Grumpy old man
Steve Benen highlights a great exchange between Obama and president McCain:
The tone of the exchange makes it pretty clear that McCain still hasn’t accepted the fact that he lost the election.
I realize I say this over and over again, but it bears repeating: everything in Washington is about social status. McCain was a big man inside the beltway for years, he had Dana Milbank regularly fellating him until about a week ago, and then some nobody waltzes in and starts acting like he’s in charge. And that’s hard for McCain to take.
February 25, 2010 2:07 pm
Posted in: Did You Know John McCain Was A POW?, General Stupidity, Good News For Conservatives
333 Comments
333 Responses
RedKitten - February 25, 2010 | 2:10 pm · Link
Yeah, Obama definitely looked like the adult in that exchange, while McCain looked like a WATB.
Punchy - February 25, 2010 | 2:10 pm · Link
I’m looking forward (not) to the 294 Kos diaries soon to be blaring: “BREAKING: Obama PWNZ McCain!” or some such shit.
That site’s become a whore’s bath of self-fellating libtards.
Amanda in the South Bay - February 25, 2010 | 2:13 pm · Link
I was just at the laundromat, and the tv on in the background had a blurb about the HCR summit. Considering this is a local Bay Area affiliate, they gave McCain an extraordinary long soundbite. Or maybe he’s just old and speaks slow? Anyways, McCain’s little blurb was longer than the entire segment on the summit.
I swear he is such an odious motherfucker.
Jim, Foolish Literalist - February 25, 2010 | 2:13 pm · Link
he had Dana Milbank regularly fellating him until about a week ago
I think Russert’s ghost comes in the night like a succubus to revive McCain’s withered dick, otherwise withered like a carrot left in the back of the crisper drawer while you go on vacation.
Obama looks like a teacher worn out by a group whiny, entitled teenagers. He can’t smack’em but he would if he could.
SGEW - February 25, 2010 | 2:13 pm · Link
[cf.]
This is one of the sadder statements I’ve read in a while. I can’t even imagine the grimace on his face when he said this.
dmsilev - February 25, 2010 | 2:14 pm · Link
He’s truly become a bitter old man. Or, since he’s been bitter for a while, a bitterer old man. And Obama did a beautiful job of rubbing salt in the wound.
-dms
Joe Beese - February 25, 2010 | 2:15 pm · Link
I wonder how the rotten-souled old bastard feels when he watches Palin get fawned over. It must be like A Star Is Born.
fasteddie9318 - February 25, 2010 | 2:16 pm · Link
I know policy-wise Hayworth may be far worse than even the “I’ve always been a nutso radical neo-con” pandering version John McCain, but goddamn it would be nice to see Johnny Mac managing his wife’s beer distributorship instead of waxing idiotically on matters of public policy.
Catsy - February 25, 2010 | 2:16 pm · Link
Even as someone who has an already-dim opinion of Grampy McMaverick, I was stunned at how whiny and content-free McCain’s tirade was. It was literally nothing but whine after whine about the process through which the existing HCR bills were generated, and his and Obama’s campaigns. There was no substance. None. Just one long wheezy whine.
Obama’s response was epic.
Violet - February 25, 2010 | 2:17 pm · Link
McCain continually seems like he wants people to think he’s important. “Look at me! I ran for President too! Pay attention to me!” He can’t accept that once you lose the election, you’re yesterday’s news.
Mike E - February 25, 2010 | 2:18 pm · Link
@Punchy:
John McCain is a two-faced, cowardly, sad, little man-bitch.
There’s my Kos diary for the day, sport. I even raised my pinkie when typing it, in your honor.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 2:19 pm · Link
John McCain is a very petty, bitter, angry man.
“I’m, reminded of it everyday…”
Yes you are, by your own ego and bratty inner-child sitting there with his arms crossed saying, “I should be President!”
The rest of the country has moved on Senator. There aren’t going to be any mulligans, and you aren’t going to wake up in the Presidential bedroom and be relieved to find out that losing to the black man was just a dream.
In other words, get the fuck over it, you little shit!
Oscar Leroy - February 25, 2010 | 2:19 pm · Link
So? The Democrats haven’t accepted that they won.
“Hey, let’s hold another health care summit and see if we can fit more Republican ideas into our bill!” Why?
John Dillinger - February 25, 2010 | 2:20 pm · Link
I’m glad Republicans are showing their seriousness by bringing a health care expert like McCain, instead of a Senator who is just interested in the politics of the issue.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 2:21 pm · Link
@dmsilev:
Nicely done, sir.
Oscar Leroy - February 25, 2010 | 2:22 pm · Link
I can’t wait for the same media that was so outraged over Democrats making a primary challenge to their recent VP nominee to make a similar or larger outrage over a Republican primary challenge to their last presidential nominee.
/sarcasm
the Reverend boy - February 25, 2010 | 2:23 pm · Link
Kind of hard for him to be reminded about that when he is given a soapbox almost every Sunday.
Shorter HCR Summit:
Republicans: Waaaah!
Democrats: Being on the offense is actually kind of cool.
President Obama: I really am the only adult in this room.
Bender - February 25, 2010 | 2:23 pm · Link
And the substance of the exchange makes it crystal clear that Obama just got called out for lying to the American people about his “transparency” bullshit. That’ll make the evening news…
Pangloss - February 25, 2010 | 2:24 pm · Link
Lemons pucker when they suck McCain.
jron - February 25, 2010 | 2:27 pm · Link
I was lucky enough to have lunch at home and catch this.
after the grimacing, forced-laughter of “I’m, reminded of it everyday…” my wife and I both said, “oh, SNAP!”
pure gold.
We also noted how his whole point seemed to be that people in Arizona get testy when federal money pays for hospitals in other states. Sounds like a great attitude for a president to have: “you’re on your own, folks! joining together as a country has outlived its usefulness!”
oh wait, that’s the whole gop platform, isn’t it?
Svensker - February 25, 2010 | 2:28 pm · Link
@Bender:
Who was it who said “moron-colored glasses”? You’re wearing ‘em.
General Egali Tarian Stuck - February 25, 2010 | 2:28 pm · Link
@Bender: Isn’t it ironic that bender and Mccain are whining about transparency on a nationally televised public debate on Health Care Reform.
The irony burns, and the stoopidity fuels this bonfire of inanity.
eastriver - February 25, 2010 | 2:28 pm · Link
There was a great shot of Obama, over the shoulder of McCain, after the exchange. McCain was PISSED. He had cartoon lines of steam shooting out of his ears.
Tee-hee.
Evinfuilt - February 25, 2010 | 2:29 pm · Link
How dare Obama treat a war hero that way, didn’t he know McCain was a POW.
/snark
Rick Massimo - February 25, 2010 | 2:29 pm · Link
I’m just thinking for one minute about the ragegasm that would have transpired if John Kerry said anything remotely similar to GWB.
Not that it would happen, since Bush never spoke to anyone who wasn’t already loyalty-oathed.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 2:30 pm · Link
BEN FUCKING STEIN on CNN? Are fucking kidding me? Jesus christ.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:31 pm · Link
Finally! Somebody’s defending Kathleen Sebelius from the charge of being some “unelected” (i.e., illegitimate) official, you know, ‘cause of “CZARS” and other shit.
thomas - February 25, 2010 | 2:32 pm · Link
@fasteddie9318:
Cindy’s not letting him anywhere near management. He’d crash the family fortune faster than he crashed 4, 5? jets.
Evinfuilt - February 25, 2010 | 2:32 pm · Link
@jron:
Yes it is, and in Texas a Republican can’t run for Governor without being Anti-American, I mean pro-secession, they’re never anti-American they just want to secede.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:33 pm · Link
I wonder if Bob Schieffer’s going to cry on CBS for two Sundays in a row because Obama basically just questioned John McCain, who was a POW, which automagically makes him Preznit material.
Scott - February 25, 2010 | 2:33 pm · Link
Oh god, I listened to the first four seconds and had to stop. HATE THAT ASS.
jron - February 25, 2010 | 2:33 pm · Link
@Bender:
yeah, because during any summit or meeting you should just spout off about whatever talking points you wrote down beforehand that relate to your ongoing reelection campaign, instead of the issues of that particular part of the discussion that everyone ELSE is talking about. it’s so much clearer to be off-topic.
that said, as fun as the exchange was to watch, I was a little surprised to see how little patience obama has for ol’ walnuts.
demo woman - February 25, 2010 | 2:34 pm · Link
Do the republicans actually have anything to say?
Punchy - February 25, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
29+ comments and no one’s noted that this is GREAT FUCKING NEWS FOR JOHN MCCAIN?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
COMPETE ACROSS STATE LINES! FREEDOM! CHOICE!
(Except no “federal bureaucracy” which would unfairly require that states like Mississippi or Wyoming had health insurance regulations stronger than “F*** YOU PATIENTS GIMME MO MUNEE”.)
beltane - February 25, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
The beltway’s status fetish makes them comparable to a group of gorillas or pack of wild dogs. A young alpha male comes in and displaces old alpha male causing old alpha male to sulk and pout. This still doesn’t excuse old alpha male from trying to make a certain epsilon female leader of the community. That in itself should have stripped McCain of any vestiges of status he once had.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
@Evinfuilt: As one Simsons character said as Bart Simson mooned the flag, “That’s the flag my grandpappy rebelled against!”
fraught - February 25, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
McCain to Obama:
Get over here and fill my water glass!
beltane - February 25, 2010 | 2:35 pm · Link
@Punchy: We’re slacking, aren’t we.
jron - February 25, 2010 | 2:36 pm · Link
@Rick Massimo:
and I was just thinking how painful (or funny, depending on the topic) it would be to see GWB moderate a meeting like this. the ensuing ragegasm would’ve blamed kerry for making bush look unprepared, thus undermining our nation.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 2:36 pm · Link
@beltane: I see what you did there.
Malron - February 25, 2010 | 2:36 pm · Link
Boy, will Meghan be pissed. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure Cindy just did an end zone dance, back-flipped and high fived the maid when she heard Obama pimp slap her insignificant other.
Dork - February 25, 2010 | 2:37 pm · Link
If you were that old, you looked like death, smelled like death, and blended into the population of every nursing home you’ve ever glad-handed at, you’d think health care would be something that would be well-researched.
But alas.
SRW1 - February 25, 2010 | 2:38 pm · Link
“... and then some nobody waltzes in and starts acting like he’s in charge. And that’s hard for McCain to take.”
Wasn’t that a big part of the problem with Clinton too? Apart from he fact that it wasn’t McCain who did the taking.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 2:38 pm · Link
Why is Marsha Blackburn there? What does she contribute? Why isn’t Michelle Bachmann there?
kid bitzer - February 25, 2010 | 2:38 pm · Link
mccain= sore loserman.
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 2:39 pm · Link
Washington Monthly points out something sad, which is that the entire point of this interchange was Obama going “let’s stop focusing on meta stuff and actually talk about substance”, but this interchange, itself meta stuff is going to get repeated all over the internet and probably eclipse the substance of the meeting.
Oscar Leroy - February 25, 2010 | 2:40 pm · Link
Arizona gets $1.19 from the federal government for every dollar it pays in taxes. McCain can have a Coke and a smile and shut the f*** up.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/266.html
Mnemosyne - February 25, 2010 | 2:42 pm · Link
@Joe Beese:
Nah—the two characters in A Star Is Born genuinely loved each other. The film you’re thinking of is All About Eve, where Bette Davis’ young protegee successfully schemes to steal her job.
demo woman - February 25, 2010 | 2:42 pm · Link
@mai naem: Marsha makes Bachman look smart.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 2:43 pm · Link
Obama thought cloud: “I picked this guy for gravitas?”
Face - February 25, 2010 | 2:44 pm · Link
This blog needs more Eddie Murphyisms.
DougJ - February 25, 2010 | 2:45 pm · Link
@SRW1:
Wasn’t that a big part of the problem with Clinton too?
Definitely. He came in here and trashed the place and it wasn’t his place.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 2:45 pm · Link
Joe Biden just makes me smile every time he starts talking because I know he will say something either personally embarrassing or to piss somebody else off.
You never know what’s coming, but it will be entertaining.
kay - February 25, 2010 | 2:45 pm · Link
@kid bitzer:
He’s at his best at town hall meetings, as you know.
General Egali Tarian Stuck - February 25, 2010 | 2:46 pm · Link
@mcc: It was sour grapes stuff, utterly without substance relating to actual health care reform. Which as you point out makes it important fodder for the media round the clock cage match of D v R.
And since Mccain is The President Of Sunday Morning Wankistan, it rates up their Nero fiddling and Caligula frigging. So it will be showtime at the Arena and no doubt a thumbs down for Obama chewing on Angry Old Icon of Mean.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 2:48 pm · Link
Joe Biden has “an inordinate amount of respect” for Enzi.
Heh. Inordinate. That means he respects him more than he deserves. I love it when people use big words they don’t understand. Overcompensating for growing up in a coal mine, I guess.
Napoleon - February 25, 2010 | 2:49 pm · Link
@DougJ:
Sally, is that you?
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 2:51 pm · Link
What’s with the elevator music?
dougie - February 25, 2010 | 2:52 pm · Link
where the fuck is that music coming from on the live feed?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:53 pm · Link
Oh, great point: The CBO is awesome, but they’re too dumb to realize that when they scored the Senate bill, it was full of “tricks” and “smoke and mirrors”.
One of those “with all due respect” which means “fuck you”.
Koz - February 25, 2010 | 2:54 pm · Link
Why should he? Carter still hasn’t gotten the memo that Reagan beat him, and that was 30 years ago. McCain probably thinks (with some justification) that he’d beat Obama today.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 2:54 pm · Link
Is it safe to assume the CBO knows what it is talking about and wouldn’t fall for phony gimmicks?
BTW - “libtards” usually refers to libertarians.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:54 pm · Link
So, everybody, let’s substitute bullshit Republican estimates for CBO estimates on the cost and deficit reduction of these bills.
MikeTheZ - February 25, 2010 | 2:54 pm · Link
Republicans talking about “hiding spending”? Really, no shame.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 2:55 pm · Link
Hiding spending?
You me like making all war costs, “supplemental”?
slag - February 25, 2010 | 2:55 pm · Link
@dougie: I’m guessing it’s a band practicing outside somewhere.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:56 pm · Link
@inkadu: Don’t agree—I’ve seen “libtards” used for liberals on right wing blogs and heard it on right wing radio.
For right wing libertarians, I’d suggest libertards.
slag - February 25, 2010 | 2:56 pm · Link
@El Cid:
The true definition of bipartisanship.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:56 pm · Link
@RareSanity: War doesn’t cost money, because it’s paid for by FREEDOM.
fraught - February 25, 2010 | 2:57 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, agree. Except Eve was rotten souled and Margo was not. She gave Eve a break because she felt for her. McC chose Palin cynically because he needed the votes she’d get. They’re both rotten souled and there can be no sympathy for the has-been which is there in the four movies.
MikeTheZ - February 25, 2010 | 2:57 pm · Link
I love how the Republicans make Joe Biden seem like an adult.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:57 pm · Link
@slag: “Bipartisanship” is when Democrats do things that Republicans like.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 2:58 pm · Link
@El Cid:
And a series of Hail Ronnies, also, too.
Midnight Marauder - February 25, 2010 | 2:58 pm · Link
@Koz:
Would that be the same justification that led to him putting Sarah Palin on the ticket? Or the same justification that told him suspending his campaign would be a brilliantly received idea? Or the justification that caused him to declare “We are all Georgians today”?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 2:58 pm · Link
@MikeTheZ: Joe Biden is an adult, just one who often has no idea what he’s saying.
JenJen - February 25, 2010 | 3:00 pm · Link
By the way, Michelle Malkin’s twitter feed has been providing seemingly endless entertainment today, for all the wrong reasons.
Also, loved the way Paul Ryan talked like the Cock of the Block, and was then summarily dismissed by the President. Uh-oh, Grumpy McFuckstick makes the same clumsy point twice, is told by the President, “I think you make a legitimate point,” and then snarks back, “Well thank you very much!” What a grumpster, that old McCain.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:01 pm · Link
Checkmate…Now STFU McCain!
MikeTheZ - February 25, 2010 | 3:01 pm · Link
McCain again inadvertently makes the case for single payer.
dmsilev - February 25, 2010 | 3:01 pm · Link
Heh. McCain gets all high and mighty and is working up steam for a righteous rant, and Obama takes the wind right out of his sails by saying “yeah, you have a point”, leaving some audible spluttering and stammering coming from McCain.
-dms
Joshua Norton - February 25, 2010 | 3:03 pm · Link
The election’s over? Who won?
This event is without doubt GREAT NEWS for JOHN MC CAIN.
Tsulagi - February 25, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
Kind of interesting. At the top of RedState right now they have the same clip above. Post title here is “Grumpy old man.” On RS it’s “John McCain Breaks It Off in Obama”
Some see and hear what they want to see and hear.
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
Didn’t McCain know that he’s just supposed to be meat in the room?
MikeTheZ - February 25, 2010 | 3:05 pm · Link
Point blank asking Paul Ryan if he believes in the CBO or not. Journalists take a lesson.
Wag - February 25, 2010 | 3:05 pm · Link
Win!
jron - February 25, 2010 | 3:05 pm · Link
@El Cid: hey stop cutting on Joe Biden. Joe Biden rocks. And it is awesome that he washes his Camaro in the White House driveway.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:06 pm · Link
“If we can’t work with CBO numbers, we’re lost.”
Well, that’s the Republican aim, so, yeah—that’s what they’re aiming for.
Balconesfault - February 25, 2010 | 3:06 pm · Link
@Evinfuilt:
That’s right – the Texas GOP wants America to be great! But they also want America to redraw the borders.
You all will still pay rent on Ft. Bliss and Dyess and Ft. Sam and Ft. Hood (and keep those jobs there) after we break away, right?
Seriously, the biggest attack on Kay Bailey in this election (besides that you can do bad lighting on her pictures to make her look really, really old) is that she voted for lots of earmarks (usually known as “bringing home the bacon”).
The again her ads are attacking Rick Perry for spending money on legally required archeological digs when TxDOT was improving rest stops.
And they’re the sane® ones in the race…
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:07 pm · Link
@jron: I’m not really cutting on Crazy Joe. He brings both integrity, good policymaking, keen thought, and ludicrously weird and unplanned commentary to the White House.
demo woman - February 25, 2010 | 3:09 pm · Link
Are Republicans just stupid?
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:10 pm · Link
Leaaaaveeee Joe Biden alllllonnnnne.
That is all I have to say.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:11 pm · Link
What? It takes “60 vote to override the CBO”?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:12 pm · Link
“There’s consequences to things we do.” F*** you, tool.
Mnemosyne - February 25, 2010 | 3:12 pm · Link
@El Cid:
I love Crazy Joe, too. He’s the guy who says what everyone else in the room is thinking but is too polite to say.
MikeTheZ - February 25, 2010 | 3:13 pm · Link
Ok, so its officially lets make up numbers time. Wheee!
Joshua Norton - February 25, 2010 | 3:13 pm · Link
Walnuts: We don’t like your bill because we don’t like anything that doesn’t give tax cuts to the rich, so I’m going to attempt to act like I care about poor people and you don’t, even though no one likes me or believes anything I say anymore.
Barry: Keepin’ it real as usual, aren’t you Dickhead?
Walnuts: Hack Hack. Choke. Choke. Grunt. Wheeze.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:13 pm · Link
@demo woman: No. They’re criminal, insanely greedy, Talibangelically religulous, proudly and arrogantly ignorant, and bloodily warmongering as well. Stupid is only one of their features.
cat48 - February 25, 2010 | 3:14 pm · Link
The consequences are a $l.3T deficit you dumb on a new president and then lie about how he ran up the deficit & debt after you crashed the economy…..DIAF
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:14 pm · Link
NON-CONSTITUTIONAL! MANDATE! BYUROCRAT! WASHINGTON! MIDWEST! MY PEOPLE! TOWN MEETINGS! UN-CONSTITUTION! TAXES!
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 3:14 pm · Link
Grassley makes me want to brain myself.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 3:14 pm · Link
Good to see that Republicans agree that taxing labor has bad consequences. I look forward to their proposed increases in the estate and capital gains tax. Assholes.
JC - February 25, 2010 | 3:14 pm · Link
Listening to this, in snatches, it just is amazing just how much smoother in speaking, in command of the facts, and in summation, that Obama is.
Whether it is the Democrats, Republicans, Obama is just so much CLEARER.
How is he just so much better, than everyone else?
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:15 pm · Link
Guess what Chucky…
The whole country doesn’t necessarily think just like Iowa.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:15 pm · Link
Wish Joe would call out Chuckey Cheese Grassley on the death panel crap that he agreed with during the summer. Also too, how he, the ranking member on the Finance Committee, walked away from negotiating.
PanAmerican - February 25, 2010 | 3:15 pm · Link
Oedipus wrecks.
POTUS was just a way for him to get his stars.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:16 pm · Link
“You gotta take into account the future consequences of your actions.”
The fact that lightning did not just strike down the entirety of the last 8 years’ worth of Republican leaders is proof that either there is no God or he just don’t give a f***.
MikeTheZ - February 25, 2010 | 3:16 pm · Link
@JC: He cares, thinks, and actually studies the issues instead of spouting vague talking points and pulling shit out of his ass.
Batocchio - February 25, 2010 | 3:17 pm · Link
C&L has a longer clip. McCain can’t hide the spite in his voice.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:18 pm · Link
@Batocchio: Hell, every time McCain said “My friends” on the campaign trail, it sounded like what he was saying was always “You worthless f***ers disgust me.”
Mike E - February 25, 2010 | 3:18 pm · Link
Journamalism, and a roll of stamps.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:22 pm · Link
Uh oh. I think Kent Conrad just opened the floodgates for “DEATH PANEL” screaming again.
JenJen - February 25, 2010 | 3:23 pm · Link
Regardless of the sad fact that the McCain-Obama Smackdown/War of Words will likely dominate news coverage of today’s summit, it’s damned fascinating, in that poli-sci kind of way, to see McCain being all WATB well over a year later. I mean, wow.
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 3:23 pm · Link
You know the rebuttal to this current problem about Medicare is OMFG Death Panels!
fraught - February 25, 2010 | 3:23 pm · Link
@Tsulagi:
What does that even mean? Are they talking about a knife or his dick? If it’s the latter, well I don’t think so. The less said about McCain’s dick, in any regard, the better. I mean, considering the prostate surgery and all. And how arrogant Obama is about having one of the few prostates in Blair House today.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:24 pm · Link
@JC:
You’d probably be able to hear it a little better if you pulled your head out..of…
Oh. Carry on.
No Joy in Mudville - February 25, 2010 | 3:24 pm · Link
I think he’s accepted the fact that he lost. What he hasn’t been able to figure out is exactly how Obama cheated him out of his due. He probably continues to look at one of those national maps that shows the breakdown of voting on either a county-by-county or district-by-district basis (they are always horrifyingly red) and can’t understand how that doesn’t translate into a landslide victory for him.
I’ve had that argument with Wingers who seem to fundamentally reject the principle of one person-one vote in favor of who controls the greatest land area. It’s a preposterous argument, and I’ve been amazed by how Wingers think that winning a county in Wyoming (area = a gazillion square miles with a population of 85 people and a gazillion sheep) is somehow equal to or more important than winning San Francisco. The basic argument is that it takes hundreds of urban voters (aka not real Americans) to equal one All-American Nebraskan.
There seems to be a visceral attachment to the founders’ least democratic ideas (ideas that appear in things like the electoral college and indirect election of senators). However, it’s difficult to talk to most Wingers without coming away impressed by what low opinions they have of democracy and democratic institutions in general.
ChrisZ - February 25, 2010 | 3:26 pm · Link
I know a lot of you are pretty pissed about the lack of substantial change that has come from the Obama White House/Democratic Congress, and I know that Obama is often criticized as a “style over substance” guy, but damn I just love his style. Every time Obama goes in and actually talks to these jackwads he comes out looking smarter and calmer and better than them, and just that is so nice (not to mention such a welcome change from Bush) that I am willing to forgive him for not yet making all my dreams come true.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:26 pm · Link
The bill went from 11oo pages to 2400 pages to just now 2700 pages.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:26 pm · Link
Orange Boner says the American people have said LOUD and CLEAR that they want to scrap this bill.
Um, because there’s stuff going bankrupt, like Social Security and Medicare, which, um, aren’t.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:26 pm · Link
This is pointless…
Yes Mr. President, I agree with you, we must do something. The first thing we must do is trash this bill and do nothing.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:27 pm · Link
WE HAVE THE BEST HELF CARE SYSTEM IN THA WORLD AND WE AIN’T GON LET THE DAMN GUBMIT TAKE IT OVER WITH THEIR 27,000 PAGE THING WITH ALL THE WORDS WHICH COSTS $80 TRILLION DOLLARS AND WILL BANKRUPT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE AND THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND THE GALAXY AND THE UNIVERSE
dougie - February 25, 2010 | 3:28 pm · Link
bigger douche, boehner or cantor?
Bnad - February 25, 2010 | 3:28 pm · Link
AP reports straight faced (RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and JENNIFER LOVEN)) that Cantor said “difficult gap to bridge,” without mentioning that he actually said “difficult bridge to gap” or that they are correcting him.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:28 pm · Link
Obama is Cheshire Cat smiling at Boehner.
dougie - February 25, 2010 | 3:29 pm · Link
HCR ABORTED AMERICA!
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:29 pm · Link
Uh oh. Orange Boner’s back on the TAXPAYER FUNDING OF ABORTIONS
mr. whipple - February 25, 2010 | 3:29 pm · Link
Obama lauging at orange whip.
Oh boy, abortion.
Looks like Obama is losing his cool.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:29 pm · Link
@dougie: Cantor, hands fucking down.
Hands down. And I will fight to the death anyone who says otherwise.
Persia - February 25, 2010 | 3:29 pm · Link
@Tsulagi: Breaks what off?
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 3:29 pm · Link
OMG, boehner hasn’t listened to the entire meeting, and is now just spewing his partisan talking points.
Swing away, Mr. President.
Turn his orange eye black.
Martin - February 25, 2010 | 3:30 pm · Link
Well, I think the big take-away from this is that as a nation we regularly hire people that are pretty fucking incompetent at being legislators. That goes for most of the Dems as well. The contrast between Obama and everyone else in the room (say what you will about how he’s managing everything) is startling.
Now, I like Pelosi, but she’s not great at this and the Speaker should be. I wonder, if this was a regular occurrence covering all the various issues from foreign policy and so on, if voters would shift their loyalties from those that campaign well to those that participate well in policy discussion – or at least can string two points together and not randomly bark out ‘Soc!alism’ like someone with Tourettes. If nothing else, I’d be personally embarrassed to vote for someone who got their ass kicked regularly by the President like this.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:30 pm · Link
Lying liar. Jeebus Crikey.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:30 pm · Link
@dougie:
Do we really need need to choose?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:30 pm · Link
Orange Boner: The health care reform bill should be 4 words, “NO ABORTION” and “NO REGULATIONS”.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:31 pm · Link
Obama to Boehner – John. That’s just not true.
mr. whipple - February 25, 2010 | 3:31 pm · Link
Obama to orange whip: LIAR.
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 3:31 pm · Link
@El Cid:
FOX ONLY
FINAL DESTINATION
slag - February 25, 2010 | 3:31 pm · Link
I wish there was an entitlement program somewhere in my entitlement program.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:31 pm · Link
Wonder what Boner would do if the urologist f#$ep his prostate surgery ? Do ya think he would be suing the urologist? Would it be a frivolous lawsuit? I wanna know the answer to these questions.
Paula - February 25, 2010 | 3:32 pm · Link
gawd. NOOOOOOO U R ROOOONGGGG TORT REFORM IS THE ONLY THING WEEEE NEEEEEEEEEEEEED. WHYYYY WON’T U GIIIIIVE IT USSSSSSSSSSSSSSS???????????????????????? ALSO, ABORTIONSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS …
JC - February 25, 2010 | 3:32 pm · Link
Boner was speechifying falsely for the camera – and for sound bites later.
If we had a functioning press, Boner would get reamed by any honest analyst.
Chat Noir - February 25, 2010 | 3:32 pm · Link
I can’t decide if I hate John Boehner or Eric Cantor more. They’re both morons.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:33 pm · Link
Aaaannnddd Jim Cooper strikes HCR again.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:33 pm · Link
Attention Jim Cooper: No, the god-damned deficit is not the fucking biggest problem we face right now.
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 3:33 pm · Link
@Paula: Has Obama yet made it clear for the cameras that he’d probably put whatever tort reform proposal the Republicans wanted in the bill if he could get one measly Republican Senate vote out of it?
Bob (Not B.o.B.) - February 25, 2010 | 3:33 pm · Link
You mean the five, mostly televised committee on the health care process weren’t enough transparency ?
Because today’s stupid meeting isn’t transparency?
Maybe we would have even more transparency in the process if the Republic…I mean teabaggers wouldn’t have basically shut down every town hall meeting on the subject over the summer.
That’s the problem with transparency, the more you do, the more they demand.
I also like how Obama always calls him “John”. I bet that pisses McCain off royally.
dougie - February 25, 2010 | 3:34 pm · Link
I think Boehner is the bigger douche, because the dumb look on Cantor’s mouth-breathing face when he’s getting slammed is so entertaining. a little endearing, even.
slag - February 25, 2010 | 3:34 pm · Link
@JC:
To overuse an overused phrase: Dependent clause is dependent.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:34 pm · Link
God dammit El Cid! Your love of all CAPS is SPREADING!
Oh shit NO!
NovShmozKaPop - February 25, 2010 | 3:35 pm · Link
Loved Obama’s reply to Boehner.
David Hunt - February 25, 2010 | 3:35 pm · Link
@Face:
McCain can have a Coke and a smile and shut the f*** up.
In fairness, although that was part of Murphy’s stand-up routine, Murphy attributed the quip to Richard Prior and even did the line imitating Prior’s voice…which made it funnier. I’m going with the assumption that the exchange that Murphy was performing actually happened, which would make the remark a Richard Priorism.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:35 pm · Link
Gee, I wonder if Jim Cooper voted for the War in Iraq and the Bush Tax cuts? He’s a member of the Blue Dawg caucus. Anybody wanna guess?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:35 pm · Link
@Corner Stone: It just seems the better way to communicate the caveman speak of the Republican leadership. It’s angry, it’s shouty, it’s simple, it’s un-elite, it’s rough, it’s improper, it’s TeaTard rage.
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 3:35 pm · Link
@Bob (Not B.o.B.): Clearly the things that were done behind closed doors were things that should have been open and transparent, and the things that were done in front of tv cameras should have happened behind closed doors so things could get done.
Midnight Marauder - February 25, 2010 | 3:35 pm · Link
@Chat Noir:
You hate Eric Cantor way more. Trust me on this one.
Alex S. - February 25, 2010 | 3:36 pm · Link
I have a strange fascination with Mr. Boehner. He can barely mask the abyss inside of him. I think he is an alcoholic or hides another terrible secret.
fraught - February 25, 2010 | 3:36 pm · Link
@RareSanity: Cantor’s the real douchebag deal. Boehner just thinks he’s Robert Mitchum and can’t stop feeling in his pocket to make sure his tube of ManTan is still there.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:36 pm · Link
@Bob (Not B.o.B.):
You know it does.
Also, the fact that he still has to call Obama, Mr. President, makes him throw up in mouth every time he has to utter it.
slag - February 25, 2010 | 3:36 pm · Link
Didn’t we already hear from this McWanker?
Martin - February 25, 2010 | 3:37 pm · Link
@mcc: You mean the GOP wish that would strip states rights away? I thought the GOP was going all 10th amendment on the bill as it is?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:37 pm · Link
Old Man Grumpy: EARMARKS! TORT REFORM! CORRUPTION!
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 3:37 pm · Link
@Paula:
Indeed, even McCain won’t shut up about tort reform.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:37 pm · Link
Ouch Johnny Mac’s joke no work. He fix.
ChrisZ - February 25, 2010 | 3:37 pm · Link
Obama is trying to be more transparent but he has to figure out how to do it in such a way that it isn’t an obvious trap!
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:38 pm · Link
Please please please let Obama tell McMavericky that Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country.
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 3:39 pm · Link
L’election est mort! Vive l’election!
JohnR - February 25, 2010 | 3:39 pm · Link
Andrew Golis wrote the lead Yahoo news story on that hard-hitting back-and-forth:
First, ‘..Sen. John McCain launched into a spirited attack..’, on the Democratic corruption and broken promises in the process so far, but
‘Obama didn’t take kindly to McCain’s attack, saying bluntly to McCain “We’re not campaigning anymore. The election is over.”’after which
‘Chuckling, McCain responded “I’m reminded of that every day.”’
Clearly, McCain won that one.
Somehow I’m not surprised.
Paula - February 25, 2010 | 3:40 pm · Link
Obama has made it clear in his LAST televised House Rep smackdown (the one where Boner was sitting on stage) that he’s willing to work w/ them on tort reform, but that it only makes about $5 bil in savings.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:40 pm · Link
@mai naem:
So? They enacted malpractice reform. That saves doctors and insurers money. F*** patients and the uninsured. Why would Republicans care about them?
Also, McCain: RECONCILIATION IS UNFAIR 60 VOTES IS THE CONSTITUTION I WILL BE ANGRY IF MAJORITY RULES
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:40 pm · Link
@David Hunt: You’re right. That was part of Murphy’s homage to Prior being the G-D genius he was.
Do people laugh when you say what you say? Do you get paid?
Then tell Bill…
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:41 pm · Link
Nooooooooo, don’t turn to Dick…you have Michelle and she’s hot!
(giggles)
mr. whipple - February 25, 2010 | 3:41 pm · Link
Obama going back to slap orange whip again.
lol.
Martin - February 25, 2010 | 3:41 pm · Link
ZOMG! The Republicans aren’t being allowed to speak!
POTUSM.C. Hitler: 57 minutesDEMSSoshulists: 50 minutesGOPersTotally Not-Gay Patriots: 56 minutesCorner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:42 pm · Link
@mai naem:
If Cooper isn’t the person who killed the Clinton HCR in the 90’s then he is at least as equally guilty as anyone else that did.
fraught - February 25, 2010 | 3:42 pm · Link
@freelancer:
He thinks it’s “tart” reform and will make Cindy do what he says.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:43 pm · Link
Is Cantor texting on his Blackberry? McConnell is fidgeting like a 6 yr old kid at his daddy’s political debate.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:44 pm · Link
OOOOOO —Obama slaps GOP:
“I think there’s a conflict, I’ve heard a lot said today about not having the federal government override the states—but you guys, your side seems to support overriding the states when it’s things that you like.”
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 3:44 pm · Link
Obama just does such a great job of seeming evenhanded and fair. I can see how it infuriates partisans (zomg on both sides!) but his aides seem to have figured out that he can do this sort of thing on the teevee and it makes him look great, it makes partisans look like shit, and the Republicans can’t stay away without looking even shittier.
You Don't Say - February 25, 2010 | 3:44 pm · Link
I feel like my head is going to explode. I just turned it on to hear Obama say that Boehner said that med mal is the single biggest driver of medical inflation. What horseshit. The just make shit up. Assholes.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 3:45 pm · Link
@mai naem: McCain also doesn’t realize what “relative advantage is.” People moved to Texas because it offered a more forgiving environment for doctors.
But McCain thinks doctors grow like plants. Have policy that encourages doctors, and voila! next year you’ll have thirty-seven more doctors. If we just do what they did in Texas, we’ll have more doctors everywhere.
Locusts!
aimai - February 25, 2010 | 3:45 pm · Link
I agree with Alex S. There’s always been something absolutely hollow about Boehner. He looks to me like a man in great, secret, pain. If its not foot tapping in airport restrooms, two wet suits and a dildo, dead interns, diapers, cocaine, or something else really common I just can’t figure out what it is.
aimai
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:45 pm · Link
Who’s this—Durbin? Somebody’s giving a serious slapdown using CBO figures on how this ‘tort reform’ would save a pissant tiny pile of money and it would shitty up health care and endanger patients.
JohnR - February 25, 2010 | 3:45 pm · Link
@Midnight Marauder:
Boehner might be more of a putz, but Cantor makes my “Silence of the Lambs” alarms go off in a deafening roar. I bet nobody in Congress is willing to be alone in the same room with him.
Mike Kay - February 25, 2010 | 3:46 pm · Link
does anyone know the freeper/teebagger response to McSame making an ass outta himself?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:46 pm · Link
@aimai: Liquor.
flukebucket - February 25, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
Probably needs to piss.
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
Man Dick Durbin is sort of a badass
demkat620 - February 25, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
Wow, McCain is coming across as angry. Does anybody else get the sense that the real winner here is the American people?
Cause whatever else seeing both sides talking and debating can not be a bad thing.
Obama: Turning the country back to adult behavior, one step at a time.
fraught - February 25, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
BTW: McCain had his surgery the DAY he got Medicare. That’s why he hates it so much. He thinks Medicare stole his prostate.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
Durbin just blasted the shit outta those fools on malpractice reform costs and savings.
You Don't Say - February 25, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
@aimai: I’m not sure it’s anything more than an incredible, awful, soul-destroying sense of entitlement and the resulting anguish when the world does not follow him.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
Holy shit! Durbin’s kicking their ass on this “tort reform” / “malpractice reform” bullshit.
JC - February 25, 2010 | 3:48 pm · Link
How can these guys just keep getting away with the lies?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:48 pm · Link
Durbin’s just used the whole Anatole France “the Law in its Majestic Equality forbids both rich and poor from sleeping under bridges” on members of Congress enjoying the “best health care in the world,” because they’re rich and lucky.
licensed to kill time - February 25, 2010 | 3:49 pm · Link
Go Durbin! Call ‘em out on their Cadillac coverage!
Kids, compare and contrast.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:49 pm · Link
OMG, Dick Durbin just mentioned Dr. Gawande and he said Manifesto. That means commie pinko plan.
Also too, just remember Dick Durbin lost his daughter after the election from a chronic heart condition. I think he knows more about hospitals than Boner.
bemused - February 25, 2010 | 3:49 pm · Link
@aimai:
I’ve always thought Boehner looks like a guy that is just counting off the minutes untill he can slug down a few shots.
JC - February 25, 2010 | 3:50 pm · Link
Again, what Durbin is saying should lead every nightly show – “Durbin demonstrates that Boehner lies and speaks in bad faith”.
THAT should get as much coverage, as say Hilary Clinton’s did she/didn’t she observe something 10 years ago from a helicopter.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:50 pm · Link
@JC: There are almost no media or political consequences to Republicans’ lying. There was a brief period during the late stages of the McCain campaign where the mass news media noticed that McCain and Palin were both lying out their asses, but in general Republicans can just make up whatever ridiculous shit they want—including saying they dressed as pimps and went into ACORN offices—and the major media treat them as honest and for true.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:51 pm · Link
I am starting to think that
@the Reverend boy:
is one of the best explanations of what we are seeing.
I think they are starting to get a taste of the power of majority and are starting to like it.
Paula - February 25, 2010 | 3:51 pm · Link
“That’s good poll-tested language …” bwahahahahahahahahahaha …
MikeJ - February 25, 2010 | 3:51 pm · Link
Texas has policy that encourages more bad doctors.
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 3:51 pm · Link
@El Cid: I saw that. I thought it was kind of risky to quote Anatole France and then in the next sentence say “you may call this socialism but…”
However, Anatole France kicks butt.
mr. whipple - February 25, 2010 | 3:52 pm · Link
Obama closing strong, batting down more lies.
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 3:52 pm · Link
@JC: I missed most of the summit but the Durbin speech was beautiful. I really hope that gets wrapped up and put on youtube to spread.
The Moar You Know - February 25, 2010 | 3:52 pm · Link
@Koz: Reagan’s dead.
Carter’s not.
Life is cruel, no?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:52 pm · Link
Doh! Obama just pointed out that Orange Boner’s “plan” would maybe cover 3 million extra people, the Senate & House version 30 million, so, um, there’s 27 million difference there.
JC - February 25, 2010 | 3:53 pm · Link
I agree with RareSanity.
The ReverendBoy wins the thread.
slag - February 25, 2010 | 3:53 pm · Link
Uh oh. Obama takes away Republicans’ magic wand. Betcha it comes right back in a few minutes. It’s magic!
Martin - February 25, 2010 | 3:53 pm · Link
@mcc: He came with his ‘A’ game since Grassley is also in the room. This is the best compare/contrast that Iowans will ever see between Dem/GOP, and it’s important since they’ve got a governors race coming up that is leaning toward a guy that will likely crater the state.
Phantomist - February 25, 2010 | 3:54 pm · Link
Keep’em coming fraught. : )
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:54 pm · Link
@RareSanity: As long as they bitchslap Lieberprick as part of this majority power feeling thang I will be happy.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:55 pm · Link
Is that a rug? Or, just a terrible haircut?
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:55 pm · Link
Senator Doctor John Barasso believes that what matters is when you poll small town Americans and seniors in senior centers whether or not they think that this Demo-Krap bill will cost them more money or take coverage away.
slag - February 25, 2010 | 3:56 pm · Link
I love it when Republicans talk about the effectiveness of their misinformation campaigns as if they’re reflective of the bill: Oh we can’t do this! People believed us when we talked about death panels! It must be true.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 3:56 pm · Link
@Martin: Durbin’s from Illinois. You are thinking Harkin and he was pretty good too.
Anne Laurie - February 25, 2010 | 3:57 pm · Link
@inkadu:
It’s an Irish Catholic thing. Back in parochial school, we knew to STFU when a nun used ‘inordinate respect’ at us because what she meant was “Why does My Lord ask that I not simply walk into this classroom and beat you little punks severely about the head and shoulders every morning? ! ?” The phrase also came out at extended family gatherings shortly before the fist-fights started. Context is everything.
licensed to kill time - February 25, 2010 | 3:57 pm · Link
Let’s make Barrasso live with catastrophic coverage only. Prick.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link
Barasso: The way to save money on health care expenditures is to copy the thrifty shopping methods of catastrophic health care patients, because people with less serious difficulties are spendthrifts?
Also, WE HAVE THE BEST HELF CARE SYSTEM IN THA WORLD. All the Canadianites come here to escape their soshulist hellhole.
Martin - February 25, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link
@mai naem: Doh! I need to stop commenting – this has been the week from hell and my brain is shot.
Need moar vodka and hockey after work.
Midnight Marauder - February 25, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link
John Barrasso is a world-class idiot. “If you ask them ‘Are you worried about the quality of your insurance getting worse if this bill passes,’ every hand goes up.”
Hey, John. If someone asks a room of people “Do you think John Barrasso greases the stairs at nursing homes as a recreational hobby,” and every hand goes up, IT DOESN’T MAKE IT A TRUE STATEMENT!
Although, believe me, I certainly wish it worked that way.
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link
Oh geez, this is disingeneous, Barasso is basically arguing that his disinformation is reality because the lies his party has told about the bill have sunk in.
Then he says that people with catastrophic-only coverage are the best consumers of health care because unlike people who are insured who just get whatever tests their doctors think best, ... aaaaaand CNN cuts away.
Brilliant.
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link
This doctor on the GOP side is coming across as a douche, “those who wait to use the catastrophic care side of health care are the best consumers of health insurance, they shop around more and ask the best questions.”
Yeah, that’s what I’m going to tell my dad, if he has a heart attack, “Fuck the ambulance, dad. Shop around!”
YES! O calls him on it, “Do you think Catastrophic care is the best option for people in this room?”
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link
@mai naem:
Actually the current tact of completely marginalizing him is even better. He still gets more and more irrelevant, but the Dems don’t get painted as “vengeful”.
If you look back Peak Lieb, that one Sunday when he first put on his turn-coat, he has become consistently less relevant ever since.
mr. whipple - February 25, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link
Jeebus, Barrasso is a dork.
JGabriel - February 25, 2010 | 3:59 pm · Link
Shorter John Barasso: Desperate people without insurance are the wisest health care shoppers and people who need care are fat smokers who don’t deserve to live anyway. And if I ask a roomful of Republicans, they all agree.
.
Paula - February 25, 2010 | 3:59 pm · Link
OMIGOD. IT’S ALL THE LAZY PEOPLE/FAT PEOPLE/SMOKERS’ FAULT.
Obama couldn’t even hold back a snicker on that one.
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 4:00 pm · Link
Okay wait I wasn’t really paying attention. Did Barasso just argue we needed to move to catastrophic care only? Or was he arguing everyone should move to HSAs, or what?
Chat Noir - February 25, 2010 | 4:00 pm · Link
And Obama bitch-slaps Senator Doctor Barrasso.
mr. whipple - February 25, 2010 | 4:00 pm · Link
Damn, Obama is coming down hard on Barrasso.
HIT HIM WITH THE FUCKING CHAIR.
Morbo - February 25, 2010 | 4:01 pm · Link
I’m not going to be able to stomach NPR on the drive home tonight, am I?
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 4:02 pm · Link
I cannot f&*ing believe that a f$%$ing doctor is pushing for catastrophic care. This prick knows that people won’t get stuff taken care and it will be a whole lot more expensive.
Quackosaur - February 25, 2010 | 4:02 pm · Link
Obama: Barrasso is an idiot.
@mcc:
Yes (really to both questions). Including members of Congress.
fraught - February 25, 2010 | 4:03 pm · Link
Shepard Smith on Fox is acting strange. ‘my producers want me to show you these surveys” showing that everyone hates HCR and want to start over. He seems pissed at the R’s for stalling everything. ‘we missed 60-70 commercials today. Same old Democratic/republican talking points.” So Fox cuts off at 4:00 just after O says “we’ll stop at 4:30.”
Mike Kay - February 25, 2010 | 4:03 pm · Link
ya know every single one whinnng about “washington” health care, uses Washington health care.
take McSame, for example, he’s rich beyond belief, he can afford to pay outta pocket or to purchase any policy he wanted, but noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, he uses washington healthcare.
dougie - February 25, 2010 | 4:04 pm · Link
senator batboy
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 4:04 pm · Link
So I actually had an HSA for awhile. It was really neat!
The problem is that HSAs only work for some people, some circumstances. If you have, for example, a recurring health care cost, HSAs become ruinous.
So I had an HSA for awhile. Then my health care situation changed and I was no longer in that sweet spot where HSAs are good for you. So I switched to something else. I don’t think I’d be able to manage going back.
slag - February 25, 2010 | 4:04 pm · Link
@Morbo: Can you usually?
mr. whipple - February 25, 2010 | 4:04 pm · Link
Waxman now bringing it.
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 4:04 pm · Link
LOL Wolf asked Mary Matalin why a majority vote would be “jamming it through” and she was obviously not prepared to answer the question. She babbled a little and then “just everybody knows that this is jamming it through and the American people know it too”
demo woman - February 25, 2010 | 4:05 pm · Link
Has Fox News cut away yet?
bemused - February 25, 2010 | 4:05 pm · Link
@mai naem:
Someone needs to play the video of Barasso’s grand ideas in all nursing homes & senior centers in his district.
FlipYrWhig - February 25, 2010 | 4:06 pm · Link
Some guys try to pick up girls, and get called assholes.
That never happened to John Barrasso.
No, wait, it did. All the time. And it actually explains a lot.
cat48 - February 25, 2010 | 4:07 pm · Link
@mcc:
Dick has to be a badass because he used to be a medical malpractice atty in IL with no caps….....we loves us some malpractice awards in IL…....if nec.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 4:08 pm · Link
McMaverick has been on gubmint healthcare his whole life. As in from birth. The guy was under his daddy’s VA benefits and then his own VA benefits and then his Congressional benefits.
Mike E - February 25, 2010 | 4:09 pm · Link
@Morbo:
Just store it in your sack for future digestion.
Oscar Leroy - February 25, 2010 | 4:09 pm · Link
Is the summit over now? Can we pass the godd@mn bill now?
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 4:12 pm · Link
Anyone notice the GOP blindspot here? It seems so universal, but it’s as if, in any policy discussion, the unspoken a priori reply inherently contains the statement,
“Pfffft! WTF are you talking about? Who the fuck in this country can live on less than 100K a year?! You’re making that up!”
They blatantly issue out-of-hand dismissals toward anything that might concern middle/lower class citizens. It’s absurd.
ETA: Wow, the next guy makes my point FOR me. “Medicaid doesn’t work for anyone”.
Pasquinade - February 25, 2010 | 4:12 pm · Link
SamSeder Tweet:
JGabriel - February 25, 2010 | 4:14 pm · Link
Shorter Roskam intro: Obama’s changed! He’s not as deferential as President as when he was a State Senator!
.
licensed to kill time - February 25, 2010 | 4:14 pm · Link
Obama to Republicans – “Got any ideas? Anyone? Bueller?”
David Hunt - February 25, 2010 | 4:14 pm · Link
@JC:
They typically tell them on televisions talk shows where the interviewer is an ignoramous and/or accomplice and the most/all of any panel is usually on their side too. Newspapers are just as bad about just printing their claims after (maybe) running them through a spell-checker. In short, they keep getting away with it because there’s almost no one within range of a mic that will subject their claims to even minimal scrutiny.
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 4:15 pm · Link
@freelancer: They have this in their favor: it ain’t easy to do. I can see how it could be unimaginable to them.
Mike in NC - February 25, 2010 | 4:16 pm · Link
Sort of like, “If I had only one bullet left, would I shoot Himmler or Goebbels?”, isn’t it?
He looks like an undertaker who can only enjoy sex with cadavers.
mai naem - February 25, 2010 | 4:17 pm · Link
I love the look on Obama’s face when Roskam talked about etch a sketch.
“OMG ,! I am in grade school. S&*t, I am going to need a smoke after this.”
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 4:19 pm · Link
SHUT UP DODD.
Oscar Leroy - February 25, 2010 | 4:20 pm · Link
Well for one thing, no matter how insulting or mendacious they are, the president and his party insist upon taking them seriously and catering to their proposals.
Will - February 25, 2010 | 4:21 pm · Link
I know this is beyond obvious to everyone here, but still: can you even begin to imagine our former president conducting this type of lengthy discussion with his opposition? Forget “in public”. Forget “on camera”. Forget even “un-scripted”. Just this type of discussion AT ALL.
The fact that this is even happening unfortunately never gets credited to the emergence of a person like Obama to the presidency, but it really is one of the unsung transformations we have seen in the last year.
TuiMel - February 25, 2010 | 4:21 pm · Link
@Pasquinade:
BINGO
cat48 - February 25, 2010 | 4:22 pm · Link
Actually, the post title “Grumpy Old Man” refers to the Rock now….....needs smokes….......
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 4:23 pm · Link
Roskam asshole is being asshole.
Mike E - February 25, 2010 | 4:24 pm · Link
@Mike in NC: Necrophilia and Godwin in the same post—9.8!
Stefan - February 25, 2010 | 4:24 pm · Link
Somebody has to do a “Downfall” parody of this. If only we could edit in McCain to all the Hitler scenes….
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 4:24 pm · Link
There are at least two certainties in this world.
1. When a prostitute tells you she loves you she is lying
2. When a Senator says he will be brief he is lying
Xecky Gilchrist - February 25, 2010 | 4:25 pm · Link
@Will: it really is one of the unsung transformations we have seen in the last year.
I quite agree. It’s sad that such a transformation is actually just things being done as normal, where “normal” means anything before Gee Dumbya’s reign of error.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:27 pm · Link
We just need to let insurance companies compete across state lines so that Mississippi or Wyoming can undo all regulations and let people buy the shittiest, no responsibility coverage, if they’re healthy.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 4:27 pm · Link
Malpractice….tort reform….blah, blah, blah….
cat48 - February 25, 2010 | 4:27 pm · Link
@Will:
No, Obama FAIL, won’t fire staff—bring in old white men whom Villagers adore…...Gergen is the best I hear
bemused - February 25, 2010 | 4:28 pm · Link
Oh shit, Texas malpractice again…someone shut this guy down.
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 4:28 pm · Link
I think Joe Barton just said that the parties have irreconcilable differences on this.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 4:28 pm · Link
Indirect savings? Sounds like a “gimmick” to me…
JC - February 25, 2010 | 4:28 pm · Link
it really is one of the unsung transformations we have seen in the last year.
You know what? I bet you, that if a Republican on the level of Bush’s level of communication, ability, were to come in, and NEVER have something of this nature – the press would conveniently forget the competence of Obama.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 4:28 pm · Link
Stop using your hands. You’re not coaching football in TX and you’re not Italian.
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 4:28 pm · Link
I fervently hope, that it is sinking in to this President, that these shmucks are not listening. They just keep repeating the same bullshit.
“Free Markets”
“Tort Reform”
“Interstate choices”
“Government Run Healthcare”
“premiums in TX are lowered by malpractice reform” (Nevermind the largest population of uninsured in the US)
They don’t address universal or near universal coverage at all.
This is some post-modernist Dada-esque joke, right?
TuiMel - February 25, 2010 | 4:29 pm · Link
Joe Barton:
Let’s start over and do what Republicans want.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:29 pm · Link
What? Joe Barton (R-Douche) is saying “medical malpractice” gets agreement from Durbin, when Durbin just fucking got through with saying how fucking LITTLE it matters in the overall picture and how it screws over the maltreated patients?
Oh, now it’s $150 billion a year saved from malpractice patient fucking because I just pulled that number out of my ass.
And that’s the only way not to destroy our free market system.
Comrade Kevin - February 25, 2010 | 4:29 pm · Link
@Punchy:
Unlike this post from DougJ?
Then don’t read it.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:30 pm · Link
Get ‘em Charlie Rangel.
JGabriel - February 25, 2010 | 4:30 pm · Link
Every Republican mentions how much malpractice insurance goes down in states that limit malpractice suits. Ignore that they’re probably exaggerating or lying – notice that none of them talk about reductions in health care costs, just malpractice insurance.
It’s almost like the savings aren’t passed on to patients.
.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 4:31 pm · Link
Oh my goodness, that voice…he’s the male Fran Drescher.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:31 pm · Link
@JGabriel: Well, I would imagine that if you limit malpractice awards, the amount of malpractice settlements awarded would go down.
Just like when you rewrite welfare rules to eliminate lots of recipients, the number of recipients goes down.
Michael D. - February 25, 2010 | 4:32 pm · Link
For the past several hours this is what has been happening:
1. Republicans told a lie.
2. Obama explained, in detail, how what they were saying was a lie.
3. Someone later repeated the same lie.
4. Obama repeated how it was a lie, step-by-step.
5. Later, the same lie is repeated.
...and the viewing public still believes the lie and will not punish Republicans. They’ll vote for them because they’ll enact tort refor which, as the “largest single factor affecting insurance premiums,” is the most important way to save health care ever.
Conclusion: The American Public is stupid and has the collective attention span of half a shrew.
geg6 - February 25, 2010 | 4:32 pm · Link
Why do these guys think Californians, who went through the energy fiasco a few years ago with deregulation on energy prices, would want to do the same thing with their medical coverage? Do they think Californians have forgotten that? Or that anyone doesn’t get that the credit card race to the bottom hasn’t affected what is happening to the finance and credit system? People are getting rid of credit cards. People, once they see how shitty unregulated interstate policies will be, will get rid of their health care. And then we’ll have 200 million uninsured instead of only 40 million.
Tax Analyst - February 25, 2010 | 4:33 pm · Link
@thomas:
That’s golden, Thomas.
And with all the houses they own he might crash that fortune into one of them and not even realize it.
arguingwithsignposts - February 25, 2010 | 4:33 pm · Link
F**k CNN. They just showed Joe Barton’s entire b.s. spiel about malpractice reform, then cut to a commercial when Ron Wyden started talking. F**k these stupid bastard “journalists,” especially Wolf Blitzer!
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:33 pm · Link
@geg6: Enron was awesome! Just ask Phil Gramm and his wife Wendy!
bemused - February 25, 2010 | 4:35 pm · Link
@arguingwithsignposts:
But, but Mitch says no one has been listening to them….
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:36 pm · Link
Mitch McTortoise: AMERICANS HATE THIS 27,000,000 PAGE BILL AND THEY ALSO DON’T WANT TO LET DEMOCRATS DETONATE A NUCLEAR WEAPON IN THE SENATE WITH YOUR RECKLESS CONCILIATION.
ALSO, BLANK PAGE AND BEST HELF CARE IN WORLD.
mr. whipple - February 25, 2010 | 4:37 pm · Link
Apparently they’ve been doing it all day.
JC - February 25, 2010 | 4:38 pm · Link
These Repubs, continue to say the same thing, again and again.
Again and again.
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 4:39 pm · Link
Shorter GOP:
Reminds me of the scene in Arrested Development when Maeby is reading movie scripts in the attic she gets a paper cut from one of them and says “Ow, back to film school [bleep].”
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 4:39 pm · Link
@geg6: We need a twelve-step program for freemarkaholics.
matt - February 25, 2010 | 4:41 pm · Link
K-lo on twitter:
“today is one of those days i definitely feel like i am living in a bubble. trouble is, the bubble people affect american lives.”
I don’t even know where to start unpacking this.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:41 pm · Link
Blank page, start over, federal gubmit takeover, washington bureaucrat, tort reform, malpractice reform, compete across state lines, $1 trillion bill, social security’s broke, medicare’s broke, we can’t afford this, and BEST HELF CARE IN WORLD.
The whole GOP day.
Oscar Leroy - February 25, 2010 | 4:41 pm · Link
I hope so, too.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:42 pm · Link
@matt: K-Lo should know about bubble people.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 4:42 pm · Link
Become good purchasers?
W T F ??
Midnight Marauder - February 25, 2010 | 4:42 pm · Link
I can only imagine how much frustration President Obama is going to have to work out of his system after this summit today. The dude is probably going to need to hoop it up for a good 3 days nonstop just to get over the rampant stupidity of Eric Cantor and John Barrasso…and John McCain…and Tom Coburn…
Upper West - February 25, 2010 | 4:42 pm · Link
How can you accuse someone of being ‘unsavory’ with respect?
McCain is showing utter lack of respect to the President, for a bullshit non-substantive point.
Disgraceful and pitiful.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:42 pm · Link
Fuck Coburn: the “key goal” is to reconnect purchaser and purchases. Fuck you. That is not the god-damned goal of health care reform, you weirdo shit.
Throwin Stones - February 25, 2010 | 4:43 pm · Link
TORT REFORM!
INSURANCE ACROSS STATE LINES!
CATASTROPHIC CARE!
NO GUBMINT TAKEOVER!
ad nauseum
Getting smacked down with facts over and over doesn’t seem to affect these ‘pubs.
I guess we already knew this. Too bad so few are paying attention, and our media sucks.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 4:44 pm · Link
@Corner Stone: This is this complete bullshit line of fantasy that if we were all idealized versions of glasses-on-the-nose shopkeepers that if we carefully used the internetz to shop for doctors and hospitals we’d all spend much less money.
JC - February 25, 2010 | 4:45 pm · Link
Every time the dems, Obama, Durbin, etc, point out the untruths these guys say, the Repubs just say them again. No shame, and no media reaction to those lies.
freelancer - February 25, 2010 | 4:46 pm · Link
Oy, listening to it on a minimized browser. When did Rangel become possessed by Harvey Fierstein?
Sheesh, followed by Kermit the frog. This is turning into the David Lynch policy summit.
Mike Kay - February 25, 2010 | 4:49 pm · Link
Who’s the hot blonde sitting behind rangel?
Midnight Marauder - February 25, 2010 | 4:50 pm · Link
“I think any Republican who says you can start from scratch, that’s bogus talk.”
Go get ‘em, Dingell!
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 4:52 pm · Link
It’s awful. I think Dingell’s making some great points here – but I just can’t listen to him.
jenniebee - February 25, 2010 | 4:53 pm · Link
@El Cid: it’s time to acknowledge that while both sides recognize that the problem exists, but that Republicans and Democrats have such radically different approaches to solving it that the two are irreconcilable. And Democrats are in the majority, so it’s their responsibility and their goddamn job tyvm to do what they think best to solve this problem.
Because Republicans have made it absolutely clear today that they think that the real problem is not just that we have Medicare and Medicaid, but that people have insurance at all in the first place. Their argument, at its essence, is that any pooling of risk is unsustainable, because it means that consumers of health care are spending other people’s money and therefore will buy more than they need.
I bet Tom Coburn thinks that women came in for pap smears just for the thrill of having him take a look at their privates.
mcc - February 25, 2010 | 4:57 pm · Link
Someone needs to make a video consisting of nothing but John McCain’s facial expression over the course of the day.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 4:58 pm · Link
Nancy is freakin’ pissed.
dmsilev - February 25, 2010 | 4:58 pm · Link
Pelosi just flat-out called Boehner a liar re: abortion.
Wheeee!
-dms
Mike in NC - February 25, 2010 | 4:58 pm · Link
Thinking about Mary Matalin and “jamming it through” leaves one with a queasy feeling.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 4:59 pm · Link
@Corner Stone: Not only is she pissed at the R’s and calling them liars to their face, but she’s also pissed at Obama re: Public Option FAIL.
dmsilev - February 25, 2010 | 4:59 pm · Link
@mcc:
Just a single grimace on endless loop would come pretty close, and wouldn’t take much effort.
-dms
Ash Can - February 25, 2010 | 4:59 pm · Link
She’s smacking down some of the more egregious Republican lies. Good for her.
RareSanity - February 25, 2010 | 5:00 pm · Link
@Mike in NC:
I know.
Even more creepy is the fact that Carvell really likes it…
Mike E - February 25, 2010 | 5:02 pm · Link
@Mike in NC: There you go with that necrophilia theme again!
The thought of Skeletor and Witch Hazel doin’ it does give me pause.
Ash Can - February 25, 2010 | 5:02 pm · Link
I have to go fetch Bottle Rocket from school now, but it sure sounds like Obama’s wrapping things up by saying, “See, everyone? I told you the Republicans have nothing. Here’s the proof.”
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 5:06 pm · Link
@jenniebee: Hell, Republicans are simply angry that doctors and hospitals have to deal with poor and working class people at all, and women in general.
El Cid - February 25, 2010 | 5:08 pm · Link
OOOOO —Obama mentioned that Tort Reform didn’t happen under a Republican Preznit and Republican Congress.
Some Rethug said ‘we needed 60 votes in the Senate,’ and Obama said ‘See? See?’
And fuck your made up numbers, Joe Barton.
CalD - February 25, 2010 | 5:08 pm · Link
Are you suggesting that Dana Milbank has stopped fellating John McCain? Or just that he’s not doing it as regularly?
SRW1 - February 25, 2010 | 5:08 pm · Link
@Koz:
McCain probably thinks (with some justification) that he’d beat Obama today.
You mean like:
Terry: You don’t understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 5:11 pm · Link
@Mike in NC:
Think “wooden stake” and it eases your troubles.
Chris Johnson - February 25, 2010 | 5:13 pm · Link
Shepard Smith is interesting. I think he might be the one smart guy over there, and he reeks of John Cole Old School Republican.
THIS is Shepard Smith-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6gyCBBRv9g
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 5:14 pm · Link
I’m waiting for this to all end so I hope they show something – will the Republicans all pick up their stage prop phone book 27,000 page HCR bill BS? Or will they walk off and leave others to pick up their shit for them.
Corner Stone - February 25, 2010 | 5:22 pm · Link
@Corner Stone: Boehner did pick up his props! Holy shit!
Mnemosyne - February 25, 2010 | 5:29 pm · Link
@Corner Stone:
Of course he did—he doesn’t want to take a chance that some enterprising Dem aide would pick up the “bill” and discover that all he did was type “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over again.
Dave - February 25, 2010 | 6:11 pm · Link
@David Hunt:
Actually, since the joke itself was from so very long ago, it’s technically called a Richard Priaprism.
tyrese - February 25, 2010 | 6:40 pm · Link
Last week someone on I believe maddow called him the best political communicator of their lifetime.
I agree.
tyrese - February 25, 2010 | 7:05 pm · Link
LOL!
Can you smell what Barack is cooking!!
Jager - February 25, 2010 | 7:30 pm · Link
Lets see, I’ve just been told I have a virilent form of cancer, the first thing that pops into my mind is; “I have to start shopping for the Hospital and the Doctors that will give me the best “deal” on my treatment.” Prior to my radiation therapy, I’m negotiating with radiologists on price, while I need to start my chemo soon, I’m shopping for a low cost oncologist so I get the best price. See, I’m a smart medical consumer…what a crock of shit!
Matthew Hooper - February 25, 2010 | 9:12 pm · Link
@jenniebee: Unfortunately, they’re right. Insurance is a pretty lousy way of dealing with health care.
However, good luck getting single payer rammed through with a multibillion dollar industry blocking your way.
SIA - February 25, 2010 | 10:06 pm · Link
@dmsilev: I’m not sure if I imagined it, but it seemed like BO was subtly egging McCain on.