Michigan Republican McCotter on health care 'ShamWow' summit

Congressman Thaddeus McCotter R-MI, commented "the 2/25 summit is a “ShamWow infomercial” and Republicans should not go."

McCotter’s controversial remarks came during an interview with Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren on the program “Off the Record," 2/24, the eve of the “bipartisan” health care gathering.

When pressed by Van Susteren to justify his analogy McCotter (below right) offered:

“Well, we keep hearing that this is going to be a stage production. It's going to be an infomercial for one side or the other. And the public knows it. So to try to bring attention to the fact that this isn’t a real summit, it’s not a real negotiation going on, generally, an unfortunate misuse of congressional time and energy, the phrase “ShamWow” came to mind because it’s a wildly popular product that is sold on an infomercial.”

McCotter also added context to his views by saying:

“...They [the American people] think the politicians and the government has a special interest ...Within the paradigm of this ...ShamWow summit, what you have are two fundamentally divergent views of how health care should be done. They can’t be papered over. They can’t be taking a part over here and sprinkling it onto a bill that you fundamentally disagree with, and I think that everybody knows that ...The beauty of our free republic is where the Congress has a fundamental disagreement, there’s an election that can settle that.”

Other conservative voices, Karl Rove and Michelle Malkin amongst the loudest, likened the proceedings to kabuki, although one is left to speculate on which aspects of the Japanese dance/theatre genre was in view in the analogy.
 
Perhaps the more cynical element was referring to the way kabuki was originally performed entirely by prostitutes at its inception in the 17th century, just as politicians have prostituted liberty and America’s economic and social future to line their pockets and advance their radical agendas?

In retrospect, although one might be disinclined to acquiesce to McCotter’s characterization of the Barack Obama moderated summit, it's hard to argue that the meeting was much more than political theatre, providing Democrats the opportunity to finally seat Republicans at the table to “discuss the issue,” but ultimately setting them up as patsies, primed to take the fall when the Democrat plan to socialize medicine fails.

President Obama, according to conservatives, like Laura Ingraham, has rarely appeared LESS presidential.

Some would even argue that Mr. Obama came across like Oliver Twist, kneeling in supplication, begging the American public for more “gruel,” not giving a whit that he and fraternal/sororal politicians of every persuasion have already emptied our pots.

It would be difficult to declare a winner of the debacle that was the health care summit; Republicans looking at times largely petulant and whiny, a la John McCain, and Democrats offering outrageous, emotionally charged, utterly beside the point anecdotes such as Congresswoman Louis Slaughter’s D-NY (left) story of a Buffalo woman who couldn't afford her own dentures, so instead, wore a set from her deceased sister.

(One can sincerely hope the dearly departed was not actually wearing the false teeth when she passed away.)

In light of rising, i.e. skyrocketing, health insurance premiums, Americans are rightly concerned - if not completely outraged - over how deep the pain of being thus squeezed in this economy really is.

However, the consensus continues to be that politicians, who pee away money like so much guzzled Beer Summit brew, simply MUST NOT be considered or trusted to be the soul solution to the snowballing problem.

In times like these, idiotic blather from the likes of "Delaware's favorite son" Joe Biden, who recently commented how great and easy life is a vice-president, only adds fuel to the inferno of American ire over the widening chasm between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” Particularly when “haves” like Biden ended up that way on the dime of weary U.S. taxpayers.

Until next time...

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