'Birthers' fume, defend Bennett

The first message left on my voice mail over the weekend came from the president of the Confederate States of America, which should have told me what I was in for.

I didn't write down his message. It didn't seem all that important, given that that whole Confederacy thing was settled in, you know, 1865.

Or, as it turns out, was it?

Mr. President was among a hundred or so people who called or wrote in to spring to Secretary of State Ken Bennett's defense as he continues his quest for truth, justice and Barack Obama's birth certificate.

It seems they didn't appreciate my Saturday column lamenting the laughter headed our way when the state's chief elections officer picks up the "birther" battle cry and charges off into looneyland.

"You're another indoctrinated, university-educated -- I assume -- person, and it's people like you that have our nation in the trouble we're in," one caller said.

"You're an Obama hack," another said.

Then there was Jim, who, like the others, has made a serious study of this whole matter of Obama's birth.

"There is no real birth certificate from Hawaii," he said, "because the people born at the same time at the same hospital have a different birth certificate and if you would get off your ass and do some real reporting, you would see that. But instead, you decide to drink the Kool-Aid and walk in lockstep with the rest of the Democratic Party. When are we going to have some real reporters, because it doesn't seem like we have them anymore. That's why I get my information from the Internet."

Given that, I would guess that Jim is fuming today over reports that Obama is eyeing a spot on Mount Rushmore, but I digress.

I'd be happy to get off my posterior if it involves a trip to Hawaii, Jim. Feel free to bring it up to the boss. I just don't know what I would find there. About Obama's birth, that is.

Hawaii doesn't release copies of birth certificates, but state officials have repeatedly said that Obama was born there. Last year, they made an exception and released a copy to Obama, who then posted it on the Internet. Hawaii's Department of Health even provides a link on its website.

"I have seen the original records filed at the Department of Health and attest to the authenticity of the certified copies the department provided to the president that further prove the fact that he was born in Hawaii," Hawaii Health Director Loretta Fuddy said at the time.

That isn't good enough for the birthers -- or for Bennett, who, at their urging, contacted Hawaii eight weeks ago. Last week, Bennett said it was "possible" that the president's name would be left off Arizona's ballot this fall if Hawaii doesn't comply with his request and verify Obama's birth. (Again, that is.)

Would Bennett really follow through on that?

"It's a good question," his spokesman, Matt Roberts, told me Monday. "I think we'll cross that bridge when we get there."

Actually, I think Bennett already leaped into the chasm.

"If Hawaii can't or won't provide verification of the president's birth certificate, I will not put his name on the ballot," Bennett wrote in an April 27 e-mail to the birthers, who are delighted to find someone in officialdom willing to take up their cause.

Two things I've discovered about the birthers: They have no sense of humor and, if you don't buy into the grand conspiracy, you're a communist or, worse, a liberal Democrat.

"You might want to get out of Obama's tank and into the real world, a world with real, honest-to-goodness, God-fearing, moral people who believe in good over evil, not those who appear to worship Obama as if he were the Messiah," wrote Kandy of Scottsdale.

"The only ones laughing at Arizona are all of you gullible White liberal commies," said Jerry, in a voice message. "True Americans are of a mind that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. ? By the way, when did you become a criminal investigator? Do you have a staff of people that can find the truth or are the arse-kissing owners and managers of this rag sheet that you work for still bowing down to the Black Jesus?"

Then there was this woman, who didn't leave her name: "We need to question where Barack Obama comes from because I think he's a narcissist and I don't think he's honest," she said.

By that measure, most of Congress might be foreign-born.

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Dems invoke the ‘Kennedy Card’ to defend Obamacare in wake of failing CLASS Act (Daily Caller)

House Democrats worked to tug on the heartstrings Wednesday, playing to the “Kennedy card” several times while defending Obamacare in a congressional hearing. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who passed away in 2009, called socialized medicine “the cause of my life.”

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, were holding a joint hearing on the failures of Obamacare’s Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, or CLASS Act.

The CLASS Act was supposed to be the part of Obamacare that provided a public “long-term care” option. It was also supposed to be financially self-sustaining. Conservative allegations that the CLASS Act was not financially self-sustaining were confirmed a little over a week ago when President Obama’s Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the administration will not be implementing the CLASS Act because it is not financially solvent and, Sebelius said, it has no “viable path forward.”

Republicans view the CLASS Act’s failure as a major victory in the fight against Obamacare — and point to it as a “gimmick” used to make the president’s signature legislation look less expensive.

As the CLASS Act, and Obamacare in its entirety, came under fire yet again in Wednesday’s hearing, Democrats turned to the “Kennedy card” as one of their most frequent defenses.

Former Rhode Island Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy even came back to Congress to defend the CLASS Act, a “key priority” of his father — former Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. Patrick Kennedy testified as part of special hearing panel that included Louisiana Republican Rep. Charles Boustany, Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg and Florida Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch. The other panel that testified before the subcommittee consisted of two senior Obama administration officials, who were present to defend the CLASS Act.

Texas Democratic Rep. Gene Green offered glowing remarks for the late senator’s son, and thanked Patrick Kennedy for Ted Kennedy’s work in Congress. “I want to particularly welcome our former colleague Patrick Kennedy. Patrick, we worked together on lots of mental health issues over the years and I want to thank you for your service to the American people, and particularly to your district in Rhode Island,” Green said before defending Obamacare. “But, also I want to thank you for the service of your father. Without your father’s work in the Senate, I don’t have enough fingers and toes to list the issues that would not be in the law today, including the CLASS Act. [I want] just to generally thank you for the service of your family — I think all of us thank you for that.”

Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky cited Patrick Kennedy in her comments, too. “As former Representative Kennedy said, repealing the CLASS Act doesn’t mean that the widespread financial, physical and emotional suffering of older and disabled Americans goes away,” Schakowsky said as she questioned an Obama administration Health and Human Services official.

Right before accusing Republicans of turning the now-failed CLASS Act into a “political football,” Florida Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor invoked Kennedy rhetoric: “I’m going to borrow Patrick Kennedy’s language of a ‘Demographic Tsunami,’” Castor said, referring to issues she thinks exist in the long-term healthcare industry.

Florida Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch cited Ted Kennedy’s “dream” in his comments to the committee. Deutch isn’t a member of the Energy and Commerce committee, but appeared with Patrick Kennedy, Rehberg and Boustany on the opening special panel. “Senator Kennedy eloquently captured how our long-term care system is failing the American people when he said, ‘too often, they have to give up the American Dream — the dignity of a job, a home, and a family — so they can qualify for Medicaid, the only program that will support them,’” Deutch said in prepared testimony.

Even Patrick Kennedy played the Kennedy card. In his testimony, he cited his father’s work on the CLASS Act and how his father was deathly ill while working on finishing the legislation. “Our family was very fortunate,” Patrick Kennedy said in his prepared testimony. “We had the resources to provide my father with any long-term services and supports that he needed as he approached the end of his life — but he knew that most working families are not as fortunate. The inclusion of the long-term care infrastructure (CLASS) in health care reform was a signature issue for my father.”

“Even before he became ill, my father saw a need for an alternative solution, realizing that for persons with disabilities and older Americans, long-term services and supports are their primary unmet care need, and that while 45 million Americans lack medical insurance, 200 million adult Americans lack any insurance protection against the costs of these services,” Patrick Kennedy added.

Republican Rehberg, in his testimony, said the Democrats’ testimonies were political spin. Rehberg, who is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, hit the Democrats for hiding the damage caused by the CLASS Act underneath political games.

“Once we stripped away the political spin, brushed off budget gimmicks and cut through the bureaucratic jungle, we saw a foundation pillar [the CLASS Act] of the president’s healthcare law for what it really was: truly a Ponzi scheme that apparently was included in the bill solely to help the bill appear deficit-neutral,” Rehberg said.

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