NetRoots Update

In case you hadn't heard, there was somewhat of a phone ruckus at NetRoots today. TPM has the story:

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) just told a crowd of skeptical progressives that he's willing to take up and dispel the death panel rumor with perhaps its most respected proponent: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

Specter said he'd call Grassley from back stage and tell him "it's not a death squad."

I was there. It was sooo cool. Let me flesh out the details. Specter was being questioned about whether he thought that Grassley was wrong when he said what he said about the government "pulling the plug on grandma." Specter said he was definitely wrong. (But we all knew that).

The crowd, I should say, was somewhat skeptical of Specter throughout the talk and there was some grumbling in the crowd when he said he'd talk to Grassley. Then Specter stepped right into it.

He said he'd call Grassley today.

At that point I saw a few dozen people in the crowd lifting up their cell phones - in a sense to offer them to Specter to make the call. A few people (including me) yelled out, "Call him now! Call him now!"

After stammering through a few words, Specter then said, "And to those who yelled that out, come back stage and watch me dial."

He was done only a few minutes later. That portion of the talk over (Congressman Sestak, Specter's challenger, was set to go on after) and Specter left the stage.

A couple dozen of us went back stage to watch Arlen Specter dial his cell phone and call Chuck Grassley. Unfortunately, he didn't get through to Grassley. But it was cool nonetheless.

And now Chuck and Arlen are tweeting at each other.

Photos to come...

Why Even TRY Bipartisanship With The Lying GOP?

Just stumbled over this at thinkprogress.

Yesterday nascent Anti-Christ and Sarah Palin's baby's would-be executioner President Barack Obama said this of Senator Chuck Grassley, God-fearing Republican of Iowa:

Now, I think that there are some of my Republican friends on Capitol Hill who are sincerely trying to figure out if they can find a health care bill that works — Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Olympia Snowe from Maine have been — yes, I got to admit I like Olympia, too. They are diligently working to see if they can come up with a plan that could get both Republican and Democratic support.

Today, according to the Iowa Independent, that same Senator Grassley said this about the Socialist Deathcare Plan being foisted on an unwitting public by that Kenyan-born usurper-to-The-Oval Office:

Americans should be scared of provisions in a health care bill currently in the U.S. House because it will allow the government to have a say in end-of-life decisions, Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley told a crowd of more than 300 Wednesday morning.

“In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life,” Grassley said. “You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma”

And in case you're thinking that Dan Rather hoaxed the story (like he probably hoaxed that Australian birth certificate to discredit Orly Taitz and Alan Keyes) Thinkprogress has the video:


My one question is this (all wingnut conspiracy crazie aside) why is the Democratic Party looking to play nice and be all "bi-partisan" with the GOP?

They're certainly not returning the favor.