Paul Testa's post about Obama's town hall meeting in New Hampshire mentioned Ezra Klein's interview with Sen. Johnny Isakson about advanced directives. We thought it was worth sharing more of Isakson's comments. Isakson's a conservative Republican from Georgia, and not one of those mavericky independent conservatives. But he says he can't figure out how a bipartisan initiative that encourages people to plan for (and share with their family) what kind of care they want if they are critically ill and incapacitated has become a partisan fight about government-run euthanasia. We were just about to post this when -- proving our point about his nonmaverickness -- we checked his website and saw his statement "denouncing" the White House for complementing him...Excerpts below:

First the interview:

How did this become a question of euthanasia?

I have no idea. I understand -- and you have to check this out -- I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin's web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You're putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don't know how that got so mixed up.

You're saying that this is not a question of government. It's for individuals.

It empowers you to be able to make decisions at a difficult time rather than having the government making them for you.

The policy here as I understand it is that Medicare would cover a counseling session with your doctor on end-of-life options.

Correct. And it's a voluntary deal.

Are there other costs? Parts of it I'm missing?

No. The problem you got is that there's so much swirling around about health care and people are taking bits and pieces out of this. This was thoroughly debated in the Senate committee. It's voluntary. Every state in America has an end-of-life directive or durable power of attorney provision. For the peace of mind of your children and your spouse as well as the comfort of knowing the government won't make these decisions, it's a very popular thing. Just not everybody's aware of it.

Then his office put out a statement: "Isakson Denounces White House Comments Connecting Him
To Terribly Flawed House Health Care Bill."  The version he supported in the Senate HELP committee, he says, "empowers the individual," but those House Democrats incentivized doctors...