This is a hoot: Chuck Grassley, Mr. Death Panels, is now touting HIR.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has long been a vocal critic of the Democrat's health reform efforts, but today he started taking credit for some provisions of the bill, and talking up his own role in crafting the legislation.
In a release sent out by his staff to reporters today, Grassley says the bill will "hold tax-exempt hospitals accountable for the federal tax benefits they receive" thanks to his work.
It's the stimulus all over again: Republicans fighting for all their worth to prevent governance, and then claiming credit for it when it passes despite their steadfast, and screaming, opposition.
Dems are ready, this time. The DSCC:
"Chuck Grassley has been in Washington for too long if he thinks Iowans did not notice his strenuous, strident, and spirited opposition to health care reform," DSCC spokesperson Eric Schultz said in a statement. "This is someone who did everything he could to stop the bill, but now thinks it is worth touting."
....
"Either he is a total hypocrite or he has taken March Madness to a whole new level," Schultz said in the DSCC statement today.
Republicans are obviously in a bit of tizzy, trying to figure out precisely how to respond to this setback. Some of them want full repeal, some of them maybe partial repeal and some of them, apparently, civil war. Taking credit for reform, however, would be about as blatantly hypocritical in grand Republican tradition as they could get. So kudos, I guess, for Grassley being willing to go there.