Since You Asked...

I've been getting a few emails, calls, and such about this Harry Reid character in the Senate and his comments about my former and beloved employer, Stephens Media, where I worked for the Arkansas News Bureau as recently as July.

The Senate Majority Leader apparently hopes that the flagship paper of Stephens Media, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "goes out of business."

Now the editorial staff out there in Nevada is decidedly less objective than the Bureau in Little Rock, and has an overt conservative slant, whereas Mr. Reid has an overt liberal slant. The two are bound to butt heads.

I'm not going to point out the obvious, that it's a rather boneheaded move for a Senator to hope that a not insignificant number of voters people lose their jobs, livelihoods, all that mess. That's a no-no.

But another no-no can be found in the irony of the Senator's statement. It occurs to me anyway, that by looking at Reid's polling numbers, which are comparable -- if not worse -- to Sen. Blanche Lincoln's dismal approval numbers, why, Sen. Reid might be out of business before the Review-Journal. And wouldn't that be just rich.

It's one thing to make a bold, acerbic statement against those whom you don't find to be favorable. It's another to do it when you find yourself to be in a pretty hapless situation your own self.

That's all I have to say about that.

Progressive Caucus Attempts To Woo Southern Democrats on Health Care With Big Bag of Meth

BIRMINGHAM -- In a last-ditch effort to garner some semblance of bipartisan support for the health care reform that has been vigorously debated in the August recess, progressive Democrats from the Northern states have extended a variety of concessions to Southern, conservative Democrats, including a big bag of methamphetamines.

"We're willing to play ball," said Barney Frank, D-Mass. "Let no man or woman say we didn't give this our best shot. We want to make sure this thing gets passed by any means necessary, and we know what it's going to take."

Along side the big cellophane bag of meth, other concessions include season tickets to various monster truck rallies touring the nation, a crate of sleeveless shirts that say "New England Patriots: 19-0", more frequent visits from the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile, as well as marking every brand of beer in bright orange and camouflage.

"Overalls will be permitted on the House floor and the Senate, permitting their approval, so long as shirts are also worn under them," continued Frank. "And all of the Capitol spittoons will be replaced in their original positions."

In other news, health care legislation has passed the House and looks to sail through the Senate as all of the majority of the Southern delegates gave abstaining votes, save for Gene Taylor, D-Mississippi, who gave a "nay" vote before taking his shirt off and spinning it around his head, chanting "USA! USA! USA!"

Why It Would Be Really Dumb to Switch Parties

There's some blog way down in Abbalama (pronounced just like that) purporting that some congressional Democrat is considering switching parties, becoming the Republican that so many of his vocal constituents aren't yelling at furiously. In there, someone blindly and ignorantly threw in the name Mike Ross as someone who might switch, being a conservative Democrat from a conservative state and being a headlining name for the time being.

Mike Ross, by the way, had to state for the record that he was remaining a Democrat. No news here; Ross has been loyal to the Democratic party since his days of driving around then-Gov. Bill Clinton. The Arkansas Democrat is a strange bird indeed, but it's been classified -- it's just a more conservative bird than the average.

But that just got me thinking about how dumb it would be for a politician to switch parties. I see no gain in it.

The obvious reason is the threat of inevitable defeat, which, I guess, makes it all okay. If a politician truly believes that a change of party has a better shot of winning than staying put, it is incumbent upon his survival to do so, no matter how embarressing. But even then, your numbers have to be terrible already.

Even then, it doesn't make sense though. Sometimes, like in the case of Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, you flee the party due to primary opposition. The best case scenario is seeing the opposition you fled in November instead of the spring, albeit, you'd be in a more favorable pool, assuming you make it through the primary of a party you obviously joined for purely political motives, rather than a "change of heart."

Ask Specter what he's thinking about those polling numbers these days, after the switch. Kinda makes Sen. Lincoln thank her lucky stars.

Othertimes, fleeing comes from the toxicity of one's native party. In the South (Sou-Prize, Sou-Prize, Sou-Prize!!!), Democrats are not viewed favorably. When it was a conservative Democrat running the show, it was tolerable for their conservative constituency to vote them in. Now, with Obama's admittedly more-liberal-than-most agenda, these Democrats not in the leadership roles are finding it hard to wear the same Democratic pins as those their constituency outright loathes.

For this Bama Boy, he would likely serve his constituency better by being a coveted swing vote than by being a roster addition to the weakened minority. As a Democratic swing vote, concessions could be made to make sure there's party unity. Take Ross, again, for example. He was able to fashion his health care halting not by being a conservative, but by being a conservative Democrat. And (no matter what Tim Griffin, the bullpen bully, is trying to rouse) Ross is sitting comfortably in Arkansas' Fourth.

To me, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. If you've got bad numbers, YOU've got bad numbers, and they'll likely follow you wherever you go, be that to the right or left. Bad luck, perhaps, forecasts that Democrats are up for a tough re-election in 2010. That's just the way it is. But for those who do jump ship, and trust me you'll see more, the uncharted waters will be just as untamed as their raging home seas.

The best bet would be to weather the storm.

I'll Flinch When Those Polling Numbers Tell Me Something I Don't Already Know

Word from Arkansas: Blanche Lincoln, Democratic Arkansas Senator up for rere-election in 2010, is in...(record scratch) trouble!!

Looks like she'll be facing a TOUGH CAMPAIGN?! And she'll have to raise SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS IN ORDER TO HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN?! And she's having to WATCH HER EVERY WAKING MOVE FOR THE NEXT YEAR AND A HALF?!

What's going on here?! Locusts! Famine! Boils! Down is up! Up is down! The weatherman is wrong and dogs and cats are sleeping together...IT'S MASS HYSTERIA!

Ugh. This has been the story since about December of last year. Polling numbers are usually only good if they're telling you something new. There isn't an amateur political analyst out there who doesn't think that Lincoln and her campaign manager Steve Patterson aren't fidgeting nervously about next November.

But nothing so far has changed. All of her potential challengers in the Republican ranks are rather puny at this point, able to be handled handily by a large bank account, which she undoubtedly will be able to muster at her whim.

State Sen. Bob Johnson, Bigelow's Democratic Senate President, has thrown a wrinkle into the story, but this shouldn't be altogether unexpected. There's got to be a more ambitious Democrat out there who might want to take a poke at the U.S. Senate -- Why not Bigelow Bob? It's certainly not a matter of party loyalty; that's why we have primaries in the first place.

So this is going to be a grinder in the Natural State. It will likely be that way until February. We will see if Bobby Boy really steps up to the plate against Blanche, where I suspect he would collapse under the weight of her checkbook and name recognition. Then she would face hitherto paltry opposition against the GOP.

There are three outcomes, all of which seem kind of probable at this point, verified by those same tired polling numbers we've seen rehashed and re-edited over and over again: She is defeated in a primary, she is defeated in a general election, or she will win it all.

Her bank account, name recognition and political tenacity make her a shoe-in for the last position. But those outcomes, statistically speaking, make her twice as likely to be defeated.

The result: No difference yet. Come back in a few months. Let's move on to a different subject: I don't think we're talking enough about this whole health care business, do you?

Rahm Appoints Left Hand To Position of White House Bringer of Pain, Knuckle Sandwiches

WASHINGTON -- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Monday announced that his left hand would be appointed as the White House Bringer of Pain and Knuckle Sandwiches, effective immediately.

"That's right, butterscotch. And he's ready to work," said the former Illinois congressman, who is often seen as one of the brains behind President Obama's quick-moving agenda.

"All those who want a one-way ticket on the Pain Train, step right up and get your ticket," said a sleeveless Emanuel. "And all you kids who think I'm kidding, you can come get a taste first."

Vice President Joe Biden says he's glad that someone will finally be able to enforce what the cabinet has been proposing since Day 1 of the Obama Administration.

"It's not like we want to take people to Fist City, but frankly, that's what it comes to sometimes in the Oval Office," said Biden, pointing to his own slightly blackened eye. "That's the price you pay."

The appointment marks the most recent addition to the Obama cabinet, including the Vice President's Chairman of the Bummer-Reduction task force, Attorney General Eric Holder's Viceroy of Keeping It Real, and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's Director of National Thursday Nite Ladies' Nite.

PoLOLitical Stuff: Last Acts of Desperate Men

Fwank Bawks Back

At least he's calling it like he sees it.

Here's Barney Frank, who's to the Left of most anyone in the entirety of both houses of Congwess. He is an avid and die hard supporter of the proposed health care legislation, and his town hall meeting had all the familiar symptoms of those we've seen elsewhere, from New York to Missouri and Arkansas: rowdy.

But this is Bawney Fwank we're talking about here. Wowdy might be his middle name.

I have no problem with this, speaking independently of the situation at hand, regardless of any political affiliation one might have that would endorse or decry his fighting back. This is how legislation works. The people give, the delegate gives back. The politician ought to always be civil, but civility has never been exclusively set apart from standing your ground in the face of unrelenting and stubborn opposition, no matter how humorous standing your ground sounds.

Plus, I think the comparison to Nazis is a tad strong. Comparing things you oppose to Nazism is a move most white people have played out. It's lost its snazz. There are a number of different things sensible people could vocally oppose in this bill before having to compare it to the death of millions and millions of people due to overt and government-sponsored racism.

Anyway, he called the lady an alien dinner table. That was pretty funny.

Arkansas Relevance! Huzzah!

Arkansas is like the tiny rural town of America. It's small, relatively isolated, and pretty much keeps to itself, save for a President and Presidential candidate here, a sex scandal that reinforces negative stereotypes there, and the world just keeps spinning.

It gets six votes in the Electoral College, and only four congressmen in the House. As far as the movers and shakers of the world go, very few have ever called Arkansas home. It's not a bad thing, or a good thing. It's just a fact.

But the political anomaly that is the Arkansas Democrat has thrust Arkansas into a new state of prominence, importance, and relevance.

Arkansas is nominally Democratic in the way that a four-hoofed mammal with antlers is a duck. You can call it a duck all you want, but the it walks, talks and acts very much like a deer. The Arkansas Democrat, with a few notable exceptions, walks, talks, and acts more like a Republican than many Republicans do. In fact, I'd wager that a vast majority of these Arkie Donkeys, placed anywhere that's more urban and more northern that Arkansas — which by sheer demography and geography, is a lot of places — and they'd be wearing their straw hats and talking about how awesome Newt Gingrich is.

This makes them, on the political spectrum, moderate Democrats. All of the state's Congressional Delegation qualify under this moniker, save for, of course, Rep. John "I'm So Ronery" Boozman, the state's only Republican.

As I've said before, Arkansas' moderate Democrats have been a showcase in the tension between moderates that some Arkansans can actually get behind and the far-Left wings of the Democratic Party, who have achieved sweeping majorities over the last three years and are running the show. Like I said, you've got a small minority in one group, and a bigger majority comprising of two groups who are splitting apart at the seams.

What does this mean for Arkansas? Swing votes...and attention.

Arkansas' delegates now have to think about what they're going to wear before they walk out that door. Comb that hair, Ross! Shine them boots, Berry. Theme-ties again, Snyder? Smile big, Blanche!...not that big. Marky Mark, bring wet naps. Since President Obama took office in January, You've seen Arkansas' delegates mentioned on matters such as climate change, health care, and you're going to see them on issues such as immigration, gay issues, and whatever else comes up.

They represent the final totals on the Majority Whip's role call. Not only that, but each delegate has been going at it for awhile, each one having been re-elected several times back to their current position. That means seniority and authority, as shown in Mike Ross' case of being able to slam the breaks on health care reform, putting it back to September, and Sen. Lincoln's role in the Senate Finance Committee, which is seeing health care, and will see climate change and a number of other important issues.

And it will continue to be this way, as more and more issues pile up that pit the conservative constituency of Arkansas against the more liberal tendencies of the Democratic Leadership. Hey, they're in charge. That's their prerogative.

But there might be consequences in, say, 2010. Currently, all of the delegates should be pretty comfortable. They're all household names and, like I said earlier, have been re-elected numerous times. But with polling places (of the Democratic persuasion no less) saying that Arkansas is the most likely state to see a large shift from Democratic to Republican in 2010, it's easy to see why these guys might be shedding the spotlight and awkwardly pulling at their collars.

The best example of this is (sigh) Sen. Lincoln. I feel like I'm joining in on beating a dead horse, but the fact of the matter is she's a big target that a lot of people are seeing as vulnerable. Every step she takes that sides more with the President — who is very unpopular in Arkansas — that will be translated and transmitted as a step away from Arkansas' values, even if, in truth, those two steps might be compatible. That's what she'll argue anyway, but my and most everyone else's guess is that those arguments, no matter how true, will fall on deaf, if not actively non-acquiescent, ears.

Anyway, for the average Arkansan, all this means is that you'll be able to go to a national news source to hear about your representation at home. And maybe be able to recognize the person who's actually doing that representing.

Health Care Reform: Dead

It pains me to say this, but I think it's true. Hope it's not, because Republicans and Democrats alike agree we need it.

I think the much-ballyhooed health care reform plan is dead. Kaput. No more.

Well, most of it anyway, the part that would radically change health care. There may be a concurrent resolution or something nifty and feel-goody that gets passed to mark the achievement of doing some fine talking, but I don't think that anything is going to pass the muster.

Too much sausage is getting made on either side. It's hurting the quality of the meat, the meat of course being the reform itself.

Each side can and will blame the other. They'd both be right. Some stubborn folks on not just each end of the aisle but stubbornness on each pew of each aisle has lead to a gridlock, despite some, I'm sure, wonderful progress on those respective side.

It came to me reading the Washington Post this morning. Senate Democrats are making noise about the lack of a public option in the finalized bill. This sent everyone in a position to get to their battle stations.

Speaker Pelosi says there will be a public option in any bill the House approves. Blue Dogs like Arkansas' Mike Ross say they won't sign anything with a public option, losing 50 or more crucial votes. 100+ members of the Progressive caucus and others say they won't vote for it if there's a lack of one. Gridlock.

The Senate Finance Committee is the last frontier of the health care bill. They are struggling admirably to arrive at a bipartisan conclusion. This will — according to Sen. Blanche Lincoln's numerous speeches at home — not include the public option, since it doesn't prove to be a "viable plan." Now Senate Democrats are ready to stand in the way of the 20 months of compromise that's been hashed out in the Finance Committee. Stalemate.

Lincoln, Ross, the President, and others have often clamored that the scary option in health care reform is "to do nothing." They certainly make a strong argument, with nearly 20 percent of every dollar Americans spend going toward health care, health care costs rising at nearly six times the rate of income, and the unsustainability of that path. Even Republicans confess that the system is flawed and outdated, if not completely broken.

But with each group at the ready to bring this bipartisan thing to a screeching halt — now, with no chance of a partisan bill being rammed through either — I think it's dead.

That's just me though. Maybe we'll try it again in another 15 years.

Marketing Politically

Just a stray thought of which I haven't been able to rid myself over the weekend and into miserable Monday: What is politics if not marketing?

While Aristotle would say that political thought and reflection are the highest acts of natural causes that a man can make, what difference does any of the diplomacy make if not for the sake of re-election?

Re-election, being the lifeblood of any political viability, is both vice and virtue to politics, or so it seems to me. That's why we have different levels within our legislative bodies of representation: House has two years, President gets four, and the Senate gets six years to make their case for another term.

We obviously want some level of our government privy to the whims of the masses, and some to be insulated from those wants. That sensitivity binds politicians to their election campaigns; the most sensitive, the victor.

Marketing strategists and political operatives don't seem all that different, it's just a different strategy. You brand the face, name, phrase of your candidate, or some combination of all three, to get people who are uninterested interested. You enter the lexicon, thrusting your campaign — yes, both political and marketing campaigns — into the vernacular of those you wish to influence.

You saw a lot of that with the election of President Obama. He had a big, grinning face, unique, but not-difficult-to-pronounce-name, and hung a five letter banner "CHANGE" everywhere he went, first written by hand from loyal supporters in Iowa, to pressed on designer T-shirts. The iconic, three-color picture of the President is what will be remembered most from his campaign. It encompassed all three.

Senators, like Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln, are having to walk a tight rope toward re-elected prosperity, an arduous and difficult gait. She's obviously got her hands tied in some kind of restraint by those who will or will not elect her for a third consecutive term to the Senate.

While her policies are complex, her record long, and her biography well-documented, look for her opposition to use short sentences, if not monosyllabic phrases. She helped them out by dubbing a sympathetic constituency "un-American," but that will be a throw away.

I'm not really looking for an answer, it's just been buzzing around in my head. For all of the high-minded thought that's going into such policies as health care, climate changes, and, oh yeah, those two wars we're fighting, I'm just hoping that politics — the important part of it anyway — is more than picking between Reebok and Nike.

Random thought for the day. You're welcome.

Something That Rubbed Me The Wrong Way

And no, it wasn't the hot wings from lunch.

I don't know how this health care business is going to play out. I think we definitely need something to keep costs lower, eliminate inefficiencies, all that stuff, but I'm not entirely convinced that a government option is necessarily the way to go.

Honestly, with there being so many dead horses piling up in America's front yards, all fatalities due to blunt force trauma from the health care talking points, I just want there to be a conclusion. Yay or nay, but let's get it over with, I'm pretty unbiased.

But there's one point I'm hearing over and over again that really rubs me the wrong way. We're the only civilized country that doesn't have universal health care. This is used to decry that those Americans must be a bunch of backward, knuckle-dragging, booger-eating morons, if those Americans don't want universal health care.

Wanting universal health care is not a bad thing. Saying we need it because others have it is a whole other ball game.

My case in point, granted, an isolated one, but it got to me. France, yes, that civilized European parlor of love and elegance, France, outlawed burkhas. A 'burkha' for those of you out of the loop is a head-to-toe garment donned by devout and fundamentalist Muslim women. While that's kind of old news, I was reminded of it when I saw that a woman on the beach in France was arrested for wearing a full-body suit and mask, creating a waterproof beach burkha.

Creativity be damned, French officials said, and they arrested her for it.

A clear violation of personal rights --wearing clothing for religious purposes -- was not only passed into law in France, but is enforced as well. I just think it's really dumb to say that "oh, they're doing it!" that we must be remiss for not doing it here. The equivalent would be your local police officer knocking the yamacha off some rabbi's head.

This isn't to say that there aren't lessons we can't learn from the French (how DO they get croissants so fluffy?) and vice versa, or that these things have anything to do with one another. I'm not going to be ordering Freedom Fries anytime soon at my local McDonald's. I just think it's a shallow, useless point to be made in an argument, offered to the lowest common denominator of angry person who happens to be siding with universal health care.

Sorry. That just got to me. Carry on.

Because Some Things Are Worth Fighting For

Delicately Handling The Curmudgeon Sector

Very good work here from the Beltway webbing site Politico regarding the woes that President Obama is having to deal with regarding health care. Senior citizens are some of the ones making the most noise at these health care town hall meetings that is giving Democrats fits and giving those on the far aisles of the right-wing fits of giggling.

This probably accounts for the amount of cane-related injuries involved. And why I've been hearing the terms "whippersnapper" and "fiddlefartin'" flying around so often.

While this is a problem for Obama right now, peddling to the geriatric masses is something all politicians have to find a way to deal with. They vote in record numbers, they're the most vocal constituency that most the delegates have, they're inherently suspicious after decades of experience in dealing with politicians, politicians, by the way, who are now a few decades their junior, and if they ever joined together to form some kind of compact or union, could crush America under their army of Panzeresque Buicks.

Put it this way: If Seniors could ever muster the technological know-how to create a blog, it'd be the most rabid and most updated blog out there. It'd make Matt Drudge look like Walter Cronkite.

Point being, they're a handful for anybody. It's time somebody put together some political rules to dealing with our octogenarian friends, and their older buddies.

Have Everything Wrapped Up By 4:30 pm: They're up every day around 4:30 in the morning. The Early Bird Special goes from 4 to 6, and Golden Girls comes on right before bed, around 6:30. If they make it to 8 in the evening, Murder She Wrote comes on, forcing seniors to stay up until 9. God help us if it's a Wednesday night and those two Matlock episodes come on (back to back!).

Point being, have stuff wrapped up promptly. As soon as you see some guy leaning in his seat to stretch out his high-socked leg, it's time to close up shop: You've said everything they're going to hear.

Speak Louder: It doesn't matter how loudly you're speaking, sir or ma'am, I'm going to need you to speak up. Speak up. No really, shouting is not offensive. Just soften your natural-yelling expression a little bit, sonny, no blue-faced young buck is going to tell that guy what's good and bad for him by talking down to him like that, by God.

It's just that they can't hear you in the back or the middle. Or really past the third row. If you're speaking as loud as humanly possible without ripping your vocal chords into shreds like a Quentin Tarantino film, maybe invest in some speakers that go up to eleven. Or some of those little ear horns that look like gramophones for your ear hole.

Otherwise be accused of not telling these people anything. Sure, four people in that stadium might have heard you, but it's very likely that even if they heard you, they already forgot what it was you were saying. So, speak up or sit down. Now that Perry Como, he could talk to an audience.

Offer Free Stuff: And not campaign stickers. Fans, glasses, tee-shirts, gift cards. These people lived through the Depression, and many think they're in one again. It is their impulse to hoard and thank their benevolent granters.

Plus, some have many dozens of grandchildren, all of which in need of a good stocking stuffer.

Don't Eat Your Dinner In The Living Room: Just don't do it. Same rule goes for lounging on your bed with your feet by the pillows. That's what recliners are for, butterscotch. If any pictures of these activities, please post them online where they will be hitherto unattainable to anyone over the age of 65.

Reference 'The Good Ole Days' As Much As Humanly Possible: It doesn't matter that taxes, percentage-wise, were higher when Reagan was in office. It doesn't matter that things like segregated schools and water fountains existed. Ignore any and all progress society has made over the last 50 years or so.

Referencing 'The Good Ole Days' doesn't necessarily remind people of how good it really used to be before these kids screwed everything up, with their rap/rock and roll and their baggy pants, and their women working in gainful employment, because frankly, stuff wasn't as good as they "remember" it being.

But it gives them that old "reminding" feeling when you reference those nostalgic days of yore. These instances of having that reminding feeling are also becoming more and more fleeting for this demographic, so one would do well to encourage a collective sort of remembrance, where one's constituency can simply nod their head, give slight and affirming gestures to those sitting around them, and look like they know what's going on, when in fact, they're trying to remember where they parked the Oldsmobile.

Attach Nazis To Your Opposition's Cause: It doesn't matter which side your on. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, heck, even Socialists and Communists would do well to relate whatever their opposition is doing and saying, or not doing and not saying, to Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich, the Luftwaffe or concentration camps.

All of these things associated with Naziism, certainly and undoubtedly evil, have become the only symbol of not only evil, but anything that's just bad. Everything bad in their life can somehow be channelled to hatred of Nazis, including osteoporosis, arthritis and that health care thing that the pretty Palin lady says is going to set up death camps.

And that Palin is a sassy lady who likes to show the ankles. She must be right.

Have Numerous Bathroom Stations Set Up: This goes without saying. If you're certain that these people need to hear your message, put speakers up in the restrooms or port-o-potties. Also, make them comfortable, they could be there awhile.

This Is The Sound of Hitting Rock Bottom

So this, apparently, is ousted Illinois Governor Rod the Bod Blagojevich's hand at making an honest living: joining the ranks of professional Elvis impersonators.

God, this is painful.

Health Care Showdowns and Fisticuffs

People rising up and taking their message to the streets used to be one of the most powerful visual statements an organization or movement could make. The Civil Rights movement has been visually epitomized by images of folks like Martin Luther King, Jr., locked arm-in-arm with like-minded brothers and sisters in places like Birmingham and Memphis.

For the uninvolved layman, the nation's capitol and all of its monuments of the country's genesis and origins provides a potent stage, and has carried the messages of numerous movements, such as the Vietnam War protests at the Washington Monument's reflecting pool.

Grassroots movements aim to evoke that imagery and appeal, convincing and educating the common, everyday person to take up their picket and join the fight for whatever it is the organizers or those who have the most vested interest in the movement is proposing. Grassroots hope to appeal to that everyman and in doing so, multiply their ranks exponentially.

It's the whole point of any political campaign in general: Tell your message to as many people as there are willing to listen, and get them to tell others, so that they'll vote for you. That's pretty much the whole ball of wax right there. It's a fine method of pushing not only candidates, but also politically-driven agendas.

Like this health care thing, which has gone from complex and frustrating to loud and raucous. Democratic senators and congressional delegates are being met by what Sean Hannity would call mobs of people at their usually mundane town hall meetings to discuss the goings-on in Washington, with the topic du jour being, of course, health care reform.

They are met with taunts, jeers, and rowdy chants. Some even burn the politicians in effigy, which is not only over-the-line and overly aggressive, but outdated and exceedingly unoriginal. Democrats have been responding with outrage, leading some, like Arkansas' Sen. Blanche Lincoln to say they are "disrespectful and un-American," a statement which she later retracted.

The most common dismissal of these former TEA-partiers-turned "Obamacare"-protesters is that it's "Astroturfing," or fake-grassroots. They accuse the organizers to rile up and organizing these people to get out and throw about 8,000 monkey wrenches into the fast moving gears of the legislative machine.

The problem with that line of defense is that Democrats and Health Care Reform advocates do plenty of grassrooting and astroturfing of their own.

They send out pamphlets. They call people (and, aw horsefeathers, always around dinner time, too!) at their homes to talk about health care reform and why it needs to be done as quickly as possible and why Republicans and moderate Democrats are just wrong about everything, but especially health care reform, etc. etc. etc.

The pot is calling the kettle black, and the kettle is firing back about the pot being black, too. But if the pot and kettle have both been black for as long as cookware has been around, why would the pot or the kettle start acting offended by it (Ed. Note - Rampant Metaphor Running Amok? Check.)?

I think it has something to do with the lack of appeal of the march-on-wherever, or at least the diminishing of its impact. It's sort of like using a really good curse word: If it's used rarely, and only in appropriate situation, it connotes an appropriate amount of emotions or seriousness, or whatever the user is trying to portend. But if it's a guy who uses the word in the rigmarole of daily life, in any and all uses, in any and all contexts or mindsets, it loses its luster.

It'll still grab some people's attention, but for the most part, it'll just be a part of the droning noise. Grassroots movements are still potent, as seen by both health care former advocates and antagonists, and still can rile up a great bevy of those in the middle. But the fighting on either side, I would contend, isn't sneaky, dirty, underhanded, or a sign of a lack of message.

On either side, I say again. Those currently in the spotlight are the rightward health care dissuaders, crashing these town hall meetings. They are certainly going a little overboard, with reports of fistfighting going on over it. But their presence should not only be expected, but if their opposition is worth anything, countered.

And for the record, whining about their organization, when your side is clearly just as organized but not as effective, is not a good parry. Not saying Democrats or health care advocates should harpoon a big, stuffed John Boehner facsimile, but surely they've got some other statement or plan.

Lincoln: Up Yours, Vocal & Active Constituency!

I would have loved to have seen the look on Steve Patterson's face around 11 in the morning, as Sen. Lincoln was wrapping up her press conference with Arkansas reporters on Thursday.

Patterson, Lincoln's campaign manager who is most certainly gearing up for a tough re-election bid, was probably sitting in his office in Little Rock, or maybe even her office in D.C. Depending on if or how big his breakfast was, maybe he was thinking about lunch.

Should I go to Wendy's again? he might've been pondering. But I just went there yesterday...but nobody saw me. Maybe I can go there again...I did almost get the spicy chicken. Maybe I'll get that today. But those square patties are-...

Then he heard that buzz word, that word that says so much while spelling so little: un-American. He could've sworn he had heard it from his client, Sen. Lincoln's mouth.

She must be talking about how dumb and polarizing and really, really dumb it was to use that word to discuss a politically biased stance, he probably mused to himself. Man, that Bush guy really helped us out by doing that.

Then his expression probably became a little more grim, aspirations of a delicious chicken sandwich, Frosty, and routine incumbent election quickly evaporating into the vapors. Had Sen. Lincoln had just called several hundred of her vocal constituency "un-American?"

Hang on, Steve might've thought to himself, in that low, booming voice that I hope is his inner-thought voice as well, Blanche is smarter than this. He'd be right, too. Sen. Lincoln frustrates many conservatives with her ability to tread politically difficult matters with somewhat ease, if not persistent thoroughness. Being a Democrat, her party and those running it are decidedly more liberal than probably she is, but most certainly more so than her constituency is. She has threaded the needle, as they say, and done so quite well with such a large bull's eye on her back.

She may weave 27 minute answers to some questions, but she has her points, sticks to them, and rarely gives much away.

Oh, she couldn't have done that, Steve, time to lay off the crazy pills, this isn't a Styx and Kansas concert, laughed Patterson to himself.

“It’s so sad, because it’s diminishing to the process, it’s diminishing to our outcome...I think it’s sad that they choose to do that," he recalled her saying. "I think it’s un-American and disrespectful."

I am going to throw up all over these tasseled loafers, a now pale and mortified Arkansas campaign manager may have thought to himself.

She had. She had called her some of her most vocal constituency "un-American." Not only are they the most vocal, but judging by their likely political leanings, they're a constituency that would be most offended by being branded as "un-American." They're vocal, they're on the move, they're willing to campaign against her now for no wage or interest other than their own: They will be a terrible nightmare for business, thought Patterson.

Some of these nuts are running against her already, Patterson might have pondered, noting the growing roster of Ricky Randoms, many of whom nobody outside their small circle of friends and relatives would know, recognize, or lend any help to. All of those guys just got a little more credibility, the now-worry-wrought Steve Patterson might have thought.

Maybe it won't be that bad, he might have scrambled in his head, trying to weave his way around the situation. He'd be fooling himself. While it's certainly no "that Jew" statement, it certainly is self-stubbing of the toe. Sen. Lincoln tripped up, insulted her constituency (much in the same way that Curtis Coleman chap did, eh?), and now looks like she's going to have to eat those words in every debate and campaign ad.

Will it cost her the election? Doubtful, as all of her challengers are those people who are best defined as 'ambiguous.' But someone well-funded with a compelling narrative that's relatively well-liked? It could be a loud speed bump, and we're only just in August of 2009...There's time, Patterson might have concluded, both optimistically at the time to dig herself out of the hole presented here and in her polling numbers and pessimistically at the time for a real candidate to emerge.

What in the name of holy flying horse snot is going on with this campaign?! Patterson thought madly to himself, the only visible sign of his rising anger a small twitch of his left eyelid. You know what, I hate this freaking job! This has got to be the most worthless, hapless, hopeless re-election campaign I've ever been a part of. I wake up every morning, look at those poll numbers, and curl up in a little fetal ball and cry my eyes out, because this is just a mess, Patterson might have mused as his face became more red and his knuckles became more white. Two terms? TWO TERMS?! What kind of amateur, rookie, bush-league, open-mic night at the Apollo is this Senate race supposed to be, huh? Now fuming in his own mind, I swear to God Almighty I am going to go off on a Clark-Griswold-esque rant that may or may not involve me punching numerous interns and aides in the face and thrusting my head in the toilet until the someone drags me out and puts me in the dumpster out back with the rest of the toiletries and all the health care reform placards and pickets!

He paused. Inhaled.

"Uh...Blanche? I think we should issue a retraction."

Fwank to Woss: I See Yo-ah Blue Dawgs and Waise You the Pwogwessive Caucus

Sausage is getting made in the House on health care reform. And it ain't pretty.

First, Mike Ross and his 54-strong Blue Dog Coaltion put the brakes on the monorail-speed health care legislation. Ross claimed that the decidedly more liberal Party Leadership was excluding the input of moderate Democrats while hammering out legislation that would affect all constituencies.

It lead to a big stink being raised by the Blue Dogs, a signing of a letter, and subsequent concessions being made for moderates, namely the punting of the debate into September. Because nothing says "I'm dead freaking serious" like a sternly worded letter.

This effectively derailed the arrival of legislation past its deadline of before the August recess. Many have called this a tremendous victory for Ross and the Blue Dogs. Many Republicans are claiming that they have a newfound hope that they can stop this legislation as successfully as they did in the early 90's during the Clinton Administration, which I'm not sure was the intention of the Blue Dogs.

Not so fat fast!, says U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, and his band of mewwy cohawts. According to Patty O'Conner of O'Politic, House Democrats of the more liberal persuasion are running a play from the Blue Dog playbook. The Congressional Progressive Caucus, boasting a 83 member roster, has authored its own letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reaffirming their goals to get health care legislation passed, including beinhg prepared to vote against any bill that doesn't require government-sponsored public health care plans to pay providers some multiple of Medicare costs.

Frank has already gone on the record to say that he would not vote for the health care legislation that seemed to be proposed at the compromisorial meeting between Waxman and the Blue Dogs.

There are 435 members of the House. 54 are Blue Dogs ready to stop this health care funride. 83 are in the Progressive Caucus and there are 178 Republicans, who now, by the way, are seeing an open door to bluntly opposing all of the proposed legislation lock, stock and barrel, without fear of partisan backlash - if the Democrats can't get on the same page, why should Republicans?

I'm no doctor but it seems like either 232 or 261 or maybe more stand ready to oppose this bill. Those shouldn't be confident numbers on either side. Expect this August recess to be less about hammering out policy and more about getting these Blue Dogs and these Progressives reading from the same page of the hymnal.

Pelosi Whines at Lincoln, Ross, Rest of America

The gauntlet. She has been thrown.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was outlining her August plan of attack yesterday. I read via Politico about her mounting frustrations with the Senate's health care plan, specifically with the amount of sweet time taken by the Finance Committee, on which Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., sits.

“Frankly I had hoped we had seen more from the Senate Finance Committee so we could have a little better idea on where we might find common ground,” the speaker said. “What do they call themselves?” she laughed of the Senate “We’re the hot cup of coffee and they’re the saucer. They’re really doing the saucer thing to the hilt. They are cooling off this coffee to the nth degree.”

Good one and zing.

In recent interviews, Sen. Lincoln and others on the Finance Committee, the Senate in general, all three committees of the House working on health care legislation, the House in general, and nearly everyone you talk to says that while the pre-August recess deadline would have been nice, it's better to slow this sucker down a little bit to make sure they get this thing right. After all, what's being proposed is one of the biggest overhauls in public policy ever. It could use a couple of second thoughts, most would agree, before pulling the trigger.

One sort of local yokel angle that I was looking for but seemed to have missed is where the Speaker discusses her own "saucer," to use her really dumb metaphor: Blue Dogs in the House, who completely wrecked her agenda from flying at breakneck speeds.

Like Mikey Ross (insert haircut joke), who has been the leader in saying very little and getting a lot of pub in return. "Hey, let's slow this down," and the ensuing spectacle.

Marion Berry even threw himself into the fireworks, although it can probably just be chalked up to a copycat move to bolster the necessary conservative bonafides of an Arkansas elected official. Berry apparently dressed down some of President Obama's senior officials - including David Axelrod - and repeatedly referred to Obama as "your president," which is to say, not his president, and maybe not even the first district's President.

But there's nary a mention of them in this rundown, maybe I should just read another article. I'm guessing that Pelosi is assuming that all or most of these Blue Dogs will fall in line and vote for it after little to no changes or a lot of changes are made and then subsequently amended at 3 AM or something like that.

One thing in all this mire is certain: No one likes Nancy Pelosi. Her polling numbers are awful, awful, dreadful, and awful. Sarah Palin doesn't envy her. Yikes. Pelosi comes across as divisive and stubborn, and is unfortunately becoming the focus of an increasing amount of distrust in the policies. People may not turn on Obama, he's so popular and cool, but they'll certainly skewer Pelosi.

What In God's Name Is This 'Tim Griffin' Critter Up To?

It broke over my buddy David Sanders' tweets last week. He said the former-Senate-maybe, and former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin had just got back from D.C. and was doing some thinking about running against that Mike "Shelmet" Ross, who currently happens to be probably one of the more powerful Congressmen in House right now.

The ever-sneaky Jason Tolbert picked up on an exchange between Jake Trapper of ABC, in which it seems Trapper had been picking up what Griffin had been laying down.

Griffin, raised in Magnolia but currently wheeling and dealing in Little Rock, says he's hearing from a lot of unhappy people in the fourth district. Being the benevolent and heroic leader of hope, charity and mercy he is, Griffin seems to be pondering a Crusade to alleviate the sorrows and famine of the 4th district against Mike Longshanks Ross.

Riiight.

Not saying anything about Ross or Griffin or anything like that, but let's take a gander at some facts and some history, shall we?

Mike Ross' Stick is Huge: President Obama, who every Arkansas delegate with whom I have spoken says is more liberal than themselves, is mighty popular and is aiming for some of that reform. Mike "Monkeywrench" Ross, leading the Blue Dog Democrats in the House on Health Care, said "Halt" and it was so.

The national media chalked it up to Harry Potterisms, like The Congressman Who Lived after standing up to Obama, not that Obama is anything like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but you know what I mean. Obama's powerful.

Needless to say, in a state that overwhelming shot Obama down at the polls, any standing up to Obama, over matters large and small, is duly noted by the voters. This isn't even the first time Ross has gone on record against the progressive agenda in the Legislative Branch. Ross made a lot of now forgotten noise over cap-and-trade legislation that went through his committee earlier in the session, voting squarely no, and telling me personally, that he thought the President, in this case, was and is wrong.

Not to mention that all of Arkansas' congressional delegates are comfortable and cozily ensconced in their respective district. Ross is sitting pretty, and I think a lot of people are aware of that.

Tim Griffin? Who?: Tim Griffin as a candidate is puzzling to me. He obviously is well-connected to a bevy of deep-pocketed friends in D.C. and elsewhere, which is absolutely clutch in a national election. But outside of that, as well as some conservative credentials that are also key in Arkansas, I'm not sure that Tim Griffin couldn't kick me in the face while holding hands with my mother without me going, "Who was that guy?"

In an election, you need a name, too. I will give him this, outside of being a U.S. Attorney, he has done pretty well getting his name out there, primarily by doing some saber-rattling about Blanche Lincoln. In political circles, people know Tim Griffin. But the walls can be pretty thick and insulated in those political circles. I'm not sure that the general public is too aware of his presence.

But what am I saying? He's been hearing from the people of the fourth.

Tim Griffin? No, really, who is he? What's he doing here?: Getting back to not so much about who Griffin is, but what exactly he's doing. As far as I know, Tim Griffin has no elected experience. He's a former opposition researcher, political strategist, and U.S. Attorney. I don't think any of those positions have been put to votes.

But like I said earlier, his noteworthy past thus far has been talking down Blanche Lincoln since December. He was the first and definitely the most vocal potential opponent against the Democratic Senator, whose tepid polling numbers are spelling a potentially tough re-election.

But as the months wore on, people like Kim Hendren jumping in the race before self-detonating, and a litany of others throwing their hat into the ring, with nary a peep from Griffin.

Many suspect that he had no real intention of running against Lincoln. Rather, he just wanted to keep her in check, make sure she voted conservatively on issues like card check, and basically keep her on the defensive by moving her re-election campaign up about six or eight months.

I'm not saying it's the case now, I'm just saying it might be, that Griffin & Co. is doing the same with Ross: They recognize a long-time and loyal Democrat, Ross, with a propensity to vote conservatively, and are aiming a making sure he stays that way, nervous of a Republican backlash in conservative Arkansas.

Griffin, who certainly has a political background, may lack the political C.V. to stand up against a strong candidate like Ross. But maybe that's not what he wants to do in the first place.

At the very least, he'll need a much more dominate follicle arrangement to compete with Ross.