type of . .you know, medication and . .you know, the insurance company is like well, you can have it, but we’ll only pay for this amount or this portion. I don’t like that anymore than I like the government doing it. And my point is . . you know the governments gonna do it, they’ll do it ten times worse and it’s gonna be more pronounced than the private insurers. And I think that’s a feature we can fix right now. And sure, there are issues in the insurance market that we can regulate a little bit better and we can control better to maximize the benefits to the consumers. That’s something we can rightly reform and fix.
Inskeep: “ wait a minute . .you would trust the government to look into that?”
Steele: “No . .I’m talkin’ about the . . .talking about . . .
Inskeep: “Who . . .you said that’s something to be looked into. Who should look into that?
Steele: “Well . . who regulates the insurance markets?
Inskeep: “The government . . .”
Steele: “Wait a minute – hold up . . You’re doing a wonderful little dance here – you’re trying to be cute. But the reality of this is very simple; I’m not saying the government doesn’t have a role to play. I’ve never said that . . . the government has a role to play, the government has a very limited role to play ...
Iskeep: “Mister Chairman, I respect that you feel I’m doing a dance here, I just want you to know, as a citizen I’m a little confused by the positions you take, because you’re giving me a very nice, nuanced position here . .”
Steele: “It’s not nice and nuanced. I’m being very clear”.
Maybe it's a partisan type of clarity - a sort of clarity that only Republicans can experience?
Source.
And the real question this week, after Sen. Kennedy's death, was, who would be the first Republican to go there and how long would it take? Well, looks like the answers to those questions are Mike Huckabee and less than 72 hours.
"[I]t was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don't have as long to live might want to consider just taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them," said Huckabee. "Yet when Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die? Of course not. He freely did what most of us would do. He choose an expensive operation and painful follow up treatments. He saw his work as vitally important and so he fought for every minute he could stay on this earth doing it. He would be a very fortunate man if his heroic last few months were what future generations remember him most for."
Bullshit, Huck. And classy too. Very classy.
Source.
And the National Republican Party sent party members a mailing suggesting that healthcare reform is also a way for Democrats to deny Republicans healthcare.
The national Republican Party has mailed a fundraising appeal suggesting Democrats might use an overhaul of the health care system to deny medical treatment to Republicans.
A questionnaire accompanying the appeal says the government could check voting registration records, "prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system."
It asks, "Does this possibility concern you?"
So for those keeping tally of conservative anti-healthcare lies at home:
1. Healthcare reform will kill old people
2. Healthcare reform will kill our verterans
3. Healthcare reform will result in government enforced family planning
4. Healthcare reform will result in government funded abortions
5. Healthcare reform will result in goverment funded transgender operations.
6. Healthcare reform is a scheme for government takeover of healthcare.
7. Healthcare reform will deny Republicans healthcare.
All of this is false, but if you're a conservative, things like "reality" and "truth" must seem like liberal concepts.
Source.
In Idaho, Republican candidate for Governor Rex Rammell joked that he'd like to hunt the President of the United States. Idaho has wolf hunts, and in order for the opportunity to kill the animals, one must purchase a "tag" for $11.50. When an audience member at a rally yelled "Obama tags", the would-be Repub. Gov. responded:
“The Obama tags? We’d buy some of those.”
Source.