Throwing Elbows

This was a nice little move by the White House against blowhard Jon Kyl and St. McCain:

On ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) argued that the $787 billion stimulus package “hasn’t helped yet. … What I proposed is, after you complete the contracts that are already committed, the things that are in the pipeline, stop it.”

The next day Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer received letters from four Obama administration officials — Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar — pointing out the billions headed for Arizonans. LaHood wrote:

"The stimulus has been very effective in creating job opportunities throughout the country. However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know."

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) quickly fired back on Tuesday, saying that he “strongly support the comments of Senator Kyl and call[s] on the administration to retract its threat against the citizens of Arizona.”

What McCain calls a threat I call "asking the Governor of Arizona if she wants to do what her junior Senator suggests." In other words, following right-wing policies is a threat against American citizens. Now I agree with that, but it's funny for John McCain to agree.

If Republicans want to say that all government spending is bad they should be able to live with the consequences. But they never do, of course. Good for Obama and the White House for pushing back.

...Here's another Democrat, Bernie Sanders, forcing Republicans, including John McCain, to confront their own rhetoric.

Sanders: I don't want to shock anybody here, and have people dashing out of the room, but the VA is a socialized health care system, right Mr. McCain? That's what it is. That's not public insurance, but socialized medicine.

McCain: Not exactly my description, but...

Sanders: OK. And, you know, the VA has its problems, we all know that. But by and large, I think it's fair to say, when we go home, we talk to our veterans, you know what, they feel pretty good about the VA [...] All right, that's socialized medicine in the United States of America, anyone want to bring an amendment up to eliminate the VA? I would suggest the chairman accept that amendment. I don't hear too many people.

Beautiful.