coward

Is this any real shock?

With Democratic leaders and White House officials holed up in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) office negotiating a final bill, Republicans are demanding a deceleration of the process and moving to define whatever plan that emerges as a combination of Medicare cuts, tax increases, higher insurance premiums and rising overall costs.

Notice how they throw out Medicare cuts again? The party that rammed through a prescription drug bill for Medicare that ended up preventing seniors from getting their life saving medications is bitching about this. The Republicans that introduced the doughnut hole that makes Seniors, even those on low/fixed income, to pay full price for their needed meds are still acting like the saviors of Medicare.

Then we have this part:

Senate Democrats are rejecting Republicans’ demands to slow things down, charging that the GOP isn’t interested in working with the majority to craft a bipartisan health care bill. Rather, Reid said repeatedly last week, the Republicans’ primary goal is to sink reform in order to undercut President Barack Obama.

(emphasis added)

I’m glad that the Democrats finally realized that the Republicans absolutely do not want bipartisanship or even health care reform. Hell it took the minority leader basically saying that exact thing for them to realize this. Why didn’t they listen months ago when every one else was saying that the Republicans had absolutely no plans of working with Democrats let alone reform health care? We would have a much better bill that would probably be law already.

I was reading the excellent post by Sully in which he describes Chris Wallace’s interview of Dick Cheney as “a teenage girl interviewing the Jonas Brothers”. While reading it I started thinking about all the Cheney interviews in the past, and believe me there wasn’t many out there.

When the going got tough, Cheney always took to the airwaves. He would jump into the lion’s den cuddly kitten factory known as Rush Limbaugh and FOX News. The man has never faced an actual interview. He hasn’t been pushed on any of his views or actions, essentially castrating the entire fourth estate.

Is it any wonder that Eric Holder is investigating torture? If Cheney would have actually defended the process instead of saying “we say its ok, so its ok”, then we might be in a different position today. Instead he exhibits the signs of a Megalomanic. Power given to such a man is a danger to any democracy, and we saw what it did to ours.

If Cheney really believes what he did was right then he wouldn’t fear facing actual interviewers. He would proudly take his defense to other interviewers like Jon Stewart or Rachael Maddow. But he can’t have his beliefs or power questioned, so instead he can only appear with friends. Dick Cheney is the biggest coward to ever serve this country, and people need to start calling him on it.

Better yet - what would you call a man who has to hide behind two women? If you're a Republican then I guess you call them a "maverick".

Why is it that John McCain is such a coward that he can't ask Obama about Ayers? Instead he has to have his wife and running mate go out and make the attacks. This is really a look into McCain's character and I love the fact that Obama and Biden are now calling McCain out on it. "Say it to his face" was Biden's challenge to McCain today. Will McCain have the nerve to do that or will he continue to hide behind his women?

It is really getting old hearing the media talk about McCain taking this "gamble" on Palin, like it makes him some sort of maverick. Remember this news from way back - like yesterday?

Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.

But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.

McCain didn't take a gamble, he folded to the right wing fringe elements of his party. That's not a maverick - that's a coward!

That is what he told reporters yesterday. I guess the response would be "strong" when you consider Bush's response on 9/11/01 after hearing the phrase "the country is under attack"

So how much should we be applauding the U.K. government on this? First off - the Brown government had only been in power for 18 hours. Not really enough time to make sweeping changes.

More important is the fact that these attacks failed because of incompetence of the attackers. Police work, military strikes, eavesdropping, none of that "prevented" the attacks. These terrorists were still able to go through with their plans - just not with the expected outcome.

I was thinking of that yesterday when Joe Lieberman was on This Week echoing the White House talking points on terrorism. He was using what happened in the U.K. as justification for allowing Bush to ignore the law and tap anyone's phone without oversight. Of course Lieberman isn't just a Republican - he is a coward. Perhaps he should go live in Israel and see how people can truly live their lives free, while still facing the threat of terrorism.

The heat is getting turned up:

U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record) should bow out of the November's congressional race altogether after his defeat in Connecticut's Democratic primary, a top Democrat said on Sunday.

Lieberman, a three-term senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, lost to political newcomer Ned Lamont in Connecticut on Tuesday and said he plans to run as an independent in the November election.

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Lieberman should support his party -- and Lamont -- rather than running against him to defeat the Republicans.

"I know how hard this is for Joe, and he is a good person, but the truth is I lost one of these races and I got behind my party's nominee and I think that is what you have to do if you want to help this country," Dean, former governor of Vermont, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Yes Joe - you should go. What kind of message are you sending the young people out there who we want to recruit into politics? "Beat an incumbent in a primary and face them as an independent in the general election". That is not a good message and makes it look more like people should not try to enter politics. The longer you stay in this race, the worse you make it on America and democracy as a whole. Since the RNC is looking like they are going to back you then why not just change parties? Oh I forgot - your a coward.

What do you get when you have a congresswoman who has been in office three
months crossing a thirty year veteran of Congress? A congresswoman working hard
to do damage control.

Ohio Republican Jean Schmidt said Tuesday she should have rephrased her
sharp critique of a fellow congressman's call to immediately pull troops
from Iraq.

Schmidt was booed off the floor of the U.S. House on Friday after she
criticized Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa., saying that
"cowards cut and run, Marines never do."

When Schmidt made the comment, Democrats rose in protest at the
suggestion that Murtha, a decorated Vietnam veteran and the ranking Democrat
on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, was a coward.

Schmidt said the comment was prompted by a conversation she had with
state Rep. Danny Bubp, though he denies discussing Murtha with Schmidt.

Schmidt, who sent Murtha a note of apology on Friday moments after her
speech, said in a statement Tuesday that she never intended to attack Murtha
personally.

"While I strongly disagree with his policy, neither Representative Bubp
nor I ever wished to attack Congressman Murtha," she said. "I only take
exception to his policy position."

Full article continues

here.

Schmidt has been taking to the local airwaves like crazy. Her first
appearance was on 700 WLW's talk show hosted by Willy Cunningham, a staunch
conservative. Last night it was followed by her appearing on different local
news broadcasts trying to repair the damage done by her comments last week.