Predictability, Inc.: Sen. Collins pledges to block Democratic Wall Street bill

By GottaLaff

Why should today be any different? The Party of No is, if nothing else, consistent. And they're also nothing else. Nothing at all. Zero:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced after meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday that she will vote to filibuster a Democratic Wall Street reform bill.

Attagirl, you show those Dems. Whenever they start calling you "moderate" or "reasonable", you get out there and show 'em who's boss.

"I don't think we can address these concerns in three days but I see no reason why we could not negotiate a bill in the next three or four weeks."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) worked to keep his party unified against the bill, which Democrats are pushing to pass.

All 41 Senate Republicans signed a letter to Reid urging him to reopen bipartisan negotiations on the legislation.

And by bipartisan, they mean do it their way. Period.

The Grating Obstructionist Party.

VIDEO- Rachel Maddow: "WRONG!"

By GottaLaff

I lerved this segment from last night's show. Lerved:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is no way to counter Rachel on this stuff. She utterly demolished the right wing talking points.

Again.

VIDEO- Lieberman: 'Medicare buy-in didn't make sense'

By GottaLaff

I liveblogged this a few minutes ago. Now you get to see the video and all the errors I made in my hurried transcription. All this while you're trying to keep your breakfast down during your Traitor Joe exposure:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Liveblog- Lieberman: "I haven't received ANY pressure from the insurance companies."

By GottaLaff

Joe Lieberman is speaking right now:

"I haven't received ANY pressure from the insurance companies."

I was against the public option because "it's getting too big, will increase their taxes.. their debt."

[somewhat paraphrased] I DIDN'T change my mind on the Medicare buy-in, although it's okay to change one's mind. The party platform was that, but a lot of things have changed in 9 years. We had a surplus. Second, Medicare wasn't on the verge of bankruptcy... Third, there wasn't a bill that would reduce the impact of age on the pricing of insurance policies. Re: the interview, I just saw it. It looked to me that I said I was against public option, but not health care reform.

The Medicare buy-in didn't make sense. I'm not the only person in the Dem caucus who opposed it. 11 other senators wrote to Reid about it. By cost shifting on 180 million who get insurance via private companies, their premiums would go up.

It doesn't make any sense to me. Longterm danger is the government would take over... we have a great bill here. Some of my colleagues tried to load it up with too much at the risk of losing EVERYthing.

Some aren't happy about it, but what will emerge is an historic bill...

Susan Collins:

I'm grateful for Lieberman's work. His principled stand has improved the bill. I'd like to see a bill based on lowering costs, expanding access, helping small businesses. But voting for current bill, even with improvements... I can't see voting for.

Cuts in home health care counter productive. Lieberman and I, Wyden and I have amendments, don't know if they'll be adopted.

Bill is getting better, but still too deeply flawed for me to support it.

Still concerned about cuts to Medicare program. I think something is going to pass, and I'd like to make that bill as good as possible, even if ultimately I can't support it. I want to improve the bill, not just say no.

I've had extensive discussions with president, his chief of staff, appreciate the dialog, but haven't moved me to support the bill at this point.

Karl Rove spread lies that possible Obama VP pick beat wife

By GottaLaff

This book has more juicy little tales than C Street and the Palin household combined:

Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor by Matthew Latimer is not officially out until tomorrow, but that doesn't stop the Huffington Post from pointing some key passages [...]

Bush, when told that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig had been the latest GOPer to be caught in a sex scandal involving boys or men: "What is up with all these Republicans?"

We've pretty much been asking the same thing for years now. Moving on:

While Karl Rove was appearing on Fox News and writing op-eds as an independent political analyst, he was privately smearing Democrats. "Karl spread rumors through the White House that one of Obama's potential vice presidential running mates -- and a United States senator -- had beaten his first wife. 'Karl says it's true,' the president assured a small group of staffers. Then knowing Karl, he quickly added, 'Karl hopes it's true," reports Latimer.

Karl also hopes he doesn't land in prison. He's just the most hopeful little member of the Bush crime family ever! Maybe he should Obamicon himself with the word "hope" plastered across his big ugly mug.

Next:

For a commencement address at Furman University in spring 2008, Ed Gillespie wanted to insert a few lines condemning gay marriage. Bush called the speech too "condemnatory" and said, "I'm not going to tell some gay kid in the audience that he can't get married."

And how about that Susan Collins? Here's an idea, Sue: If you're jealous of Olympia's positive press, try earning some yourself...

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins is fond of sending angry, middle-of-the-night e-mails to staffers because she's frustrated that her colleague and rival Olympia Snowe gets more and better press. As a result, reports Latimer, she rips through press secretaries like 30-packs at a beer-pong tournament.

D'oh!

Health Care Hypocrisy Watch: Hurry up and wait

By GottaLaff

Stealing from David Kurtz, because it's worth going to Blogosphere Jail for:

Remember this?

President George W. Bush signed into law Thursday the first major piece of legislation of his presidency, a $1.35 trillion tax cut over 10 years.

Of the six senators begging President Obama to slow down health care reform, four of them -- Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME) -- voted for those huge Bush tax cuts.

Their votes were cast on May 26, 2001. Bush signed the tax cuts into law on June 7, 2001. Here we are in mid-July, eight years later, struggling to get health care reform passed by the end of the year.

So whatever these four foot-draggers are saying about why they want health care reform slowed down (and Nelson, for one, was all over the place yesterday warning against "rushing into this"), it's not really about wanting to be more deliberative or avoid ballooning the deficit. All you have to do is look back to 2001. Their records speak for themselves.

The Internets are a bitch, aren't they...?

Michael Steele mad at Maine, Collins, Snowe re: Gay marriage

By GottaLaff

Via Pam:

Michael Steele is mad at Maine and marriage equality. [...] He's apparently decided the GOP tent is small again. No rights for the homos. (The Plum Line):

After the RNC said he wouldn't be issuing a statement on Maine's decision to legalize gay marriage today, RNC Chairman Michael Steele is in fact condemning the decision, a position that puts him at odds with Maine's moderate Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of whom said today the decision should be left to the states.

The RNC emails over this statement from Steele:

"Our party platform articulates our opposition to gay marriage and civil unions, positions shared by many Americans. I believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman and strongly disagree with Maine's decision to legalize gay marriage."

Earlier today, Collins said on MSNBC that the decision is best "decided at the state level." And Snowe's office put out a statement citing her support for the Defense of Marriage Act, which leaves it to individual states to "make their own determinations on this very personal issue."

Michael, Michael, Michael. Folding up that so-called Rushpublic big tent just isn't working for you. That you haven't quite figured that out yet is even sadder than your constantly flapping tongue's appetite for Boss Limbaugh's boots.

VIDEO-- Republican Susan Collins on stimulus money for flu pandemic: "No! We should not!"

By GottaLaff

Flu And You - Part V - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Earlier I posted all about the Party of Swine (flu) and how they're blocking the confirmation of HHS Secretary Sebelius, how they blocked stimulus money to fight flu pandemics, and hence, how it must have slipped their minds to put America first.

Now we have video. Way to have foresight, Susan. If I may quote from my own post for a moment here:

Famously, Maine Senator Susan Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not."

Yes, we should have.

Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate's version of the stimulus measure.

We'll be right back after this short break, brought to you by Maine's burgeoning dry cleaning industry:

UPDATE-- Here's the February article:

Stimulus bill headed for passage minus pandemic funds

GOP Fought Pandemic Preparedness

By GottaLaff

UPDATE #2: Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events

UPDATE-- I was thinking about this very thing while typing up this post, and then promptly forgot to add it in. I'll let AMERICAblog do that for me:

GOP is filibustering the confirmation of the Secretary of HHS in the midst of swine flu preparations

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who are the most shortsighted, destructive, self-serving know-nothings of all:

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse [...]

The current swine flu outbreak is not a pandemic, and there is reason to hope that it can be contained. [...]

On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that a national "public health emergency" had been declatred. (Notably, the second question at the White House press conference on the emergency had to do with the potential impact on the economic recovery.) [...]

Rove dismissed Obey's proposals as "disturbing" and "laden with new spending programs." He said the congressman was peddling a plan based on "deeply flawed assumptions."

Like what?

Rove specifically complained that Obey's proposal included "$462 million for the Centers for Disease Control, and $900 million for pandemic flu preparations."

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blot post to bring you breaking news. We have found the source of the swine flu outbreak:

Now back to our blog post already in progress:

The attack on pandemic preparation became so central to the GOP strategies that AP reported in February: "Republicans, meanwhile, plan to push for broader and deeper tax cuts, to trim major spending provisions that support Democrats' longer-term policy goals, and to try to knock out what they consider questionable spending items, such as $870 million to combat the flu and $400 million to slow the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases."

Famously, Maine Senator Susan Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not."

Yes, we should have.

Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate's version of the stimulus measure.

We'll be right back after this short break, brought to you by Maine's burgeoning dry cleaning industry:

Now, back to our post:

The Republicans essentially succeeded. The Senate version of the stimulus plan included no money whatsoever for pandemic preparedness. [...]

[S]tate and local governments, and the emergency services that would necessarily be on the frontlines in any effort to contain a pandemic, got nothing.[...]

No serious player in Washington has been unaware of the fears with regard to a flu pandemic. They have been well-publicized and well-discussed. [...]

And it is important to point out that no serious player in Washington could have been unaware of the threat that a pandemic -- or even the fear of one -- would pose to economic renewal. [...]

But they bet that they would be able to score their political points without any consequences.

Senate Democratic leaders bowed to Collins in the process of crafting their chamber's version of the stimulus. [...]

Collins played politics with public health, and the economic recovery. That makes her about as bad a player as you will find in a town full of bad players.

But Senate Democrats bent to her demands. That makes them, at the very least, complicit in the weakening of what needed to be a muscular plan.[...]

There is, however, a hero on the House side. Throughout the process, David Obey battled to get Congress to recognize that a pandemic would threaten not just public health but a fragile economic recovery.

Thank you for joining us. Tune in again next week when we discover that despite Donald Rumsfeld's stake in Tamiflu, he has been foolish enough to maintain his relationship with a Mexican pig named Karlos Rovero, and, to his surprise and dismay, contracted a nasty case of the swine flu.

G'night folks!

Susan Collins, of the Senate OVERSIGHT Committee, killed whistleblower protection

By GottaLaff

Here's your "centrist":

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), ranking member of the Senate's oversight committee, no less, kills a whistleblower protection provision in the stimulus bill.

Angry yet? So am I. It gets worse:

To make matter worse, Collins is the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs commitee, which, as an oversight committee, might be expected to see its role as protecting whistleblowers. She also sits on the Senate appropriations committee, giving her a strong position from which to wield influence during today's negotiations.

Though Senate leader Harry Reid supported the protections, said the source, he wasn't willing to strong-arm Collins on the issue, given her central role in negotiations over the stimulus bill as a whole.

So when, in the coming months, conservatives start jumping up and down over the fact that money from the stimulus bill is being wasted, as they surely will, it's worth remember that a key measure designed to help expose that waste was removed from taken out of the bill -- and by a senator said to be a champion of fiscal discipline.

Good old Susan Collins. Good old Harry Reid. Good lord.

GOP Strategist: Wussy Republicans are voting for stimulus

Maybe if we can keep them fighting amongst themselves we can get something done. APU, I found another great headline this morning, from my personal fav Dick "Toe Sucker" Morris-

Specter and Collins Commit Treason

Maine Republican party leader asks Collins to resign for challenging robocalls

By GottaLaff

It's simple: If you disapprove of Gramm-pa McCain's smear campaign, then you should resign:

Earlier today, the Maine Democratic Party called on U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Bangor) to call on Republican Presidential candidate John McCain to halt robocalls that tie Democratic candidate Barack Obama to 60’s radical activist Bill Ayers. Collins agreed.

“They don’t serve John McCain well,” Collins said in a follow-up interview. “This kind of campaign call does not reflect the kind of leader that he is.”

She said she disapproves of the negativity being used in both presidential campaigns.

In response, the party countered. Spokeswoman Rebecca Pollard issued a statement saying that if Collins is truly concerned about the calls, then she should resign from her position as co-chair of McCain’s campaign in the state.

What a mess.

H/t: Palin's No Hillary

Al Franken: Return Senator Ted "Indicted" Stevens donations, Normy

By GottaLaff

But Norm the Toker needs the money for weed tooth whitener his campaign! And, Sue, you better hustle off to the bank, too:

Minnesota candidate Al Franken was the first out of the block in calling on his opponent, Senator Norm Coleman, to return donations from indicted Senator Ted Stevens, followed closely by the Maine Democratic Party hitting Senator Susan Collins for accepting similar contributions. But Coleman and Collins won't be the last to be slammed for associating with the Senate's most senior Republican.

Stevens' Northern Lights PAC has doled out almost $145,000 to GOP candidates this cycle, including $10,000 checks to Republicans Elizabeth Dole, Pat Roberts and Gordon Smith, all running for re-election against credible challengers this year, as well as smaller checks to John Sununu, Roger Wicker, Mike Johanns, Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn. The PAC also handed a $5,000 check to John McCain's presidential campaign.

Scroll back through the years and Franken's campaign charges Coleman with taking a total of $25,000 from Stevens, as well as another $6,000 from executives already caught up in the same VECO Corp. scandal that ensnared the Alaska Republican.

Since 1998, Stevens' PAC has given more than $1.07 million to Republican incumbents and candidates for office, according to records kept by the Center for Responsive Politics, including to each Republican considered vulnerable this year and to dozens of House members as well.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Quel dilemma.

Watch research shops at the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees swing into overdrive today as they follow the money.

Ohhh, follow away. Please. Follow. We'll be watching.

Republican Senate Candidates Skipping Convention

By GottaLaff

Whatever happened to good old Republican pomp and/or jubilation? Oh yeah... McLame:

According to Congress Daily, 9 of 12 targeted Republicans running in the most competitive U.S. Senate races this fall "are either skipping the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., or have not decided whether to attend."

Among those who will not attend: Ted Stevens of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Bob Schaffer of Colorado.

I wouldn't show my face either, if I were one of them.

Six others have not yet decided: Roger Wicker of Mississippi, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, Gordon Smith of Oregon, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Steve Pearce of New Mexico.

What a festive event that will be! I wonder if they'll have a balloon drop... and by "a balloon", I meant one.