Lost  amidst the left-wing chest-thumping about allegedly mean-spirited, racist, anti-gay, horrible, no good, very bad Republican and Tea Party reactions to the passage of Obamacare is the absence of magnanimity from the victors.  The signing ceremony resembled a “partisan pep rally“.  The president and his Democratic allies behave as if conservatives lacked legitimate reasons to oppose his plan (even as they lost one-eighth of their caucus on the vote and had to twist arms and bribe lawmakers to get enough reluctant House Democrats to vote for passage to muster a meager majority.)

Instead of acknowledging how the debate engendered bitter exchanges while intensifying political differences in Washington and across the country, the president seeks to perpetuate them, mocking “Republicans’ campaign to try to repeal his new health care law, saying Thursday they should ‘Go for it’ and see how well they fare with voters.” “A better man”, Dan Riehl writes, “would have tried to mend fences, not widen gaps.”

On Good Morning America, Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts*) called the president’s rhetoric “inappropriate.”   Indeed it is.

Rather than herald the passage of reform in unifying terms, the president returns to the stump, making campaign-style speeches.  And he all but refuses to the concerns of opponents of the legislation, dismissing them instead as partisanship gamesmanship.  He prefers to rally his base.  A healer and a united he ain’t.

Maybe more people would rally to his health care overhaul if he chose to confront those concerns rather than dismiss and otherwie belittle them.

In this way, the incumbent very much resembles the worst aspects of his predecessor who did not often enough take to the airwaves to explain why his Iraq policy was in the national interest.  Only George W. Bush did not so mock his partisan adversaries.

The president has a great gift for the spoken word; it’s unfortunate, he’s not using it to unite the nation.

* (more…)

it seems the MSM only discovers civil discourse when a handful of conservatives are being prominently uncivil and when accusation fly (even unsubstantiated ones) of bigoted comments by right-wingers.

Today, Michael Barone asks, Where was mainstream media on Bush death threats?

The indefatigable Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds, links to a collection of pictures of protesters calling for the death of George W. Bush. Question: Can anyone find a front page story in the Washington Post or New York Times decrying documenting and decrying such vile political discourse? Threats of violence are newsworthy to the news reporters of the Post and Times, it seems, only when they’re directed against Democrats.

Of course, our critics will tell us it just wasn’t this bad under W, sure a few people called him a “war criminal” (because that’s what he was), but the vitriol was far greater than it is today and the hate rhetoric far more widespread.  It’s just that the MSM didn’t cover it as they do today.

As the mainstream media echo, without their own independent investigation and with dewy-eyed credulity, claims of African-American Democratic Congressmen that tea party activists hurled racial epithets at them as they marched to Congress to vote on the Democrats’ health care overhaul, it only makes sense that Barney Frank would join the victim crowd.  Parading his sexuality as a way to win media attention, Barney too wants to be the victim of discrimination.

“Me too, me too, I’m suffering too, now put me in front of a camera so I can whine before a large audience and try to discredit the Tea Parties.”

But, Barney, you know, I have hard time believing you.  You, who are so ready to lash out at Republicans, calling them racists, “homophobes” or just plain deluded men suffering from an unnamed psychological disorder.  It fits your narrative to discredit the Tea Parties as harboring racists and gay-baiters.  You need to see conservatives as hateful troglodytes so you can more readily dismiss our concerns.  And ignore our arguments.

Yeah, we do have one corroborated report of someone yelling “faggot.”  And that is indeed an ugly thing.  But, when you grandstand on this, Barney, you only downplay the seriousness of anti-gay bigotry.

You’re not making an issue of it to show that such hate still exists, but for partisan purposes.  Your allegations are a distraction to prevent people from looking at the statist provisions of the health care bill and to see instead the (supposed) bigotry of the opposition.  Barney, as reader Rob Lorinov put it in a comment to a recent post, “just can’t deal with” criticism.

So, if you were subject to multiple anti-gay epithets, show us the video.  That you find Tea Party protesters engaging in such activity fits too neatly with the narrative you want to peddle that we need evidence to substantiate your accusations.  Alas that I don’t have the $10,000 Andrew Breitbart has to offer as a prize for proving that Tea Party protesters hurled this ugly epithets at you.  If I did, I’d put it on the table.

As some of our readers may know, noting the superabundance of video cameras at the Tea Party protest outside the Capitol, including two men in the Democrats’ procession “carrying video cameras and holding them above the crowd“, has offered to donate $10,000 to the United Negro College Fund if someone can provide evidence that Tea Party protesters hurled racial slurs at African-American Congressmen.  He doubts they’ll come forward: (more…)

Over at the New Repuublic, Jonathan Chait mistakes the exuberance he (and his allies on the left and in the MSM) must feel at the passage of Obamacare for a shift in the “zeitgeist.”  Now, to be sure, Obama looks more like a winner than he did in weeks past.  And it is an accomplishment to push such an unpopular bill through an elected legislature.  You gotta give Obama credit for that.  Even the Vice President says the president would have been “absolutely done” without a health care victory:

“If we were unable to move the ball on this issue, not only in the political sense might we be dead,” Biden said, according to the pool report filed on the event [a fundraiser in Maryland. “But in terms of being able to deal with other major issues on our plate, we would’ve been done. Absolutely done.”

But, to say the “Zeitgeist has shifted” misses the national mood and ignores numerous surveys which show Americans not just opposed to this kind of bill, but to this kind of legislation (i.e., big government solutions).  Americans don’t like the health care bill because they don’t like big government.  And because Republicans tried to block it, well, Chait, thinks now Republicans are seen as obstructionists:

The psychology of victory and defeat is a remarkable thing. A week ago, the Democrats were perceived to have an enormous political problem. Their agenda was stalled in Congress. There was a mass groundswell of public anger they had to contend with.

Suddenly those problems have been flipped on their head. Now Democrats don’t have a problem because they can’t pass anything, Republicans have a problem because they’re obstructing everything. Whereas right-wing grassroots activism represented a public backlash against the Democrats, it’s now seen as an extremist element that discredits the GOP.

Note here his use of the passive.  Now seen as extremist element that discredits the GOP.  By whom, Jonathan?  By you and your Bush-hating chums working for mainstream and liberal news media and living in urban areas on the East Coast?

Given that surveys show that just shy of 60% of Americans believe the government is doing much, I don’t think Republicans will have a problem if they continue to “obstruct” Democrats’ big-government initiatives.  What Chait sees as an extremist element discrediting the GOP, is in reality, a principled one animating the party. (more…)

The unhappy Barney Frank just can’t help himself.  He can’t just criticize his ideological adversaries, taking issue with their points.  This mean-spirited Democrat from Massachusetts has to make it personal–or attribute the difference of opinion to some deep-seated prejudice, like anti-gay bigotry or racism, or to a mental condition.

Now, he’s calling American citizens who dare protest legislation he supports “teenage bullies.”   Guess he has no other way to understand those motivated enough to speak out against big government.  He can only see them as horrible, no good very bad people.

Sorry, Barney, I just don’t believe you about the supposedly “homophobic” comments. One cry of “faggot” does not a plural make.  There were countless people with video cameras there, filming the protests.  If you have evidence that more hateful language was shouted, please provide it.  And please, please, please, if you’re going to call for civil discourse, engage in some yourself.

Do not call people bullies when they’re speaking out against you.  But, maybe that’s how you see it–because you just can’t tolerate dissent.  And instead of trying to understand popular unrest, you belittle the protesters and make things up about their prejudices.

Maybe Barney should ask Democrats to “differentiate themselves” from him.  You know, so we don’t think his party countenances the kind of name-calling he practices.

(H/t Reader Sean A)

The House Majority Leader of the 112th Congress nails it on threats of violence and the current political climate:

(H/t: Commentary Contentions.)

* (more…)

Something changed in the political landscape in the past 12 or so hours.  Conservatives were glum, depressed about the passage of Obamacare on Sunday.  We felt disappointed, angry.  Now, all of a sudden, if you judge by the left-wing blogs linked on Memeorandum and the tone of our critics’ comments, it’s the left-wingers who are bitter, snapping at Senate Republicans for rooting out problems in the House reconciliation “fixes” and for introducing amendments to said legislative package, delaying its passage for a few days.

And with a recent spate of polls showing that the American people still disapprove of this “historic” health care bill, with one survey showing that nearly two-thirds want Republicans to keep challenging it, we know that our fellow citizens have not bought into the arguments of the Democrats.

But, among all the Republicans working overtime to keeping fighting against Obamacare, one Senator stands out, Dr. Tom Coburn from the great state of Oklahoma!  First, he warned Democrats who flipped from “No” to “Yes” on Obamacare that he’d hold up their appointments to government jobs if they lost their seats.  And this week, he introduced amendment to “prevent convicted child molesters and rapists from getting reimbursed by the government for drugs to treat erectile dysfunction“.

Democrats voted it down because they didn’t want to send the bill back to the House for a revote.  And now that it is going back to the House anyway, I bet all 57 of those Democrats, especially those running for reelection this fall, wish they had voted for the Coburn Amendment.  They weren’t able to prevent the revote anyway.  And they got themselves voting against a provision preventing rapists from getting tax-payer funded Viagra!

Thank you, Senator Coburn!

By the way, Coburn has endorsed my gal Carly to replace his junior California colleague.  Show your appreciation to this good man by donating to his candidate in the Golden State.

Ok, so I’ll be first to admit this’d probably be more enthralling to read rather than to listen to. But this is by far one of the most incredible and accurate assessments of what’s going on lately in Washington (h/t, NRO):

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

The latest poll from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) confirms surveys by Rasmussen and the Field Poll: in a state which went overwhelmingly (61%) for Obama in 2008, the state’s junior Senator, Barbara Boxer, polls well below 50%. I expect that political prognosticators will soon move this race from “Lean Democratic” to “Toss-up.”

Against each of the three Republicans competing to replace her, Boxer never polls higher than 46%–and that against Chuck Devore. Otherwise she remains deadlocked with Tom Campbell and my gal Carly Fiorina, polling below 45%. And she has edged ahead of Campbell in the race for the GOP nomination:

Today, Campbell and Fiorina are in a close race (24% Fiorina, 23% Campbell), and DeVore’s level of support is unchanged (8%). In this campaign—which has seen little advertising—the largest percentage of likely voters (44%) is undecided, similar to January (48%).

Interestingly in matchups with Fiorina and Campbell, Boxer, like Democrats across the country, trails among independents.

In the race for Governor, Meg “Whitman leads Democratic candidate Jerry Brown, 44 percent to 39 percent, with 17 percent undecided.”

And it’s not just Democrats Boxer and Moonbeam Brown who are lagging. People out here don’t much care for the Democratic-controlled state legislature: “For the first time in PPIC survey history, the state legislature’s approval rating among likely voters has sunk to single digits—9 percent.” That makes Congress seem popular. In the home state of the Democratic House Speaker, “Congress gets an approval rating of 14 percent—a 15-point drop since January (29%)”. Obama now enjoys a 52% approval rating, down 9 points from his November 2008 tally.

If undecideds in California break as they usually do, against the party in power, then, well, it’s going to be a banner year in the Golden State, with voters removing one of the most hyperpartisan and least accomplished Democrats from the Senate.

And now that the House reconciliation bill is going back to that chamber for a revote, I’ll bet Mrs. Boxer is gnashing her teeth, wishing she hadn’t voted to table an amendment preventing sex offenders from getting access to Viagra.

Much will be made, no doubt, about this article, noting how Communist thug Fidel Castro considers the Stalinization of Health Care Act of 2010 (is my name for it starting to make sense now?!) a “miracle” and “about time”.

Now, ask any Tea Partier and he’ll tell you you can’t choose your fans any more than you can choose your family members. Fair enough, but look at what else Fidel wants the US to do, post haste:

…the Cuban leader also used the lengthy piece to criticize the American president for his lack of leadership on climate change and immigration reform

Hm… climate change

Hm… immigration reform

Now, I’m not one to suggest that Obama is taking his cues from our nearest Communist dictator. Just that it surely is curious that he’s pretty much doing just what his “amigo” suggests he should.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

In the aftermath of the narrow House passage of the Democrats’ package of bills to overhaul our nation’s health care system, their allies in the blogosphere thought had found nirvana.  Soon, they were convinced the American people, as long they had predicted, would fall into line, agreeing how wonderful, life-changing and life-affirming was this legislation.

Barely twenty-four hours later, they found an oddly worded poll which confirmed their very presentiments:  A Gallup/USA TODAY poll found that 49% of Americans deemed “Congress’ passage of a healthcare reform bill last weekend . . .  ’a good thing.’”  Wonder how many of those thought passage of real reforms was a good thing.  Or thought it a good thing that the president would stop bloviating on health care.

While even opponents of the legislation expected to see an uptick in the bill’s support after its passage, given how people like to rally around a winner, few expected such a dramatic turnaround.  And to the consternation of one of my critics, I called the poll an outlier.  Surely, he said, he just might be right and the polls would shift toward Obamacare now that it’s passed and, as Nancy Pelosi might put it, we can find out what’s in it.

Well, in the past 12 hours alone, I have seen three polls, one a survey which skews left, another which supposedly skews right and one that’s, well, just right (as Goldilocks might say).  And guess what, fellas?  They all show the same thing.  No, not that people are pleased with the passage of this bill; they still don’t like it, not one little bit.

They do not like it now that it’s passed.  They do not like it and pray it won’t last. (more…)

According to the New York Times, Democratic Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy is switching to the GOP to run on its ticket for Governor of the Empire State:

A governor’s race that seemed all but settled is about to be upended again, by a popular Democrat from Long Island who is set to announce that he is switching parties. The move is certain to excite Republican leaders pessimistic about their party’s hopes this fall.

Those leaders believe that the official, Steve Levy, a blunt-spoken fiscal hawk and contrarian who collected 96 percent of the vote in his last re-election bid, can tap into the public’s anti-incumbent sentiment and frustration with Albany’s overspending.

Fiscal hawk?  Contrarian?  Sounds like my kind of guy.

Chalk one up for a Bush appointee in the Obama Administration:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Thursday approved new rules that will make it harder to discharge gays from the military, calling the changes a matter of “common sense and common decency.”

Gates announced new guidelines for how the Pentagon carries out the 1993 law banning gays from serving openly in the military — rules which essentially put higher-ranking officers in charge of discharge proceedings and impose tougher requirements for evidence used against gays.

The new guidelines go into effect immediately and will apply to cases already open.

Here’s something which shows just how reprehensible the ban has been:

To discourage the use of overheard statements or hearsay, from now on any evidence given in third-party outings must be given under oath, Gates said. Cases of third-party outings also have included instances in which male troops have turned in women who rejected their romantic advances or jilted partners in relationship have turned in a former lover.

So, up until now, someone cold ruin a military career based on an accusation not made under oath?  So, people may well have used a bad law to get at rivals.

“Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow with the Palm Center, which supports a repeal of the ban, said it is unclear how much of an impact the new guidelines would have because regulations already restrict third-party allegations.”

Still, this does seem a step in the right direction, toward repeal of the ban.

East meets West this weekend! PatriotPartner (John) and I are on board our LAX-bound flight ready for the big weekend.

Tonight, at the suggestion of Princess Leah, we are having dinner at Grub.

Tomorrow, John, Leah and Dan will be headed to the sacred ground of the Reagan Library for a dinner and lecture by The Architect — Karl Rove.

Saturday, Dan and I are hosting a table at The Claremont Institute’s 30th Anniversary dinner. Keynote speaker – Vice President Dick Cheney. The REAL f***ng big deal!

And the lovely Leah is hosting a GP brunch on Sunday!!!

Whew! We are excited, hope to take lots of photos, blog/tweet, and perhaps a videoblog??

It is a Tampon/Tan Tax Free Weekend!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Thanks to the diligence of Senate Republicans, seems the American people are getting (at least a little bit of) what they want. GOP Senators are forcing a new House vote on the health care bill.

A CBS News poll, a survey which skews left, found: “that nearly two in three Americans want Republicans in Congress to continue to challenge parts of the health care reform bill“:

The poll finds that 62 percent want Congressional Republicans to keep challenging the bill, while 33 percent say they should not do so. Nearly nine in ten Republicans and two in three independents want the GOP to keep challenging. Even 41 percent of Democrats support continued challenges.

Seems then the action of Senate Republicans are just what the doctor ordered!

And there’s more to that poll that undermines Democratic talking point. Their much touted USA Today poll was indeed an outlier. Even with the bounce that the legislation was likely to get with its passage and media cheerleading, only 42 percent of Americans approve of the bill (46% disapprove).

Now, as to that Republican challenge. After consulting with the Senate’s parliamentarian, Senate Republicans found two provisions which conflict with Congress’ budget rules. They will thus have to be stripped from the “reconciliation” package before the Senate vote. Since both Houses must pass identical bills before they become law, the House will have to revote.

Let’s hope legislators keep in mind the results of the CBS survey. American people want to see more Republican challenges to this bill. But, then again, as we have seen these past four months (since last November), Democrats don’t respond well to the will of the people when it conflicts with their will for power.

In response to a supposed wave of vigilantism (in reality, a handful of isolated attacks) against Democrats who voted for increased government control over our health care system, Mark Potok of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center has become quite incensed.

He is right to decry violent acts against any individual for speaking his mind or voting his party’s will.  It is wrong to attack an individual physically or to vandalize his property because of his vote. That sad, I do wonder where Mr. Potok was when liberal activists trashed Republican campaign offices in 2004.  Or when gay marriage advocates published the names of those who contributed to “Yes on 8,” hounding one man out of his job and steering business away from one restaurant because one employee supported the campaign.

Still, he must criticizing those gay marriage activists for publishing the names of those who oppose gay marriage:

“This is what neo Nazi leaders in America do today,” Potok said. “They post personal information about their enemies and sit back and wait for somebody else to act.”

Or is he?

He only “compared the online posting of a public official’s address to tactics used by hate groups.”   Maybe it’s okay then to post the address of a private citizen online?

Look, the main reason I am writing this post is because I believe these actions are absolutely reprehensible.  Folks like Mr. Potok are right to be outraged.  But, they–and the left-leaning media which echoes their complaints–have been strangely silent when outraged left-wing protesters committed similar infractions, inciting violence and publishing the names of private citizens who supported causes they didn’t like. (more…)

In Barbara Boxer’s mind, it seems there’s nothing the government can’t or shouldn’t do.  On Wednesday, she joined her fellow Senate Democrats in blocking her Oklahoma colleague Tom Coburn’s amendment to “prevent convicted child molesters and rapists from getting reimbursed by the government for drugs to treat erectile dysfunction“.

Guess it was more important to this politician who has spent the last twenty-eight years in Washington to please her party’s bosses who want a “clean” bill than to put this additional safeguard in place.

It is simply amazing the lengths to which Mrs. Boxer will travel so as to toe the party line.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the Golden State stands at 12.5%, with 701,700 people having lost their jobs since Mrs. Boxer voted for the Democratic “stimulus” promising 400,000 new jobs for the Golden State.

Wonder if she thinks preventing rapists access for drugs to treat erectile dysfunction might compromise pharmaceutical sales in California.  It’s all about pharmacy jobs!

Soon-to-be former Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Pelosi’s Pocket) is lashing out at Catholic Bishops and pro-life groups, calling them “‘hypocrites’ for not supporting the [health care] bill after [he] won last-minute concessions from the White House” (i.e., the executive order which both pro-life and pro-abortion rights groups think is meaningless).

Attacking the bishops is a sure way to win support among Catholic voters.

Had Stupak stood firm, he might have helped derail the bill and might today be derided among his partisan caucus, but seen as a man of principle by Catholics and others, even those on the right otherwise skeptical of his liberal voting record.  Now, he’s heralded by Democrats, including many zealous abortion advocates and derided on the right while his hitherto unknown opponent has over 20,000 Facebook fans, whereas just five days ago, he barely had 300.  (You can now donate online.)

And he’s helped keep alive the divisive debate on health care.

Bart Stupak may have won the favor of Democrats and their media allies inside the Beltway and on the coasts, but is it wise to tie your fortunes to Congress with record disapproval ratings and a House Speaker of whom barely one in ten Americans has a favorable view.  Don’t think the affection of coastal media elites and Nancy Pelosi will help much on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, especially among Catholic voters.  Don’t think lashing out at the bishops is the way to win back their support, especially after voting for such an unpopular bill.

Despite the Democrats’ “historic” legislation all but nationalizing our nation’s health care system, the President and his cheerleaders can’t let go of his fixation on health care.  Despite his promise in the wake of Scott Brown’s election to replace Ted Kennedy in the United States Senate (which seems now to have served as a distraction allowing Democrats to focus on developing strategies to ram through their unpopular initiative) to focus on the economy and jobs, President Obama still seems fixated on health care.

Although health care was not the focus of Obama’s campaign, it remains the focus of his Administration.  In an article in yesterday’s New York Times, David Leonhardt reports that health care “did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate.”  And yet, now that it’s passed, the president is planning a “public relations blitz aimed at turning around Americans’ opinion of the health-care bill“:

Reshaping the legislation’s image will take place in three phases, White House aides said: the immediate aftermath; the seven months until the November midterm elections; and the several years that follow, during which many provisions in the measure will gradually take effect.

Driving the message during those periods is the belief among Obama’s top advisers that Republicans have boxed themselves into a corner with unanimous opposition to the legislation and talk of a repeal.

It’s all politics for these guys, the permanent campaign.  The Obama Administration is trying to sell aggressively something they just forced House Democrats to buy.

Why can’t the White House let the bill speak for itself?  I mean, they’ve already got the better part of the media cheering for them and praising its passage?  Why isn’t Obama turning his focus to the economy?  (Hey, wait a minute, given the results so far of his economic recovery act, maybe we don’t want him to turn his attention there.)

Wonder why Obama just can’t let go of this issue.

Jules Crittenden nails it:

If conservatives think America is full of rage and Congress will be theirs in November, and they plan on taking that for granted, they might be in for a surprise. November is a long way off. Talking health care for seven months when people have had to listen to it for a year might work, but I doubt it. If it was my campaign to take over Congress, I’d talk fiscal responsibility and government accountability. Everyone will know exactly what you are talking about. Elected leaders that don’t listen, spend too much and think they know better than you do.

The rage and indignant righteousness won’t get it done, either, BTW. They might help. But it will be hard to keep the American public PO’d that whole time. People will get real tired of that, and might decide they’re PO’d at the people who want them to be PO’d all the time. Turning rage into work might work though. Relentless, smart, observant, opportunistic, door-to-door, listening, handshaking, baby-kissing, truck-driving work and taking nothing for granted. Also, to steal a line from an old Dem who knew all of that inside out, Tip O’Neill, don’t forget to ask people to vote for you. People like to be asked. That might do it.

Emphasis added.  Via Instapundit.

Look, poll after poll after poll shows that health care is not nor has it has been (at least since the 2008 election) the most pressing issue to American people.  We are more concerned about the economy, about jobs and about the deficit.  Recall how Democrats pushed the “stimulus” promising it would keep unemployment, now at about 10%, below 8%?  Recall how Obama campaigned on a “net spending cut,” saying, in a campaign ad, that he would ”pay for his new spending plans with even bigger spending cuts.”

Small government ideas, fiscal responsibility, resonate with the American people.  Yes, Republicans should run against this big government boondoggle, but it should be part of a campaign against big government in general and in favor of real reforms which rely on removing regulatory burdens and not increasing federal expenditures.

The idea is to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people.  As most new jobs come from small business, so do many new ideas and innovations which improve the quality of not just our health care, but also of other good and services in other industries.