Jim DeMint Hates Unions More Then Terrorists
There was once a time when, if the nation were under attack, even the strictest of partisan hacks would put away their petty squabbling and try DeMint, Obstructionisttheir best to figure out how to make the United States a safe haven for its citizens.
Not anymore.
After the attempted terrorist attack aboard Northwest flight 253 on Christmas Day, the Republicans came out swinging. Clearly this whole thing was President Barack Obama's fault. Didn't he get that memo titled "Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab Determined to Strike in America"?
Perhaps the worst of these is one of the men is one who could conceivably bear the most responsibility for it. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) showed up on CBS' Early Show Wednesday morning to explain exactly how Obama dropped the ball on airline security. He said that the president was at fault because "he doesn't use the word [terrorism] anymore," and because he waited until September to even nominate someone to head the Transportation Security Administration.
On top of it, DeMint has been accusing the administration, both before and after the attacks, of playing politics. A gold star to any reader who can pick out the true player here.
So, one would think that if he had to wait that long to get someone into the top TSA post, DeMint would be in a rush to have that person confirmed ASAP. But no, turns out DeMint's had a hold on the nominee, Erroll Southers, and he still refuses to let go.
Well, since DeMint is so worried about terrorism (the word, at least), he must have a really good reason for opposing Southers' nomination, like that Southers has connections to al Qaeda or something.
Wrong again! Widely known as a counterterrorism expert, Southers has already earned the blessing of two Senate committees. DeMint has said his reason behind the hold on Southers is that he might allow TSA workers to -- gasp! -- unionize!
Health Care Misinformer of the Year award to Betsy McCaughey.
McCaughey cooks up falsehood that recovery act puts government bureaucrats between you and your doctor
False claim: Recovery bill provides for government bureaucrats to "monitor treatments," control practice of medicine. In a February 9 Bloomberg commentary, McCaughey concocted the false claim that a health information technology provision in the economic recovery act enabled government bureaucrats to "monitor treatments" and restrict what "your doctor is doing" with regard to patient care. As Media Matters documented, in her "commentary," McCaughey distorted a section of the House-passed version of the recovery bill to claim that "[o]ne new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and 'guide' your doctor's decisions." In fact, the language in the House bill that McCaughey referenced -- which is unchanged in the final act -- does not establish authority to "monitor treatments" or restrict what "your doctor is doing" with regard to patient care; rather, it addresses establishing an electronic records system such that doctors would have complete, accurate information about their patients "to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care."
Impact: Claim reverberated throughout conservative media echo chamber. Despite the fact that McCaughey's claim is demonstrably false, it nonetheless was widely repeated in the media. Her commentary was first picked up by Rush Limbaugh, then trumpeted by Internet gossip Matt Drudge. The falsehood jumped to Fox News, where it was promoted by co-anchors Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly and guest and Wall Street Journal senior economic writer Stephen Moore, and was then again touted by Limbaugh. The false claim subsequently was repeated or promoted by then-CNN host Lou Dobbs and Fox News host Glenn Beck, who each hosted McCaughey; syndicated columnist Ann Coulter; washingtonpost.com's Ed O'Keefe; and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Backtrack: Legislation is vague enough to allow it to happen in the future. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reported during the February 11 edition of CNN Newsroom, "I had a PDF of the bill up on my computer. I said [to McCaughey], 'Show me where in the bill it says that this bill is going to have the government telling your doctor what to do.' And she directed me to language -- it didn't actually say that. But she said that it was vague enough that it would allow for that to happen in the future." Cohen added, "Now when we asked the folks who wrote this bill, 'Hey, is this bill going to allow the government to tell doctors what to do?' they used words like, 'preposterous' and 'completely and wildly untrue.' " Still, McCaughey asserted as recently as October 5 that her claims about the health IT provision in the stimulus were correct by mischaracterizing a statement by Obama appointee Dr. David Blumenthal to claim that he has "settled that debate" in her favor
