Yes, Dhirty, Congressman John Sullivan did jump the shark. Glad I saw your diary, and thanks.
This fear-mongering is so tiring. Poor, poor frightened Republicans. We WASPs are losing control! Whatever will we do?
Dhirty's diary forced me to write to Rep. Sullivan. The letter is below the fold, if you're interested. I e-mailed it to him today, and e-mailed an edited (for length, 200 word maximum) version to the Tulsa Daily World as well.
Open Letter to Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK)
"This is a scary time in Washington," you said at the Tulsa Republican Club on August 7. "It's a very frightening time."
I could not agree more. And how could it not be when politicians and media create and encourage that fear?
You stated that, "Barack Obama is creating an enemies list of people who oppose this miserable health care plan." As a member of Congress, you of course know that there is no single health care plan, only multiple committee proposals in the Senate and the House, written by members of those bodies (not by the President), and that these proposals have a long way to go to before they are combined into an actual bill.
In the meantime, lies are being spread about what is contained in some of those proposals: death panels; euthanasia; outlawing of private insurance; rationing. In response, the President’s office wants to know what new lies are being spread so it can educate the public on these proposals.
But you choose to interpret this call for information as the President creating an "enemies list."
The Governor of Hawaii (of your party) verified that Barack Obama’s birth certificate on file with the State of Hawaii is legal.
You, however, paint the Governor as a liar and provide validation to the whole birther ignorance by saying that President Obama is "a guy that can't even show a long-form birth certificate."
When you said, "I think we all ought to be prepared to fight that," were you referring to health care reform? How well will that serve the 19 percent of people in Oklahoma who are uninsured even though 70 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker? How does that help Oklahoma families whose health insurance premiums increased 62% from 2000 to 2007? How does that aid businesses whose cost of employer-sponsored health insurance has grown at an annual rate of 7.8 percent when income has only grown 1 percent?
Instead of encouraging fear, how about taking positive action to provide affordable health care for Oklahomans? Instead of telling us how frightened you are, how about finding the courage to mitigate the fear-mongering, along with the insight to stop being against things and instead create and support legislation that is good for Oklahoma and America?
Sincerely,