Yesterday I posted a video clip of a former physician/death decider for Humana and Blue Cross/Blue Shield who had testified at a Congressional hearing in 1996. Dr. Peeno admitted that she had made decisions in favor of the profit margins that resulted in the deaths of patients.
Thirteen years later, after the Republicans and health care lobbyists devastated all hopes and efforts at any kind of healthcare reform, the death panels remain in full force today. I suppose this is the reason Sarah Palin suddenly ratcheted down her rhetoric about them. Someone in the GOP likely reminded Ms. Clueless that um, er, silly, silly woman, the insurance companies are knowingly killing off patients. Don't bring attention to it for crying out loud!
Poor, poor short-sighted, seriously uninformed Sarah. That woman does not know when to quit. This time she let the real death panel genie out of its hole in hell.
Last week I reported on Texas Republicans embrace of Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich (or at least their money) even as these far-right players made racial attacks on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. I made reference to Limbaugh's attendance at a fundraiser for Rep. Michael McCaul where he was made an honorary Texan by Gov. Rick Perry.
I know a number of local Democrats were interested in seeing video from that private event which McCaul was hiding the location of until the last minute. Well, Gov. Perry was so kind as to have his staff take video of the event and posted his speech and shoutout of "God Bless Rush Limbaugh" to his campaign's YouTube channel. And McCaul? He's standing by the entire time clapping and grinning at the whole scene. Watch it for yourself.
This isn't a case of guilt by association or proximity (though I can't imagine wanting to be in close proximity to Rush Limbaugh metaphorically or physically). McCaul has yet to repudiate or distance himself from the racially inflamed comments made by Limbaugh and Gingrich which even RNSC chair Sen. John Cornyn has distanced himself from calling them "terrible" and "not the kind of tone that any of us want to set".
And while Limbaugh is still set to headline Cornyn's fundraiser for the RNSC, McCaul is set to benefit from the House Republican committee's fundraiser with Newt Gingrich the same day, next Monday. The DCCC asks the prescient question.
"For five days, Representative Michael McCaul had a simple choice to make: He could strongly denounce Newt Gingrich's shameful rhetoric or stay silent and just take his money," said Ryan Rudominer, National Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "With five days to go until the fundraising dinner with Gingrich, will Representative Michael McCaul finally speak out against the radical right or continue to remain silent and take their campaign cash?"
National Republican Senate Committee Chairman John Cornyn isn't all to popular these days (and we're not talking about with Democrats). As the chair of the fundraising arms for his Senate colleagues, he's charged with trying to help them claw back to relevance in the upper chamber. So while money and message are very much in his court, he's running into some problems. Namely- his donor base is becoming increasingly conservative making him beholden to the very people that are turning off the voters he needs to win.
So what happens when you mix a NRSC chair who is a Texas Senator and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a Latina Supreme Court nominee, a NRSC fundraiser with Rush Limbaugh, and commentary from Newt Gingrich? An epic fail of GOP entertainment.
"Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman.' Wouldn't they have to withdraw? New racism is no better than old racism. A white man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw."
"Here you have a racist - you might want to soften that, and you might want to say a reverse racist," Limbaugh said of Sotomayor on his show.
...
"When the rubber hits the road, such as in this nomination, where are these moderate Republican groups on the nomination? Where are the moderate senators? Where is Colin Powell? Where is Tom Ridge?" Limbaugh asked.
"I'm the one doing the heavy lifting. Colin Powell panders to moderate Republicans," he said. "If the moderates in the Republican Party offer no way to address this danger, then they are useless."
Important to note, Rush Limbaugh is headlining a fundraiser for the NRSC and NRCC on June 8th expected to raise millions for the committees.
John Cornyn's reply? From the Hill...
Q: We've heard Rush Limbaugh and the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist, saying she should withdraw. What do you make of the rhetoric that's tumbling out these days?
A: I think it's terrible. This is not the kind of tone that any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advice and consent.
Q: Do you worry that language like that harms the discussion? Harms your party's image- especially among Hispanics, where the Republican Party's been losing ground lately?
A: Neither one of these men are elected Republican officials. I just don't think it's appropriate. I certainly don't endorse it. I think it's wrong.
Oh snap. Double snap with his added commentary in talking with KXXV TV (Waco/Killeen) today.
Cornyn took issue with Rush Limbaugh's recent comments about Sotomayor, saying it was a "rush to judgment." Limbaugh had previously called Sotomayor a "bigot" and "reverse racist" among other things. On Friday, Cornyn said "the comments I've seen are comments that I disagree with...It should not make any difference, the ethnicity or a sex of a judge any more than it should make a difference about the ethnicity or race of an umpire in a baseball game. Their job is to call balls and strikes, it's not to somehow impose their perspective because of their ethnicity."
When asked if Limbaugh was wrong to call Sotomayor a "bigot," Cornyn said that questions should be brought up about Sotomayor but "to do so in a civil and dignified proceeding. Name-calling is not the way to get started on the right foot." He also wishes "people would calm down a lot" about discussing Sotomayor's qualifications.
If Cornyn disagrees so much with the leading message and tone coming from Republican Party leaders talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh then he can show it by making sure Limbaugh's invitation to headline the RNSC's June 8th multi-million dollar fundraiser gets lost in the mail.
Just like Texas Rep. Mike McCaul uninvited Rush Limbaugh from his campaign fundraiser in Houston this week. Photographic evidence of that included below via the Austin American-Statesman.
According to the some of the renowned Viet Nam War draft evaders and right wing war hawks
Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Pat Buchanan, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Bill Kristol, Bill Blunt, Tom Delay, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Phil Gramm, John Cornyn, Trent Lott, Mitch McConnell, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage
Nancy Pelosi personally ordered the CIA to find a link between Iraq and Al-Qaida. The GOP sissy boys also insist that when no links between the two evil doers could be found, Nancy the D Girl unilaterally ordered heinous torture to bring about the results the sissy boy cowards needed to gin up their war on Iraq.
Hats off to Ed Shultz of MSNBC for calling the Sissy Boys out on their psycho babble.
Gingrich looked ahead to the 2012 campaign and said he sees an open Republican field aiming to take Obama's job.
"If Sarah Palin seeks out a group of very sophisticated policy advisers and develops a fairly sophisticated platform, she will be very formidable," Gingrich said.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who made a strong run at the 2008 GOP nomination, "has got to figure out how to close the sale," he added. Gingrich also suggested Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) and John Cornyn (R) could position themselves for national candidacies in four years.
I suppose I can see a scenario where Hutchison (if she was willing to run) could find an opening in a weak GOP field but the thought of John Cornyn as a serious presidential candidate is pretty laughable.
Cornyn is less than two years away from becoming the NRSC Chair who allowed the Democrats to win over 60 seats. That is not the title a presidential candidate wants to have.
John Cornyn 2012 would be a repeat of Phil Gramm 1996, except Cornyn's run would probably be even less successful than Gramm's short-lived campaign for the GOP nomination in '96.
Former DFW Congressman Martin Frost delivers an interesting analysis of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and what impact Newt would make on the ever growing Republican field of presidential candidates should he choose to run.
Newt is a font of ideas -- some good and some questionable -- but at least he spends time thinking creatively. There aren't too many new ideas coming from the current Republican field. Also, Newt already has significant name identification, so he wouldn't have to spend as much money establishing himself as a credible candidate. The news media would treat him seriously from Day 1.
I agree with what Frost has to say here, Gingrich not being an elected official right now frees him up to say what he wants and see where it sticks. He is like John Edwards in that manner, they have no constituents to answer to so they shoot off at the mouth and see where it sticks. Sometimes the best ideas come from free flowing out of the box thinking.
Yesterday I posted a 
