Someone Notify Lori Sturdevant!
By Mitch Berg
Betty McCollum (DFL MN4) confirms it – “bipartisanship” is just for Republicans! (emphasis added):
“Now is the time to pass a public health insurance option. Now is the time to expand access to quality health care, control rising costs, keep American businesses competitive, and improve the health of the American people,” she told the crowd of assembled party activists.
“You know there is a lot of talk about how Democrats need to reach out to Republicans and work for a ‘bipartisan’ health care bill. I am sick and tired of talk of a bipartisan health care bill — that’s just a plan for less health care for people in need and more profits for corporations driven by greed,” she said.
But McCollum – famous for ducking any debates and avoiding any dissent, as befits a “representative” from a one-party city who has never needed to remember that there are at least two sides to any issue – does make one illustrative point:
“Since I’ve been in Congress there have been a number of historic bipartisan bills — historically bad!”
She’s got a point; “bipartisanship” is the plea of the weaker party, or at least of the party that doesn’t need to reach across the aisle – which, as a Saint Paul DFLer, is all McCollum knows; the “bipartisanship” of ramming our agenda down the opposition’s throat.
Of course, McCollum is in the majority now. She can afford to talk like a petty absolutist tyrant.
That “Majority” thing’s gotta change.
Which is why your vote matters in 2010. When McCollum is in the minority again – then she’ll see the value of “bipartisanship”.
Let’s hope a new Republican majority doesn’t make that mistake again.
October 6th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
“famous for ducking any debates and avoiding any dissent”
She hosted two open town halls and was a guest at a third forum this summer/fall. That is more than either Kline or Paulson held.
October 6th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
RickDFL paraphrased:
“She’s better than Kline or Paulson in this one measure”
Nice lack of argument.
October 6th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
She hosted two open town halls and was a guest at a third forum this summer/fall. That is more than either Kline or Paulson held.
She did her best to stack the audiences at the town halls (gratifyingly failing once); she has never debated an opponent and, for all the left’s garbering about Michele Bachmann’s alleged reticence about appearing on conservative media, will not do interviews with tough questions.
I repeat: Famous for ducking challenges.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
McCollum is reliably stupid.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
A letter I emailed to Betty on her site. Boy, she can piss me off sometimes.
Ms. Congresswoman:
In your recent speech at the Vento dinner, I understand you said “I am sick and tired of talk of a bipartisan health care bill – that’s just a plan for less health care for people in need and more profits for corporations driven by greed. Since I’ve been in Congress there have been a number of historic bipartisan bills – historically bad!”
You also go on to say how bad bipartisan tax cuts and bipartisan support for the Iraq War were; I take it you mean that all of your fellow Democrats who voted for those measures were either dupes of the Republican party, or fools for disagreeing with you. Perhaps you could tell me which it is.
I recall a certain stimulus plan passed earlier this year that doesn’t seem to have done anything for the immediate economy. All of the Democrats, from the President on down said we had to pass this immediately, without debate, to get immediate help to the people who need their government checks to keep their lives going.
Have things improved dramatically? Last I heard, unemployment was up, the cash for clunkers program was a bust, and there were plenty of people on at GM and on Wall Street still seeing large bonuses after running their companies into the ground, then putting out their hands for a bailout they knew the Democratically controlled government would provide.
I remember the president saying we needed to pass health care now, right away, before the August recess, because the people needed it. It wasn’t done, and the world didn’t end. There has been some debate on it, and that’s good. Overhauling such a major subject as health care in America should be difficult, should call for debate, not blind obedience to the party leaders, as you seem to want to do. Especially given the government’s track record for managing things like Cash for Clunkers, or even related subjects, like Medicare or Medicaid.
I assume by saying you would support the ‘strongest health care bill possible’ you mean you want to have those with money pay for those without. Perhaps you’d like to cut my medical coverage deduction from my paycheck, or ask a 25 year old to buy thousands of dollars in health care insurance they don’t require to pay for illegal immigrants to be covered.
I’m curious if you would put your family under the bill you would see passed for others, instead of using the coverage you presumably now use provided by the government. I suspect you’d like to see health care rationed by the government, as it is in ‘progressive’ countries, like those sophisticated Europeans and Canadians. The Democratic party says we’ll always have a choice about our health care coverage; what I’m afraid of is that you want us to choose between government doctors and no doctors at all.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
“She hosted two open town halls and was a guest at a third forum this summer/fall.”
The woman is so emotionally fragile that even though she represents a district that is overwhelmingly filled with leftist droogs, she can’t take the heat from the few conservative outliers that manage to slip through her screen.
She hosted one TH that was not advertised, one at MacAlister College in a tiny chapel and shared barking duties with co-moonbat Keith Hakim Ellison at an event from which dissent was not allowed.
I’m sure those close calls required her to undergo days of grueling aroma-therapy sessions to recover.
October 7th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Mitch:
“She did her best to stack the audiences at the town halls ” So did Paulson, Kline, and every member of Congress, but McCollum held more events than Paulson or Kline, so she did less to duck debate.
“she has never debated an opponent ”
Ah, the usual Mitch Berg fail. McCollum debated GOP challenger Ed Mathews last year.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/28/midday1/
“all the left’s garbering about Michele Bachmann’s alleged reticence about appearing on conservative media” ??? I am not sure anyone on the left ever said Bachmann was reticent about appearing on conservative media.