New Ground for GOP, with Kennedy's Unlikely Aid

[kskiska]

Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas.

Politics are strange in this era of impeachment, recount and recall. Consider the fact that President Bush, conservative Republican, is running for reelection in part on a record of domestic accomplishments made possible by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), liberal Democrat.

Yesterday Bush signed a $400 billion Medicare bill that might never have cleared the Senate without Kennedy's intervention last summer. The president can tout the bill on the campaign trail alongside his 2001 education package, which was also boosted by Kennedy.

Medicare and education -- for decades, key Democratic real estate. With Kennedy's help, Bush has staked a claim to it.

Senate watchers from both parties have found this hard to believe. "He is such a good legislator, I'm surprised he didn't see it coming," one senior Republican said of Kennedy.

Kennedy says he was misled on one bill and strong-armed on the other by "the most ideologically driven administration I've ever seen." And he says he is going to fight back. At a rally yesterday on Capitol Hill, Kennedy blasted Bush and the GOP Congress: "You sold us out! So we're going to go all out to repeal what you've done."

(snip)

After 40 years in the Senate, the kid brother is white-haired and craggy -- the fifth-longest-serving senator in U.S. history and second only to Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) among active senators. But in all those years, Kennedy has had only a few months of experience in an all-Republican government.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47356-2003Dec8.html

[Merlin]

1. I'm amazed at his ineptitude on this one.

I thought Ted was way more savy than this.

He got fooled once. That was on B*.

The second time, shame on Ted.

[annak110]

2. You know what, I find this to be nonsense, the part about

* gaining from the passage of this pisspoor Medicare Bill looks like media bs altogether. I'm trying to find out how many seniors dropped out of AARP over its passage. I've called three times now. I can't resign because, after the my first and only membership in that anti-senior organization, I refused to join again. This was about 5 years ago and you could see then that AARP did not have seniors in mind, just power and wealth.

Every media outlet has announced something like, "Seniors wanted this, AARP swung the vote so we can tell they wanted it. It will be wonderful for
_____________'s reelection campaign." How so, are they going to shoot all of us?

National Corporate Radio had two different reports on this bs, both yesterday and today. They don't mention the lack of support and the mistrust engendered in seniors of course.

I just watched a C-Span rally against the bill. The corruption behind its passage was pointed out and there was a very good turnout of seniors. Ted Kennedy was there and he was given at least two standing ovations!

Medicare will take more money out of my small Social Security check for their "services". My HMO has just raised my rates- and I've been paying that bunch
extra for a prescription coverage that they offer since I got into the HMO.

[BayCityProgressive]

3. repeal everything they've done?

Don't make me laugh. How? With what majority? Half of Kennedy's party supports GOP shit anyhow.

[Merlin]

4. Get a grip! Bush wins big on this. Maybe you pay attention. Most don't.

Most people only see the vague outlines of the news. The headline here is "Bush Reforms Medicare; Includes Prescription Drug Coverage."

You tell me how he loses on that?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. I don't think you're giving seniors enough credit for critical thinking...

...the vast majority of seniors with whom I've talked are pretty pissed off. They've learned to read between the lines and seek information through alternative routes.

[annak110]

9. Correct! Thousands wouldn't have dropped out of AARP

(something AARP refuses to admit or let happen). Many have asked for a refund of their membership fee from AARP but they aren't getting it.

There is also such a thing as looking at what happens when the impact of this irresponsible, unconscionable mess hits home. Most people can see the corruption in government they just can't make it known that they see it.

With this bill the pharmaceutical companies can charge anything they want to charge for any an all drugs. This will be noticed.

[ima_sinnic]

7. I have to agree: if the Medicare bill is all B*sh has to run on,

he's dead in the water.
Seniors are pissed as hell. I believe it was ABC that had a little segment on how the provisions of the bill actually make prescriptions more expensive and less obtainable. They interviewed a woman who now can't use her "medigap" insurance to cover the difference between Medicare and what she herself would have to pay for Rx's.

The fact that it is a major handout to the drug and pharmaceutical industry, and no favor to seniors, has been quite openly touted in the news.

So let that turkey in the WH try to run on his great "accomplishment" of passing a Medicare "reform" bill--it is just another in a long list of sleezy deals he's gotten for his corporate palsl and everybody knows it.

[roguevalley]

8. this is crap. Ted tried to fillibuster but the cowards folded. Its not him

[tlb]

6. Perhaps the years of alcoholism has caught up to Kennedy

in terms of brain damage. He was saying he would REPEAL the perscription bill.

That sound bite will work real well with the seniors in the repub commercaials about "heartless" democrats trying to steal health care benefits for seniors. Of ALL people Kennedy should have remembered how well the hit on the republicans went using the Gingrich "wither on the vine" remark. And now Ted hands them the equivalent stick to beat democrats with.

Ted increasingly seems beyond his expiration date.

[jokerman93]

10. I say cut him some slack here

Kennedy and Byrd have stood tall against the abuses of the Bush administration, especially this travesty of a "war" that's been perpetrated on us all.

I didn't hear anyone badmouthing Sen. Kennedy when he protested the Bush doctrine in the chamber and on national tv.

Basically, I don't see how he could have avoided this trap.