After defeating President Clinton's health reform effort in 1993,
Republicans achieved a stunning victory that ended 40 years of
Democratic control of Congress. And so it's easy to see why most
congressional Republicans are convinced that there is no advantage in
working constructively with President Obama now.
My guess is that Van Jones and Bob McDonnell aren't the closest of friends. One is an African-American activist from the progressive left, who's spent much of his adult life in inner-city Oakland fighting The Man; the other is a white middle-aged pro-life Catholic Republican, who has long represented The Man in the deep-red Sunbelt suburbs of Virginia. But I'd recommend that Jones and McDonnell get in touch.
This past week, the straight-talking John McCain the media knows and loves made a conspicuous comeback. On Face the Nation, McCain struck a decidedly post-partisan note, praising the late Senator Kennedy before sharply contradicting fellow Republican Dick Cheney on torture. After a punishing defeat at the hands of Barack Obama, McCain seems to have regained his stature and his reputation for independence. He's had more media exposure than any other leading Republican, certainly far more than John Kerry in 2005… more
Huntington's disease is unusually cruel. Symptoms tend to emerge in
early middle age. One's cognitive functions waste away until dementia
sets in, and victims are extremely vulnerable to heart disease,
physical injury and suicidal depression. Indeed, according to one
study, as many as 27% of sufferers attempt suicide. The condition is
also highly predictable. If you have one parent with Huntington's
disease, you have a 50% chance of inheriting it.
Why are Republicans rushing to oppose co-ops? In the New York Times,
Robert Pear and Gardiner Harris describe the vagueness of the various
co-op proposal floating around the moment before ending on a
discouraging note.
"Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said he saw the
differences as more semantic than substantive. "You can call it a
co-op, which is another way of saying a government plan," Mr. Hatch
said."
Joining us with their take are Reihan Salam, from the New American Foundation, and Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American ...
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The right is coming back. Inevitably, it's a messy and even ugly process, one that involves fear-mongering and utter falsehoods as well as legitimate concerns and old-fashioned righteous indignation. The Obama White House and left-leaning media outlets are focusing on the "nonsense feedback loop," the fears of "death panels," the outrage of Birthers--all of the outré untruths you'll hear raised at congressional town brawls.
