The Democrat Thread

[mr_genius]

Our good friend Mark Foley went on Fox News this week, Hannity's show, to suggest that Weiner should resign, but also defended the rights of adults to send sexually suggestive electronic messages to minors.

 

There is a Foley/Weiner joke in there somewhere.

[Balta1701]

There is a Foley/Weiner joke in there somewhere.

I'm sure there's more than one.

[lostfan]

Were's lost's nearly world famous smiley.

Which one? This one

This one

Or the one I think you're talking about, this one

[kapkomet]

Yea, that. I mean, I can't say it exactly, but Foley just kinda needs to.

[Balta1701]

Of course, this post includes the word "Blog" in the link, so the power of that word to guarantee that anything written under it is wrong undermines the fact that it's from the Washington Post.

Congressional Democrats have intensified the behind the scenes pressure on McKinsey and Company to release the methodology of their study finding that large numbers of businesses plan to drop insurance for their employees because of the Affordable Care Act, I’m told. But the company is still refusing to reveal key details about the study’s methodology, which has made it impossible to verify the study’s accuracy or integrity.

 

House Dems have privately pushed McKinsey to explain why McKinsey can’t release the information, given that McKinsey has confirmed to them that it did not do the study for any outside client. McKinsey did the study for its own purposes, the company informed Democrats.

 

But in a bizarre development, the firm has continued to tell them that the information was proprietary and that it won’t be released, I’m told.

 

This has Dems asking why the firm won’t release the study’s methodology, given that there’s no outside client who paid for the study and is demanding that it remain confidential. As the White House points out, its findings are at odds with other studies conducted by independent organizations.

 

“Their findings are so off base that we naturally asked to see who they surveyed and what they asked,” Josh Drobnyk, a spokesman for Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, tells me. “The fact that they are not releasing that information obviously calls into question the results.”

 

House Dems intend to ratchet things up further in the days ahead: They will be sending a formal letter to McKinsey requesting the release of the study’s methodology, sources tell me, which is likely to generate a whole new round of media scrutiny on the company’s refusal to divulge the data.

 

All this comes as House Republicans are explicitly using McKinsey’s study as a political weapon against the Affordable Care Act. John Boehner issued a statement citing the study as proof that “businesses planning for the onslaught of ObamaCare taxes, mandates, regulations, and penalties have two choices: stop offering health care for their employees, or eliminate full-time jobs and keep wages low.”

 

As Steve Benen notes today, this study is now “becoming a political weapon,” and the GOP leadership is now “alerting the public to the McKinsey report as if it’s reliable,” even though we have no way of evaluating it.

 

With Dems set to press the case publicly in the days ahead, this story is only likely to get bigger.

[Balta1701]

NY State is 1 declared vote in the Senate away from legalizing gay marriage.

[Balta1701]

Again, it's from the New Republic, so clearly they're making this up. After all, real reporters these days transcribe press releases, they don't make additional calls.

Now McKinsey employees are telling TNR similar things, sometimes in even blunter terms. “Trust me,” says one of the firm’s insiders. “The survey is not a good tool for prediction.”

 

Another senior firm employee defends the report’s “quality and rigor,” describing it as an “independent, professionally conducted, extensive survey.” But this employee also says that, notwithstanding the hype, the survey was not designed to produce the sort of reliable forecasts that CBO and other authorities make. “We are not making a point prediction or forecast about employer behavior after the implementation of health reform.”

[Balta1701]

June 2009: CNN did 60 reports on SC Gov Mark Sanford sex scandal. June 2011: CNN has done 160 Weiner sex scandal reports;

Twit

[Steve9347]

Twit

June 2011: Steve does one post about not caring.

[Balta1701]

June 2011: Steve does one post about not caring.

June 2011: 8 other posts will randomly appear telling me how the media is liberal for various reasons.

[Steve9347]

June 2011: 8 other posts will randomly appear telling me how the media is liberal for various reasons.

God damn, you are like one with Soxtalk. I was just coming back to delete that post less than a minute later!

[Balta1701]

God damn, you are like one with Soxtalk. I was just coming back to delete that post less than a minute later!

June 2010: Balta is slowly climbing the Soxtalk post leaderboard...

[Steve9347]

June 2010: Balta is slowly climbing the Soxtalk post leaderboard...

Stretch!

 

Oh, and yer year is off!

Edited June 15, 2011 by Steve9347

[Balta1701]

Stretch!

 

Oh, and yer year is off!

*Bleep*

[southsider2k5]

Twit

 

I'm firmly convinced no one would care about this if the guys name was Jones.

[Balta1701]

Wait, this is in the NY Times, which is a print source which means it must be true, but it's about the Bush Administration using the CIA to illegally investigate a blogger. And as I've been told again and again at this page, everything on blogs is wrong. My mind is broken, both of those things can't be true.

 

Anyway, CIA being used to target blogger Juan Cole at the height of the Iraq war. Pretty much exactly what some of us said they were doing.

[Balta1701]

Anthony Weiner to resign, according to CNN.

 

I was kinda hoping he'd go down in a blaze of glory somehow. Go out and give a press conference stating that he'll resign when David Vitter resigns, or something like that.

[StrangeSox]

Glad that the evil liberal MSM essentially forced this resignation by making this story such a big deal.

[Jenksismyhero]

Glad that the evil liberal MSM essentially forced this resignation by making this story such a big deal.

 

Please. The story wrote itself. A guy named Wiener was rumored to have showed his wiener to multiple women. He denies profusely. He then changes his mind, apologizes, says there's nothing else out there. Then days later there's even "worse" pictures of him in congressional gyms and whatnot. And then there's investigations that he might have sent some pics to an underage girl.

 

Yeah, not a big deal though. He's upholding the outstanding virtues and ethics of a Congressional Democrat.

[Balta1701]

Yeah, not a big deal though. He's upholding the outstanding virtues and ethics of a Congressional Democrat.

I therefore infer, especially since neither immediately resigned, that illegal payments to your mistress out of campaign funds and visiting prostitutes are the virtues and ethics of a Congressional Republican.

[StrangeSox]

Please. The story wrote itself. A guy named Wiener was rumored to have showed his wiener to multiple women. He denies profusely. He then changes his mind, apologizes, says there's nothing else out there. Then days later there's even "worse" pictures of him in congressional gyms and whatnot. And then there's investigations that he might have sent some pics to an underage girl.

 

Yeah but none of that is really that important that it needs to completely dominate news cycles for weeks while there's 3 1/2 wars and plenty of domestic and international issues going on.

 

Yeah, not a big deal though. He's upholding the outstanding virtues and ethics of a Congressional Democrat.

 

It's scummy. He did a terrible thing to his wife. He tarnished his own reputation and credibility. There's no argument there.

 

But resign? He's resigning because its too much of a distraction, and it's a distraction because of the over-the-top media obsession over it.

 

And, as Balta's been kind enough to point out, Republicans have done worse and received far less coverage and haven't faced constant calls from both democrats and republicans to resign.

[Balta1701]

But resign? He's resigning because its too much of a distraction, and it's a distraction because of the over-the-top media obsession over it.

If he did do anything involving and underaged girl he should resign. However, at present, that's just a vague Fox News report that deftly avoided implying that he actually did anything inappropriate with the underaged one. There certainly can be more out there, but at present that one appears weak.

 

There's another thing going on here though, and that is that supposedly one of the reasons Pelosi was able to hold onto the Minority Leadership was that she ceeded some authority to a couple of up and comers in the Congress, at least to act as spokespeople, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Weiner. The Caucus was not going to allow him to continue being a major spokesperson for the party after this, which put the Minority Leader in a position of having to come down hard on him to retain control over the caucus.

[StrangeSox]

David Tyree, piece of garbage and former NFL WR: "anarchy" if gay marriage is legalized

[Jenksismyhero]

I therefore infer, especially since neither immediately resigned, that illegal payments to your mistress out of campaign funds and visiting prostitutes are the virtues and ethics of a Congressional Republican.

 

Ditto killing someone and covering it up.

[Jenksismyhero]

Yeah but none of that is really that important that it needs to completely dominate news cycles for weeks while there's 3 1/2 wars and plenty of domestic and international issues going on.

 

 

 

It's scummy. He did a terrible thing to his wife. He tarnished his own reputation and credibility. There's no argument there.

 

But resign? He's resigning because its too much of a distraction, and it's a distraction because of the over-the-top media obsession over it.

 

And, as Balta's been kind enough to point out, Republicans have done worse and received far less coverage and haven't faced constant calls from both democrats and republicans to resign.

 

Oh I agree that the coverage has been a little much, but it's a "juicy" story. Just like Edwards or Spitzer.

 

And I DO think he should resign for, at the very least, absolute incompetence. He should not have the authority and power that comes with being a member of Congress is he's that f***ing stupid. Did he really think that stuff would not come out eventually? Has he not paid attention the last 10 years?