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Democrats are fighting the ugliest battle first because it’s politically safe for them and the Republican prospects to pick up seats are almost nil. Therefore, the Democrats are going to put on a full court press between now and election day 2008. They will fight to secure a larger Congressional majority now because they’ve already banked on the party taking the White House in ’08.

Rahm Emmanuel’s plan is to make the Congressional majority into a large enough beast where not even passing Hillarycare could put the Democrats in the minority again.

why trot forward families like the Frosts and the Wilkersons who qualify under the current rules?

I posted something to this effect at FDL the other day. I said that someone who is getting SCHIP benefits currently makes a lousy poster child for increasing the limits. I went on to say that the trick is to find that family that makes one freaking dollar too much to be eligible under the current rules, and make their kids the poster children.

It was deleted within 2 minutes of my posting it. I guess it was an Inconvenient Truth.

First, politico, you need to stop calling Malkin and other rightwing terrorists CONSERVATIVES. She’s a radical, out-of-control, screaming-meemy nutjob who just calls herself A CONSERVATIVE – get it straight – there is NOTHING conservative or SANE or credible or legitimate about this batsh*t idiot who posts the addresses of her perceived “enemies” and calls it “investigative journalism” – OMG! She stalks her prey and makes threats – and she encourages her rabid, crazy fans to actually go out and commit crimes = to do her terrorism dirty-work for her so she can put up her hands in mock shock and pretend she didn’t order it. When someone dies at the hands of her operatives Malkin will be, at the very least, an accessory to murder. Is that what you call “conservative?”

Posted By: Firefly | October 15, 2007 at 02:32 PM

Can’t the Democrats find anyone who doesn’t qualify for SCHIP?

They like to play games where the rule is that everybody is a winner!, but so far everyone they have chosen won according to Bush’s rules.

This is going to be fun to watch.

Drudge links the Politico daily.

Ali-Bubba on October 15, 2007 at 7:41 PM

A long time ago I learned to hover over Drudge’s links and preview the URL at the bottom of my browser. This lets me opt to take a pass on the click. Nice that HA is quite open with its sources, eh?

So far they have gotten commitments from

Baron Hill and Mike McIntyre to flip their vote

They are still targeting

Remaining targets: Boren (OK-02), Ethridge (NC-02), Marshall (GA-08), and Taylor (MS-04). Contact information for these Representatives can be found here.

 

The march of the children on the health care veto

by Matthew Hay Brown

And the kids keep coming.

First, there were Graeme and Gemma Frost, the Baltimore children who were hospitalized for months after a 2004 car crash, but who have been seen more recently in the company of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Then came Abby, Josh, Latoya and Kevin, all “vetoed” by President Bush, according to a television advertisement produced this month by liberal groups.

Now meet Bethany Wilkerson, the latest youngster enlisted by congressional Democrats or their allies to help build support for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Having suffered from heart failure as an infant, USAction says, the Florida toddler would not be alive today but for the government-funded program for moderate-income families not poor enough to qualifty for Medicaid.

Now Bethany is scheduled to speak at a Capitol Hill rally Tuesday evening, according to a release this morning by Americans United For Change.

There was no word on what the 2-year-old plans to say. But she joins a flurry of 11th-hour activity in advance of the attempt by House Democrats on Thursday to override Bush’s veto of legislation to expand coverage to 4 million more children at a cost of $35 billion over five years. (A bipartisan majority in the Senate approved the expansion by a veto-proof margin.)

Drudge links the Politico daily. When was the last time he linked Hot Air?

Funny how we don’t see any poster families who are 400% above the poverty level being pushed forward as examples of the kinds of people the $35 billion expansion of S-CHIP will help. Why not? Since the original parameters of the S-CHIP program enjoys the overwhelming support of Congress and the President, why trot forward families like the Frosts and the Wilkersons who qualify under the current rules? Why not bring to the fore those families at the high end of the expansion requirements and let the American people decide if they want to subsidize insurance for them?

The answer is obvious; a family living 400% above poverty are not as sympathetic as those, like the Wilkerson’s, who couldn’t get by without S-CHIP. In fact, pushing forward people who make more than 40% of all the families in America as the poster family for S-CHIP expansion would probably torpedo the bill then and there.

I note that this time around, the Democrats were careful to push a family forward whose choices regarding health insurance couldn’t be questioned. In that respect, if they’re waiting for conservatives to attack the Wilkerson’s, they are going to be sorely disappointed. The Democrats just don’t have a clue about the true nature of the opposition to their S-CHIP expansion. For that, they would have to give a fig about the tradeoffs we make between dependency and freedom every time they get some not so bright idea about “helping” those who can usually be counted on to help themselves.

You’ll have to stop communicating so clearly. You are making too much sense, and, in the case of supporters of the S-CHIP program, and those who mischaracterize the opposition, you drive them crazy. Also it appears they really don’t understand, which is possibly why they are pushing the issue, distorting the opposition, and riding this dog and pony show for all it is worth.

William