Lincoln Blog
March 05, 2010:
It appears the White House will stoop to any depth to get its hands on the nation's health care system - even political bribery.
Congressman Charlie Rangel takes a couple of trips to the Caribbean and he has to give up his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, but Congressman Jim Matheson gets a federal bench appointment for his brother and that passes muster.
No direct link has yet been established between the vacations Rangel took on the tab of corporate interests and his actions as a legislator. If, however Matheson changes his mind and votes for Obamacare there will be an undeniable cause and effect.
In any other world that would be considered bribery.
We have, unfortunately, seen this before. Senator Harry Reid all but bribed Senator Blanche Lincoln with what has become known as the "Louisiana Purchase" and the Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska got the "Cornhusker Kickback" after he caved in and provided the 60th vote needed to invoke cloture in the Senate.
Both provoked a storm of public outrage.
Now the President has engaged in black robed bribery. The White House denies a connection, but it is an inescapable conclusion that only the most brain-washed of leftists could not see.
It is abundantly clear that the American people do not want this version of health care reform. It is also obvious that Congressional Democrats will have to walk off a political cliff to pass it - something they are, for obvious reasons reluctant to do.
The time has come for the President to admit health care reform is dead, or otherwise go down in history as leading his party to the biggest mid-term massacre ever.
