If Chuck Norris is late, time had better slow down.
So goes one of hundreds of jokes about the martial-arts master and Torrance native who, our social networks tell us, this weekend is campaigning in Iowa for Republican gubernatorial challenger and Christian conservative, Bob Vander Plaats. The primary is on Tuesday.
Vander Plaats, who is running against former four-term governor Terry Branstad for the right to challenge incumbent Democrat Chet Culver, has secured the backing of Mike Huckabee and, as announced Thursday, of the Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family fame.
Of course, Vander Plaats has his own version of the Norris spiel.
"When Chuck Norris comes to Iowa, even Chet Culver attends the rallies."
Vander Plaats trails Branstad by 15 points in the latest polls, but it remains to be seen how....
Laura Bush may not have been very vocal about how she felt on gay marriage or abortion when her husband was president, but the former first lady is talking now. (Probably not) coincidentally, it's just in time to promote her new book!
In an interview on "Larry King Live" Tuesday night, Bush said she disagrees with her husband on two key issues that continually popped up during George W. Bush's eight years in office.
On gay marriage, she told CNN show host Larry King: "When couples are committed to each other and love each other, then they ought to have, I think, the same sort of rights that everyone has."
"I think we could" accept gay marriage, she continued. "I also think it's a generational thing.... That will come."
"I understand totally what George thinks and what other people think about marriage being between a man and a woman," she said. "I guess that would be an area that we disagree" on.
Laura Bush also recalled a flurry of questions shortly after her husband took office about overturning Roe vs. Wade.
"I think it's important that it remain legal," she said about abortion. "Because I think it's important for people -- for medical reasons and for other reasons."
Later in the interview, she admitted to "not really" being vocal about these issues during President Bush's tenure. But the feelings were there.
"I understand his viewpoint," she said, "and he understands mine."
It was the last symbol of a free society. Now it is the latest victim of terrorist threats.
For generations, Americans looking to the U.S. Supreme Court as their last judicial appeal could climb the 44 marble steps leading to its front door and pass through the giant bronze doors, crossing under the words engraved above the stately columns, "Equal Justice Under Law."
Those majestic steps have served as a magnet, a natural draw for protests of everything from capital punishment and abortion to affirmative action and the imprisonment of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Those steps bore the caskets of justices who lay in repose as thousands of mourners paid their respects. The scene was so iconic, so evocative, that it became a template for depiction of a democracy at its finest, a staple of movies from the film classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" to the made-for-TV movie about the contested Bush v. Gore 2000 election called "Recount."
It being the Supreme Court, there were of course dissents. Justice Stephen Breyer protested, with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in his corner. "Potential security threats will exist regardless of which entrance we
use," Breyer wrote. "And, in making this decision, it is important not to undervalue
the symbolic and historic importance of allowing visitors to enter the
Court after walking up [those] famed front steps."
The door closed on Monday, but we didn't want the week to pass without adding our condolences.
You can read the full dissent below, as provided by the court.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: The front steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1958. Credit: Associated Press
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
SUBJECT: Respecting the Rights of Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies
There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean -- a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.
Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides -- whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf.
Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be therefor the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.
For all of these Americans, the failure to have their wishes respected concerning who may visit them or make medical decisions on their behalf has real consequences. It means that doctors and nurses do not always have the best information about patients' medications and medical histories and that friends and....
No hyperbole, he really was the margin of victory. He paid a personal price, now a political one.
Bart Stupak, the 57-year-old Michigan Democrat whose antiabortion stance put him at the center of the fevered and partisan debate over healthcare reform, announced today that he's leaving the congressional arena.
ABC's "This Week" with Jake Tapper: Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett; Govs. Ed Rendell (D-Pa.) and Haley Barbour (R-Miss.), George Will, Donna Brazile and Peggy Noonan.
CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
CNN's "GPS" with Fareed Zakaria: Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Obama advisor David Axelrod; Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).
"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Exclusive
senatorial primary debate between Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) and former Speaker
of the House Marco Rubio with guests Brit Hume, Mara Liasson, Bill Kristol and Juan Williams.
NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jon Meacham, Mike Murphy and Bob Shrum.
In the state that "believed in our campaign when all the pundits had written
us off," Obama touted the benefits of his historic reform. A fired-up and ready-to-go Obama told a cheering crowd in Iowa City that the law will bring dividends this year -- for small businesses eligible for a healthcare tax credit, for patients with preexisting conditions, for twentysomethings who want to stay on their parents' insurance policies.
Amid some early evidence that the plan has already gained in popularity since its passage -- Quinnipiac University is out with a poll today showing disapproval has dropped from 54% to 49% -- Obama all but dared the Republicans to run against it.
"This is the reform that some folks in Washington are still hollering
about," he said. "And now that it’s passed, they’re already promising to repeal
it. They’re actually going to run on a platform of repeal in November." Then, as if channeling Clint Eastwood's "make my day" line, Obama added:
Go for it. If these congressmen in Washington want to come
here to Iowa and tell small-business owners that they plan to take away
their tax credits and essentially raise their taxes, be my guest.
If
they want to look Lauren Gallagher in the eye and tell her they plan to
take away her father’s health insurance, that’s their right. If they
want to make Darlyne Neff pay more money for....
Gas lines were cut at the home of Virginia Democrat Tom Perriello's brother after a blogger posted the address online, thinking it to be the congressman's.
And then there are the phone calls to Michigan's Bart Stupak, an anti-abortion Democrat who provided the margin of victory for healthcare reform after President Obama agreed to an executive order explicitly banning federal funding of abortions. Take a listen.
The FBI is investigating the death threats. Local prosecutors, even conservative ones who opposed the healthcare legislation, are looking to bring charges. But as members of Congress prepare to go home to their districts for the Easter/Passover recess next week, with members rattled over the violence, the political questions are equally riveting.
Last year when the nation's top talker wouldn't stop talking to town hall crowd after town hall crowd about the expansive, expensive healthcare bill he'd put ahead of jobs and economic stimulus on his personal campaign agenda, the poll numbers sank and sank -- both for him and for the bill.
But then after months of general disengagement, as he'd been with the economic stimulus legislation, the ex-state senator became less aloof, more active on the ground, talking to legislators, individually and in small groups, about the massive measure and how important it was for Americans' future -- and by implication, their own. Convincing people being something unnecessary in Chicago's ruthless one-party system where members are obedient or gone.
Et voila the really good talker began making encouraging headway. So Obama did it some more. And it worked even more, despite the adverse wintry election winds blowing out of Virginia, New Jersey and liberal Massachusetts, with the upset Senate election there of outspoken Republican healthcare opponent Scott Brown.
On Sunday, the controversial document passed the House, and on Tuesday, President No. 44 signed it into law. According to Vice President Joe Biden, it was "a big effing deal."
Obama still hasn't stopped talking about it. Today, he will fly his 747 all the way out....
At the White House, the signing ceremony looked like a victory party as President Obama delivered on the signature promise of his campaign for change. As he signed the historic healthcare bill, Obama was flanked by Vicki Kennedy, widow of the late Edward Kennedy, who had called this the cause of his lifetime, and by ordinary Americans who wrote to him or campaigned with him on the issue.
"Everyone who voted against passing health insurance reform ... will have to explain to voters why they stood up with the insurance industry," said Service Employees International Union spokeswoman Lori Lodes.
On the right, tea party activists are rallying conservatives for a repeal drive against "the socialist healthcare vote." And they are gearing up for November -- registering new voters, launching political action committees, running attack ads against Democratic incumbents who said yes to change.
"They chose not to listen to what the people want," said Debbie Dooley, co-founder of the Atlanta Tea Party. "We, the
people, will have our say in November." Gina Loudon, a founder of the St. Louis Tea Party, added that she has been deluged with calls from folks who wanted to get involved. "This has absolutely awoken a giant," she said.
Conservatives may have the easier hand. They will be lobbing money and muscle against a candidate while backing an opponent. For liberals, the challenge is to oppose fellow Democrats while finding third-party alternatives.
Mindful of the terrible price paid by others who did support the bill at
great political risk, they are planning rallies for "yes"-voting
lawmakers whose districts voted for Republican John McCain. "First thing
we want to do is take the time to thank those who took the tough vote,"
the AFL-CIO's Karen Ackerman told the Hill. "This is not a one-time
appreciation rally. We will let them know that we stand with them."
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: President Obama signs the healthcare reform bill on March 23, 2010, with Marcelas Owens of Seattle (foreground left), Vice President Biden, Vicki Kennedy (just to the right of Biden), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (in brown) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (to right of Pelosi). Credit: Associated Press
Some fascinating, at times seemingly contradictory and ultimately revealing, poll results about the healthcare bill warfare from the helpful folks over at CBS News in recent hours.
Displaying, but more importantly documenting, what some might call a keen grasp of the obvious, a substantial majority of Americans has now decided that the yearlong, interminably-documented, mind-numbing, bone-cracking arm-wrestling among Democrats and also between the two political parties really had very little to do with anything having to do with actual healthcare.
Or with the combatants' oft-professed and by-golly-heartfelt concern with the physical well-being of constituents, bless their hearts.
In fact, most Americans have decided, after all these months, it was really more about politics than anything else all along. BINGO!
Sixty-one percent of Americans, CBS reports, think the Republicans were fighting about....
The vitriol continued over the weekend. Bands of angry conservatives parked themselves outside the Capitol. When Georgia Democrat John Lewis walked to work Saturday, they hurled racial epithets. This is John Lewis, a veteran of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil-rights marches, beaten by sheriffs so savagely that his head wounds are still visible. This upset House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose skillful shepherding of the bill through the House puts her in company with Tip O'Neill and LBJ. So the next day, she walked to the Capitol arm in arm with Lewis and other Democrats. Little appeased, the conservative mob shouted, "You communists! You socialists! You hate America!"
Is this really the crowd that Republicans want to line up with? Apparently.
During Sunday's vote, Republican members of the House went to the balcony of the Speaker's Lounge -- generally only occupied by the smokers she has banished from the building -- to incite the crowd with signs that said, "Kill the bill."
Going negative rarely wins elections. Just ask Ronald Reagan, a Republican icon who won a landslide victory for president in 1984 with the sunny slogan, "It's Morning Again in America."
Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, who had anti-gay slurs hurled at him by protesters, warned that Republicans were whipping up hysteria."It is almost like the Salem witch trials,” he said. “The health bill has become their witch."
Hysteria may whip up the base, and turnout -- which side gets their voters to the polls in greater numbers -- could be key in the midterm elections. But lining up with hysterics -- one Republican shouted "baby killer" at Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak during debate -- could make Republicans more than just the Party of No. It could make them the Party of Anarchy, the kind who shout 'Fire' in a crowded theater.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: House Republicans incite protesters angry about healthcare reform from the balcony of the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Getty Images
