Pounding The Podium

Most of you who know me know that I have heart issues, that being the case I don’t watch C-Span    too much.  But tonight with the Abortion amendment and the Health care bill going up for a vote, I just could not help myself.

Soooo, what do I see – the attack of the weasel’s.  If you watched Cspan or have the misfortune to be represented by him, Bruce Brailey D in Iowa is pictured to the left.  Old Bruce gave an impassioned speech about how bad the Republican bill was because it did not address “Patient Safety” and he talked at length about how important patient safety was – heck he even held up books to prove his point.  What you didn’t hear Bruce talk about was ‘tort reform’, which is something that you may have heard a lot more about than patient safety.  Why no tort reform?  It is estimated that tort reform could have a huge impact on the deficit, reducing it by BILLIONS of dollars.  I just can’t understand why Bruce would not be in favor of it…that is until I look at his campaign contributions.

It seems that Lawyers and Law Firms like our boy Bruce..  a lot!  $168,000 plus!  Of course this could have something to do with the fact that he was a trial lawyer and head of a trial lawyers association, and who benefits from a lack of tort reform??  Your right, trial lawyers!

Making him even more lovable is his rating by the Right to Life association of ‘0′ and his rating of “F” by the National Taxpayers Union.  You can review his statistics and standings at these two sites:

http://www.votesmart.org

http://www.opensecrets.org

I’ve printed out his list of contributors below for your review.

It was rather bizarre to watch President Obama’s initial reaction to the Fort Hood tragedy.  Not only did he give a shout out to a Congressional Medal of Honor winner who wasn’t (see the story elsewhere on this blog) but he also made reference to the pending Health Care legislation before speaking about the deaths.

Critics say that through both the tone and brevity of his remarks, Obama “did not appreciate the gravity of what he represents,” said Brad Blakeman, former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush

“It was uncomfortable to watch,” he said of Obama’s comments on Thursday.

“He should have begun his official remarks with the tragedy. The fact that he used colloquialisms like “shout out” — and was so cavalier at the beginning of his remarks — was a reflection of his inability to be presidential,” said Blakeman, though he stressed Obama’s comments were not “ill-intended.”

“He’s not comfortable enough in his role yet,” he said.

Blakeman cited the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, during which Bush was roundly criticized for his immediate reaction to the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Critics blasted Bush, who was visiting a Florida elementary school, for waiting seven minutes to excuse himself from a classroom of students after then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told him a second hijacked jetliner had hit the World Trade Center.

“He didn’t have all the information to make a statement,” Blakeman said in Bush’s defense.

If you watch Hannity, odds are you have been driven crazy by Bob Beckel, who consider’s Obama the most brilliant president since FDR – and the most fisically responsible – Hookay.

But others, like Democratic strategist Bob Beckel, whoo managed Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign, said Obama handled the Fort Hood tragedy with the right presidential instincts.

“He was eloquent in how he talked about it,” said Beckel. “It was a difficult situation.”

Beckel blasted conservative critics, saying, “Republicans would criticize Obama on how he took a shower in the morning.” Probably not, but God knows the Main Street Media would LOVE a video of it that they could publish to futher prove their unmitigated love for the ONE.

“This is a guy who went to Delaware to see bodies brought back from Afghanistan,” demonstrating a compassion for fallen soldiers and their families that Bush lacked, he said.”  What???  Bush lacked?  Maybe Bush didn’t view visits to the families of fallen soldiers ‘photo ops’ Bob – you giagantic boob.  And what about the fact that Bush made the trip to Fort Hood ahead of Obama but with a lot less publicity?

The sad fact of this matter is that for all the left’s talk about Obama’s cereberlism and charm and book writing ability and overall brilliance he cannot seem to get out of his own way.  Perhaps it is all the focus on “me, me, me” that is so troubling as in his saying “I want all of you to know that as commander in chief that there is no greater honor but also no greater responsibility for me than to make sure that the extraordinary men and women in uniform are properly cared for…”

You would think that with all the Czars or advisors or prophets or whatever you want to call them that President Obama surrounds himself with that someone would give him some clue as to how to act.  Admittedly it is a lot tougher to act “Presidential” off the cuff that with the friendly teleprompter providing guidance, but the additional five minutes wait that would have ensuied from telling the President what to say would have been time well spent.

For more on this story see:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/06/obamas-response-fort-hood-shooting-scrutiny/

It just doesn’t get any better than this.  Only hours removed from Democrats, Liberals and Progressives of all stripes prophesying doom for the Republican party due to it’s infighting and ‘civil war’, after hearing little known democratic strategist after little known democratic strategist harping about “What happened to your big tent Republicans?”   We now have the following:

Obama Supporters MoveOn.Org Promises To Punish Dems Voting Against Health Plan (Fox News / AP)

And it starts out with the words “A civil war is threatening to erupt within the Democratic Party as liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org looks to punish moderate Democrats opposed to the sweeping health care overhaul proposed by party leaders.

MoveOn has reportedly raised more than $3.5 million in contributions to fund primary challenges against “any Democratic senator who blocks an up-or-down vote on health care reform with a public option,” according to an e-mail sent to group members on Thursday.

The e-mail warned that any Democratic House member who joins Republicans to filibuster the health care reform measure will “face an enormous backlash from the grassroots.”

Hmmm, that sounds an awfully lot like what the Democrats were just accusing the Republicans of, didn’t Robert Gibbs say the other day that ‘I think many in the Republican Party hung out a sign, as you heard people at the White House say this weekend, that moderates need not apply”  So what now Robert, are you guys hanging out the same sign for the Blue Dogs?

It is rather funny that so many people are scared to death of 2010 and the labels that might come back to bite them in the posterior.  If you read my article on Alan Grayson, you can see how he no longer calls himself a Democrat, but now skipping right past the ‘liberal’ label he is a Progressive.  Rather than calling himself  “A Democrat with Guts” he is remarketing himself as “A Congressman with Guts” maybe he is hoping that people will forget he is a Democrat, who knows.

But after watching the races this week, how many Democrats in both the House and Senate will be willing to ‘walk the plank’ for Obama, after seeing their President after successive campaign appearances being unable to move an incumbants poll numbers one measly point?  Doesn’t bode well does it?  It sure seems like the voters are already tired of being told Bush is to blame for everything but the weather (and no doubt some Progressives blame him for that) how much more tired to you think they will be a year from now?  Remember also, unemployement was under 10% on Tuesday.