Steve Kornacki picks up on the Chris Christie USA Atty firing story.
Is there anything quite as unsettling as when the nation’s political class (and I use that term broadly to encompass the occasionally political, like the tea partiers) turns its fleeting but intense focus to a new (for them) and complex topic, like end-of-life issues?
It seems like years of painstaking work to nudge our death-denying culture toward a more frank and humane approach to our own mortality and dying could be erased by one misguided national discussion set off by none other than Sarah Palin.
So Brian Beutler talked to one medical oncologist just to try to bring the discussion back to some semblance of reality.
From TPM Reader TM …
From where I’m placed, I have to say that I agree with TPM Reader CS about how our side is losing the message war, and TPM as well. Even if the lies are not believed by a majority, they are believed by a significant number, and those people are well represented in Ohio, based on my experiences canvassing for healthcare reform in the last couple of weeks. Then there’s the layer of people who know that the palaver about death panels is nonsense but are very fearful that they have much to lose from a public option. I have had a tough time with seniors and those who believe (or want to believe) that their insurance policies will insulate themselves and their families from any peril. We know that there is a significant generational divide, and I think that divide is also regional, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there is also an urban vs. rural divide as well. I’m in a rural area.
CEO of Whole Foods goes on the record: Screw health care reform, just shop at Whole Foods and you’ll be fine.
Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) says President Obama told him that he’ll pass health care reform, even if it means he would be a one-term president. That and other political news in today’s TPMDC Morning Roundup.
With all the hoopla about Democratic town halls across the country, the GOP ones have generally flown under the radar — the assumption being that because the members are already committed to opposing reform, there’s not going to be much ruckus. But a lot these have actually been not held at all, private or admission restricted to supporters. That deserves some more attention.
Leaked memo shows energy industry execs sending employees to industry sponsored events to play average citizens outraged about cap-n-trade.
The Chris Christie/US Atty scandal story continues to percolate in the New Jersey press. And there’s a point that’s
come up in discussions I’ve had with several NJ political watchers over the course of the week.
When Bob Menendez (D) ran for senate in 2006, after being appointed by Jon Corzine, Republicans knew that it was such a strong Democratic year that beating Menendez would be very difficult. And because of that they signaled early on that they would try to make political corruption the centerpiece of their campaign. (Remember this GOP allied ad from October 2006 with over-the-top caricatures of Italian-American mafiosos saying how Menendez was their guy? If you don’t take a look. It will help give you a sense of the tenor of the campaign.) It’s not too much to say that leaks about a corruption investigation into Menendez (what Christie eventually provided) was the one thing the GOP needed more than anything else to get their guy Tom Kean, Jr. elected and maintain control of the senate. Read More
Watch: Colbert mourns Glenn Beck’s loss of advertisers.