Rep. John Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, Dies at 77
Reuters is reporting that Congressman John “Jack” Murtha of Pennsylvania has passed away:
Democratic Representative John Murtha, the chairman of the House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee who exercised enormous influence on defense issues, died on Monday.
Murtha, 77, died peacefully at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington with his family by his side, a statement from his office said. He had been hospitalized recently with a gallbladder problem.
As the top Democrat on the House panel that oversaw defense appropriations, Murtha wielded big clout in Congress, making decisions affecting billions of dollars in defense-related spending.
The Pennsylvanian was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in February 1974. He was a former Marine and veteran of the Vietnam war.
It’s bad form to speak ill of the dead so I’ll just say, Godspeed Congressman, rest in peace.
Related
- Rep. Murtha Dead at 77 – FoxNews.com
- John Murtha dies, special election looms – Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post
- Rep. Murtha Dies – Mike Memoli, Real Clear Politics
- Murtha dead at 77 – Hot Air
Blue Dog Democrat Jumps Ship; Joins Republicans
From Politico:
POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican.
According to two senior GOP aides familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place this afternoon in Griffith’s district in northern Alabama.
Griffith’s party switch comes on the eve of a pivotal congressional health care vote and will send a jolt through a Democratic House Caucus that has already been unnerved by the recent retirements of a handful of members who, like Griffith, hail from districts that offer prime pickup opportunities for the GOP in 2010.
The switch represents a coup for the House Republican leadership, which had been courting Griffith since he publicly criticized the Democratic leadership in the wake of raucous town halls during the summer.
Rep. Griffith’s announcement comes on the heels of a wave of Blue Dog Democrat retirements, for the moment his switch has far more symbolic than substantive value… The Democrats still have a 40 seat majority in the House. I do suspect, however, that Rep. Griffith won’t be the last Blue Dog to jump ship. There’s pretty sizable anti-Democrat wave sweeping the country and unless something changes drastically between now and November 2, 2010 Congressional Democrats would appear to be headed for a fall.
House Passes Health Care Refore Bill
I meant to post this yesterday but it slipped through the cracks of what was another manic Monday.
The House of Representatives passed Nancy Pelosi’s 1,990 page health care reform bill by a vote of 220 to 215 on Saturday night.
The House of Representatives late Saturday night approved a historic bill to remake the U.S. health-care system, delivering President Barack Obama a key procedural victory on his top domestic priority after a lengthy and sometimes emotional day of debate on the nearly 2,000-page measure.
By a vote of 220-215, lawmakers approved a 10-year, $1.055 trillion bill that aims to put in place near-universal health-care coverage in the United States, would require individuals to buy and most businesses to offer coverage, and expand Medicaid. Poorer Americans would get subsidies to buy insurance under the bill, and insurers would be barred from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
The bill would also establish a government-run health-insurance plan option to compete with private insurers — the controversial “public option” strongly backed by Obama but sharply opposed by Republicans.
Just one Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao of Louisiana, voted for the White House-backed bill. A substitute bill offered by the GOP failed on a vote of 176-258. The House Democrats’ bill will now need to be melded with a bill awaiting action in the Senate.
Obama said after the vote that the bill “will provide stability and security for Americans who have insurance; quality affordable options for those who don’t; and bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses, and the government while strengthening the financial health of Medicare. And it is legislation that is fully paid for and will reduce our long-term federal deficit.”
The president added that he is “absolutely confident” that the Senate will pass its version of the law, “and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year.”
Before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said it was “an historic moment for our nation and for America’s families.”
House lawmakers began debating late Saturday morning and were immediately caught up in partisan fighting. But House Democratic leaders were upbeat about the bill’s prospects after an early afternoon meeting with Obama, who made a rare Saturday trip to Capitol Hill to press members to pass the measure.
That the bill passed is no surprise, that Republicans helped it pass is… The sad reality here is that if the Republican’s had shown a little political courage and voted present on the Stupak Amendment there’s a good chance the Democrats wouldn’t have been able to find enough votes in their own caucus to pass H.R. 3962, the Health Care Reform bill.
I understand why Republicans essentially had to vote for the Stupak Amendment… Abortion is an important issue to great many voters and if Republicans had voted against the Stupak Amendment they more than likely would have faced a backlash from pro-life voters. Unfortunately, is was a wasted vote, Henry Waxmen and other have pointedly said there’s “no guarantee” the Stupak Amendment will be retained in the final version of the bill.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) even said during the floor debate on the bill Saturday that he doubts the amendment will survive the conference committee.
Regardless the fight now heads to the Senate where the conventional wisdom says it will be a much tougher fight… Don’t believe it, I fully expect the Senate to pass a Health Care reform bill this year, probably without a so called Public Option, but they will pass a bill. A bill that will put us one step closer to the Democrats goal of a socialized single payer system… A system that does things like this.
Related
- ObamaCare legislation in trouble – New York Post
- Health reformers prepare for Senate hurdle – Financial Times
- Government-Run ‘Public Option’ in Pelosi Health Bill Threatens to Kill Hospitals, Says Democrat Who Voted Against the Bill – CNSNews.com
- PelosiCare could be bad news for the dollar – James Pethokoukis, Reuters
Steny Hoyer: We Don’t Have the Votes… Yet.
From the Associated Press:
House Democrats acknowledged they don’t yet have the votes to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system, and signaled they may push back the vote until Sunday or early next week.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters in a conference call Friday that the make-or-break vote on President Barack Obama’s push to make health coverage part of the social safety net could face delay. Democrats were originally hoping to pass the bill on Saturday-and officially, that’s still the plan.
But Democrats have yet to resolve a intraparty disputes over abortion funding and illegal immigrants’ access to medical coverage. They cleared one hurdle Friday when liberals supporting a government-run Medicare-for-all system withdrew their demand for a floor vote.
Hoyer sought to pin the blame for any possible slippage on delaying tactics expected from Republicans, who unanimously oppose the health care remake.
Heh, of course they’re trying to pin the blame on Republicans, it can’t possibly be because of divisions in their own caucus… I mean it’s not like the Democrats have a 256 seat majority in the House or anything… oh, right, yeah, um – never mind.
Dan Perrin has the Whip list here… If you’re in any of their districts, call, fax, e-mail tell them to just say no to Obama/Pelosi care.
NY-23: Scozzafava Quits!
Dede Scozzafava, the hand-picked choice of the New York state GOP has suspended her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District and is releasing all her supporters:
Dede Scozzafava, the Republican and Independence parties candidate, announced Saturday that she is suspending her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District and releasing all her supporters.
The state Assemblywoman has not thrown her support to either Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, or Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate.
“Today, I again seek to act for the good of our community,” Ms. Scozzafava wrote in a letter to friends and supporters. “It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my party will emerge stronger and our district and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for generations.”
Assemblywoman Scozzafava’s announcement comes close on the heels of a new Siena Research Institute poll (PDF) that shows her badly trailing both Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman… In recent weeks the three-way race to replace Republican Rep. John McHugh, who was appointed Secretary of the Army by President Obama in June, has become a closely fought two man race between Hoffman and Owens.
Ms. Scozzafava was the hand picked choice of 23rd District’s 11 Republican county chairmen. According to a Wall Street Journal report she was chosen this summer when the county chairmen gathered at a pizzeria in Potsdam to pick a nominee. They were reportedly looking for someone with name recognition who could prevail in a shortened campaign. At the time Ms. Scozzafava, a former small-town mayor who has served for a decade in the state legislature, seemed the right choice.
As it turns out Ms. Scozzafava was the wrong choice… The Republican Party bosses who passed over Doug Hoffman to choose Ms. Scozzafava have some explaining to do.
H/T : The Other McCain and Hot Air.
Related
- Republican Scozzafava Suspends New York Congressional Campaign – Fox News
- GOP Rift Bared in New York – Wall Street Journal
Dede Scozzafava? What the Heck Were Republicans Thinking???
I have to confess the November 3rd special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district wasn’t even on my radar until I read this Wall Street Journal article… Since then I’ve been keeping a close on the race between erstwhile Republican Dede Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
I can’t for the life of me understand why Republican Party bosses selected Scozzafava, a pro-abortion, pro-union, ACORN backed, Working Families Party-endorsed, tax and spend big government liberal who has more in common with democrats than she does the GOP’s conservative base… Particularly when a viable conservative candidate was available.
Regardless of her stance on the issues Scozzafava’s bumbled encounter with John McCormack of The Weekly Standard ought to doom her candidacy.
Police questioned a reporter from a conservative publication after receiving a call that he harassed a Republican candidate for Congress who refused to answer his questions about her positions on tax and health issues.
“I don’t believe it ever escalated to anything that would ever be classified as an emergency,” Fredenburg said.
No charges were filed against McCormack.
<…>
In the audio recording of the reporter’s questioning played for The Associated Press by McCormack, the reporter didn’t raise his voice, but repeated his unanswered questions several times, including one about abortion.
“I never screamed, I never yelled, I never shouted,” he said. “My voice was only loud enough so she could hear my questions.”
In a statement released Tuesday to the blog Politico, Scozzafava’s campaign said the reporter “repeatedly screamed questions (in-your-face-style),” but later issued a statement deleting the accusation.
Bottom line Scozzafava either couldn’t or wouldn’t answer McCormack’s questions and called the police to save her from a report… A call the police chief effectively says was unjustified.
The situation in New York’s 23rd congressional district is emblematic of the problems facing the GOP. Republicans didn’t the 2006 and 2008 elections because they were to conservative, they lost because they abandoned traditional conservative principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility… Over the last decade they morphed from the party of Reagan into the big spending, big government party of George W. Bush.
By choosing Dede Scozzafava as their candidate Republican Party bosses have demonstrated they still don’t get it… If Republicans want to win elections they need to draw vibrant contrasts between themselves and Democrats, traditional conservative principles still resonate with the American people… Doug Hoffman is a conservative, Dede Scozzafava isn’t… Michelle Malkin sums things up pretty well:
One thing is guaranteed at the conclusion of the NY-23 special congressional election: The Beltway Republicans who endorsed radical leftist Dede Scozzafava are going to have indelible egg stains on their faces. And GOP establishment fund-raising organizations will be the poorer for it.
Related
- The GOP’s New York Fiasco – Wall Street Journal
- NY-23: Can Doug Hoffman Win? – Washington Post
- Scozzafava Calls the Cops – The Weekly Standard
Democrats Lock Republicans Out of Committee Room
Most ethical Congress in history? Heh…
From The Hill:
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present.
Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.
For months Towns has refused Republican requests to subpoena records in the case. Last Thursday Committee Republicans, led by Issa, were poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was abruptly canceled. Only Republicans showed up while Democrats chairs remained empty.
Republicans charged that Towns canceled the meeting to avoid the subpoena vote. Democrats first claimed the mark-up was canceled due to a conflict with the Financial Services Committee. Later they said it was abandoned after a disagreement among Democratic members on whether to subpoena records on the mortgage industry’s political contributions to Republicans.
A GOP committee staffer captured video of Democrats leaving their separate meeting in private chambers after the mark-up was supposed to have begun. He spliced the video to other footage of the Democrats’ empty chairs at the hearing room, set it to the tune of “Hit the Road, Jack” and posted it on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s minority webpage, where it remained as of press time.
If this is the Democrats idea of transparency and accountability I’d hate to see their idea secrecy… So just what are they trying to cover up?
Here’s the video:
Ouch!
Alan Grayson: Idiot
Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) took the House floor Tuesday and let fly with what may just be the most idiotic remarks in the history of American politics:
Grayson is a first term Congressman representing Florida’s 8th Congressional District… A traditionally Republican leaning district. He’s vulnerable, he knows it and he’s letting it all hang out in an attempt to energize his nutroots base.
Erick Erickson has more on Rep. Grayson’s history of, um, overheated rhetoric at RedState.
Oh yeah, for the record the Republicans have offered three alternative health care reform bills… None of which say die quickly.
Update (7:00 p.m.): Grayson’s doubling down on overheated rhetoric this time saying “I’ll apologize to the dead.”
Oh Lord, I can’t for the life of me understand how someone who is arguing for a plan that will lead to rationing can lecture anyone on causing early death.
Reid and Pelosi: It’s Time to Demonize Insurance Companies…
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi appear to have a new strategy for pushing health care reform through Congress… They’re going to demonize insurance companies:
A day after formally delaying a vote on a healthcare bill and having to accept a further weakening of a public option to compete with private insurers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lashed out at the health insurance industry and urged her members to do the same during the August recess.
“They are the villains in this,” Pelosi said of private insurers. “They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening. And the public has to know that. They can disguise their arguments any way they want, but the fact is that they don’t want the competition.”
As she prepares to send her members home for the month of August having not voted on a healthcare bill — a deadline the Speaker said she would meet for President Obama — Pelosi said she was urging those members to go on the attack against the private insurance industry to try to rally support for the strongest public option possible when negotiations resume in September.
“The more the public knows about what we’re doing, the more they support it, and especially if you’re talking about a public option, because that’s where the insurance companies are making their attack,” Pelosi said. “Our members have to go out there ready to take on a big special interest that has not made our country healthier, has made costs spiral upward, and for whom that is coming to an end.
“It’s almost immoral what they are doing,” added Pelosi, who stood outside her office long after her press conference ended to continue speaking to reporters, even as aides tried in vain to usher her inside. “Of course they’ve been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure with pre-existing conditions, you know, the litany of it all.”
Not to be out done Harry Reid Had the following to say about insurance companies:
“I don’t think we should be crying great big tears about the insurance industry,” Reid said at a Capitol Hill press conference when asked whether insurance companies should be allowed to charge higher premiums for people with preexisting conditions.
“There is no business in America that makes more money than the insurance industry–over the last 10 years their profits have been increased by 450 percent,” Reid said. “So I’m not really in very much of a mood to worry about the insurance industry.”
The health insurance industry is so wealthy because it is exempt from anti-trust laws, Reid said: “The insurance industry, my friends, is the only industry other than baseball that is exempt from the anti-trust act, and that’s the reason they have 450 percent profit over the last ten years.”
Whew, talk about winning strategy… Take the least popular politicians in American and have them go off on half baked rants about evil insurance companies. They’re comments are nothing more than a blatant attempt to satisfy Democratic demands for a villain to demagogue in selling health care reform.
For all their talk about “competition, they’re pushing one most anti-competitive measures in American History… With all due respect to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid, Democrats control the White House, have filibuster proof 60 majority in the Senate and 256 seat Majority in the House… You don’t need Republican support to pass a health care reform bill.
The fact that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Reid can’t get a reform bill through Congress has nothing to with insurance companies or Republican opposition. The simple truth is they are unwilling to work with centrists, the “Blue Dog” Democrats, in their own caucus who are apparently getting an earful from constituents who are vehemently opposed to Obamacare.
Oh, and by the way Harry, Nancy, you might want to read Stephen Carter’s Washington Post Op Ed on why corporate profits are good thing… I’m sure it’ll be lost on you, but read it just the same. You might learn something.
Update (7:35 p.m.): I’m shocked, shocked I tell you… Jonathan Allen at CQ Politics is reporting that while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may think health insurance companies are “villains” she’s prefect willing to keep their money. Most ethical Congress ever, heh.
Related
- Senate Dems blame media for August health deadline – The Hill
- Police called on retirees at senator’s LA office – San Francisco Chronicle
- Barney Frank: Yes, a public plan will lead to a government takeover of health care – Hot Air
Pelosi v. CIA
From the Wall Street Journal:
The last time the CIA and Nancy Pelosi were in the news together, the House Speaker was accusing the agency of lying about its briefings to Congress on the interrogation of al Qaeda detainees. This week, the Speaker’s fellow Democrats are set to block public disclosure of what Ms. Pelosi was really told and when.
Democrats recently marked up the 2010 intelligence bill, and Republican Pete Hoekstra offered an amendment in committee to require the CIA to make public an unclassified version of its records on Congressional briefings. It also would have required the CIA to disclose the information gleaned from those interrogations.
Democrats have spent years demanding a “truth commission” into interrogations, so you’d think such public disclosure would be welcome. Ah, that was when a different guy was in the White House and before Mrs. Pelosi had made her own veracity an issue. Suddenly, she’s all for secrecy. And sure enough, Intelligence Committee Democrats lined up to protect their leader and defeated the Hoekstra amendment on a party line vote. This follows Democratic rejection of a resolution by Utah Republican Rob Bishop to initiate a bipartisan investigation of Mrs. Pelosi’s accusation.
I’d laugh but this isn’t funny. Democrats aren’t interested in the truth or giving we the people access to the facts on interrogations, they’re interested solely in creating controversy for political gain. The longer they can continue to tar and feather the Bush Administration over interrogations, the economy and anything else they can think of… the longer they can avoid having to accept responsibility for their own actions or inaction’s over the last eight years.
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