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Open Thread below...
November 21, 2009 C-SPAN
Senators Hatch and Brownback preaching the evils of abortion during the Senate health care debate.
Heather: The GOP does always love the fetus until its old enough to be cannon fodder, don't they? When these people finally have the same sense of moral outrage over those they send to die in useless wars rather than wanting to control women and send them back to the 1950's, maybe any of us can take their feigned outrage seriously.
Hooboy. Did you hear about the neocon stenographers...er, national paper of record that printed an op-ed that might have as well been written by Dick Cheney himself? In a jingoistic and highly questionably-sourced article, WaPo's Fred Hiatt basically insisted that torturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammad worked, damnit! And of course, the big Dick himself, Darth Cheney will be on Fox News to reinforce what a smart and wonderful thing torture is. And Princess Darth, Liz Cheney, will be on This Week's roundtable to reinforce it. Meanwhile, the legacy of Ted Kennedy will be still on everyone's mind too. Meet the Press, This Week and State of the Union will immerse themselves in the life and life's work of Kennedy. Any bets on how fast some GOPer (Orrin Hatch, I'm looking at you) will bemoan EMK's death as the end of the hope of bipartisanship on health care reform?
ABC's "This Week" - Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and John Kerry, D-Mass.
CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Hatch; Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Michael Eric Dyson, sociology professor at Georgetown University.
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Kerry; Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Maria Shriver, nieces of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy; Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian; former Kennedy adviser Bob Shrum.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Howard Fineman, Michele Norris, Andrea Mitchell, Bill Plante. Topics: Has television forever altered American politics and changed history? Chris Matthews's special personal reflections on Senator Edward Kennedy. Meter Questions: Will outspoken fringe players dominate GOP for the rest of Obama's term? YES: 9 NO: 3; If unemployment is still high next year, will Obama revise his tax proposals? YES: 11 No: 1.
CNN's "State of the Union" - Hatch; Dodd; Red Sox president Larry Lucchino; Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill III; environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of Sen. Kennedy; Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, once a Kennedy aide; Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Mary Landrieu, D-La.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - An encore presentation of Fareed's Emmy nominated interview with China's Premier Wen Jiabao.
"Fox News Sunday" - Former Vice President Dick Cheney.
So, what's catching your eye this morning.
Rachel Maddow on the Republicans attempt at revisionist history that Ted Kennedy would have been all about compromising to the point of making it a lousy bill just to get something passed on health care reform.
Maddow: In other words if only Ted Kennedy were still here. If only he had a health care bill those Republicans say they would have voted for that. You know, ah, Ted Kennedy did have a health care bill. Senator Kennedy was chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee which approved a health care reform package in July. It's called the Kennedy bill. And Senator Kennedy, helped write that bill. Senators Hatch, and McCain and Gregg, all voted against it. But the revisionist history goes even deeper. They aren't just saying they would have voted for a Kennedy health care bill, even though they had the chance and they didn't.
They're saying they would have voted for a Kennedy health care bill because Ted Kennedy would have compromised with them, because Ted Kennedy was all about making concessions to Republicans.
[.....]
Apparently in the history of Ted Kennedy's life and work as imagined by the GOP today Senator Kennedy was the great compromiser. Ready to water down health care reform in order to bring Republicans on board.
As Rachel notes, Kennedy was anything but that. And to add to Rachel's point, here's a little mash up of some of the "news" coverage from today calling for "Kennedy-like" bipartisanship.
Later in her show Rachel gave some kudos to friend of the site Bob Cesca for his column at the HuffPo titled, Healthcare Reform Named After Ted Kennedy Must Not Suck. If there's one point to get across with all this yapping about what Senator Kennedy would have or would not have done to reform our health care system, I agree with Rachel that Bob's very simple, yet honest statement hits the nail on the head. Bipartisanship be damned if it means passing a lousy piece of legislation, and do not put Senator Kennedy's name on it if that's what we're going to end up with.
Here's a recap in video of Judge Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation hearing from Monday just in case you missed it. Don't forget to check C&L's Video Cafe on a daily basis because the team is posting a ton of videos there that we don't front page.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor Introduces Her Family Members
Senator Hatch Opening Statements Judge Sonia Sotomayor Hearing
Senator Feinstein Interrupted By Protester Judge Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing
Senator Sessions Opening Statements Judge Sonia Sotomayor Hearing
Judge Sotomayor No Republican Would Have Picked You! Senator Lindsey Graham
Senator Russ Feingold Defines "Judicial Activist" Judge Sonia Sotomayor Hearing
Jeff Sessions oblivious to the irony of calling Sotomayor 'prejudiced'
Stephen Colbert noticed last night that, when President Obama said he would look for someone with "empathy" to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court, the meme on the lips of all the Villagers (including Orrin Hatch) was that "empathy" was "code" for something -- most often "activist judges."
Wait -- isn't "activist judges" itself just code for "judges who don't rule the way wingnuts want"? Oh well.
In any event, Colbert manages to decode -- via a detour into the Star Trek universe -- the TRUE meaning of that invidious and insidious code word, "Empathy", which produces the anagrams "Meth Pay," "Ape Myth," and "Ham Type":
Which clearly means Obama plans to appoint a drug-addled evolutionist with swine flu.
Sounds as reasonable as anything we've heard from the Village.
