Mike Lupica: Grifter politicians Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman do number on health care bill

[last_texas_dem]

>>>>In the end, something as profoundly important to the health of this country as real health care reform ended up in the hands of political grifters like Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. They're the kind of elected officials New Yorkers keep sending to the state Legislature, just with bigger names and more power.
Think of Albany as a kind of finishing school for guys who want to grow up to be Lieberman and Nelson someday.

You could call people like this the brand new Washington generation of the boys of Tammany Hall, except that in another New York, Tammany Hall was actually known for providing services, starting with jobs. That's how those boys got the vote in the old days, how they kept their power.
Something else separates Tammany Hall from the current U.S. Senate. In old New York, they did their skimming out in the open and never tried to pretend they were doing something noble.>>>>

snip

>>>>The worst of it is that we will be expected to cheer them all when this is over. But what is supposed to be a victory for people who previously couldn't afford proper health care in the greatest country on this Earth has become something cheap and coarse, those with power using it like some kind of credit card.
The President who started all this? He watches the grifters hijack his bill, and his best intentions and ideals, the way the right wing keeps hijacking his first term. Somehow on Saturday, against all odds, Nelson actually stepped forward for a rare honest moment in the whole process.

"The quality of the debate has not always measured up to the quality of the American people," he said.

He ought to know.>>>>

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/12/21/2009-12-21_twosome_can_make_you_sick_grifter_pols_do_number_on_health_bill.html