Wally Whirled

Over at the Big Orange, smileycreek asked me if I ever made posters for political campaigns and asked specifically about her congresscritter, Wally Herger.  I didn’t recognize the name until I googled.  Of course, I remembered Ol’ Wally when I read this at the Mt. Shasta News (August 21, 2009):

Redding, Calif. —

Republican Congressman Wally Herger held a health care town hall meeting Aug. 18 at Simpson University in Redding, where a partisan crowd of over 2,000 people loudly cheered Herger’s position that a public option was “unacceptable.”
Although Herger called several times for the audience to “respect each other’s opinions,” those opposed to president Obama’s health care were greeted with cheers while the few in favor were interrupted with catcalls.

…snip…

“Our democracy has never been threatened as much as it is today,” Herger said to a loud standing ovation.

…snip…

One speaker said he could trace his ancestors back to the Mayflower and said “they did not arrive holding their hands out for help.”
“I am a proud right wing terrorist,” he declared to cheers.
Herger praised the man’s attitude.
“Amen, God bless you,” Herger said with a broad smile. “There is a great American.”

You remember Ol’ Wally now, too, dontcha, kids?

According to wiki:

The audience member clarified that he meant to say “right wing extremist”

That makes it so much better, doesn’t it?  Anyhoo, that’s all I needed to want to make a poster about Ol’ Wally.

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(Click on image and then on that for a larger version)

Traitor Joe

From Dewayne Wickham at TRIBLIVE|Opinion:

Last year was the year of the unlikely hero. It was dominated by the ascendancy of Barack Obama, a slender black guy with a hip gait and a finely tuned political mind, into this nation’s highest office.

But 2009 has turned out to be the year of the anti-hero. It is the year in which Joe Lieberman gets my nod — cynical though it is — as “American of the Year.”

A Democrat of convenience, Lieberman has succeeded in doing what Benedict Arnold couldn’t. In a masterful act of treachery, he retains a position of trust among the very people he betrayed.

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The Mouse That Whored..for the Insurance Industry

From E.J. Dionne at The Washington Post:

Take yourself back to the endless wrangling in Sen. Max Baucus’ Finance Committee – or, more particularly, among his select “gang of six,” including three Republicans, two of whom clearly never had any intention of voting for health-care reform. They negotiated and negotiated and negotiated and negotiated — and got nowhere. Baucus failed to produce a draft bill before the August recess. The Democrats’ summer of discontent and the tea party madness followed.

This, it turns out, was a crucial moment. It set back the schedule for a health-care bill by at least a month, maybe two. There was no urgency in the Baucus process. Now there is urgency. And that gave Joe Lieberman his near dictatorial powers to kill a Medicare buy-in proposal that he had supported as recently as three months ago.

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So much for that whole “southern gentleman” thing

From The Advocate:

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu said Friday that she is not dwelling on Gov. Bobby Jindal’s silence on the derogatory remarks leveled against her by some of his supporters.

Jindal initially publicly defended Landrieu, D-La., but that changed after conservative heavyweights began bashing her for money she got for Louisiana before voting on the controversial health-care bill.

The governor, a Republican, has refused to field media questions about whether it was inappropriate for conservatives to characterize Landrieu as a prostitute.

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It’s only dead if you kill it, moron!

(CBS) Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the health care bill passed last night by the House of Representatives is “dead on arrival to the Senate.”

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Who Ya Gonna Call? Filibuster!

From Joe Conason at Salon:

If Democrats are disappointed by Joe Lieberman’s threat to filibuster any healthcare reform bill that includes a public option, they shouldn’t be. Despite all of his past promises to support universal healthcare, nothing was more predictable than the Connecticut senator’s fealty to the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists.

Much the same can be said of Sen. Evan Bayh, who emerged from hiding on healthcare to announce that he too plans to filibuster against reform with the Republicans, regardless of what his constituents and Americans in general plainly want. Like Lieberman, his state is home to powerful corporations that want reform killed — and like Lieberman, his wife has brought home very big paychecks from those same interests. . (UPDATE: A report published in a South Bend paper Thursday night says Bayh may now support a floor debate.)

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Do Your Magic, Harry

From The Washington Post:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) announced Monday that he will seek to bring a health-care bill to the Senate floor that includes a government insurance plan, a major reversal from just two weeks ago, when Reid was leaning against the idea.

He also called for the bill to include a version of the so-called public option with an clause that would allow states to decide by 2014 not to participate in the government plan.

“The best way to move forward is a public option with the opt-out provision for states,” Reid told reporters, adding that he “clearly” believes that such a bill would have “the support of my caucus.”

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Original comic book Olympia Snowe is holding

Floriduhhhh

From TIME:

On a recent Saturday night in Daytona Beach — with a thousand or so bikers exercising their unalienable right to be extremely noisy in the streets — Marco Rubio, the new ultraconservative poster boy running for the U.S. Senate in Florida, offered the Volusia County Republican Party a carefully calibrated, and rather compelling, celebration of freedom. He spoke about his Cuban heritage. His parents had escaped Castro. “It is possible to lose your freedom. You can have your family business taken over by ‘the people.’ You can lose your country. My parents did,” he said, while carefully adding that he wasn’t saying that would happen here.

The assembled Republicans seemed to ignore the caveat: they were the sort of people who are convinced that we are well down the road toward losing our country. Their local leaders had gone to Washington for the Sept. 12 tea-party march. The winner of the Republican of the Year award announced his daily fidelity to Glenn Beck’s talk show. They described themselves, more than once, as “fighters for freedom.”

…snip…

The Republican Senate primary in Florida, between Rubio and Governor Charlie Crist, will receive a great deal of national attention in the coming months.

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