I know all about being a die hard fan, so immersed in your belief that you tend to deny reality. After all, I’m a veteran of decades of support for the New York Jets. (This is the year! I SWEAR it is this time!) Unfortunately, we sometimes have to face up to the fact that our team simply sucks. This is a lesson that could prove useful to “Smitty” over at The Other McCain blog, when he decides to proclaim that Rick Moran is “a blowhard.”
The bee in his bonnet on this occasion is Rick’s column this weekend in which he comments on the same Sarah Palin gaffe which I had some fun with yesterday. Rick writes:
I wholeheartedly agree that this statement by Sarah Palin on her Facebook page is unconscionable, outrageous, and either a deliberate lie, or proof that she really is an airhead.
This sends poor Smitty into a tailspin, and he seeks to enlighten Mr. Moran by pointing him to an editorial from Obama health care adviser Dr. Ezekial Emanuel, as reported and analyzed by “the excellent William Jacobson.”
The article in which Dr. Emanuel puts forth his approach is “Principles for Allocation of Scarce Medical Interventions,” published on January 31, 2009. A full copy is embedded below. Read it, particularly the section beginning at page 6 of the embed (page 428 in the original) at which Dr. Emanuel sets forth the principles of “The Complete Lives System.”
It’s certainly an eye opening article, and I’m hardly one to stand here defending the choice of Ezekial Emanuel for his current position. But there’s one teeny, tiny point which Smitty is missing in his criticism of Right Wing Nuthouse’s proprietor. Rick – along with the rest of us – are not talking about random editorials published by public officials. We’re talking about legislation, either extant or proposed, which has shown up in committee on the floor of the House and/or Senate. And these so called “Death Panels” are simply not there.
Kathleen Sebelius could pen a dozen op-eds extolling the positive health virtues of feasting on the writhing flesh of living puppies, and we could all certainly react in horror. But until somebody actually writes the Filleted Puppy Diet into a health care reform bill, it’s rather pointless to begin screaming about it and accusing Obama of puppycide. Just call Dr. Emanuel an idiot and move along.
The big point these Palin die-hards are missing here was best summed up by Rick in another portion of his column which Smitty also apparently failed to read:
The damn bill is plenty bad enough without lying about it. Jesus Christ! Your loyal subjects, who don’t think you can do any wrong, are smart enough to figure that out without you having to demagogue the issue like a Democrat, for God’s sake!
Indeed. There is more than sufficient ammunition available to oppose the Democrats’ version of health care reform. Making up pointless bits of screaming hyperbole discredits the person doing the shouting.