Mori Dinauer

Since Peter Suderman linked to me yesterday as an example of liberals being unhappy with the health-care reform effort, I thought I might respond to his assertion that this isn’t a failure of leadership, but “a feature of democratic politics” which is a common refrain from libertarians and small-government types: Things would run much smoother […]

These frank remarks from Senate Minority Whip John Kyl, promising zero Republican support for a deficit-neutral health care reform bill without a public plan, aren’t terribly shocking. But while Kyl is trying to exercise some power in government (or lay the groundwork for taking it back), I think these comments at The Next Right are […]

Chuck Grassley is a sick man. Here is someone who was tasked by Max Baucus to be a big player in an elite group writing health care reform legislation, yet he has the nerve to refer to end-of-life counseling as “pulling the plug on Grandma” before later “clarifying” his comments and then denying the hypocrisy […]

I think Jon Cohn is generally right to compare the right wing’s effort to kill health care reform “swiftboating” although we probably need a new term to describe what’s happening (ditto for the tendency to append the suffix ‘gate’ to every political scandal). After all, the attacks on John Kerry were supported by the testimony […]

At first, I didn’t want to read too much into the political beliefs of the gentleman in New Hampshire who felt the need to bring a concealed weapon to Barack Obama‘s town hall event, but after seeing his interview on the Chris Matthews show, it seems relevant to ask, why do these people believe civilians […]

Yesterday, James Vega observed that the tea party protesters seem to be modeled (in part) on the student protests of 1960s, except with far more institutional support. Uncannily, Dave Weigel has a piece today that explicitly draws the link between the teabaggers and Saul Alinksky‘s Rules for Radicals in the tactics being used to oppose […]

The Obama administration has launched its “Health Insurance Reform Reality Check” web site to combat misinformation about reform policy. There’s every reason to believe this will be ineffective at changing the minds of people who believe changing the way insurance is delivered will lead to mass euthanasia and forced abortions, but that doesn’t mean the […]

Taking the 30,000 foot view of tea party/heath care reform protests, it’s quite amazing that opponents of reform are getting so belligerent, so worked up over something that will likely end up being a pretty small-scale change in the way health care is delivered to Americans. And while I don’t agree with Paul Krugman that […]

The “astroturf” charge against the town hall demonstrators isn’t a way of saying these people don’t truly believe that their freedoms will be squashed by the horrors of expanded coverage and lower premiums. It’s about their sponsors in industry, media and the GOP who are cheering on and bankrolling these ignorant and angry people. Giving […]

There was little doubt that Organizing for America, among other liberal activist groups, would get into gear to counter these tea party/health-care reform protests that have been swamping town halls and generally harassing people who are trying to have a civil discussion. Now it’s clear the OFA is already rallying supporters to go tit-for-tat with […]