(Some Sunday color... - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
LBJ would use the term "peckers in pockets" when pushing through Medicare. According to the former President, he needed "peckers in his pocket" to make sure the bill passed. I imagine few Presidents have made abundant use of such colorful language as LBJ. It sure would be nice if we had LBJ with us today. Given our present political climate of hysterical drama queens and kings on the right, LBJ's descriptions would no doubt be brutally hilarious and priceless.
Speaking of pocketed peckers, who is running the Senate healthcare mark-up? Are our Senators working for us or are they working for insurance?
Yesterday, on CSPAN our very own Senator John Cornyn shows us he is a pawn for the insurance industry. Cornyn likes things the way they are, meaning he does not care that Texas has the highest number of uninsured residents. And he has no intention of lifting a finger to change the plight of the untreated. Predictably Cornyn had tried to "grandfather in" insurance companies in order to protect their profits. According to Senator Rockefeller Cornyn's amendment also favored 46% of the population while it would work against 54% of the people. Is this the best Big John could do? What a stand up dude. Texas should be so proud. Fortunately his pandering amendment promoting the status quo failed 13-10.
Reacting to an amendment proposed by Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) during the Senate Finance Committee's markup of health care reform legislation on Thursday, committee member Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called his colleague a pawn of the health insurance industry.
"This is a very, very important amendment and it's a very, very bad amendment," said Rockefeller. "If there's anything which is clear, it's that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but is running certain people in this markup."
Senator Cornyn, by the way, received $759,000 from health professionals, $350,000 from insurance, $222,000 from Pharma and $248,000 from lobbyists. A video clip of the exchange between Senators Cornyn and Rockefeller can be seen in the link above.
Nancy Reagan and the daughters of Lyndon Johnson have extended a joint invitation to the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees to host two "town hall meetings" between Obama and McCain this summer. One would be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi, California and the other would be at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library on the UT campus in Austin.
The McCain camp, which has been pressuring Obama to participate in a whole series of joint town hall meetings with the Republican nominee, has already accepted the invitation. No word, yet, from the Obama campaign.
The two campaigns have been wrangling over the number and type of joint appearances they will agree to before the election. The McCain camp initially proposed ten such meetings to take place before the Democratic and Republican conventions. The Obama campaign has countered with an offer to participate in one joint town hall meeting in July, in addition to three traditional debates and an in-depth foreign policy debate in August. The McCain camp says that is insufficient and are obviously hoping that they can make this a campaign issue, as did Clinton.
The LBJ/Reagan press release states that "A respected, independent polling organization will be brought on to ensure that the audiences will represent a cross-section of the American people." I have written to Anne Wheeler with the LBJ Library asking how the public will submit themselves for consideration. I will update this diary with details if I hear anything.
The AP is reporting that Lady Bird Johnson has passed away.
She died at her Austin home of natural causes about 4:18 p.m. CDT, said Elizabeth Christian, the spokeswoman. She said she was surrounded by family and friends.
She will be remember as "the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, former President Lyndon B. Johnson."
Update by KT: I had the great honor and pleasure to meet Lady Bird last year as part of a class I took on the LBJ Presidency with Harry Middleton at the LBJ Library. I have some photos of the visit (I love this one) to the LBJ ranch, which was the topic of my term paper that's on record at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin.
I've uploaded a copy of the 20 page research paper entitled "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch..." which you can download in .doc format here. I'll try to put it up in a full text version later.
Rest in peace Lady Bird and may the roadside wildflowers of Texas live on in your memory.
Update by Matt:KEYE has some more solid coverage of Lady Bird, including a slide show, video, and comments. Check it out.
