Last week in this space we discussed the Conservative Movement’s latest Elevation of the Discourse, namely, their unanimous insistence from John Boehner, to MC SteeleyPeePants, on down to random comments section dipshits, that the secret hidden agenda of Obama’s healthcare proposals is the mass murder of America’s Grandmas. Because ain’t that just like an usurping Kenyan-born Secret Socialist Muslim Black Panther Moon-Man Werewolf Hitler Gay Abortionist Vampire, or something. It’s all a sack of pus and hooey, of course, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, which is why they do it.

Anyhow, the Washington Post woke up this morning, bleary-eyed and brain-fog-fagged, and revealed, to the presumable astonishment of whoever is left in their readership doesn’t read blogs that say "fuck," that the Conservative Critique of the Administration’s Healthcare Initiative involves a whole lot of hysterical fearmongering bullshit:

The controversy stems from a proposal to pay physicians who counsel elderly or terminally ill patients about what medical interventions they would prefer near the end of life and how to prepare instructions such as living wills. Under the plan, Medicare would reimburse doctors for one session every five years to confer with a patient about his or her wishes and how to ensure those preferences are followed. The counseling sessions would be voluntary.

But on right-leaning radio programs, religious e-mail lists and Internet blogs, the proposal has been described as "guiding you in how to die," "an ORDER from the Government to end your life," promoting "death care" and, in the words of antiabortion leader Randall Terry, an attempt to "kill Granny."

I don’t listen to very much wingnut talk radio — I read the wingnut blogs, thankyewverymuch, and that’s plenty wacky enough — but I do make a point of flipping through every few days or so, just to see what crap they’re on about lately. (Often I do this if if I’m driving around listening to a Mets game, and they’ve just done something excruciating, which is pretty often — it’s like novocaine.) But it’s clear that for a month, at least, this Obama-Kill-Your-Grandma shit has been a staple of the paranoid ranters.

Now, as I said last week, this particular smear makes me nuts because it really is a slap in the face to palliative care providers, who, contra insane ideological extremist morons like Randall Terry and Jonah Goldberg, are not at all relatives of Mengele. Honestly, they are not. And it makes me nuts because from a humane medical perspective, the smear is wildly, irresponsibly wrong; as the American Medical Association (hardly a left-wing organization, to say the least) said in the WaPo article:

"These are important discussions everyone should have when they are healthy and not entering a hospital, so they are fully informed and can make their wishes known," said association President J. James Rohack. "That’s not controversial; it’s plain, old-fashioned patient-centered care."

That John Boehner to Sean Hannity to garden-variety comment-section "conservative" slime are participating in malignant fearmongering is disgusting, but, like, don’t give bareback ferry rides to scorpions, you know?

No, what really killed me about the WaPo piece, apart from their being pretty damn late to the game, is this bit:

After letting the controversy simmer on talk radio and the blogosphere, expecting that it might blow over, Democrats have begun to respond.

This is unfortunately and depressingly true — and utterly predictable. And it’s political malpractice. During the elections, Obama had a pretty good rapid-response operation for crazy internetty wingnut smears, offering the chance for rapid pushback before, well, loony stuff could get out there before it could be dislodged. Where that operation was for the Kill Your Grandma shit, I have no idea. I was on it, but I’m just a guy who likes to say "fuck" on the Internet, you know? It’s like the Obama-ites thought the election was pro baseball, and fixing healthcare would be the neighborhood rec softball league, who’s bringing the bipartisan beer? Weird, really.