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  December 24, 2009, 2:46 pm

The lie of the year: Sarah Palin and the death panels

By Brent Budowsky

With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) standing in triumph passing a healthcare bill in the Senate with every Republican united against him and the president doing nothing to help him, it is time to pass out our first Lie of the Year award. It involves the healthcare bill, and was told by former Mayor of Wasilla and quitting partial-term Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin!

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Archived under: Healthcare
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  December 24, 2009, 10:23 am

Getting back to the majority

By John Feehery

Almost 16 years ago, in California's 36th congressional district, Republican Susan Brooks lost by 812 votes to Democrat Jane Harman, with absentees providing the margin of victory.

After the election, Brooks’s campaign compiled a detailed list of more than 2,000 apparently invalid votes. As Reader's Digest put it, ''findings indicated that of 5,292 absentee ballots from 20 Venice precincts that went overwhelmingly for Harman, 1,337 (26 per cent) had been cast by voters whose addresses on the rolls turned out to be abandoned homes, empty apartments, vacant lots."

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Archived under: Lawmaker News
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  December 24, 2009, 8:35 am

Congress’s ‘Lost Weekend’: Rick Perry and Reagan lawyers — More state sovereignty initiatives on the way

By Bernie Quigley

The Nancy and Harry show suggests a mad adolescent rush, like in those classic Hollywood B-movies where the parents go out of town and the teens take over the house (read: the Senate) for the weekend. Or the drunken euphoria of Billy Wilder’s “The Lost Weekend.” Or “Animal House,” maybe, staring Barney Frank as John Belushi.

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Archived under: State & Local Politics
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  December 23, 2009, 4:16 pm

Steele’s deals

By Bob Franken

We need to cut Michael Steele some slack. If someone is willing to pay him big bucks to make a speech, he'd be a fool to say no. True, he has gotten into trouble about some of the dopey things he's said, but he may as well make some money for them.

It's not that there's a conflict of interest; Democrats in particular should realize that. They constantly charge that Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Steele heads a party that always favors the wealthy — those who can afford to pay for his words of wisdom.

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Archived under: National Party News
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  December 23, 2009, 2:08 pm

The cash-for-cornhusker clunkers deal

By Brent Budowsky

Now we know the price for continuing insurance price-fixing and preventing insurance competition. Now Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), always a low-key figure, is fast becoming a national symbol of what many believe has gone wrong with Congress.

The corrupting power of lobbyists is the great closing end-of-year story. It’s everywhere. National TV. National print. Talk radio. And all over Nebraska. Read more...

Archived under: Lawmaker News
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  December 23, 2009, 11:13 am

Christmas Blues

By Armstrong Williams

The United States Senate is marching toward history this week, but not the kind they will welcome once the dust settles from the fallout of the healthcare reform debate. There are so many political favors buried in this bill that reporters simply don’t have the time to uncover them all. Read more...

Archived under: Healthcare, National Party News
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  December 23, 2009, 11:08 am

Is America the new Tibet? What happened in Copenhagen …

By Bernie Quigley

Those who look for meaning in swirling things in the sky will find them, especially on Winter Solstice. But the older rabbis tell us to look beneath the surface to find essentials, and what happened beneath the surface at Copenhagen is worth reporting. It was a modest nightmare, like one of those unsettling dreams like you are walking on the edge of a cliff, or strolling in public to suddenly realize you are naked, or that you go to your office and someone has taken your chair away. That’s what happened to America in Copenhagen. The new world order came together and they forgot to set a chair for Obama.

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Archived under: Energy & Environment, International Affairs, The Administration
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  December 23, 2009, 8:58 am

'Nothing sleazy about it'

By A.B. Stoddard

Remember Sen. Ben Nelson's (D-Neb.) concerns over abortion? That he almost opposed healthcare reform over it? With a compromise cut on that thorny issue, Nelson has far bigger problems on his plate now.

The backroom dealing that normally seals huge bills has backfired and become a huge story. The permanent exemption from Medicaid expansion Nelson received for Nebraska has cast the spotlight back on him, just when he was finally ready to relinquish it.

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Archived under: Healthcare, Lawmaker News
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  December 23, 2009, 8:19 am

Truth or consequences: The lobbyists win, the people lose

By Brent Budowsky

Let me begin and end this otherwise negative comment with some good news. While the president will do nothing to fight for a better healthcare bill in conference, there are sign that Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are feeling some heat after taking a beating from the press. The conference battle now begins, and while the president will be the legislative bystander he has been so far, House Democrats will weight in, and if they fight, they can win something back.

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Archived under: Healthcare
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  December 22, 2009, 4:29 pm

Tug-of-war

By John Feehery

Politics is a game of tug-of-war.

According to Wikipedia, the rules of tug-of-war are the following: “Two teams of eight, whose total mass must not exceed a maximum weight determined for the class, align themselves at the end of a rope (approximately 10 centimetres in circumference). The rope is marked with a ‘centre line’ and two markings four meters either side of the centre line. The teams start with the rope's centre line directly above a line marked on the ground, and once the contest (the ‘pull’) has commenced, attempt to pull the other team such that the marking on the rope closest to their opponent crosses the centre line, or the opponents commit a foul (such as a team member sitting or falling down). A contest may feature a moat in a neutral zone, usually of mud or softened ground, which eliminates players who cross the zone or fall into it.”

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Archived under: Lawmaker News
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