July 16, 2009

7/16: With Dems Like These...

As has so often been the case during the past six months, liberal bloggers are criticizing congressional Dems for opposing elements of Pres. Obama's agenda. Today the netroots are angry that Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR) and his fellow Blue Dog Dems are threatening to block the House Dems' health care reform bill. Lefty bloggers are complaining that Ross's criticisms of the bill are "inconsistent" and amount to a "mess of contradictions". Liberal bloggers are also criticizing Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Sen. Ben Nelson for opposing the bill's proposed income tax surcharge on the wealthy. On the other side of the political spectrum, Michelle Malkin is urging her readers to call Blue Dog Dems and give them some encouragement.

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Liberal bloggers (Beutler, Benen, Black) are criticizing the Associated Press for repeatedly claiming that the House Dems' health care bill will cost $1.5T -- a figure that is based on an anonymous Dem aide's estimate rather than the official CBO estimate (which is $1T).
• Conservative bloggers (Geraghty, Erickson) are complaining about SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor's answers to the questions that GOP senators are asking her. However, most righty bloggers (Morrissey, Hawkins, Mirengoff) expect Sotomayor to be confirmed.
• Malkin is unhappy that Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) appears to be running for Senate, calling it "bad news for fiscal conservatives who reject the global warming cult of Al Gore." Meanwhile, fellow conservative blogger Matt Lewis thinks Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) is off to a very poor start in her campaign to challenge TX Gov. Rick Perry (R).
• Although liberal bloggers expressed concerns about Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-NY) centrist voting record when she was first appointed to the Senate, they're now praising her for taking progressive positions on gay rights and health care reform.
• Liberal bloggers (Lewison, watertiger) are criticizing SC Gov. Mark Sanford (R) for skipping state meetings in order to take a personal trip with his wife.
• Liberal bloggers (Lewison, Aravosis, Benen) are enjoying the back-and-forth between the Obama admin. and Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and John McCain (R-AZ) over stimulus spending. Conservative bloggers are pushing back the Obama admin.'s arguments.

HEALTH CARE REFORM: Bloggers Vs. Blue Dogs

Liberal bloggers are criticizing the arguments being made by Ross and his fellow Blue Dogs who are threatening to block the House Dems' health care reform bill:

• Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias: "[The Blue Dogs are] concerned that the bill (a) costs too much overall and (b) will increase the deficit. And their proposed solutions to this are to (a) increase the cost of the bill by neutering the public plan and (b) decrease the quantity of revenue by fiddling with the employer mandate. Under the circumstances, it's no wonder that Ross didn't want to go into detail with CNN about how he'd propose changing the bill. Maybe Harry Potter knows a spell that could untie this mess of contradictions."
• dday: "[The Blue Dogs' argument] is inconsistent. You cannot control costs in the health care system while demanding higher payments to rural doctors and hospitals. I wonder if anyone has pointed that out. The same with the mandates on small businesses. House Democratic leaders actually exempted small businesses from the employer mandate with a higher amount of payroll than what was initially in their discussion draft -- up to $250,000. But the Blue Dogs want larger small businesses to be exempted as well. That means less money in the system, because businesses would pay 8% of payroll for each employee if they don't provide health care. So the Blue Dogs want both cost controls, less cost controls, and more targeted health spending. It's not supposed to make any sense."

Meanwhile, Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas complains that Rep. Polis "is shaping up to be a serious pain in the ass," now that Polis is circulating a draft letter among freshman Dems expressing opposition to the bill's $544B income tax surcharge on the wealthy. Liberal bloggers (Chait, Yglesias, Klein) are also criticizing Sen. Nelson for opposing the tax surcharge proposal.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Protestant Rebellion That Wasn't

The Atlantic's Matthew Cooper:

"A few commentators haven noted that if Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed, she'll be the sixth Catholic to sit on the court. There will be two Jews and one Protestant. That this is a total non-issue says so much about the country, how it's changed and our notions of diversity. Anti-Catholicism was a mainstay of American life for so long. One need only recall the 1960 presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy and his assurances that he wouldn't take orders from the Pope and contrast it with that of John F. Kerry who, in 2004, had to address windsurfing more than his religion. So it's remarkable that today this is not an issue. No Protestant group lobbied for another WASP on the court. It just worked out that six Catholics wound up on the bench, not by design but by the organic choices of multiple presidents."

LEST WE FORGET: Bad Times

From FMyLife.com:

• Today, the dentist sneezed in my mouth. FML.
• Today, while I was working as a waitress, I had to wait on a table of 13 people. I was struggling through it and when they finally left I went by the table to pick up my tip. Instead of money I got a napkin saying "Here's your tip, don't be a waitress." FML.
• Today, I went to the pool. When I hit the water the top of my swimsuit came off so I tried to put it on underwater. The lifeguard thought I was drowning and pulled me out in front of everyone. Topless. FML.
• Today, I ran into an old student of mine at the grocery store. She didn't recognize me at first so I introduced myself as her old teacher. She looked taken aback for a moment, and then said, "Oh my God... you're still alive?" FML.
• Today, I received in the mail a hockey puck autographed by recent Hall of Fame addition Steve Yzerman. When asked, I had to explain to my 4-year-old brother that someone famous had written his name on it. Later, I discovered that my brother decided it needed his name on it too. FML.

Posted by Ian Faerstein at July 16, 2009 12:43 PM