8/13: Chuck Joins The Deathers

Liberal bloggers are furious that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) endorsed the false claim that the House health care bill encourages seniors to commit suicide. Grassley is one of several high-profile GOPers to have made this accusation in recent days, joining AK Gov. Sarah Palin, ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich, and others. However, lefty bloggers are particularly upset that Grassley made these comments, since he is one of three GOP senators negotiating a health care compromise with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). In fact, Pres. Obama had praised Grassley only a day earlier for "sincerely trying to figure out if [he] can find a health care bill that works."

The netroots see Grassley's inflammatory remarks as further evidence that the IA senator "is not participating in this process in good faith." Joe Sudbay complains: "Here's all you need to know about why there is no health insurance reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee: Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is a deather. [...] If Democrats continue working with Grassley, they're bigger fools than we could have imagined."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Conservative bloggers (Geraghty, Hood, Allahpundit) are buzzing about a new USA Today/Gallup poll which found that the townhall protests "have succeeded in fueling opposition to proposed health care bills among some Americans." Liberal bloggers (digby, Marshall) are disturbed by this poll.
• Conservative bloggers (Malkin, Emanuel, Vadum, Morrissey, Bandes) are criticizing Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) for answering her cell phone at a townhall event.
• Liberal bloggers (Yglesias, Serwer, McCarter) are buzzing about the new revelations regarding ex-WH aide Karl Rove's role in the controversial '06 dismissal of several U.S. Attorneys. Other lefty bloggers (McIntyre, Singer, Lux) are arguing that Rove's ties to ex-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R) will damage the latter's NJ GOV bid.

GRASSLEY: Why The Heck Are Dems Negotiating With This Guy?

Liberal bloggers are furious that Grassley made the following remarks at a townhall yesterday:

"'There is some fear because in the House bill, there is counseling for end-of-life,' Grassley said. 'And from that standpoint, you have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life. You ought to have counseling 20 years before you're going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don't have any problem with things like living wills. But they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma.'"

Liberal bloggers see Grassley's comments as further evidence that Dems should not be empowering him in the health care negotiations:

• AMERICAblog's Sudbay: "Here's all you need to know about why there is no health insurance reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee: Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is a deather. Today he repeated the lie that health care reform would set up euthanasia death panels in order to kill senior citizens. Seriously, that's all we need to know about this brilliant 'bipartisan' strategy. [...] If Democrats continue working with Grassley, they're bigger fools than we could have imagined."
• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "For the 487th time, why in the hell is this guy in the negotiations? Chuck Grassley needs to be cut out of the negotiations, now, whether by Baucus or the White House. He is not participating in this process in good faith. The fact that he has any input into this piece of policy making is a travesty."
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "[N]egotiating with Grassley in good faith is a mistake. Grassley isn't serious about reform. Not at all. Seriously. He's proven this again and again. It's time to stop trying. Grassley will only let down reform advocates in the end."

Time's Joe Klein: "Senator Chuck Grassley has announced his membership in the [Rush] Limbaugh mainstream of the Republican Party on the non-issue of Death Panels. This is the man who is the lead Republican negotiator in the Senate Finance Committee's effort to create a bipartisan health care bill -- and he either (a) hasn't the vaguest notion of what's in the bill or (b) he is so intimidated by the ditto-head-brown-shirts that he is trying to fudge a response to keep them happy. Either way, he should be ashamed. And once has to wonder about the fate of the Senate Finance Committee deliberations if this is what the Administration is dealing with."

On the other side of the blogosphere, the rightroots continue to push the argument that the House bill will encourage seniors to commit suicide. RedState's Erick Erickson writes: "No one is saying that Obama wants to shoot granny. Obama and [WH adviser] Ezekiel Emanuel want granny to shoot herself when she becomes, according to government bureaucrats, a burden on the state."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Are The Health Care Protests Working?

FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver:

"At the end of the day, health care reform is liable to succeed or fail based on the extent to which Americans -- and the Congressmen they elect -- are informed about the true nature of the bills pending before the House and Senate. We're in a somewhat peculiar situation in that the idea of health care reform overall remains popular, and moreover, the views toward most of the particular elements that are actually contained within the health care packages (like the public option or the surtax on the wealthy) are also pretty popular. And yet, when you ask people about the 'plan' being contemplated by the Congress and/or the President, it is not very popular. There are a lot of reasons for this, many of which are the Democrats' fault -- they haven't settled on a particular plan, and the President's messaging, although better of late, has not been terribly effective.

But the real upside to the protests is that they perpetuate misinformation about the Democrats' bills. Forget the birthers -- I want to know how many Americans believe in the 'death panels'. [...] Ultimately, the message that Democrats need to be getting across is not that the protesters are protesting in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons, but that they're protesting, in some substantial measure, about the wrong things: that what they seem to think is contained in the health care package doesn't necessarily match the reality."

LEST WE FORGET: Sotomayor To Add Ballistics Expertise To Already Deadly Supreme Court

From The Onion:

"WASHINGTON -- In addition to her extensive command of corporate law, intellectual property cases, and arbitration, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor also brings a world-class knowledge of ballistics and experimental weaponry to an already deadly Supreme Court, analysts said this week. 'Justice Sotomayor's unique knowledge of flares and boosters will be a welcome addition to the nation's highest judicial body, providing a perfect complement to Breyer's stick-fighting, Kennedy's psyops, and Ginsburg's melee skills,' legal scholar Toni Martello said. 'After the recent loss of Souter's crack archery and hotwiring talents, the Court will have to do all it can to stay lethal.' Court observers are still unsure as to what value Justice Thomas' expert napping abilities could possibly be adding."