The thing that's been completely left out of the Dick Cheney "how dare anyone dither when it comes to blowing up our enemies and rewarding our torturers" speech is the context in which that speech was given.

The Villagers don't like to talk about specifics when it comes to the beltway dinner circuit at which so many of them feed.

This dinner, minimum $500.00 a plate, was to given by the self-described, and I am not making this up, "non-partisan organization" The Center for Security Policy. Dick Cheney was speaking at their 20th anniversary dinner, at which he received the, hold back your breakfast now, "Keeper of the Flame" award. Cheney was introduced by, among others, Don Rumsfeld, a former awardee himself. You know who else has this prize sitting on a shelf in their well-appointed Georgetown dens?

Joe Lieberman

Duncan Hunter

James Inhofe

Paul Wolfowitz

Newt Gingrich

Ronald Reagan

Jon Kyl

Caspar Weinberger

Okay, then. So why would anyone not expect a bowl full of neocon crazy in his acceptance speech? He's among friends.

Why can't the press be honest? And how, at this point in history, has that become a completely rhetorical question?

crossposted from Blue Gal

On Andrea Mitchell's show this morning, Chuck Todd was on to opine about health care reform. He said one outrageous thing and one right thing. The Toddster said that progressives might be attached to the public option because conservatives immediately attacked it. WRONG.

Mitchell:...how did this become the thing that liberals will not live without?

Todd: ...what's ironic is I think it became a big deal from the left because originally it was the immediate point of attack from some conservatives. Immediately. That that is the public option so you sort of wonder was it simply a political reaction from the left. "They don't like it, we love it."

Since there is no single payer, the public option is the only way that there will be sufficient competition that would force the health insurance companies of actually competing on the open market and making it possible for Americans to have a real alternative to them. The public option is our compromise you sad sack of know-nothingness. We wouldn't form a coalition around something just because conservatives object. That thinking only further illustrates how much the beltway despises us. We are thinking people who actually can evaluate policy on its merits and not out of resentment. When Kyl said "co ops' was just another Trojan horse for government run health care I thought that spoke volumes to the way they are treating health care reform. Wouldn't you expect the media to pounce and say that republicans never had any plans to become part of the negotiating process over health care reform? Even Chuck Grassley's insane statements haven't generated much of a reaction from the press.

What Todd is right about is that President Obama does not have any good spokesman for his positions other than himself. I've written many posts about this problem and I traced it all the way back to the general election. I also wrote about it here: With Surrogates like these... and here. The President shouldn't be the only person that can sell his positions, but the Senate is devoid of anyone that can speak with true conviction that can reach the American people. It's sad.

At least for progressives, Rep. Anthony Weiner has stepped up and become a real force in talking about the necessity of having a public option. More of him please.

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Anthony Weiner Leaves Joe Scarborough Momentarily Speechless When Arguing for Health Care Reform