February 7, 2008 – Capitol Hill Blue

Why more bureaucratic programs won’t fix health care

February 7, 2008

Merck Settles With Govt Over Rebates
https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23051867/

I love how they spin this.

The crux of the story is the company negotiated secret contracts with hospitals giving deep discounts which of course were not passed onto Medicaid. Also, they paid off doctors to prescribe their products versus other products.

And they got caught. So they get a slap on the hand and have to pay approx 700 Million dollars in fines. Big Deal!

Romney suspends campaign, clears way for McCain

February 7, 2008

John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. “I must now stand aside, for our party and our country,” Romney prepared to tell conservatives.

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Romney will say at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

How many Red States can you win?

February 7, 2008

My primary concern in the 2008 is that we don’t get another GOP supporter of GW’s failed policies in the WH.

That means the Democratic nominee (whoever that may be)has to win some RED states. I mean after all, there’s very little chance of the Blue States turning Red at this point in the race.

So from my perspective, who has the best chance to win red states? I still do not see which pivotal RED states either candidate is going take away from the GOP, but I’m open to persuasion at this point.

The best indicators of this perhaps are the primary results.

John McCain – Fit For Command?

February 7, 2008

John McCain – Fit to Command?

After the “swift boating” of John Kerry, I am very hesitant to jump on any bandwagon that wants to smear a political candidate. It offends my sense of fairness, especially after learning that the “swift boat smeared” John Kerry helped to expose atrocities committed during Viet Nam and was also instrumental in bringing the reprehensible and corrupt conduct of the U.S. Government to light in the Iran Contra affair during the 1980s. I disagreed with Senator Kerry on countless issues, but I dislike attacking him baselessly.

We need to get up above all this crap

February 7, 2008

I see that the Clintonistas are out of cash…No real surprise there.

As far as I know, this woman still has (in common with Bill) literally millions of dollars in unpaid legal fees for the whole (still not prosecuted) Whitewater thing.

Yet she can “loan” her campaign 5 million dollars. Let’s consider this for a second here….FIVE MILLION DOLLARS is a slush fund for this woman in her attempts to get herself into the highest office in the land.

Hillary’s problem Children

February 7, 2008

No, not Chelsea. In fact, she shows more class than the whole group of campaign staffers, especially those on top.

It is clear that Hillary has a problem. No, several problems. Money, dead growth patterns, fading poll indicators, and trends that not just worrisome, but deadly for a campaign. Let’s start with $$, then move on the the IDs of her problem children.

Obama has raised 6.8 million in 1.5 days since the Tuesday superprimary. Hillary claims 2+ million. Obama earned 32 million in January, Hillary was so cash short, she loaned 5 million to her campaign.

Clinton low on cash, time

February 7, 2008

Democratic Presidential wannabe Hillary Rodham Clinton’s "inevitable" march to the nomination is mired in a financial, electoral and morale swamp.

With bills and salaries going unpaid, Clinton admitted Wednesday she wrote out a $5 million check from her personal funds to cover some expenses and go forward in her neck-and-neck contest with the surging Barack Obama but the loan won’t be enough to bail out the financially-strapped campaign.

Many staffers will work without pay this month and Capitol Hill Blue has learned that many vendors are demanding cash up front because of the campaign’s overdue bills.

"For all practical purposes, we’re broke," a campaign staffer admits.

McCain widens delegate lead

February 7, 2008

Sen. John McCain padded his commanding delegate lead in the Republican presidential race Wednesday and urged conservative critics to cut him some slack. In a Democratic surprise, Hillary Rodham Clinton disclosed she’d lent $5 million to her cash-short campaign.

“And I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment,” said the former first lady, one day after trading victories with Barack Obama in a Super Tuesday string of contests from coast to coast.

The competition for Republican delegates was a runaway.

Secret prison camp at Gitmo

February 7, 2008

Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded, a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret.

For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rear Admiral Mark Buzby also provided a few details about the maximum-security lockup.

A crazy system that somehow works

February 7, 2008

Hold the name “Gordon Brown” for a few seconds while we digress.

Foreigners often suggest that the way we conduct our electoral politics is insane and Super Tuesday could be seen as giving them some ammunition for that thought.

Super Tuesday is the biggest single determinant in how we choose our presidential candidates — 22 contests across four time zone and Alaska. And not even the same kind of contests; some are primaries, some are caucuses. And different rules. The Republicans favor winner-take-all; the Democrats, proportional allocation.