Lamar Alexander Plays Lapdog to Barbara Boxer and Endorses Government Mandated, Tax-Payer Funded Abortion


Can someone fly in some Honduran soldiers to load Lamar Alexander (R-TN) up on a plane and fly in to Costa Rica? Get him out of the country. Come on — if this is the future leadership of the Republican Party, we need a coup*.

Jim DeMint has scored some damn effective points against Barack Obama this week by calling healthcare Obama’s “Waterloo.” It got under his skin so bad, Obama flubbed his press conference and saw his poll numbers dip below 50% for the first time.

Independent types should read that as “Jim DeMint is on to something.” Lamar Alexander reads it as “time to get on my knees and kiss the Democrats’ backsides.”

Behold this exchange on the floor of the Senate.

Jim DeMint takes on the President over healthcare. He attacks the government run option. He scores solid points — solid enough that Barbara Boxer (D-CA), a woman disliked by many in her own caucus, is forced to respond. In her floor speech, Boxer says

I want to take a minute to thank the Republicans who are working so constructively with our Democrats. You don’t hear them speaking much on the floor as you did the senator from South Carolina, who, as I say, was quoted as saying he wants to make health care President Obama’s Waterloo. He wants to break him on this. The ones — the Republicans that you don’t see here on the floor talking like that are the ones who are sitting with the Democrats, working day after day, night after night, working to solve this problem.

Enter Lamar Alexander, playing the role of feckless crapweasel and serial capitulator. Remember, in 2008, Lamar Alexander told his Republican colleagues that they must capitulate to the Democrat agenda in order to win back the Senate. Everything they did, Alexander instructed his conference colleagues, must be bipartisan.

True to form, Alexander raced to the floor of the Senate to kiss Boxer’s rear end and kick DeMint in the gut. Alexander said

I was listening with respect to the senator from California. Let me state the position of the Republican senators on health care reform. Our leader, Mitch McConnell, the senator from Kentucky, stated yesterday. He said to the news media outside in the hall in answer to a question, “This isn’t about winning or losing. this is about getting it right.” . . . .

My own example: last year I joined with Senator Wyden, a Democrat; Senator Bennett, a Republican, endorsing their plan. It’s not perfect, but it is a very good plan and it has a completely different approach than the bill that came out of the Senate health committee or that’s coming through the House.

In other words, “Jim DeMint doesn’t speak for the Senate GOP. We too want socialized medicine, just not like the present legislation intends.”

And the troubling part? That legislation Alexander endorsed flat out mandated taxpayer funded abortion. And it was open and known at the time Alexander endorsed it.

As the Heritage Foundation noted, Lamar Alexander’s legislation — legislation he co-sponsored — “mandat[ed] that health insurers must cover abortion services.”

Ramesh Ponnuru wrote that Lamar Alexander’s preferred bipartisan solution “is, in important respects, to the left of the ones being offered by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and has been celebrated as such in liberal magazines.”

With Lamar near the top of Republican leadership in the Senate, don’t expect us to ever steer a conservative course in this country again.

*Yeah, I know Honduras was not a coup, but we need one in the GOP. And I’m talking political grassroots, not guns and military.


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13 Comments Leave a comment

I Have Joined Teh Insurgents Here In MY County. Awaiting Assignement to a Precinct

rcov092 (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 4:47PM EST (link)

as committeman and currently building a wep platform for our club with community, Civivcrm implementation to strengthen and help attack the weak kneed on both sides. Lamar is a waste of 167k Plus a year. He does not get my money, Charlie Crist does not get may money or my vote. John Cornyn does not get my money, Marco Rubio does.

“Not One Red Dime for the NRSC or NRCC till they stop trying to elect liberals”

 

Alexander wasn't my choice

Justin_Case (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 4:54PM EST (link)

in the 2002 Republican Primary. Former Congressman Ed Bryant was.

Bryant ran again in 2006 and lost to Bob Corker-who has been somewhat of a pleasant surprise.

Tennessee was one state that McCain easily won and abortion is not widely accepted here, although one occasionally hears from the “wine sipping, brie eating” wing of the GOP about how social issues are not that important.

Look for a primary challenge for Lamar.

Dumb me.

Justin_Case (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 4:55PM EST (link)

Alexander was re-elected to his Senate seat in 2008.

I guess that’s why he’s cozy with Boxer.

 
 

This is the reason these so-called Republicans

Lloyd Davis (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 5:34PM EST (link)

need to be challenged hard in every election. They stay in office because the current system is rigged to favor incumbents. The more important commitee assignments are for those with more seniority. People don’t want to have their Senator or Representative losing out..if they are lower in seniority they can’t bring home the bacon. Peolpe have been conditioned to expect the pork. Because of this type of thing, members like Senator Alexander feel like they can vote for laws they know their constituents don’t want because by the time they come up for reelection, all that will be remembered is what they brought back home.
People like Senator Alexander are a problem in that they consistently cross over and support the Democrats while betraying their colleagues on the Republican side. They end up being Republican in name only.
Do I want them kicked out of the Republican party? No. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. What we need is for someone with conservative beliefs to challenge these liberal and moderate Republicans in every election and do what we can to defeat them. If that fails and they get reelected, we need to hold their feet to the fire, and if necessary, CRANK THE HEAT UP! They need to be reminded that we elected them and they are to represent US, not some special interest group.
REMEMBER, SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES ARE REPLACABLE.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
Ronald Reagan
……………………………………………
It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.
Samuel Adams

 

You subsidize an abortion every time you...

eliminatedebt Friday, July 24th at 8:18PM EST (link)

buy something made in China. You’ve either already accepted your money going to abortions as a fact of life or this country needs to think about where they’re sending their money.

Independent, fiscal conservative.

5 eliminatedebt nt

mom2oneson (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 9:36PM EST (link)

I don't

Menlo (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 10:17PM EST (link)

I stopped buying made in China a few years ago, and I have long supported an immediate embargo on them.

If that’s not enough, Chinese-made will get you defective and dangerous products, and support for a Communist dictatorship to boot.

Of course, one could actually argue that Communist Vietnam is worse as its abortion rates far exceed those of China. So do those in New York City for that matter.

“The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.” -Felix Frankfurter

 

I don't

Menlo (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 10:17PM EST (link)

I stopped buying made in China a few years ago, and I have long supported an immediate embargo on them.

If that’s not enough, Chinese-made will get you defective and dangerous products, and support for a Communist dictatorship to boot.

Of course, one could actually argue that Communist Vietnam is worse as its abortion rates far exceed those of China. So do those in New York City for that matter.

“The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.” -Felix Frankfurter

 

You wanna know the difference?

aesthete (Diary) Saturday, July 25th at 1:06AM EST (link)

You get to choose whether or not you support China when you purchase your goods from China, or from some other place. While unfortunately, from a practical standpoint, there’s no way to completely extricate oneself from subsidizing goods made in China (most companies buy at least some supplies from China to keep costs down), one still does have the option of buying American-made goods (full disclosure: I don’t). With this HC plan, assuming that funding for abortions is included, you are forced at gunpoint to support abortions, whether your beliefs lean that way or not. Besides that, I don’t see how China’s policies on abortion would change if Americans suddenly stopped trading with China. As such, I don’t see supporting a (semi)-private company based in China as similar to being forced to subsidize abortions without any say in the matter. So I don’t think that it’s hypocritical to support free trade with China and oppose a HC bill with abortion funding.

Also, there are some, like Menlo, who support an embargo against China (once again, I don’t, but that’s immaterial to the conversation).

The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton

 
 

Lamar Runs the GOP in TN

toni100 (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 8:39PM EST (link)

Lamar unfortunately has no worries in TN. He stays scarce here, especially in Middle TN. The Tn Chair of the GOP is a handmaiden to Lamar, don’t expect to see support for any ‘Conservatives’ to be coming from the TN GOP until Lamar is gone.

http://www.bearcreekledger.com
Twitter – http://twitter.com/Toni100

Franklin,TN (Middle Tennessee)
Formerly a MN resident

 

Every Time

Patrick McGarry Friday, July 24th at 9:33PM EST (link)

These spineless RINO’s astound me every time. Despite tangible examples of how real, conservative ideas excite the public and bring greater fame and prestige to the politicians defending them, they still can’t bring themselves to commit to the movement. Sad.

Patrick T. McGarry
http://curiousmojo.blogspot.com/

 

Maybe I am misreading it

Menlo (Diary) Friday, July 24th at 10:48PM EST (link)

Looking at page 20 of the “Healthy Americans Act,” it looks like an option for which the buyer would have to pay. It also provides a religious exemption. It seems a bit strange though. I would think the abortion would be cheaper than buying separate coverage for it. Again though, I may be misreading it or missing something.

“The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.” -Felix Frankfurter

 

Alexander the Grate

edward_cropper Saturday, July 25th at 9:10AM EST (link)

This creep has always been a wolf in wolf’s clothings

Edward Cropper