Charlie Bass Does the Two-Step with Fringer Joe Wilson

by: Dean Barker

Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 08:38:33 AM EDT

First, distance yourself from the fringe your party has become (quote in part):

...Wilson's outburst was "the kind of thing that should never happen," Bass says...

"I remember after [President George W. Bush] announced his Social Security plan, I had 15 town meetings, and they were nasty. But I didn't call them unruly mobs. The fact is this is a very, very contentious issue, and it's a do-or-die issue for a lot of people," he says.

While Wilson's outburst was "the kind of thing that should never happen," Bass says, it captured "this enormous pent-up frustration" among conservatives and Republicans over the issue of health care.

"I did not view him as some fringe, crazy person at all," Bass says. "He reflected the temperature of the public, at least the opponents of this plan, and I think there are enough of them that there isn't a sense that the Republicans are out of their minds for opposing this plan."

BTW: I think this deserves some fact-checking.  Did then Rep. Bass hold 15 town halls on Bush's plan to turn Social Security into Private Risk, and were they "nasty"?

And adding: the reason I got to this piece in the first place was because of this jaw-dropper of lazy trademed false equivalence.  And you can add to that the quotes from Eric Cantor in the piece too, stenographed by a Republico reporter who somehow passes over Cantor texting during the speech, which to me is as disrespectful as what Wilson did.

Bush Pardons Libby? Wouldn't We Be More Shocked If He Didn't?

by: bobhiggins

Wed Jun 06, 2007 at 19:45:31 PM EDT

There is an ad currently running on Comedy Central for David Spade's show in which the comic says that Michael Jackson is having a 50 foot robot of himself built which will roam the desert shooting laser beams from it's eyes. He then asks the viewer, "Wouldn't we be more shocked if he didn't?"

Looking around the net this morning and perusing a few of the thousands of "will Bush pardon Scooter?" stories, that ad kept popping into my mind.

I think that Bush will pardon Scooter, I will be shocked if he doesn't, the real question, for me, is when?

You can be sure the question is being discussed in hushed tones in the West Wing this morning, but the hand wringing is audible out here in the heartland.

"Obviously, there'd be a significant political price to pay," said William P. Barr, who as attorney general to President George H.W. Bush remembers the controversy raised by the post-election pardons for several Iran-contra figures in 1992. "I personally am very sympathetic to Scooter Libby. But it would be a tough call to do it at this stage."

In the West Wing, Pardon Is A Topic Too Sensitive to Mention
By Peter Baker - Washington Post