The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

They Should’ve Listened to Rush

Posted on | March 22, 2010 | 44 Comments

How Republicans helped Democrats sell ObamaCare:

Some Republicans will point the President Obama’s Blair House health care meeting with Republicans as the event that enabled Democrats to get to a point where the Senate health care bill could pass. During the event and immediately afterward, some Republicans were given credit for standing up to the President and attempting to get a leg up, but according to a Democrat leadership aide in the House, the event accomplished exactly what the Democrats and the White House wanted.
“It allowed us to create the impression that Republicans had had a hand. It allowed the President afterward to claim he had included Republican proposals in the bill, and gave us a clear path to moving the process along, where before we didn’t,” says the aide. “Your Republican friends will disagree, but the minute they agreed to that meeting, we knew we were at the least back in business.”
A White House aide, who was involved in planning the media sideshow at Blair said, “If the Republicans had actually listened to Rush [Limbaugh] and [Mark] Levin and [Fred] Thompson and not attended, we might have been in different situation. Before February 25, we had no momentum, you just felt it, after the summit, when the President told Republicans that if we couldn’t agree, then we’d just have to move on without them, we had a bit of a opening and no major public opinion backlash.”

Hat-tip to the Underground Conservative.

Category: Health Care, Rush Limbaugh

Comments

44 Responses to “They Should’ve Listened to Rush”

  1. Charles Johnson
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 5:49 pm

    If it doesn’t turn out to be the “Healthpocalypse” predicted a lot of Republicans are going to look foolish.

    Anything that Obama does is fine by me because it drives you racist wing nuts nuttier. Like peanut butter. In your bike shorts. Crunchy Skippy butter. That is the type I like…I mean the type those wing nuts are using.

  2. Charles Johnson
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 12:49 pm

    If it doesn’t turn out to be the “Healthpocalypse” predicted a lot of Republicans are going to look foolish.

    Anything that Obama does is fine by me because it drives you racist wing nuts nuttier. Like peanut butter. In your bike shorts. Crunchy Skippy butter. That is the type I like…I mean the type those wing nuts are using.

  3. Rev. Al Sharpton
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 5:58 pm

    Americans want socialism. That is why they elected Obama. What part of that don’t you guys understand?

  4. Rev. Al Sharpton
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 12:58 pm

    Americans want socialism. That is why they elected Obama. What part of that don’t you guys understand?

  5. Red
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:03 pm

    Charles likes crunchy peanut butter farmed from bike shorts? Ew.

  6. Red
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 1:03 pm

    Charles likes crunchy peanut butter farmed from bike shorts? Ew.

  7. Joe
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:11 pm

    Tea Party members gone wild! Obiviously the healthcare vote sent them over the edge.

  8. Joe
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 1:11 pm

    Tea Party members gone wild! Obiviously the healthcare vote sent them over the edge.

  9. Joe
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:20 pm

    No racism here because the racial remark was intended to express love and admiration.

  10. Joe
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 1:20 pm

    No racism here because the racial remark was intended to express love and admiration.

  11. Rich Fader
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:34 pm

    And if the guys had listened to Rush and Mark and Fred, that would have allowed the White House to claim that the GOP was being run by the talk-radio nutters (the White House’s probable take on them, not mine). A. These guys can preach it round, flat or curved and you know it. B. Sometimes you’re going to get hit either way. C. Screw it.

  12. Rich Fader
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 1:34 pm

    And if the guys had listened to Rush and Mark and Fred, that would have allowed the White House to claim that the GOP was being run by the talk-radio nutters (the White House’s probable take on them, not mine). A. These guys can preach it round, flat or curved and you know it. B. Sometimes you’re going to get hit either way. C. Screw it.

  13. Moe Lane
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:52 pm

    That’s just BS. The public hates the bill and hates the process, and the Democrats’ actions throughout reflects that: if they had the momentum, they wouldn’t have lied and cheated. The bottom line is that with a 70 vote deficit in the House any strategy that was primarily based on relying on ‘conservative Democrats’ was going to fail. And enlightened self-interest (my reason for expecting the Democrats not to cave) didn’t work, either.

    You want this to change? ELECT MORE REPUBLICANS. Or, fine, Libertarians who will caucus with us.

  14. Moe Lane
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 1:52 pm

    That’s just BS. The public hates the bill and hates the process, and the Democrats’ actions throughout reflects that: if they had the momentum, they wouldn’t have lied and cheated. The bottom line is that with a 70 vote deficit in the House any strategy that was primarily based on relying on ‘conservative Democrats’ was going to fail. And enlightened self-interest (my reason for expecting the Democrats not to cave) didn’t work, either.

    You want this to change? ELECT MORE REPUBLICANS. Or, fine, Libertarians who will caucus with us.

  15. Adobe Walls
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 7:00 pm

    That the Blair House summit was designed as a trap for the Republicans is obvious. That the socialists were ever considering accepting defeat is preposterous. In any case despite the good case that can be made for not attending not to mention enjoying telling the big 0 to shove his summit, not going was not ever really an option. Just as they had to vote in favor of Stupak’s amendment in Nov for reasons of principle, they couldn’t refuse to make their case in front of the American people. Those of us who are firmly convinced of the inherent evil qualities of the left and their agenda are not the only people who matter in terms of the electorate. Not unless and until those in the deluded middle come to realize that we can’t compromise with the left and still be a free Republic can we avowedly refuse to compromise. To be clear we must not actually compromise with the Bolsheviks but we must use their false offers to reach across the isle in order to expose their true intentions. That it took this long for the HC bill to pass speaks more to the weakness of their cause than to tactical errors by the Republicans. This struggle to salvage our country will take decades and there are many other pitfalls to be avoided undoubtedly the Republicans will step right in some of them and like all politicians they will try to stray from correct path it’s our job to keep them from failing us.

  16. Adobe Walls
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:00 pm

    That the Blair House summit was designed as a trap for the Republicans is obvious. That the socialists were ever considering accepting defeat is preposterous. In any case despite the good case that can be made for not attending not to mention enjoying telling the big 0 to shove his summit, not going was not ever really an option. Just as they had to vote in favor of Stupak’s amendment in Nov for reasons of principle, they couldn’t refuse to make their case in front of the American people. Those of us who are firmly convinced of the inherent evil qualities of the left and their agenda are not the only people who matter in terms of the electorate. Not unless and until those in the deluded middle come to realize that we can’t compromise with the left and still be a free Republic can we avowedly refuse to compromise. To be clear we must not actually compromise with the Bolsheviks but we must use their false offers to reach across the isle in order to expose their true intentions. That it took this long for the HC bill to pass speaks more to the weakness of their cause than to tactical errors by the Republicans. This struggle to salvage our country will take decades and there are many other pitfalls to be avoided undoubtedly the Republicans will step right in some of them and like all politicians they will try to stray from correct path it’s our job to keep them from failing us.

  17. Rich Fader
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 7:01 pm

    Joe, I remember Kip Keino…and Barack Obama is no Kip Keino.

  18. Rich Fader
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:01 pm

    Joe, I remember Kip Keino…and Barack Obama is no Kip Keino.

  19. Dan
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 7:43 pm

    First off, we have to assume that this unnamed Dem staffer is on the up-and-up, on the level, and that he’s not engaged in some agent provocateur action.

    And I don’t for a minute credit what this clown is pushing.

    The Dem leadership were going to pursue this REGARDLESS, and NOTWITHSTANDING any opposition not just from the GOP, BUT FROM WITHIN their own rank and file. Thus the notion that this whole train was idling on the rails and was only given fresh steam after that summit is far more than a stretch, because the Dem leadership never intended for a minute to give up on this.

    Obama’s entire raison d’etre was up for grabs on this bill. There was no way then that they were going to give up, and what’s more, there was no real way they COULD give up, for a defeat would have encompassed far more than a mere run-of-the-mill defeat on some aspect of the Dem domestic agenda.

    It was truly a Waterloo moment for him, and instead of Wellington and the good guys prevailing, it was the Napoleonic egomaniac himself, Obama, who prevailed.

    Lastly, it’s difficult to game out how a Republican refusal would have been portrayed AND received by the wider electorate. Recall, the American people DID vote for that clown, and REALLY do want to see him “succeed,” so were the Republicans to figuratively flip him the finger, the electorate might not be too pleased.

    It’s taking some time for the people to widely reject what Obama’s selling. But the electorate might still not be at that place where they back the Republicans not just not cooperating with his agenda, but even refusing to discuss that agenda with him.

  20. Dan
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:43 pm

    First off, we have to assume that this unnamed Dem staffer is on the up-and-up, on the level, and that he’s not engaged in some agent provocateur action.

    And I don’t for a minute credit what this clown is pushing.

    The Dem leadership were going to pursue this REGARDLESS, and NOTWITHSTANDING any opposition not just from the GOP, BUT FROM WITHIN their own rank and file. Thus the notion that this whole train was idling on the rails and was only given fresh steam after that summit is far more than a stretch, because the Dem leadership never intended for a minute to give up on this.

    Obama’s entire raison d’etre was up for grabs on this bill. There was no way then that they were going to give up, and what’s more, there was no real way they COULD give up, for a defeat would have encompassed far more than a mere run-of-the-mill defeat on some aspect of the Dem domestic agenda.

    It was truly a Waterloo moment for him, and instead of Wellington and the good guys prevailing, it was the Napoleonic egomaniac himself, Obama, who prevailed.

    Lastly, it’s difficult to game out how a Republican refusal would have been portrayed AND received by the wider electorate. Recall, the American people DID vote for that clown, and REALLY do want to see him “succeed,” so were the Republicans to figuratively flip him the finger, the electorate might not be too pleased.

    It’s taking some time for the people to widely reject what Obama’s selling. But the electorate might still not be at that place where they back the Republicans not just not cooperating with his agenda, but even refusing to discuss that agenda with him.

  21. GrizzlyMama
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 7:50 pm

    I disagree. The Republicans were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Either way – Obama/Pelosi/Reid were going to do what they were going to do. Had the Republicans not shown up, it would have been, ‘I wanted to consider Republican ideas, but they didn’t show up’, and that same aid would have said that not showing up gave them the momentum. There WAS no momentum and there was a huge public opinion backlash. The only reason this thing got passed is because Obama/Reid/Pelosi determined that they would pass it – constitutionally or otherwise.

    I really can’t believe that anyone would take this aid’s statement seriously after having seen what we’ve been seeing over the last year. Just because an aid says so – it must be true? Bullshit.

    Adobe Walls has a great point: “That it took this long for the HC bill to pass speaks more to the weakness of their cause than to tactical errors by the Republicans.”

    We can blame the party leadership for trying to squish away from conservative principles by elevating John McCain as a candidate. We can blame the Republican Congress over the previous administration for straying from conservative values while they held the majority.

    Either way – the purge is a’comin.

  22. GrizzlyMama
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:50 pm

    I disagree. The Republicans were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Either way – Obama/Pelosi/Reid were going to do what they were going to do. Had the Republicans not shown up, it would have been, ‘I wanted to consider Republican ideas, but they didn’t show up’, and that same aid would have said that not showing up gave them the momentum. There WAS no momentum and there was a huge public opinion backlash. The only reason this thing got passed is because Obama/Reid/Pelosi determined that they would pass it – constitutionally or otherwise.

    I really can’t believe that anyone would take this aid’s statement seriously after having seen what we’ve been seeing over the last year. Just because an aid says so – it must be true? Bullshit.

    Adobe Walls has a great point: “That it took this long for the HC bill to pass speaks more to the weakness of their cause than to tactical errors by the Republicans.”

    We can blame the party leadership for trying to squish away from conservative principles by elevating John McCain as a candidate. We can blame the Republican Congress over the previous administration for straying from conservative values while they held the majority.

    Either way – the purge is a’comin.

  23. Peter
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 7:56 pm

    Charles likes crunchy peanut butter farmed from bike shorts? Ew.

    I was eating lunch when I read that line. Lost my appetite from a visual I won’t describe here in case other people are eating. Don’t want to be responsible for destroying keyboards with vomit.

  24. Peter
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:56 pm

    Charles likes crunchy peanut butter farmed from bike shorts? Ew.

    I was eating lunch when I read that line. Lost my appetite from a visual I won’t describe here in case other people are eating. Don’t want to be responsible for destroying keyboards with vomit.

  25. RickS
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:01 pm

    I think the idiotic, nonsensical, ridiculous, infamous, stupid, (did I mention idiotic), invitation Boehner extended to 0bama0 to attend the GOP retreat was worse. Barry pwnd those guys and they sat there and took it. Idiots.

  26. RickS
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 3:01 pm

    I think the idiotic, nonsensical, ridiculous, infamous, stupid, (did I mention idiotic), invitation Boehner extended to 0bama0 to attend the GOP retreat was worse. Barry pwnd those guys and they sat there and took it. Idiots.

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  28. Estragon
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:09 pm

    A very silly argument.

    Certainly there was nothing to be gained for the GOP by attending the “summit” after Obama ruled out “starting over.” But it only interrupted the steady rise in public opposition to the bill for TWO DAYS, so how is it a “turning point” at all?

    Pelosi was determined to force this through even after Brown won in Massachusetts, and no amount of “momentum” would deter her. She was all in and dragged the malleable Obama with her (not difficult since he’s every bit the diehard socialist she is). Their ONLY problem was in giving the Democrats who had staked out phony pro-life positions to fool their constituents some form of cover. How little cover that would really be is illustrated by the meaningless EO.

    This story is based on unnamed Democratic staffers who only wish to sow division in the GOP ranks. I’m not buying it.

  29. Estragon
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 3:09 pm

    A very silly argument.

    Certainly there was nothing to be gained for the GOP by attending the “summit” after Obama ruled out “starting over.” But it only interrupted the steady rise in public opposition to the bill for TWO DAYS, so how is it a “turning point” at all?

    Pelosi was determined to force this through even after Brown won in Massachusetts, and no amount of “momentum” would deter her. She was all in and dragged the malleable Obama with her (not difficult since he’s every bit the diehard socialist she is). Their ONLY problem was in giving the Democrats who had staked out phony pro-life positions to fool their constituents some form of cover. How little cover that would really be is illustrated by the meaningless EO.

    This story is based on unnamed Democratic staffers who only wish to sow division in the GOP ranks. I’m not buying it.

  30. David Frum
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:45 pm

    I am the only real conservative left, hmmmm “conservative-left” it has a certain ring to it.

  31. David Frum
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 3:45 pm

    I am the only real conservative left, hmmmm “conservative-left” it has a certain ring to it.

  32. David Frum
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:50 pm

    Appeasement and cooperation is the way to further the conservative agenda. Or the conservative-left agenda as I like to say now. Had you done that you could have shared in the Obama victory last night.

    Seriously Republicans lawmakers, look your best for your Democratic-Progressive overlords. And for goodness sake shave those legs and put on make up. You look like a bunch of butch dykes.

  33. David Frum
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 3:50 pm

    Appeasement and cooperation is the way to further the conservative agenda. Or the conservative-left agenda as I like to say now. Had you done that you could have shared in the Obama victory last night.

    Seriously Republicans lawmakers, look your best for your Democratic-Progressive overlords. And for goodness sake shave those legs and put on make up. You look like a bunch of butch dykes.

  34. Dan
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 9:08 pm

    The pro-life Dems were NEVER an impediment to the passage of this bill.

    Several weeks ago Dick Morris was asked about Stupak and his group, and he just brushed them aside and said “they’ll cave,” and all of their votes will be on board. He focused on those Dems in vulnerable districts, and a good chunk of Stupak’s group were NOT vulnerable in their districts.

    The whole idea that Democrats would be willing to go to the mattresses over abortion was just a joke. Ever since 1976, the biggest applause line at the Dem conventions has been the de rigeur line about abortion rights being preserved, which always brings down the house. Stupak knew that, and what’s more, he’s been a Democrat which means he’s LIVED that. Those are his fellow travellers, those are his bed mates, those are the guys and gals he goes to bat with, and goes to bat for.

    They were always going to cave, and I haven’t any doubt that they were never the impediment they’ve been described as.

  35. Dan
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 4:08 pm

    The pro-life Dems were NEVER an impediment to the passage of this bill.

    Several weeks ago Dick Morris was asked about Stupak and his group, and he just brushed them aside and said “they’ll cave,” and all of their votes will be on board. He focused on those Dems in vulnerable districts, and a good chunk of Stupak’s group were NOT vulnerable in their districts.

    The whole idea that Democrats would be willing to go to the mattresses over abortion was just a joke. Ever since 1976, the biggest applause line at the Dem conventions has been the de rigeur line about abortion rights being preserved, which always brings down the house. Stupak knew that, and what’s more, he’s been a Democrat which means he’s LIVED that. Those are his fellow travellers, those are his bed mates, those are the guys and gals he goes to bat with, and goes to bat for.

    They were always going to cave, and I haven’t any doubt that they were never the impediment they’ve been described as.

  36. Red
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 9:25 pm

    @ Peter: It grossed me out to have to write it 😛

  37. Red
    March 22nd, 2010 @ 4:25 pm

    @ Peter: It grossed me out to have to write it 😛

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  40. H. G. Fielding
    March 23rd, 2010 @ 5:29 am

    umm, the reason there was “no major public opinion backlash” is because public opinion was already opposed to this obscenity. That rationalization is of the same species as the arguement that no matter how bad November is for the Democrats, not passing a bill would be worse .

    Oh and Dan, The Battle of Waterloo isn’t over. It’s true that Napoleon Obamaparte has committed his Congressional Old Guard and succeeded in capturing La Haye Sainte. But while he’s busy dictating dispatches to Paris about how he’s won the war, Blücher’s tea-partying Prussians have only just started to press on his right flank. Obamaparte has used up his reserve, and as long as we keep pressing, keep forcing him to defend this partisan, unpopular seizure of our freedom, we’ll roll him up.

  41. H. G. Fielding
    March 23rd, 2010 @ 12:29 am

    umm, the reason there was “no major public opinion backlash” is because public opinion was already opposed to this obscenity. That rationalization is of the same species as the arguement that no matter how bad November is for the Democrats, not passing a bill would be worse .

    Oh and Dan, The Battle of Waterloo isn’t over. It’s true that Napoleon Obamaparte has committed his Congressional Old Guard and succeeded in capturing La Haye Sainte. But while he’s busy dictating dispatches to Paris about how he’s won the war, Blücher’s tea-partying Prussians have only just started to press on his right flank. Obamaparte has used up his reserve, and as long as we keep pressing, keep forcing him to defend this partisan, unpopular seizure of our freedom, we’ll roll him up.

  42. Jeff
    March 23rd, 2010 @ 6:00 pm

    so the source is a Democrat … and we know they never make stuff up …

    going by this the GOP should never debate Obama again …

    so liberals don’t want the GOP to debate Obama because he will use that to assure weak Democrats ? thats the reasoning that we are taking a liberals word on ?

    or do liberals not want a debate because he got schooled ?

    So what if he “used” it ? All he suceeded in doing was ripping the mask off of the moderate Democrats …

  43. Jeff
    March 23rd, 2010 @ 1:00 pm

    so the source is a Democrat … and we know they never make stuff up …

    going by this the GOP should never debate Obama again …

    so liberals don’t want the GOP to debate Obama because he will use that to assure weak Democrats ? thats the reasoning that we are taking a liberals word on ?

    or do liberals not want a debate because he got schooled ?

    So what if he “used” it ? All he suceeded in doing was ripping the mask off of the moderate Democrats …

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