Faux Moderates And The Party Of Mean

The level of hypocrisy inside the Republican party has always been enormously high but it is bordering on farcical these days. Susan Collins was just on MSNBC saying she wishes that the Senate had tried to craft a bipartisan compromise on health care rather than crafting the bill in secret and trying to pass it with just Republican votes, claiming that was just the way Obama passed the ACA.

Besides the fact that the ACA was passed after hundreds of hearings and with plenty of input from Republicans, who, in the end, chose not to provide a single vote, the idea that Collins preferred a bipartisan solution is downright laughable. All Collins had to do was to round up two other Republicans Senators who agreed with her position and they would have been able to stop the secret Senate bill in its tracks. And it’s clear from recent statements that both Lisa Murkowski and Dean Heller probably would have supported Collins if she had the guts to buck McConnell and demand that the health care bill be handled through regular order with hearings and amendments and then a vote. But she went along with McConnell’s plan right up until it failed. As Harry Reid always said with regard to Collins, “She’s always there when you don’t need her.”

MSNBC quickly followed up with a segment focusing on Trump’s sexist, misogynistic tweet regarding Mika Brzezinski. Jodi Ernst commented off camera that Trump’s comments were “not appropriate”. At least she got that right. On the other hand, Ernst is someone who had no problem supporting the Senate bill that will kill over 200,000 Americans over the next 10 years if it becomes law. I wonder if she thinks that’s “appropriate”.