We can all blame Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer for giving Betsy McCaughey, Sarah Palin and the rest of the lunatic wing of the Republican Party their fodder for the biggest and most absurd summer episode surrounding health care reform: "death panels." Were it not for his totally wrong-headed and foolhardy notion to improve the quality of care for millions of Americans as part of the reform bill, the phrase might never have entered the political lexicon as it has.
Obviously I've got tongue in cheek to "blame" Earl for any of the subsequent madness that highlighted just how deep the crazy runs in parts of the GOP right now, and how poorly the media handled the entire episode, but the man himself offers a somewhat lighthearted up-fessing in Sunday's New York Times--perhaps an ironic display of column-inch gratitude via pillory, for Blumenauer indeed finds fault within:
The news media was a particular culprit in this drama. This was not just Fox News; seemingly all the national news organizations monitored any meetings they could find between lawmakers and constituents, looking for flare-ups, for YouTube moments. The meetings that involved thoughtful exchanges or even support for the proposals would never find their way on air; coverage was given only to the most outrageous behavior, furthering distorting the true picture.
My office quickly produced testimonials from 300 respected professionals and organizations to set the record straight. Articles followed about how Republicans themselves had supported such provisions. Sites like PolitiFact and Factcheck.org as well as national organizations like the AARP pushed back on the lies.
It didn’t matter. The “death panel” episode shows how the news media, after aiding and abetting falsehood, were unable to perform their traditional role of reporting the facts. By lavishing uncritical attention on the most exaggerated claims and extreme behavior, they unleashed something that the truth could not dispel.
I think there are some key points to highlight here that Blumenauer is savvy to catch: We all know that the media will gravitate towards controversy and conflict, but it is impossible for them to simultaneously blanket coverage with discussion of a false concept like death panels... and also try to weakly correct the record on the facts. Furthermore, it's not about Fox News specifically, although they're a prime and most ethically liberated example--all of the networks and cable news outlets operate in the same fashion.
Blumenauer also directs specific criticism at specific other Members of Congress, which seems rare in a non-campaign context:
There was a troubling new dynamic: People like Senator Chuck Grassley, a Iowa Republican, were now parroting these falsehoods in their town meetings and letting it drive their policy decisions. (Mr. Grassley: “We should not have a government program that determines if you’re going to pull the plug on Grandma.”) When the most extreme elements peddling false information can cow senior members of Congress into embracing their claims, it does not bode well for either policymaking or for the Republican Party.
ON Sept. 9, President Obama spoke about the health care reform plan to Congress. Although his speech was more thoughtful and less partisan than much of what I’ve seen from presidents in my years in Congress, it was greeted by the call of “You lie!” from a backbencher from South Carolina, Joe Wilson. The accusation came as President Obama was attempting to debunk the many myths about the health care bill; Mr. Wilson’s outburst was the culmination of the summer’s frenzy, of everything that my end-of-life provisions had unwittingly set in motion.
The resulting support from the right wing and the inability of Republican leadership to acknowledge Mr. Wilson’s behavior as crude, unprecedented and inappropriate is telling. The Republican Party has been taken captive by these tactics, the extremists and their own rhetoric.
Joe Wilson's an easy target and he's also in the same chamber as Blumenauer, so there's probably little risk in calling him out. Grassley is another matter, and while I have no problem with the direct aim taken at the way the Senator has conducted his official business, it's a direct challenge from one legislator to another that essentially says: this guy lied like a rug about my amendment.
And yet even so, the phrasing is curious: extreme elements of the party "cowed" Grassley into peddling fearmongering bullshit about HCR, as if he were a hungry bird. So too is Earl's conclusion oddly hopeful in the face of all past experience--even that ruefully detailed in this account: maybe somehow after all this Congress can still come together, and we can take care of the nation's problems as a united government. Ha! In a piece that might be subtitled, "Sorry for thinking the wackjob right wasn't capable of demonizing my harmless amendment," you wonder if he's actually learned the lesson.
We've been understandably focusing our attention on Sen. Wyden lately, because he's the biggest cipher in the health care debate and appears quite potentially willing to help deliver a disastrous, worse-than-nothing bill with individual purchase mandates but no public option.
Is that where he's headed? I guess we'll just have to wait see (unless he's answered one of the faxes you sent him last week--tell us about it!)...but his junior colleague Jeff Merkley has evinced no such confusion: the Senate HELP committee bill is already passed with his vote, and contains a relatively robust PO.
Since progressives have essentially banked his vote long ago, you might be wondering what the point is in going to one of Merkley's final town halls this week--just to pat him on the back and take up a chair? Well, yes, actually; both of those are also necessary functions of citizen involvement--the carrot move instead of the stick move, if you will.
Why is it important to show up if you already know Merkley's views? Because as the birthers, deathers and teabaggers have amply demonstrated this month, beyond the interpersonal communications in the room there is a broader narrative being driven at these things. The support/oppose balance is being watched, and also the mood of the crowd and any "fireworks" that crop up during the session.
So if you're a supporter of strong health care reform, it would help the cause if you'd advertise, so to speak. Show up at a meeting near you, be visibly (and politely audibly) in favor of robust fixes, maybe ask a question with an implict demand for real change, and give the Senator one more voice of support--for while we're confident Merkley will make the right call on any vote, there will still be intense pressure to accept various half loaves as they're half-baked by the reform killers and their centrist apologists. Lend Merkley some of your backbone in order to stand up to those pressures.
Heck, TJ, where ARE those meetings this week? Well, they're mostly in the eastern part of the state--where showing up as an advocate of reform is most important to the cause, as you may be outnumbered by wingnuts and the askeered group of otherwise well-meaning folks they've tainted. Here's the sked:
Wheeler County Town Hall
Wednesday September 2 - 5:30 pm
Morrow County Town Hall
Thursday September 3 - 10:00 am
Union County Town Hall
Thursday September 3 - 2:30 pm
Wallowa County Town Hall
Thursday September 3 - 7:00 pm
Baker County Town Hall
Friday September 4 - 11:00 am
Malheur County Town Hall
Friday September 4 - 5:30 pm (Mountain Time)
Grant County Town Hall
Saturday September 5 - 1:30 pm
Harney County Town Hall
Saturday September 5 - 5:00 pm
Lake County Town Hall
Sunday September 6 - 1:00 pm
Looks like Jeff will be needing that Congressional gas card this week!
In other health care news, below the fold I'll post some of the better sections of Wendell Potter's speech in Portland last Saturday. Potter is the former PR flack for CIGNA who has blown the whistle on his former industry in recent months; he starts with an apology reminiscient of Richard Clarke's after 9/11...link here, excerpts below. {more}
Hello, my name is Diana and I'm calling from Oregon.
I just wanted to let the SEIU know that America is watching the thug tactics that you folks are using at health care meetings and various other public places, and the absolutely thuggish violent tactics that your group is using.
I suggest you tell your people to calm down, act like American citizens and stop trying to repress people's First Amendment rights. That, or you all are gonna' come up against the Second Amendment.
Stop the violence.
To sum up, the teabagger/birther/deather set is apparently not only watching the thug tactics being used, but the ABSOLUTELY thuggish tactics, also, too. And SEIU is being sternly warned to stop the violence, else someone might be forced to, uh, start the violence again.
This started out almost funny in its patheticness, that the substantive value of the anti-reform argument is apparently reduced to infantile shouting at public events that amounts to "CHANGE MY DIAPER!" But when Congresspeople are hung in effigy, encouraged to commit suicide to "beat" cancer, offered poison in their wine, and depicted on their own tombstones, I stop laughing. We already know that some of these fucking nutjobs are not playing around; they're willing to shoot up Holocaust Museums and fitness gyms and quite literally shoot people to death. And when you put it together with the call to arms mentioned in the rest of Jed's post--a guy in New Mexico urging anti-reform people to bring their guns to these events--you're building to a cocktail of fear, hate and fanatacism that will only cause trouble and ultimately serious violence.
I think in the end these tactics will repel sensible Americans, and may in fact give true reform a boost by (deservedly) demonizing the opposition as unhinged and dangerous. But it's not going to be much of a celebration if it comes with a body count.
Change is not easy and people have a lot of questions about what Congress is considering. I would like the opportunity to talk with you about where we are in our efforts to reform health care to make sure you know what it would do for YOU. I would also like to answer your questions and hear your concerns. I am holding TWO Telephone Town Halls next week so that we can discuss what reform means for you and your family. I hope you will join either event on: - Tuesday, August 11th from 6-7pm - Friday, August 14th from 1-2pm If you want to join the Telephone Town Hall, sign up and BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR PHONE NUMBER so we can call you (the call will be free).
If you've been keeping one eye on the details of Gordon Smith's glorious career as Oregon's junion Senator, you may know that he's the proud owner of four golf clubs owned by King James in the 1500s...for the low low "I have lots of disposable income" price of $1.25mil. I guess there's good money in frozen peas, especially if you cut environmental corners along the way.
Here's Jeff Mapes to fill you in if you hadn't heard:
Smith has always been a true golf fanatic. He once paid $1.25 million for four really vintage golf clubs - including a putter owned by King James IV in 1504 - and can speak at passionate length about golfing in Scotland, having done so several times.
In 2005, Golf Digest reported that Smith's handicap was 8.2 - good enough to put him at 41st on their list of D.C. movers and shakers who play the game.
This year, Smith has disappeared from the list. He told the magazine he hasn't played enough to calculate his handicap. Smith "hasn't been hitting the links as much as he used to or would like to," his campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond, told me, adding that the senator is "just working too hard."
Ah yes, "working too hard to golf." Funny how things were going so well until Democrats took the majority, that nobody had to work all that much? Now it's a full time job just keeping up with all that annoying legislation and committee work those busybody Dems keep creating. But that's his excuse and he's sticking to it. Which does, however, raise a good question:
If he's working too hard to golf, what's he been working on?
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