How Does McCain Get Away With This Stuff?

Steve Benen deconstructs what Senator John McCain wants to do with Veterans health care--and is the solution to "ration" it out?

It seems hard to imagine a presidential candidate, running in the midst of two wars, openly speculate about cutting back on veterans’ health care. And yet, here we are.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain appeared Tuesday to suggest rationing of veterans’ health care may be needed so combat veterans can receive the care they deserve.

At a town hall meeting in Dover, N.H., McCain talked about the need to “concentrate” veterans’ health care on people with injuries that “are a direct result of combat.”

“Right now, there are people who drive a long way and they stand in line to stand in line to get an appointment to get an appointment,” McCain said.

Retirees are having to compete with wounded Veterans for health care appointments--the promise made to BOTH says that ALL will be cared for. It doesn't matter if you served in peace or in war--if you're a Veteran, you get care. The problem with McCain's party-line voting record is that the Republican Party has a long history of slashing benefits for every American, be they poor, young, mentally ill or just plain sick. And that voting record is dismal and shameful on Veteran's issues. The "awards" McCain brags about getting come from partisan Veteran's organizations that ignore the Republican record on providing benefits and are more closely aligned with the agenda of the National Rifle Association and the evangelical conservative movement.

If that's not your position, don't bother running for President.

--WS

"You don’t spend your life fighting for women’s rights and then vote for Sen. McCain"

Steve Benen brings us a little cheer this morning:

...the MinnPost had an interesting report on the Obama rally at the Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday, and the kind of treatment Hillary Clinton’s supporters found when they got there.

Specifically, the head of Clinton’s Minnesota campaign attended the Obama event, as did a few Clinton-supporting superdelegates, Minnesota’s Secretary of State, Minneapolis City Council President, and the mayor of St. Paul, all of whom also backed Clinton. Some were reluctant to go, but showed up in the interests of “political healing.”

And they were pleasantly surprised. In fact, both Barack and Michelle Obama met privately with 25 prominent Clinton supporters after the speech.

“He shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you for being here; I’m sure it’s not easy,’ ” said Stevenson of her meeting with Obama. “I thanked him and said that everyone involved in his campaign had been so gracious. I didn’t know what to say, so I mentioned that my daughter works for a federal health clinic. And he knew right away which program I was talking about. He said, ‘Oh that’s wonderful.’ ”

[DFL activist Jackie Stevenson], a feminist and Clinton supporter, had to admit this: “He’s very impressive.”

The report added that Stevenson had arrived at the event with another Clinton backer, and “as they were taken to their seats, people kept stopping to hug them and thank them for being there…. All of the other Clinton supporters received similar treatment.”

The St. Paul mayor added, “I think especially for women of my mother’s generation, it’s going to be very hard. They had waited so long for this (a woman in the White House). But I’ve spoken with a number of women like that in the last day. I think they’ll come around. You don’t spend your life fighting for women’s rights and then vote for Sen. McCain.”

That's right--no, you don't. You don't vote for McCain unless you want Bush's third term.

--WS

Steve Benen does not write this blog

I must quash those rumors right now. Tom Burka has blown the lid off the liberal blogosphere, exposing the entire left side as the machinations of one man, Steve Benen, the Energizer Bunny of blogtopia™ (y!sctp!)

Steve Benen, the liberal blogger who runs The Carpetbagger Report, has recently been discovered to be the sole author of almost every liberal blog dealing with U.S. politics on the internet, blog readers recently discovered.

At first Benen was writing The Carpetbagger Report and allegedly guest blogging on sites such as TalkingPointsMemo, the Washington Monthly's blog, Political Animal, and Crooks and Liars. However, a visitor to TalkingPointsMemo, who saw a video of the alleged author and blog founder "Josh Marshall," immediately recognized him to be actor Marshall Mappschteen, with whom he had performed "Guys and Dolls" in college. A phone call to Mappschteen resulted in revelations that eventually uncovered Benen as the author of more than 260 liberal blogs. Subsequent investigation revealed that popular "bloggers" Atrios and Political Animal's Kevin Drum are actually fellow league bowlers who Benen recruited to be fictitious front men.

The revelations caused Salon to put an end to their Blog Report, a supposed roundup of items of interest on liberal and conservative political blogs compiled by Benen. "All the liberal blogs were him," said "Skippy", one of the few liberal bloggers who appears to really exist. "He was just linking to himself all over the place. It was unsanitary."

Benen admitted that he had orchestrated and created the liberal blogosphere in order to create the impression that more people have liberal values than actually do. "I wanted the liberal presence on the web -- and in the U.S. -- to appear to be very, very big, much larger than it actually is," admitted Benen, who welcomed the end of his deception as a chance to rest his hands. "I've been suffering from carpal tunnel something awful," he said.

So now you know the deep dark secret of Left Blogsylvania, but I must clarify that Pale Rider and I are not figments of Benen's prolific creative forces. We can, however, be accurately characterized as "minions" of the hyper-producive Mr. Benen.

It would be fair to question Mr. Burka's bona fides, however - because every leftie blogger that really exists knows that skippy is not capitalized.....just sayin'.....

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

Full disclosure: I actually am Steve Benen.

Sorry for the confusion.

Oh my God! I finally get it!

Remember when aWol, a while back, sparked outrage by comparing himself to Truman?

People, he was right and we were wrong. We just had the wrong Truman in mind.

He is this Truman.

It hit me like a ton of bricks when I checked in on my friend Steve Benen this morning and read this...

It’s been more than seven years, but I still laugh when I look back at this classic satirical item from The Onion, in which George W. Bush assured the nation that “our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over.”

“My fellow Americans,” Bush said (in this fake-news item), “at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us.”

Of course, this piece, written four days before Bush’s first inaugural, proved to be rather prophetic. But in the meantime, whenever I see or hear references to “peace and prosperity,” I think of The Onion, and the strength and success Bush squandered.

I was reminded of it again this morning, listening to Bush’s speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

“My energy is up, my spirit is high, and I will finish strong. And in the meantime, we will elect a new President. We’ve had good debates and soon we’ll have a nominee who will carry a conservative banner into this election and beyond. Listen, the stakes in November are high. This is an important election. Prosperity and peace are in the balance.”

Really? Does George W. Bush seriously want to argue that the nation should follow his direction in order to maintain “prosperity and peace”?

Where is this elusive “prosperity and peace”? And why is it hiding so well?

There is only one explanation - the bubble is opaque, and soundproof. It is a controlled and scripted environment and he is cluelessly performing for an audience, oblivious to the outside world.

Just like Truman.