Man, last night's Daily Show was a tour de force of righteous anger from Jon Stewart over the Senate GOP blocking the bill to provide health care to 9/11 first responders. You could tell just how pissed off Jon was, and he just LAID into the Senate Republicans and didn't let up.
Video and transcript below the fold.
We begin tonight in Washington, oh this one's gonna get you upset, where Republicans, with the coming majority in the House and a greater presence in the Senate, are going to bring an end to the era of Congressional moral bankruptcy.
SEN.-ELECT RAND PAUL, R-KY (11/3/2010): You need some people with principle in Washington who will stand up and say enough's enough.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY (11/4/2010): It means sticking ever more closely to the conservative principles that got us here.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-TX (11/1/2010): We have a certain philosophical principles that we believe in, and we think that those principles are superior to those of our friends across the aisle.
And by friends, I mean, principle-less fucktards.
So, what is their core number one principle?
TONY HARRIS, CNN (12/1/2010): Deal with the Bush-era tax cuts first, or nothing else gets passed. All 42 GOP Senators signed a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid. They vowed to prevent a vote on any legislative item until the tax issue is resolved.
That is inspiring, when a party stands together, there is nothing it can't prevent from getting done. I wonder what issues are of so little import that Senate Republicans will refuse to even vote on them until they are sure that the marginal tax rate on the top 2% of the richest Americans won't be raised from 36 to 39%. What can't we do until Uncle Sam promises not to hurt Daddy Warbucks?
DON LEMON, CNN (12/10/2010): Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Yesterday the Senate rejected an effort to open debate on repealing that policy. ... Also, the DREAM Act, this bill would've offered a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as children. ... Also stalled, a bill to provide health benefits for 9/11 first responders.
WHA....??? I get the other two, but since when does the Republican Party make 9/11 first responders stand over in the corner with the gays and Mexicans? I can't believe.... By the way, the 9/11 responders bill is called the Zadroga bill, it's named for an NYPD officer who died as a result of breathing toxic dust at Ground Zero, and it would set up a $7.4 billion fund to treat illnesses arising from working at Ground Zero, to compensate the sufferers for economic losses, aka The Least We Can Do/No-Brainer Act of 2010.
Since Republicans took to the floor to discuss the DREAM Act, and took to the floor to discuss Don't Ask, Don't Tell, I can't wait to see them take to the floor to talk about why their party hates first responders. I know what it is. It's the calendars, isn't it, fellas? You don't like the calendars.
Huh, it appears NO Republican Senators even showed up to discuss their principled stand after Schumer and Menendez.
Perhaps, maybe, the Republicans were in New York administering health care personally.
No, they're not there. Maybe they were at the big game.
No, they were not there. Maybe they were in the frozen tundra.
No, barren as ever.
Of course, the Republicans wouldn't be so cowardly as to not vote for the bill without justifying their actions. Just cowardly enough not to do it on camera. Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi (R) explained in a Sunday op-ed that his real concern was proper oversight of money already spent on 9/11 workers, $475 million in which he claims has gone missing, saying "the nation can't afford careless spending, no matter how well-intentioned". Mismanagement, waste, unacceptable! Now, by the way, the bill they were going to vote on actually fixes that problem, but just like in May 2008 when the Pentagon announced it couldn't account for $15 billion that had disappeared somewhere in Iraq.... By the way, what did Mike Enzi, tireless fiscal watchdog, say in June, one month later, when he was asked to vote for more Iraq funding? I believe he said:
Unless any of those troops are 9/11 responders, in that case, fuck those guys. And by the way, Mike, bad news, you know all of our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are technically 9/11 responders. (wild applause) Sorry, not the first responders, but the second and the third.
So guess what, Republicans, here's the deal. Your "we're the only party that understands 9/11 and its repercussions" monopoly ends NOW. So, no more co-opting 9/11 imagery to get yourselves elected.
No more using 9/11 as the date when magically all your policies became right.
SEN. KIT BOND, R-MO (2/11/2010): I'm concerned with these policies. The administration has moved us back to a pre-9/11 mentality, and that failed in the past, it will again.
Yeeeees. No more using 9/11 to micromanage Manhattan zoning decisions.
NEWT GINGRICH (9/12/2010): It's a very bad idea to build that mosque and center that close to Ground Zero. ... It is in fact an affront to virtually all the families who lost loved ones at 9/11.
Riiiight. No using 9/11 as an excuse for why your Bush tax cuts never stimulated the economy in the first place.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (12/8/2009): Yeah, I wish we'd had a smaller debt, I wish we hadn't been attacked on 9/11.
Or 9/11 as an excuse to do what you were going to be doing anyway.
GEORGE W. BUSH (9/11/2006): After 9/11, Saddam's regime posed a risk that the world could not afford to take.
No more using 9/11 as a price point.
BRIT HUME (9/25/2007): A fundraiser Wednesday night in Palo Alto, California ... volunteers for Giuliani plan to ask donors for contributions of $9.11, or of course, 9/11.
Of course.
You know what, Republicans, you use it so much, if you don't owe the 9/11 responders health care, at least you owe them royalties! So here's a little tribute...
Yeah, we were building up to it. Here's a little tribute we put together to some of those illustrious Republican Senators, who, when it has served them in the past, have found comfort and advantage in invoking the heroes of 9/11, and yet when it came time to return the favor, delivered their message loud and clear. NO!
So here's to the 9/11 non-responders.
(Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." plays in the background)
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-TX (9/11/2003): I know that many of my friends and colleagues who were here on that horrific day feel a very deep and personal debt to the heroes of 9/11.
SENATE CLERK (12/9/2010): Mr. Cornyn? (Nay vote buzzer)
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY, R-IA (9/11/2002): The uncommon courage of first responders called to duty on that day reflects the steadfast spirit of our great nation.
SENATE CLERK (12/9/2010): Mr. Grassley? (Nay vote buzzer)
SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, R-TX (9/11/2002): ... we marveled at the heroism and bravery of the first responders ...
SENATE CLERK (12/9/2010): Mrs. Hutchison? (Nay vote buzzer)
SEN. OLYMPIA SNOWE, R-ME (9/11/2002): ... men and women searching and clearing the World Trade Center site worked day and night ...
SENATE CLERK (12/9/2010): Ms. Snowe? (Nay vote buzzer)
SEN. ORRIN HATCH, R-UT (10/11/2001): ... the firefighters who gave their lives, the firefighters who worked day and night, the volunteers who've gone in there ...
SENATE CLERK (12/9/2010): Mr. Hatch? (Nay vote buzzer)
SEN. JIM BUNNING, R-KY (9/11/2002): It showed that under the worst of circumstances, we will come to the aid, not only of our friends and neighbors, but to complete strangers.
SENATE CLERK (12/9/2010): Mr. Bunning? (Nay vote buzzer)
SEN. MIKE ENZI, R-WY (9/11/2003): ... each moment of September 11, 2001, is forever etched on our minds ...
SENATE CLERK (12/9/2010): Mr. Enzi? (Nay vote buzzer)
Oh, and there was an outright false story ginned up about the War on Christmas down in Florida, so of course Gretchen Carlson mindlessly repeated it as if it were true on Fox News.