(Photo by David Boyle)
As Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln, and Ben Nelson have demonstrated over the past few days, the Senate health care reform debate is deep into the preening-and-posturing stage I wrote about here two weeks ago. All of the faux-centrists are chasing the nearest microphone or camera in hopes of occupying the attention-getting “swing vote” position recently vacated by Olympia Snowe.
Longtime Republican spin doctor Frank Luntz has decided to give them some help. Talking Points Memo today published Luntz’s eight-page memo to “interested parties” who want to stop a reform bill from passing — which, he makes sure to point out, doesn’t just include the GOP:
Let me be clear; this memo isn’t meant to be partisan and it’s not just for Republicans. It is my hope, in fact, that they will share the contents of this document with their moderate Democrat counterparts…
And with that, we’re off to the races, with all of the smoke and mirrors Luntz can conjure up on behalf of convincing the public they really don’t want the health care insurance crisis to be addressed, not to mention lots of little boxes highlighting “Words That Work” (ironically, many of them from Rep. Charles Boustany’s much-ignored response to President Obama’s address to Congress in September).
Luntz runs into a few roadblocks, though. As he admits, “You still need to acknowledge the need for reform. . . . a clear majority of Americans believe healthcare in America still at least is ’seriously troubled and needs significant revisions.’”
In fact, he even adds that “you have to tell them what you’re for… offer ‘a better approach.’… Barack Obama is right: what Americans want is a solution, not continued political bickering.”
The only problem? Luntz doesn’t offer the slightest hint about what that “better approach” might be, save for a handful of platitudes listing goals such as “improving quality.”
Maybe Bill Kristol has a more practical plan when he says that the GOP should just scare the hell out of seniors and hope for the best.
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Shorter Luntz: Of course, there’s a problem and the way to solve it is let the insurance companies keep screwing everyone.
Unspoken Luntz: What? You people really think you matter? BWAHAHAHAHA!!1!
How come Luntz isn’t higher up in the Party of No? He circulates an 8-page memo and it’s The Word?
I caught a glimpse of him last night, with Glenn Beck; and Luntz said he wasn’t a conservative, implying he was “neutral” — a good hearty belly laff is healthy…
Yeah, right, and Hitler wasn’t a Nazi. Too funny.
Perhaps Limpy Limbaugh wants it that way.
They should listen to, and repeat the endless platitudes of, that lady who runs AHIP. She can pack less actual policy content in more fluff that sounds like reform than anyone I’ve ever heard.
I’m actually not surprised Luntz doesn’t touch policy; he’s above that as a message-expert (in his own mind). He probably wants to avoid coming down hard for one policy or another, so that he can claim a “win” no matter the actual result on the NO side.
Which sounds curiously familiar, somehow….
(great post, Swopa! Thanks)
I still don’t think the Contrary Three are prepared to go down in history as the first Dems in memory to filibuster their own party. I’m less sanguine about Lieberman. He just might do it… just ’cause. And he’s not a Dem.
Short Ride is a real loose cannon. This son-of-a-bitch has 3 years left in his term. That’s much too long to let him play fuck-fuck every time we turn around.
Thank you Citizens of CT!
Talk about voting against one’s own interests. Man.
Edit’s got a glitch.
I wonder if he will be reelected?
707!! ROFLMAO
I guess Edit was on a delay. Now it appears corrected. I gotta quit smokin’ this shit. *g*
Thanks Swopa. Well done piece.
Ed Shultz just played the Ct Weasel saying he would support repubs in the 2010 elections. Disgusting little maggot is the most kind thing I can say about him anymore
Hey, it’s only other commenters and the authors ya can’t call names. Go for it.
He’s not a conservative. He fancies himself a paladin. He is a whore.
Hey, hey. Yer givin’ whores a bad rap. To say nothing of Richard Boone in “Have Gun, Will Travel.” *g*
The enemy list is so damned long that it could be called an ‘army of NO’! A private insurgent army against the USA and funded by radical corporations and Right wing wanna be dictator kiss-ups. George Washington had to deal with these types…now maybe Obama will?
Luntz is the type of guy that makes a pacifist want to kick his ass. He IS the weasel’s weasel. I read the drivel that he calls a book. It was painful.
The Right’s strategy is simple…
That’s what Luntz if for as far as the Republican leadership is concerned. Create “sex” that people want to discuss around the water cooler.
AND that’s why the Right is going after Grayson so hard… he brings the discussion around the water cooler to the Left.
This reminds of the email I got today from “Newsmax” touting Dick Morris’s attempt to “stop Obamacare” and how this is working because of Democrats like Lieberman publicly stating they will join a right-wing filibuster.
Government eavesdroppng on your phone calls?
(yawn) I’ve got nothing to hide, what’s your problem?
Billions of tax $$ stolen by Cheney’s firm Halliburton?
What else is new, they’re all corrupt.
Invade foreign nation with no proof and kill a million people/
What’s the big deal? I don’t know anybody in the Middle East and they’re all terrorists anyway aren’t they?
Public option that might allow poor people to get access to health care?
OMG!! This is tyranny and an outrage!!!! Obama must be a fascist or a communist or both!!
Another propagandist from hell. These people are amoral – no semblance of of a conscience. I always wonder if, like Lee Atwater, they will repent all the harm they did during their miserable lives – once they are told the end has come for them.