NPR: “Obama Town-Hall Gun Toters May Have An Upside”
(Special thanks to TPM Reader BG for the catch.)
White House Shocker! GOP not negotiating in good faith on health care reform. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
At a town hall meeting, the Massachusetts rep lays it on the line with a protester who equates health care reform with Nazism: “On what planet do you spend most of you time?” Watch.
One major health insurance company is encouraging its policyholders employees to attend tea party events opposing health care reform.
Not sure quite what to make of this. Steve Clemons points out that Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister appears to be twittering about possibly being left in the dark about a settlement freeze Netanyahu and Mitchell are negotiating. It’s not a ‘verified’ Twitter account. So I’m a touch skeptical. But Steve knows folks in these circles pretty well. So worth a look.
The legendary creator and long-time chief of 60 Minutes dies at 86.
Video: Tea Partier who screamed “Heil Hitler” at an Israeli man who supports health care reform explains her opposition to reform.
Upstate New York Rep. Eric Massa (D) says Sen. Grassley’s ‘pull the plug on grandma’ remarks were “an act of treason.”
Against sanity, honesty, self-respect? Sure. But I think he means against the country, which is pretty whacked.
Got bipartisanship on one side and the public option on the other. Not sure you can have both, guys.
Keep one foot on the dock and the other on the boat too long and …
We’re getting some push back from readers on the post below about Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) — mainly along the lines that with Republicans calling Obama the new Hitler and comparing the public option to Nazi concentration camps, can’t a Dem get a little leeway for effect?
TPM Reader JH goes so far as to say I’m being “weak-kneed” and “dainty” in my approach.
I sympathize with the sentiment. And, frankly, I think my attitude and record on tough political rhetoric speaks for itself.
The people making the Third Reich arguments are pigs. They deserve all the verbal abuse anyone can give them. “Treason” though is a sui generis word, uniquely grave and with a very specific meaning. I just don’t think it’s a word to throw around casually. There’s plenty to talk about with so many of the antis being congenital liars and their willingness to consign so many Americans to penury and premature death. That should be enough to work with, no?