Dover Bitch

Thursday, June 21, 2007

From one Issa to another

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) voted against allowing the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices for Medicare in January 2007 and against the reimportation of prescription drugs in 2003, a year in which he received a dismal 12% rating from the American Public Health Association.

Yesterday, he made an appearance at the screening of Michael Moore's Sicko on Capitol Hill:

WASHINGTON, June 20 (UPI) -- In an atmosphere that was part political rally and part tent revival, film director Michael Moore brought his scathing healthcare critique, "Sicko," to Congress Wednesday.

[...]

At the Capitol, Moore showed clips of the film and threw his support behind a House bill -- which has gotten little traction since it was introduced in 2003 -- that would eliminate private insurance companies altogether in favor of extending Medicare-like coverage to all Americans.

Surrounded by a host of supportive representatives and vocal activists, Moore pulled no punches when it came to criticizing health insurance executives and pharmaceutical company lobbyists.

[...]

The chamber briefly cooled with the unexpected arrival of Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican who represents the area around San Diego.

Chiding the Democrats for not inviting him, Issa called for universal healthcare coverage but stopped short of endorsing the state-run system spelled out by the bill.

"It is a bipartisan issue," he said. "We may agree to disagree on nuances, but we must act."

Spectators fell silent, but Issa was given a firm handshake by Moore after Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., invited him to become the first Republican co-sponsor of the legislation.


Poor Darrell Issa wasn't invited to the movie. It's just not fair. After the largest health care legislation in decades was written behind closed doors, without any Democratic input whatsoever, put up for a vote before anybody could possibly read the 678-page bill and was passed after the GOP-controlled Congress bent the rules to keep the 15-minute vote going for three hours, Darrell Issa is whining that the Democrats didn't invite him and his lousy voting record to see a movie about the crisis for which he's partly responsible.

DB has some traveling to do and I always try to leave a good poem in my absence. This one isn't long, but I think it fits:

No doubt about it
by Kobayashi Issa

No doubt about it,
the mountain cuckoo
is a crybaby.

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