Good thing we've got reporters to fact check these guys when they tell whoppers like this isn't it? Oh...nevermind. John King didn't bother. Rudy Giuliani claims that the Democrat who won the NY-23 Congressional district voted against the House health care bill. You'd think King would have known that not only did Bill Owens vote yes on the bill, he announced that he would vote for it ahead of time and as reported by TPM:
Rep. Bill Owens (D-NY) can be counted on as a "yes" in this weekend's expected vote on the House Democrats' health care bill, announcing his support in a press release.
"This legislation will reform the insurance industry and provide increased access to affordable healthcare without taxing healthcare benefits, cutting Medicare benefits or raising taxes on the middle class, and that is exactly the direction we need to go," said Owens. "There are still changes I would like to make, including raising the payroll exemption for small businesses, but like I said last week, there is a fundamental need for reform and we must act with a sense of urgency."
Owens won a narrow upset victory in this past Tuesday's NY-23 election, defeating the Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman who had opposed the bill, and picking up the seat for the Democrats. Owens's position here is in line with his prior statements at a debate held last week, shortly before the election.
So much for Rudy trying to sugar coat the results of Sarah-Barracuda and Dick Armey injecting themselves into that Congressional race.
KING: Let me ask you lastly about, you say you welcome Sarah Palin, you think she's good for the party. What about what happened in NY-23, where you had a candidate -- a moderate Republican candidate who had the endorsement of the party and then conservatives like Sarah Palin came in and said, no, not good enough, not good enough on taxes, not good enough on life, not good enough on these issues. Is that a good precedent for the party?
GIULIANI: Nope, that's not a good precedent for the party. And that's the way you can allow Democrats to win, even if the public has turned against them on certain things. I think in that particular case, I know that district. that's a district that is very concerned about Obama's health care. You can see the Democrat has voted against the Obama health care program. That's a district where we could elect a Republican if we get our act together and let's hope we don't repeat that too often because then we surely won't be a majority party.
KING: Mayor Rudy Giuliani, we appreciate your time today.
