I guess I can understand David Broder not being cognizant of using “the Google”, though basic history awareness would be nice, but how about his editors engaging in some fact checking?
But then maybe ol’ Davey, George Will and Krauthammer share the same editor? That’s a lot of error for one person to catch.
Today “the Dean” says this:
Consider the precedent that would be set if a major piece of social legislation were to be passed with a states’ rights provision. Imagine, for example, if Franklin Roosevelt had signed the first Social Security law with the proviso that any states with Republican governors and legislatures could exempt themselves from its coverage…
That issue was settled in the realm of economic policy during FDR’s second term, after enough new Supreme Court justices were seated to uphold the New Deal measures an earlier conservative majority had struck down. In the area of civil rights, Lyndon Johnson and a Democratic Congress put an end to the doctrine of states’ rights.
That must be why when Medicare/Medicaid was passed during LBJ’s Administration it included an “Opt-Out” provision, because the issue was all “settled”.
Forget whatever short-comings there are of an “opt-out” and the Senate’s bill, and there are many, to boldly assert it is bad because it uses an invalid, unworkable, and untried concept for health care policy is either the product of result-driven stupidity or a plain-old lie. Broder, you don’t like Harry Reid, laughably for all the wrong reasons, it does not excuse sloppy falsehoods.



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The AEI intern who wrires Broder’s column for him was just having a bad day, folks. Cut him some slack.
Gone are the days when the WaPo ruled the earth.
Broder reviles even the term “public option” (and that’s all this bill has, the term).
But I guess by now even he knows the term is so popular with the public that he’s chicken to attack it directly.
So he instead reaches for a way to smear this version by associating it with segregationism.
That also goes along with his standard status quo-worshipping notion that nobody should dredge up things we’ve “settled”. Like for example torture and other war crimes.
(Was Broder ever any good? I only ask because from my old Hunter Thompson-reading days I vaguely remember something he wrote about Broder which I recall as admiring (though I guess it could have been sarcastic instead). I figure if HST ever liked him he must have been good at some point.
But I did recently see Watergate-era quotes from him where he was already spewing the same garbage – “Let’s get past this and let the President do his job..”, blah blah, yuck….)
ATTATURK!!!
You basically could have ended your post at that point.
There was a time, allan.
I just watched Il Divo about him. Interesting but loooooonnng.
Google? Why not Bing? I be old I guess, still use Alta Vista.
Be that as may be…these folks don’t really care about historical accuracies.
Oh, is it just me, or has Krauthammer been mellowing in his old age? Just a point or two I’ve heard him pop up with on various PBS shows of late. Yeah, I should Google, or Bing a reference I guess.
:D
Good morning, pups. It’s Bobo and Krugman this morning. Bobo, who doesn’t seem to have served in the military, has produced “The Tenacity Question” in which he sniffs that military experts say that President Obama is intellectually sophisticated, but they do not know if he has the determination needed from a war president. Prof. Krugman, in “The Defining Moment,” says the health care legislation on the table isn’t perfect, but it’s as good as anyone could reasonably have expected. It is time for everyone to decide which side they’re on.
Here they are.
The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got waffles with warm maple syrup today. You might want to give golf claps to Prof. Krugman who includes this in his column:
Right after he pretty much called Joe Lieberman a liar. Have a great day.
You’re joking, right? Talk about a piece of garbage…
lol, that’s what I think of Google too :)
Mornin’, pups -
Hey, Raven…….cnn seems to be running with “all pirates, all the time” today. What’s the latest outrage over at the scar and his female lackey channel?
Joe just bewailed the “shallow conversation” we have as a nation over important issues. He said it with a straight face, too. (You can’t make stuff like this up.)
And that disgusting old fossil Pat Robertson is there too. I’m sure I can find some paid programming to look at…
I used’t click over there occasionally during an ad somewhere else but just can’t take even that anymore. Glad you and Raven have the intestinal fortitude to be able to report back.
@ 12 – robertson or buchanan? It’s such a joy not to see his miserable @ss on Rachel anymore. :-)
For the sake of strong Democrat Andy Griffith, don’t besmirch the name Matlock by associating it with the likes of Broder.
Editizing are hard.
Sorry, Buchanan.
Good morning all. THink it has finally stopped snowing but maybe not. Can’t tell if it is old stuff blowing around or new. Was at 26″ and falling last night.
AM Swim is upstairs…
Cannot even imagine. Stay safe. And, warm.
Unemployment insurance was first passed in a form which gave a lot of leeway to the states in how they administered it. This was necessary in order to gain the support of Southern and machine Democrats. The effect was to allow Southern states to administer the programs in a racist way. It wasn’t a exactly an opt-out, but it was a federal-state partnership which favored the states.
Food stamps also vary state by state.
When people say that Broder “has forgotten more than most people ever knew”, it’s not a compliment. He’s a ruin, just a vestige of what he used to be, and he wasn’t a genius to begin with. Fortunately for him, as he has declined, the profession as a whole has declined in synch, so he’s still respected by everyone who respects Chris Matthews, and Bill O’Reilly, and Chuck Todd, and the other clowns.
Attaturk, do you perchance live in a blue state?
I don’t. My state’s almost as red as it could be. Therefore, with an opt-out, it’s likely I will never see a public option.
Yeah. Most Beltway Bozos try to mix it up a bit, but Broder is damned near a perfect reverse indicator — reality is almost always the exact opposite of what he says it is.
You are correct. Where, oh where, are the FDRs or LBJs in the 2009 Congress? I keep hearing about how the Senate is the House of Lords and they sure are, today. But where are our Presidents today? There haven’t been strong Democratic ones since LBJ.
I keep hearing that LBJ was a “man of the Senate” — that he knew how to get the votes. Well, today there are lots of Democratic senators who have been there for decades. What is wrong with them? WHY are they so sick for money? Why would they sell their mama’s soul for a buck?
Just take one — Evan Bayh. He is filthy rich. But, he still has a wife who desperately needs MORE money. Why can’t these freaks just have their money and be happy? WHY do they desperately NEED to get more and more, even if it kills (or makes miserable) so many Americans? It is sick. It is a mental illness, I tell you.
You make a really good case for something that should become another really big deal for the electorate to demand of their legislators: campaign finance reform. The kind that would cause the corporate structure to bend to the will of the people (who really are their customers and clients anyway.) Until that gets done, nothing gets done easily or neatly except more corruption!
Actually the “opt-out” if you think about it is a great way to get rid of Republican governors. How long can you stay in office by denying your state an option everyone else has? Hmmm?
Pretending that the Washinton Post, the New York Times, CBS, NPR, PBS and all of the other “news” organizations pretending that they are not totally propagandists for the plutocrats and the oligarchy does nothing to improve understanding.
David Broder.David Broder.David Broder.David Broder. Oh look we have a bright and shiny piece of shit over here. Ignore that 2/3 of a trillion that was just given to the totally incompetent Military/Industrial complex.
David Broder.David Broder.David Broder.David Broder.
Pay attention you idiots. That is 2/3 of a trillion fucking real dollars.
David Broder.David Broder.David Broder.David Broder.
Focus, shitheads, David Broder.David Broder.David Broder.David Broder doesn’t matter a entessy teenssy fucking bit. Forget David Broder.David Broder.David Broder.David Broder.
Paying attention to the fool distracts you from what the real evil bastards are up to.
Did you notice that they turned off the comments in Krugman’s article after 20 minutes? I was ready to go over there and comment, but comments were closed. I wonder what they were afraid of.