Thank you to Jim Webb and Mark Warner, who both voted for the House “reconciliation” bill this afternoon, sending it back to the House of Representatives for final approval. Hopefully, the House will vote early this evening and send the “fixes” package to President Obama for his signature. With that, the year-long odyssey of health care reform will be finished, and we can move on to other, pressing business – the economy, immigration reform, clean energy/climate legislation, financial reform, etc.
There are so many examples of this phenomenon, it’s hard to know where to start. I’m talking about Democrats voting for a right-wing bill, then hoping that nobody remembers (or something) so they can use that same bill as a campaign issue against Republicans. Recent Virginia examples that leap to mind include: Democrats voting for – and Tim Kaine signing into law – the 2007 “transportation monstrosity” (including “abuser fees” and “regional taxation authorities”), which took that issue off the table for Democrats in the General Assembly elections that fall; Democrats voting for Bob McDonnell’s crappy budget this year, then hoping to run against McDonnell’s policies next year; Democrats voting for Bob Marshall’s crazy anti-“mandate” bill, then attempting to criticize Ken Cuccinelli’s constitutional challenge to mandates.
On that latter issue, a classic example came yesterday, as Democrats held a press conference in Richmond to denounced Cuccinelli’s anti-“mandate” lawsuit. The two featured speakers were Sen. Donald McEachin and Del. Jennifer McClellan (also a member of the DNC, a “superdelegate,” and vice chair of the DPVA). In McEachin’s case, that’s fine, as he voted against this horrible bill. The problem is with Jennifer McClellan, who – believe it or not – actually voted for the so-called “Health Care Freedom Act,” which declares “that a resident of the Commonwealth shall not be required to obtain or maintain a policy of individual insurance coverage.” In short, Del. McClellan spoke at the press conference yesterday denouncing HB 10, even though she voted for HB10. I’m confused.
By the way, Jennifer McClellan was not the only Democrat who voted for this horrible piece of legislation. The only reason I’m singling her out is that she was chosen to represent Democrats at a high-profile press conference denouncing that very same legislation. Does that make any sense to anyone? If so, I’d love to hear the explanation.
P.S. I forgot to mention earlier, the VA GOP Caucus posted about this first thing this morning, pointing to the difference on this issue between Jennifer McClellan and her husband, DPVA Executive Director Dave Mills. You see how this undercuts our messaging?
In the past 24 hours, several Republicans – Ken Cuccinelli, Bob McDonnell, Lawrence Verga, Feda Morton, etc. – have condemned acts of violence or threats of violence against Tom Perriello. For instance, Verga says, “If you disagree with him then don’t vote for him in November, but promoting and/or committing any act of violence toward him or his family should not and will not be tolerated.” Cuccinelli called the posting of Perriello’s brother’s address, “appalling,” adding, “I think that is way over the line. I don’t think it’s even close.” And Bob McDonnell chimed in as well: “I certainly condemn anybody using any acts of vandalism or violence to express their opinion…That’s not the way we do business in Virginia.”
While his organization doesn’t condone such behavior, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere said Perriello is not the victim.
“Central and Southside Virginians are the ones who are going to have the bear the burden of increased taxes,” he said. “What you’re seeing is a frustration among his constituents who believe he’s not listening to them.”
That’s right, according to the NRCC spokesman, threats of violence (and worse) against his family are actually Tom Perriello’s fault because he had the audacity to vote for health care reform. In other words, the NRCC spokesman is arguing, in America if you disagree with a policy of your government or a vote by your duly elected representative, the recourse is not the “ballot box” but the metaphorical “bullet box.” So, Republicans, which is it going to be: are you going to unequivocally condemn violence and incitement to violence, or are you going to condone it and end up with blood on your hands? It’s your choice.
P.S. Just to be clear, I absolutely and strongly condemn ANY violence or threats of violence against ANYONE in politics (or otherwise), whether they are people on the left making threats against George W. Bush (or other Republican candidates or elected officials) or people on the right making threats against Barack Obama (or other Democratic candidates or elected officials). Having said that, can anyone recall an equivalent back in the Reagan or Bush days to what’s going on now, with high-ranking Democratic officials condoning or even advocating violence against Reagan or Bush? I can’t.
UPDATE: NotAndySere writes about Sen. Robert Hurt’s shameful, cowardly, inexcusable silence.
A day after all of the Charlottesville area candidates managed to come out against threats of violence, where is Robert Hurt? Is Hurt too busy fundraising at the end of the financial quarter to make a statement? Is he too worried about coming out in opposition to the antics of the Danville Tea Party, which have been condemned by the local paper? Is this just how they do things down in Southside? Or maybe Hurt’s going to let a spokesman explain everything for us because he’s too afraid to do anything on his own?
UPDATE #2: Tom Perriello talks on CNN about these threats.
UPDATE #3: Andy Sere is completely wrong on the substance of his charge that “Central and Southside Virginians are the ones who are going to have the bear the burden of increased taxes.” In fact, according to the Census Bureau, only 6.1% of Virginia households make more than $200,000 per year, and obviously an even smaller share make $250,000 per year, which is the threshold for paying higher taxes under this legislation. In addition, median income in the 5th CD is significantly lower than in Virginia as whole. The bottom line is that we’re talking about maybe 2% or 3% of 5th CD households facing tax increases, while 97%-98% of 5th CD households receive subsidies, tax cuts, and the many other benefits (on pre-existing conditions, closing the “donut hole,” etc.) this legislation offers. Also see this fact sheet, which notes, “There are 183,000 households in the district that could qualify for these credits if they purchase health insurance through the exchange or, in the case of households with incomes below 133% of poverty, receive coverage through Medicaid.”
UPDATE 3a: It’s also worth pointing out that over 50% of those households are in Albemarle and Charlottesville, so the tax effect on Southside and other (comparatively) economically-distressed areas of the 5th is even LESS significant…than the 1%-2% of the district as a whole. Probably down to 0.5% or so of households outside of Albemarle and C-ville.
UPDATE #4: Actually, it turns out that only 2.3% of 5th CD households earn over $200,000 per year. I don’t see the statistics, but obviously, an even lower percentage earns more than $250,000 per year, the threshold for paying higher taxes under the new health care reform law. So, we’re talking about 1%-2% of (the wealthiest) 5th CD residents facing higher taxes, 98%-99% seeing the same or lower taxes (plus all the other benefits of health care reform). Sere is simply wrong.
UPDATE #5: Virgil Goode also condones the threats and illegality against Tom Perriello, saying “that’s just part of being a public official.”
House Republicans and Right Wing extremists are completely out of control and are now justifying and validating dangerous new levels of violence. This is exactly the type of extremist and despicable behavior that turns off independents and just about everyone else. Given the current threats against House Democrats and their families, House Minority Leader John Boehner and NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions must apologize immediately for this disgraceful comment from their own ranks.
Deplorable as it is, we’re not going to allow Tom Perriello to use one isolated incident as a cynical ploy to distract Virginians from the higher taxes and Medicare cuts he just imposed on them. Thousands of Rep. Perriello’s constituents have legitimately expressed their frustration with him via letters, rallies and town hall meetings, and we will always support their right to do so.
Amazing. As if anyone is against peoples’ rights to peaceful protest against policies they disagree with. What we ARE against is violence and threats of violence. What about that doesn’t Andy Sere understand? Or, does he understand it perfectly well and simply agree with it?
UPDATE #8: Eric Cantor somehow manages to blame Tim Kaine and Chris Van Hollen “for ‘dangerously fanning the flames’ by using threats against Dem lwmkrs as a ‘political weapon.'”
UPDATE #9: Robert Hurt tweets, “I condemn the vandalism that occurred at Rep. Perriello’s brother’s home and any other attacks that have taken place across the country.”
Review time — the number of Virginians who voted to elect:
Barack Obama & Joe Biden: 1,959,532
Bob McDonnell & Ken Cuccinelli (avg): 1,141,426
In other words, 72% more Virginians voted for Obama/Biden than voted for McDonnell/Cuccinelli. Let’s keep that in mind the next time someone claims to speak for Virginians.
What’s that you say? A lieutenant governor? Yeah, I remember hearing something about that last November too, but I haven’t heard a word since then.
Tim Kaine has issued a strong statement calling on Republicans “to tone down their over the top rhetoric and tactics and to condemn the deplorable behavior of their supporters which has included the vandalizing of Congressional offices and threats on Democratic Members of Congress who voted in favor of health insurance reform.” Kaine concludes:
The Republican National Committee has followed up its infamous fundraising presentation with a new fundraising appeal that shows the Speaker of the House aflame online. The RNC’s Chairman has said that the Speaker should be put before a firing squad and vehemently defended Rep. Boehner’s characterization of the passage of health insurance reform as ‘Armageddon.’
It is no coincidence that we now have reports that Democratic Congressional offices have been vandalized, Democratic Members of Congress have received threats and been subject to racial epithets and homophobic slurs, and a gas line was cut at what was thought to be the home of a Democratic Member of Congress after the address was posted online and tea partiers were encouraged to intimidate the Congressman.
These now cannot be brushed off as isolated incidents.
It is no longer enough for Republicans to characterize threats and incidents of vandalism as isolated. It is no longer enough for Republicans to blame these events on outsiders.
Republican leaders must disassociate themselves from this deplorable behavior, they must condemn these acts decisively and, most importantly, they must tone down their own tactics and rhetoric to set a better example for their supporters and the country. I call on them to do so.
The point is, Republicans are stoking this anger, fanning the flames, and implicitly (or even explicitly) encouraging their supporters to resort to violence. Unfortunately, as Timothy Egan writes in this morning’s New York Times, the Republican Party has become “the party of the hissy fit,” the home for “rage-filled partisans with spittle on their lips…tying their fate to a fringe, one that includes a small faction of overt racists and unstable people.” On one level, that’s fine, if Republicans want to write themselves off as a serious political party in America. Make our day! On another level, though, what the Republicans are doing here is completely unacceptable, bordering on illegal (incitement to violence?); “playing with fire,” as Egan writes.
Sadly, this once-great political party has deteriorated from the sensible, serious centrism of Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, and many others (e.g., Bob Dole in his pre-presidential-nominee days, George HW Bush in his “voodoo economics” days). Just as sadly, this once-great political party has declined from the serious intellectual foundations laid down by people like William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater to the blow-dried idiocy of Eric Cantor, the “get-off-my-lawn!!!” rage of John Boehner, and the know-nothingism of Sarah Palin. Last but not least, this once-great political party has morphed from the “sunny optimism, and at times bipartisan bonhomie” of Ronald Reagan to the “red-faced, frothing” (as Egan puts it), pessimistic, fear-and-loathing driven “Party of No” we see today.
The consequences of this Republican implosion, which not coincidentally has taken place in the aftermath of our country electing its first African American president, are almost certainly not going to be positive. Here in Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli is one manifestation; as E.J. Dionne writes, Cuccinelli and his allies “want to resurrect states’ rights doctrines discredited by President Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis of the 1830s and buried by the Civil War.” Perhaps they even want to fight another Civil War. Who knows? But the bottom line is that, as Anne Applebaum writes in this morning’s Washington Post, if all Republicans are going to do is “scream ‘communist’ and ‘fascist’ at our democratically elected president– thereby achieving nothing at all — then I want nothing to do with them.” Nor should any of us.
“Those lawyers that are going to be working on this lawsuit are going to be using their time, which is what we pay them to do to work for the state of Virginia on a frivolous action, when they could be tracking down bad predatory lenders, they could be taking aim at internet predators, they’re going to be engaged in a lawsuit that is doomed to failure…”
All of Virginia – and much of the country – now knows that we have elected, not a conservative, but a radical to be our Attorney General. It is already clear that Ken Cuccinelli does not have a mainstream, sensible, moderate bone in his body. No, this man is determined to twist our government into a tool to realize the most extreme right-wing fantasies that only the looniest Tea Partier could ever dream up. After only two months in office, General Cooch has:
– Attacked the integrity of science and the necessity of environmental action by legally challenging the US EPA’s finding that climate change represents a threat to human health;
– Attempted to reverse decades of American progress against discrimination by threatening Virginia colleges and universities that they have no right to enact policies of anti-discrimination against gays;
– Challenged the power of the Federal government to make our health care system work for people rather than insurance companies, by suing the Obama administration over the constitionality of the just-signed health care reform act.
There’s no question that this guy is nuts and will do all he can to make Virginia the laughing stock of the world. The only question left for me is: HOW DO WE FIGHT HIM.
We must do all we can to fight this tinfoil hat tyrant in order to:
– Limit the damage he causes – and the waste of our tax dollars at a time of budget crisis;
– Show the world that Virginia is full of good, sane people – and that we are not some clueless, backwards, Tea Party haven that no cutting-edge business or hip individual would ever want to move to;
– Get our leaders energized to stand up for their consituents; and
– Constructively channel our anger and frustration into peaceful, effective action.
So I am planning a series of posts on the best ways to fight the Cuccinsanity.
Today starts with a bow to Virginia Democratic leaders who per the Richmond-Times dispatch have filed a Freedom of Information Act request to demand that the Attorney General reveal how much of Virginia taxpayers’ money is being wasted on the health care lawsuit, including:
• records of Cuccinelli and the attorney general’s office staff in preparing the suit;
• records of costs to taxpayers of staff work on the lawsuit;
• a list of conference calls or written correspondence that the attorney general’s office had with other states’ attorneys general or any national conservative groups in planning the lawsuit;
• the names of any outside firms contracted to assist on the lawsuit;
• and the attorney general’s full schedule since taking office.
As citizens of this state, we have a full right to know how much of our hard-earned money General Cooch is wasting on frivilous lawsuits. Therefore, please contact your state Delegates and Senators to demand that they keep the pressure on the Attorney General to account for every penny he is spending on this nonsense — until we can put an end to it.
Also please sign the Democratic party petition here that reads:
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against the federal government, this time challenging federal health care reform legislation.
We, the people of Virginia, call on Attorney General Cuccinelli to stop wasting our tax dollars on his personal political agenda.
Every year, we pay Attorney General Cuccinelli’s salary — and the salaries of all of his employees. We demand that the Cuccinelli recognize that the Office of the Attorney General is our law firm, not the piggy bank for his political agenda.
We call on the Attorney General to focus on the issues that face Virginians every day — such as rising utility costs, home foreclosures, and predatory loans — rather than filing frivolous lawsuits against the federal government.
Remember that General Cooch is taking all of these steps in your name and with your tax dollars. It is therefore your responsibility to fight him – and stop his crazy schemes before they go any farther. Act today!
At least one prominent, national Republican understands why health reform requires that everybody have insurance. Thank you, Mitt Romney! Well, sort of. Watch the video and see for yourself.
Followers of The Daily Show know that Jon Stewart has been going after (to put it kindly) the Wall Street geniusesleadersscum bags crooks who had a major hand in the recent financial crisis and then got a major hand out from us. All because they were too big to fail or some such nonsense. Or maybe it was because no one got the number of the bus that just hit us so we had to take their word for it.
Anyhow, Jon transforms himself into a corporation to describe how we, the people, have been screwed. Technically this piece is called “In Dodd We Trust” as it begins with Senator Dodd’s efforts to put some new financial regulations in place. But stick around for the “Jonco” explanation of big business. It’s worth the wait.
Thank you to Jim Webb and Mark Warner, who both voted for the House “reconciliation” bill this afternoon, sending it back to the House of Representatives for final approval. Hopefully, the House will vote early this evening and send the “fixes” package to President Obama for his signature. With that, the year-long odyssey of health care reform will be finished, and we can move on to other, pressing business – the economy, immigration reform, clean energy/climate legislation, financial reform, etc.
There are so many examples of this phenomenon, it’s hard to know where to start. I’m talking about Democrats voting for a right-wing bill, then hoping that nobody remembers (or something) so they can use that same bill as a campaign issue against Republicans. Recent Virginia examples that leap to mind include: Democrats voting for – and Tim Kaine signing into law – the 2007 “transportation monstrosity” (including “abuser fees” and “regional taxation authorities”), which took that issue off the table for Democrats in the General Assembly elections that fall; Democrats voting for 
In the past 24 hours, several Republicans – Ken Cuccinelli, Bob McDonnell, 
