Much Ado

Although I had hoped—perhaps naively—that yesterday’s healthcare summit at Blair House would yield actual results in terms of breaking the current congressional deadlock between Democrats and Republicans, the conduct of the latter was often marked by talking points repeated ad nauseum in an effort to grind reform to a halt.

Particularly lame were Eric Cantor and John Boehner hiding behind their symbolic stacks of paper, and droning on about how the current Senate bill must be scrapped and begun again – which is just code for shelving healthcare as an issue entirely, and burying it in committee until the year of 2061 A.D.

Recall that while under GOP control, the party had countless opportunities to push for substantial health reform measures yet failed to do so. Thus, were Republicans to re-assume control of Congress this fall there’s no reason to believe they won’t do so again – paying lip service to reform with the actual intention of doing nothing.

Also, it was fun to watch Republicans at yesterday’s summit—particularly John McCain—quake in their proverbial boots regarding the notion of Congressional Dems using reconciliation to pass reform by a popular vote when the GOP has used the measure several times themselves. Watching McCain grouse about the recklessness of such a move by Democrats was pretty pathetic, as Barack Obama himself noted in so many words.

Jerry Falwell Lives On

Click here for a revealing confrontation at CPAC last week between anti-gay conservative Ryan Sorba (member of the very fascist-sounding "California Young Americans for Freedom" - see his CPAC speech here), and a gay Republican who later called him out on his crap.

The way in which Sorba’s “natural law” argument versus homosexuality is dismantled is beautiful.

Hat Tip: DFTCW.

Jesus Reads

Vis-à-vis DFTCW, the following piece may have some liberals alarmed, but despite my opposition to issues like organized school prayer I’m not among them. Or at least as long as “Bible As Lit” coursework in public schools is not mandatory.

Lots of colleges and public universities offer similar curricula in their English Departments as a great deal of period American and British literature is riddled with Biblical allusions and symbolism.

So IMO, this is all much ado about nothing.

Et Tu Mittens?

Former MA Governor Mitt Romney never fails to confuse me.

On one hand at today’s CPAC Convention, he railed against the evils of “Obamacare” and lauded Scott Brown for stopping in its tracks while in 2006 Romney signed off on a state healthcare bill that is equal to (or more stringent) than anything Obama has proposed for reform on the national level.

The Massachusetts plan has also proven very popular in-state, and enjoys support from Scott Brown.

So to Mr. Romney, I must ask why health reforms you helped pass in Massachusetts are now insufficient for the rest of the nation (except Hawaii)?

Doubling Down

When Sarah Palin says the following regarding the Teabaggers (in their myriad forms)…

“[The] Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’."

…she is absolutely wrong.

The Teabaggers don’t have to back an organized party, and would be foolish to do so as they so loudly claim to be unconnected to Republicans or Democrats. And no matter if one believes this ideal to be sincere or not, were any mainstream branch of the Teabagger movement to officially back one party, it would probably lead to in-fighting over purity of message.

However, what Palin and RNC Chair Michael Steele are doing this week to romance the Teabaggers is politically savvy from the GOP’s position as the last thing they want is for them form a third party and siphon off votes from the Republican ticket. Yet the GOP getting in bed with the Teabaggers also runs a risk of marrying a movement which could easily implode—and likely will—as soon as it sprang up.

Thus, either way such a relationship would be highly risky for both participants.