Posted on 01/31/2006 8:46:51 PM PST by RWR8189
LET US FIRST praise Hilary Clinton. Whatever her other faults may be, she always shows up to the State of the Union dressed like a professional. She's wearing a stylish gray suit tonight. Most of our devoted congresswomen look like they got lost on the way to a Texas Tech rally. On to the list:
Worst sour-puss: Charlie Rangel sitting motionless as Bush says, "The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil."
Worst Euphemism: "the traditions of their own citizens"
Worst camera cut: "If there are people inside our country who are talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it--because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again." At which point Hillary Clinton smiled and slowly shook her head from side to side.
Worst dose of GOP castor oil: "We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy--even though this economy could not function without them."
Worst band-aid on an axe-wound: Cutting 140 whole federal programs . . .
Worst attempt at gender-gap pandering: Why is it that the doctors we need to protect from trial lawyers are always OB-GYNs? Do oncologists not focus-group well?
Worst Clinton (Bill) nostalgia: Ah, the line-item veto.
Worst Leonard Nimoy impression: Tim Kaine's permanently-arched left eyebrow
Best call-out since the "Axis of Evil": "There is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure. Hindsight alone is not wisdom. And second-guessing is not a strategy."
Best channeling of Peggy Noonan: "Far from being a hopeless dream, the advance of freedom is the great story of our time. In 1945, there were about two dozen lonely democracies on Earth. Today, there are 122. And we are writing a new chapter in the story of self-government--with women lining up to vote in Afghanistan . . . and millions of Iraqis marking their liberty with purple ink . . . and men and women from Lebanon to Egypt debating the rights of individuals and the necessity of freedom. At the start of 2006, more than half the people of our world live in democratic nations. And we do not forget the other half--in places like Syria, Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran--because the demands of justice, and the peace of this world, require their freedom as well."
Best Will Farrell flashback: "out-compete"
Best I'm-not-the-one-running-in-November threat: "The tax relief is set to expire in the next few years. If we do nothing, American families will face a massive tax increase they do not expect and will not welcome."
Best received idea at Brookings: A blue ribbon commission to reform Social Security! Plenary sessions!
Best Howard Dean moment: Democrats erupting in applause when the president began a sentence saying, "Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security . . ."
Best words: Marine Staff Sergeant Dan Clay: "I know what honor is. It has been an honor to protect and serve all of you. I faced death with the secure knowledge that you would not have to. . . . Never falter! Don't hesitate to honor and support those of us who have the honor of protecting that which is worth protecting."
Jonathan V. Last is online editor of The Weekly Standard and a weekly op-ed contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Do oncologists get sued left and right like OBGYN's do? I think that was what he was referring to. Talk to any doctor...obgyn's get nailed a lot with law suits. I know several people who have been GP's for a long time who have had to quit delivering babies because the liability is too high.
And NEVER forget!
Don't apologize for any trivializing done on this thread! After what we went through to get Alito where he got today---a real protracted, forceps delivery---we're entitled to all the fun we can legally obtain.
(Not in my beloved Indiana, though!)
Because they're quitting in droves, can't afford liability insurance thanks to the likes of the Dems' most recent candidate for VP.
This line, this scene, will stand alongside the Hindenburg disaster filmclip in years to come.
When Social Security begins its meltdown around 2015, the deliberate sabotage of the last chance to fix it will be the enduring final epitaph of the Democratic Party. It will stand in mute testament to a political party willing to watch the economic enslavement of their own grandchildren, and sneer that... no matter- they won.
But then, for creatures who care not how history revile them, I suppose it is one pathetic win for them.
That was a pathetic bit of theatricality. I wonder how many centrists the commies lost b/c of that little outburst?
I thought this to be the most realistic statement he made. If you mean the part about 'their democracies won't look like ours.'
These people we're democratizing are less evolved than LA gang trash.
Yes, I believe the reason OB-GYN is the specialty most often raised in these discussions is because it has been hardest hit by practitioners leaving the field and too few entering. I have a doctor in the family (not OB-GYN) who has often mentioned the jury settlements for birth defect cases, etc. as among the most extreme of the torts and insurance problems for medicine, and the insurance rates for OB-GYNs often go through the roof in various states. fwiw, John Edwards made his fortune abusing the system to the hilt by winning multi-million dollar settlements in dubious to bogus claims against OB-GYNs.
Did you see the clip of Hillary jumping to her feet applauding when Bush said that? And he pointed at Congress and said, This problem is not going away?
I somehow think that might turn into a very nasty campaign commercial somehow.
One of my favorite moments was when he welcomed Alito to the Supreme Court. And what he said about the terrorists we haven't caught yet: "Your day will come." I got the feeling Bush was speaking directly to Zawahiri when he looked right at the camera and said that.
OB-GYN liability exists for their patients 21 years from their birth. No other speciality has that long a time frame for possible lawsuits. And their malpractice insurance costs are truly astronomical.
speciality = specialty. tired eyes, lazy fingers.
He did a good job controlling his audience (in the Senate chambers). But we've been warned. The world has become an alarmingly dangerous place, and I don't see another George Bush on the horizon. I worry for my republic. I truly do.
I think the video of the dems erupting over the SS statements is PRICELESS and would work well in repub commercials for 2006 and 2008.
Just like .. "we killed the Patriot Act".
Beat me to it.... Well said...
bump
I sat with a room full of friends watching Kaine's speech and we were wondering if his eyebrow was permanently that way. I was actually feeling sorry for him, then suddenly- we saw it move. The entire room applauded. Kinda sad- when the only thing that anyone noticed about Kaine's speech was his eyebrow.
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