The Sunday Shows: Health Care And Afghanistan
First, some bonuses: = the 39 Democrats who voted against the House bill -- John Adler (NJ) Jason Altmire (PA) Brian Baird (WA) John Barrow (GA) John Boccieri (OH) Dan Boren (OK) Rick Boucher (TX) Allen Boyd (FL) Bobby Bright (AL) Ben Chandler (KY) Travis Childers, Artur Davis (AL)**, Lincoln Davis (TN) Chet Edwards (TX) Bart Gordon (TN) Parker Griffith (AL), Herseth Sandlin (SD) Tim Holden (PA) Larry Kissell (NC) Suzanne Kosmas (FL) Frank Kratovil (MD) Dennis Kucinich (OH) Betsey Markey (CO) Jim Marshall (GA) Eric Massa (NY) Jim Matheson (UT) Mike McIntyre (PA) Michael McMahon,. Charlie Melancon (LA)** Walt Minnick (ID) Scott Murphy (NY) Glenn Nye (VA) Collin Peterson (MN) Aaron Ross (AR), Health Shuler (NC) Ike Skelton (MO) John Tanner, Gene Taylor (AR) Harry Teague (NM).
31 of these Democrats represent districts won by John McCain. The rest are bolded. 8 of the 39 won by fewer than 10 points. 14 voted in districts where the Obama-McCain or McCain-Obama margin was less than 5 %. 14 of the 39 were freshman. 23 also voted against the cap and trade bill. These are target Alpha for Republicans. (A. Davis and C. Melancon are running for higher office -- Davis for governor and Melancon for Senate.) In 2 districts (ID-1) and (AL-2) the McCain-Palin ticket won by 25 points or more.
Bonus 2: minute-by-minute coverage of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's speech to Iowa Republicans last night from O. Kay Henderson. Key lines: "Hope and change have brought Americans fear.
"I want to ask you: 'Are you fired up and ready to fight back? The only thing growing faster than the national debt is Chris Matthews' man-crush on Barack Obama." "We don't have a big enough party to be throwing people overboard,"
On the health care bill in the Senate:
Sen. Jack Reed:
"I believe we're going to pass health care reform... Senator Reid, Harry Reid, has introduced a public option. There's strong support there. But we are far from the end of the debate in the Senate. It will take time. It will be careful, thorough and deliberate. I hope that a public option is part of the final bill."
Governor-elect Bob McDonnell said he wouldn't be inclined to "opt in" to the health care bill but said that it would depend on how it was structured:
"Well, either way, my preference would be not to have Virginia participate, from what I know this plan contains. However they structure it, if it gives flexibility to states, I think that's a good thing. We've outlined a number of things I think we can do at our state level, John, that will help our people have more access at a lower cost, but I'm very concerned about turning this significant section of the American economy over to the federal government. "
McDonnell stayed mum on 2012 speculation.
On Ft. Hood:
On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Joe Lieberman implies that there's a terrorism connection to the shootings and calls for an investigation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: " "At the end of the day, maybe this is just about him. It's certainly not about his religion, Islam. It's not about the Army; it's not about the war. At the end of the day, I think it's going to be about him. And if we missed some signals, some clear signals, we've got to fix that. And I trust the Army to want to fix it... his actions do not reflect on the Islamic -- Muslim faith... This man's actions reflect on him. And if we missed some signals about him that we should have known, great. But let's don't take this to a level that we should not. Let's don't accuse people of basically giving him a pass because he's a Muslim. Because I don't think there's any evidence of that.""
On the elections:
Michael Steele's Freudian slip. Rachell Maddow on Creigh Deeds and the lessons of 2012: Democrats are always going to be accused of overspending. Dems shouldn't get shy about a second stimulus. Haley Barbour said that Sarah Palin had, uh, "something" to contribute to the Republican Party, but wouldn't say whether she could be president.