Yesterday afternoon, Laurie Kellman of the Apparatchik Press -- er, the Associated Press -- opened a supposedly straight news report with the following:
Forget Sarah Palin. The female maverick of the Republican Party is Sen. Olympia Snowe.
Kellman's opening is revealing on a number of levels. To bring Palin into this at all exposes the establishment press's obsession with dissing her at every conceivable opportunity. It also classically employs the "sudden respect" technique the media has used for decades to buck up Republicans who sell out core principles. Finally, it sends a message to male Republican "maverick" John McCain that he's being upstaged, and that to keep his media cred he should join hands with Snowe in acquiescing to statist health care.
Here are other paragraphs from Kellman's Snowe congratulatory:
.... "When history calls, history calls," Snowe told her colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee, several hours into the debate.
Snowe had kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote, not even letting Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., or Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana in on her secret. She did call her Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Tuesday morning to break the news about her plans.
.... There was much relief in Democratic ranks when she finally said, "Aye," and the bill was approved 14-9.
For months, Obama had pursued her support in phone calls and meetings. Snowe could be the Democrats' 60th vote required to overcome Republican objections to the bill and give the final version the barest quality of bipartisanship.
At the White House, shortly before the vote, the president singled out "in particular Senator Snowe," for thanks.
.... Breaking with her party is a role Snowe has played many times, from her vote for Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill to her defiance of then-President George W. Bush on a bill to provide health are to millions of uninsured children.
Snowe also was one of the "Gang of 14" Democratic and Republican senators who resolved a standoff over judicial nominations.
In Maine, former Gov. Angus King, a political independent, compared Snowe's decision to the late Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" speech in which she called for the nation—and her own party—to reject McCarthyism.
.... "I don't think there's any possible negative political implication," said Sandy Maisel, director of Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. "She is untouchable electorally in the state of Maine."
In other words, per the last paragraph, Snowe's vote carried zero political risk. Maverick, schmaverick.
Allahpundit at Hot Air is spot-on in his critique of the vapid quote that began my excerpt:
The Palin comparison is useful, though. If Sarahcuda had said something as comically insipid as “When history calls, history calls,” Tina Fey would have an entire skit built around it on SNL this week. As it is, our moronic media’s treating it as some sort of faux-profound rendezvous with destiny.
Snowe's vote was really a rendezvous with desertion.
I should also point out for the benefit of Angus King and others that Margaret Chase Smith was wrong about the presence and influence of communists in the 1940s and 1950s, and Joe McCarthy was right ("Most scholars, having also used Soviet archives, concede his [author M. Stanton Evans's] position [that McCarthy was right] and argue now only over secondary matters").
—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
MY HEALTH CARE BILL PREDICTIONS OCT 14.09
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 08:57 ET by reelman46THE HC PLAN WILL....
1...Cost at least 800 billion (borrowed money mostly) and current fraud will never be properly addressed (as usual)
2...Include at least 10-20 new fees and taxes (passed on to the consumer of course)
3...Have dozens of new unelected panels, boards and commissions
4...Cause rationing at some level for some groups
5...Give birth to HC Reform II within 3 years (because the socialists never get it right or all the control they want)
6...Cause major paperwork headaches for the medical-insurance industry
7...Be proclaimed by the socialists "a great reform that will eventually be superior" (but that day never arrives)
8...Be at least twice as expensive 5 years from implementation than socialist estimates this year
9...Not address properly the 3 main helpful cost issues (portability, multi-state plans and tort limits)
10..Cause even more seats to be lost by the socialist party late next year (as details-effects start becoming known...see above)
The
socialist democrat party leaders will rejoice and brag as if they
balanced the budget yesterday and won the PowerBall this morning.
Its
always intentions and words for the rainbow dust crowd....never results
and reality.
The gov-meant will not improve HC...if that was true then
all those other huge medi-programs would not now be broke and full of
fraud that is never cut out...just talked about for years.
Their bill is gonna hurt. Really hurt.http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish
Doug Schexnayder, Ph.D. (theconservativecrawfish)
No, no. Stop right
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:10 ET by Six String SpiffNo, no. Stop right there. No more 'Mavericks', please.
We saw what a squishy 'Maverick' does when attacked. NOTHING
This Nation is supposed to have two parties, not A Democrat and a not as Democrat party. Does the MSM think politics is some sort of entertainment that they can charge for? They certainly attempt to write scripts anyway.
Oh and stop with the Palin bashing. It's really getting ridiculous. Besides, bashing the people in power might actually do something. You know, Democrats. The ones who have had control of congress since 06? Yeah THOSE ones.
HERE IS THE FUTURE...
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:27 ET by danybhoyWe have seen this movie before, this time, it is health care. Those pimping Obama-care & if they push for real fines, crime & punishment solutions in trying to force this down America's throat, have no idea how the people will react.
One reaction will be medical tourism. Many doctors will set up medical facilities offshore, in places like Bermuda or Costa Rica. Just set it up outside of American regulations. People from socialist nations come here now to escape their crap system, we will try to do the same elsewhere.
Another reaction will look like the good old days of bootlegging alcohol. A medical blackmarket will pop up, or fly under the radar, depending how you want look at it. The American people will always try to blow off the gov't if they feel wronged or think the gov't is being petty. It may be a C.O.D. setup, it may be on the downlow with payments, but we the people will work around the gov't whether they like it or not. Plus, they country will be too broke to enforce their crap system rules that they won't be able to enforce them.
The people will beat the gov't in time, let's beat them now so we don't need to beat them later.
"...How blind can you be, don't you see...
...that the gambler lost all he does not have..."
Nightwish
Snowe actually looks like
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:14 ET by 10ksnookerA Horses a$$.
Her parents were named Herman and Lily,
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:26 ET by SickofLibs... and she had a dog named Spot.
That much I'm sure of.
10ksnooker, You're Wrong!
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:27 ET by GeneralAlYour're terribly wrong! Olympia does not look like a horse's patoot!
She is a horse's patoot!
Obama
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:34 ET by capavapplauded her "political courage". Let's applaud Wyden's and Lincoln's political spinelessness.
NOBEL PRIZE
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:38 ET by cajun2The Nobel Committee will probably give MsSnowe a trophy. They like traitors too. Oh, may as well give Kellman a Pulitzer.
ain't what it used to be
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:40 ET by jon_torlinYou know, the term 'maverick' used to mean someone who was rogue, out of control, crazy, it was even used as a call sign of a character in Top Gun. That might have been true in the 20th century, but this is the 21st century now.
Thanks to people like mccain, snowe, and graham, it can be summed up this way:
Maverick = pansy; wimp; charlatan; p***y(not to be confused with pansy); linguini-spined, and on and on.
Anyone thinking about being a 21st Century Maverick, do yourselves a favor....go home. Just go away. You need not apply.
-Jon
I heard reporters last night refer to the bipartisan support...
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:40 ET by jazbothat the bill got. Laughable - if it wasn't so serious.
"Democrats; Breeding voters like farm animals since 1962"
Of course they did. They
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:44 ET by motherbeltOf course they did. They will beat that "bipartisan" label right into the ground now.
Snowe is the latest heroic "even Republican" to garner praise from the media.
not the only one so far
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 11:06 ET by jon_torlinSeems Susan Collins is jumping in the fray. Remember her involvment with the "stimulus?" I guess she's just "me too'ing" so that Snowe doesn't feel alone.
Bleah, I don't like RINOs a lot.
-Jon
Joe Lieberman, call your office!
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:42 ET by motherbeltWhy don't the media call Democrats "maverick" when they split from their party?
Oh, that's right; when they do it they are traitors.
Just ask Joe Lieberman
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:45 ET by BlondeI wish Snowe would just do a Specter and change parties, for crying out loud. She votes with the Democrats all the time.
Disgusting sell out.
I hope he fails, too.
The Maverick Tactic
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:45 ET by KC MulvilleConsider the strategy. Why would a US senator has to wait until the last minute, after months of public debate and argumentation, to cast a vote?
That leaves a staredown between the competing stalling strategies. What happened? Snowe blinked. She stalled, and got nothing for it.
Olympia Agonistes
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:56 ET by motherbeltWhy would a US senator has to wait until the last minute, after months of public debate and argumentation, to cast a vote?
Because of the media attention she got in the meantime. She knew how she was going to vote from the get-go. But this makes it appear that she agonized over the decision right up to the last minute.
The Lefty media love a GOP
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:50 ET by mattmThe Lefty media love a GOP turncoat...unless they're running for office against someone even more leftist.
Snowe needs to be run out of the Republican Party
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:51 ET by R D HelmApparatchik Press?
LOL.
-Dave
She won't leave. There's
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:54 ET by motherbeltShe won't leave. There's no glory in voting Democrat when you're one of them.
Propaganda Arm of the Democratic Party
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 09:59 ET by BW222To paraphrase Anita Dunn, "MSM is the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party."
BW222
Imagine the bitterness
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:00 ET by MidAmericaImagine the bitterness of Specter as he no longer commands any attention for courageously 'standing up to his party'.
Snowe milked her situation for all the publicity she could get out of it. Yeah...... it's real entertaining watching self-absorbed politicians play games with something so fundemental to life as access to healthcare, when the outcome of their actions will not impact them at all.
Free, Now it's time to panic.
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:08 ET by R D HelmShould this pass the full Senate, we're screwed.
:-O
-Dave
Dave~panic mode
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:17 ET by Georgia GirlI'm already there. ((*_*))
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace ~Amelia Earhart
time to fight back
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:20 ET by jon_torlinIt's ok to panic, but but I'd prefer fighting back. At this point, what's there left to lose, as you say, if it passes, we are screwed.
I don't know about other states, but Texans have a long memory. We also like to be left alone and if we get hit, we hit back twice as hard. I can't imagine that Texas will take this lying down.
Anyone see that movie Eagle Eye? It wasn't a great movie, but I liked that computer.
-Jon
Jon~
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:30 ET by Georgia GirlThis Georgia Girl still has fight in her...any ideas on the most effective way to keep fighing this -- besides the emails/phone calls? Anybody, anything???
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace ~Amelia Earhart
Here is part of what Snowe the RINO voted for:
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:19 ET by R D Helm-- $201 billion in new taxes on high-premium health care plans.
-- $83 billion in new taxes paid by workers who will receive less employer-sponsored coverage or lose that coverage altogether but will be compensated with higher wages or monetary benefits, which are taxable.
-- $23 billion in penalty fees paid by employers who do not comply with the federal insurance mandate.
-- $4 billion in penalty fees paid by individuals who don't have health insurance.
-- $16 billion in new income and Medicare payroll tax revenue due to changes in Medicare.
(h/t: Neal Boortz)
-Dave
new uses for botany
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:21 ET by jon_torlinI guess money does grow on trees. *sigh*
-Jon
And military retirees, wake up and smell the coffee!!
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:36 ET by motherbeltIf you think that because you have a DoD program (Tricare for Life) that you are safe, this was sent to my husband (AF retiree). It says it comes from an Air Force Association newsletter and was written by Brigadier General
Bob Clements and best describes what you can do. Please read it and check the links
for CBO language and do what Bob says-Send this email to every Military Retiree
you know and write and email your Congressman often.
TRICARE FOR LIFE'S FUTURE....
TRICARE For Life was
instituted to correct the broken promise that military retirees would receive
free healthcare coverage for life and it covers the Medicare co-pay. Now a heavy
assault has begun on Veterans'/Retirees' benefits to pay for other programs our
President promised during the campaign. An it is a high priority of his
administration. The one item of most interest to Retired Military is in Article
189. If approved by Congress the first assault wave would hit in 2011 and would
hit hard. It would initiate cost sharing to require retirees to pay the first
$525 of medical cost and 50% of the next $4,725 for a first year cost of $2,888
per person. It would be indexed to increase with inflation. A reason given for
this action (for PR effect) is "overuse" by Retirees.
For those of you who are covered by TFL you will want to pay
attention (Below) to what BG Bob Clements has surfaced about the future of TFL.
In any case, on page 189 of the Congressional Budget Office report, see the
note below on how to get to that spot, there is a strong recommendation
to eventually eliminate the program as it is too expensive. Just another move to
slight those of us who dedicated much of our adult lives to the defense of our
country.
Strongly recommend that you contact your elected officials and
register your strong opposition to the elimination of the TFL
program.
Heads-up from BGen Bob Clements,USAF Ret (P-38 Bob)
The
following has been added to the Congressional Budget Office Web Site
www.cbo.gov/
a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health
Care (www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925)
For those
who have never opened one of these web sites from OMB :
1. double click
on the above URL
2. click on PDF
3. click on the binoculars
4. do a search for
TFL
Now here it is folks and I will guarantee if you sit around
on your behind and do nothing about it as they bring these options forward this
coming year, you will lose one of the best health care benefits that the
Medicare eligible retired military have. It http://have.it/ is short of
the promises made that we fought so hard for back in the late 90s and early
2000s but it is still the best health care program that anyone in the United
States has, bar none.
People who are professionals always look for the channel of
least resistance when it comes to cutting money out of the Federal and DOD
budget. I can tell you this straight on, military retirees are one of those
channels of least resistance noted for sitting around, doing nothing, and
waiting for ole Joe to do it for them. You had better wake up. Your medical
benefits are prime target. If you lose them, you have nobody to blame but
yourself. Let me repeat that ... you have nobody to blame but
yourself.
The way to secure your benefits is to write to your members
ofCongress and to keep writing and writing and writing. ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH.
Keep repeating the above statement until you are blue in the
face.
Now I'm going to make one more statement to all of you younger
people out there who are not yet eligible for TRICARE for Life. HEALTH CARE WILL
EVENTUALLY BECOME THE DOMINATING FACTOR IN YOUR LIFE. Remember that . . . . it
will impact you big time with the utmost in cruelty unless you are fortunate
enough to die from a heart attack or get run over by a truck. The service
organizations will put up a fight, but, they will need your help and can't do it
by themselves. I hope this makes it clear as to what you can expect if you do
nothing.
To show you how stupid these professionals can be at times just
read the data on the noted sites closely. You will see that in spite of the
MTFs (Military Treatment Facility) need to get patients back to keep
their doctors busy and the hospitals from going to clinic status, these
people OMB would employ a means to keep retirees from using MTF facilities by
charging them a fee for services. How dumb can you get.
Even if you are an Obama fan, and believe that changeth cometh,
TFL option from OMB will not go away. They need the money they spend on you for
other programs for people who produce nothing but votes to keep their boss
in office. If you know of anyone who is Retired Military, please forward this on
to them.
Remember- TFL is an "Earned Benefit" that's been granted by a
previous Congress.
Motherbelt
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 11:28 ET by Tom BlumerI look for the Air Force Assn. to soon get the Humana treatment for daring to speak out.
Thanks MB
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 21:43 ET by general companyA very stirring letter.
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
Why?
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:19 ET by MCPO AirdaleWhy would the National Republican Party continue to financially support this RINO? She is solidly in the Democrat Party's pocket on all domestic issues. Certainly there are "Republicans" worthy of support?
I would say no. No there are
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 10:33 ET by ninerdogI would say no. No there are none. We must get rid of all the rinos. All of them. McCain Snow all of them. We need to stop selling our children’s freedom for crumbs off the table. We need to start removing this cancer of liberalism from the tree of liberty. I think we need to flush all the incumbents and start over.
Pa
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 11:02 ET by jessieHPalin is a conservative. Snowe is a traitor to her state's citizens.
Re Untouchable
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 11:17 ET by slickwillie2001Untouchable electorally? What does that mean?
2006: Snowe: 74% D Opponent: 21%
2000: Snowe: 69% D Opponent: 31%
1994: Snowe: 60% D Opponent: 36%
She's 'untouchable' by a democratic. Looks to me like there is plenty of cushion on the Republican vote side for someone slightly more conservative. Snowe needs to be challenged in a Republican primary, that's the only way to take her out. She needs a credible challenger, a long-time Mainian (?) conservative.
Re the national Republican Party, they support her because she won those primaries and those elections. If anyone expects the national Republican Party to be some kind of arbiter of ideological purity, or to withdraw support from someone with those numbers, look at the leadership in the RNC first and think again. A primary is a much better judge of a candidate's conservative and Republican values than a flaky and inconsistent RNC.
Re changing parties, after the abuse heaped on Specter by democratics, we can be pretty confident that no Republican is going to do that for a long, long time.
on the issues
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:07 ET by katainkentwhich one of these is not like the other.
____________________________________________
The Emperor, he has no clothes
When all the chickens...
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:32 ET by StarAZWhen all the chickens come home to roost on this health debacle--and all the unintended consequences unfold one after the other, Snow will have associated herself with the ruination of even the weird, jury-rigged system we have now--people will be paying fines, dealing daily with the IRS, and not going to the doctor--and hating life. And Obama and little Olympia will be remembered, even though the president will conveniently be almost out the door (if he gets two terms).
Looks like Palin is a lot smarter than Snowe.
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:08 ET by ekslibPalin was correct when she said Democrats want death panels.
Just listen to Democrat Robert Reich (on youtube) saying that, "We're going to let... [old people] die."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT7Y0TOBuG4
People will be allowed to die ONLY if "some people" decide that should be allowed to happen. "Some people" = Death panel.
republiCON vs demoCRAPS! or liberal vs conservatives???
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 13:52 ET by frank l kinneyfrankkinney republiCON snowe white? breaking away from republiCONS? bipartisanship! nobody knew how mrs snowe white would VOTE? yeah one believes this BS one believes in both parties being on the up and up? snowe white also was on the side of the stimulus bull bill too smart bipartisanship bright delight vote? now we have former gov. black angus king political independent (please) compared snowe whites decision to the late repbulican senater chase smiths declartion of CONSCIENCE speech in which she called for the NATION -and her own party-to reject mcCarthyism? today this seems to be mcCarthyism was oh so so very very bright delight true? yeah good old joe mcCarthy seen the communist threat (hollywood) and jews? for which we see it live in washington DC today? health care goverment control" majority of americans say NO snowe! you are very very much in the bipartisanship with demoCRAPS and against your own parties views too? america what a simple bunch of scam artist we have running our goverment? both parties just simply over look see the majority of U.S.??? health care is priority number one crisis on their agenda!! (elimination)? next cap and trade? make U.S. buy their health care too? fine U.S. if we do not play along? yes priority number one health care! from no accountability no transparency washington DC live! INDEPENDENT truth justice and the american way. god bless america kate smiths army AMEN.
In your dreams, Laurie.
Wed, 10/14/2009 - 21:01 ET by needleAPer Laurie Kellman in blabbing about Sen. Snowe effuses “Forget Sarah Palin…”
Ha, ha, Laurie, in your dreams.
My bet is Laurie will never be able to forget Sarah.
- Relying upon the Liberal Media for your information is like relying upon an embezzler for your portfolio management.
- I didn't leave the Republican Party; the Republican Party left me. And that particularly goes for you, Sen Snowe!