J. D. Prose – 11/14/09

This page was last updated on November 16, 2009.

Altmire’s vote: Bad medicine, smart politics; J. D. Prose; Beaver County Times; November 14, 2009.

As you read this opinion column, keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the Times. In addition to being an entertainer/pundit, Mr. Prose is a reporter covering political stories. Ask yourself this. When a pundit gives his political opinions in one part of the paper, can he be trusted to report politics objectively elsewhere in the paper? After all, would a person whose opinion is 1+1 equals 3 report 1+1 really equals 2? Does he have a “Chinese wall” in his head to keep his opinions from bleeding into his reporting?

The above is boilerplate I include with all of my Prose critiques, but this time Mr. Prose provided a real life example. In his “news” story “Protesters rail against Altmire’s ‘no’ vote on health care” (11/12/09) published two days before this column, Mr. Prose covered the very issue about which this column comments. In that “news” story, Mr. Prose refers to “the Blue Dogs, a group of conservative House Democrats.” Ignoring the fact I believe “conservative Democrat” is an oxymoron, how can any reasonable observer credibly refer to a person with an 88% ADA Liberal Quotient (see below) as “conservative?” Read the entire article and you find it appears Mr. Prose simply transcribed the opinions of government-run healthcare supporters and did no fact finding of his own.

If it can get worse than that, Mr. Prose has made name-calling and personal attacks a foundation of his columns. If pushed, I’d be willing to bet Mr. Prose would try to excuse his writing by claiming he’s paid to be controversial and stir debate. The problem is, you don’t need to get into name-calling and personal attacks to accomplish those goals.

You can find the archive of my Prose column critiques here.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject column.

“Misery loves company, and in the last week there have been plenty of miserable folks sharing our disappointment in Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire voting against health-care reform.”

[RWC] Among other things, this column confirms what I’ve said all along about lefty usage of “centrist,” “moderate,” et cetera. To lefties, these terms mean voting lefty nearly 100% of the time, and 88% isn’t enough. You’ll see what I mean below.

In the interest of disclosure, I wrote a letter to Mr. Altmire in July in which I wrote, “I was disappointed with the healthcare brochure I received from your office last week. The brochure was something I’d expect to receive from President Obama or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I expected better given your education and extensive experience in the healthcare industry.” I also wrote, “I believe you and I want the same result: the best combination of healthcare accessibility, choice, quality, timeliness of treatment, et cetera at the best price with maximum individual liberty.”

In a thank you letter last week I wrote, “This letter is to thank you for voting against H.R. 3962 on November 7th. I recognize the pressure you are under from House Democrat leadership, the White House, and labor union management. I know your vote was not popular in these circles. Should a House/Senate conference bill laying the foundation for a government-run healthcare monopoly eventually come up for a vote, I hope the citizens of our district can count on your continued opposition to such a scheme.”

“We’ll talk to Altmire soon enough, but we purposely avoided calling him this past week just so his silky-smooth rationalizations wouldn’t dilute today’s temper tantrum.”

[RWC] It’s funny how things change. Just over two years ago Mr. Prose used the Altmire office as his sole source for some topics. Now Mr. Prose “purposely avoided calling him.”

Is use of the Royal “we” some new journalism fad or is it just Mr. Prose? I ask because its use (along with anonymous sources, name-calling, and personal attacks) appears to be a consistent part of Mr. Prose’s writing style.

“After his regretful vote, Altmire continued honing his conservative Blue Dog street cred and solidifying his contrarian star status on Faux News by saying the bill didn’t do enough to contain costs, even though he admitted it was improved from the original version — the one he also voted against in committee.”

[RWC] “Regretful vote?” According to the Times, it doesn’t want a government-run healthcare monopoly and that’s what Mr. Altmire voted against.

You have to get a kick out of someone working for the “12 Alive” Times referring to anyone as “Faux News.” That’s especially true for pundits.

“[C]onservative Blue Dog street cred?” Mr. Altmire has Americans for Democratic Action (self-described as “the nation’s most experienced organization committed to liberal politics, liberal policies, and a liberal future”) Liberal Quotients (LQ) for 2007 and 2008 of 95% and 80%, respectively.

Mr. Altmire is a “contrarian star?” Using the lefty template for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), shouldn’t the Times celebrate Mr. Altmire as a principled maverick fighting the good fight against his party’s partisan politics?

“Then, in a statement, he promised to continue working on ‘common-sense health-care reform.’

“Let’s see if we have this right. Nearly 100 years after Teddy Roosevelt championed national health insurance, no reform is better than imperfect reform? C’mon, Jason. Really?”

[RWC] Note: In the healthcare debate, “reform” is leftyspeak for a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly. Lefties refer to any reform that would return our healthcare system to a free market as supporting the status quo. Please read my paper entitled “Healthcare.”

To be clear, though I applaud Mr. Altmire opposing H.R. 3962 so far, I have no illusions his idea of reform is anything like mine and ultimately I expect him to vote for some bill that would be both a huge lurch to the left and unconstitutional. At the end of the day, Mr. Altmire is a lefty and I’m a conservative.

“And, then there was this: ‘My district isn’t there,’ he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Sigh. We guess the Squeaky Lunatic Fringe Wheel gets the grease, or, in this case, the vote.”

[RWC] If “the Squeaky Lunatic Fringe Wheel gets the grease,” shouldn’t Mr. Altmire have voted for H.R. 3962? You see, in addition to the “protest rally” Mr. Prose notes below, these folks met with Mr. Altmire privately and held a rally outside the Beaver County Courthouse long before the vote. Let’s also remember Mr. Prose himself referred to Ambridge Democrats as “squeaky wheels” in his October column “Political Prose: Altmire hears squeaky wheels from Ambridge.” Funny how all that background escaped this column, isn’t it?

“We know Altmire was between a rock and a hard place, but, hey, that’s why he makes the big money and has a great insurance plan. Doing what’s right isn’t always easy. If it were, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would’ve been the Civil Rights Act of 1864.”

[RWC] Wow, does a lefty really want to get into a discussion of civil rights history?

“Now, maybe we’re just way too cynical, but Altmire’s vote strikes us as a cold, calculated political move made with one eye — aw, who are we kidding, both eyes — on next year’s election.

“Altmire can placate the Screaming Tea-baggers now while not having to worry about disenchanted Democrats because, after all, who the hell are they going to vote for in 2010? (If things go well, he’ll even get a shot at redemption during reconciliation if the Senate passes its own version. Then he can vote for it, say his concerns were met and claim the high moral ground again.)”

[RWC] Mr. Prose continues to use the vulgar term “tea-baggers.” Please read my critique of Mr. Prose’s 9/19/09 column if you’re unfamiliar with the term’s true meaning.

Based on this paragraph, Mr. Altmire can’t win. Even if Mr. Altmire eventually votes for a government-run healthcare monopoly resulting from a combination he likes of House and Senate bills, he’s still a bad guy.

“Right now, little-known Republican Keith Rothfus is the only announced GOP candidate while outgoing Dubya-appointee U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan is still mulling her options. You think true-blue Democrats are going to vote for either one of them in a general election?

“You see, Altmire can sit back, buck the party, vote to restrict insurance coverage for abortion in the health-care reform bill and then oppose the very same bill, and laugh all the way to his re-election party.”

[RWC] Mr. Prose seems to have jumped on the lefty talking point that voting for an amendment “to restrict insurance coverage for abortion” and then voting against the bill is contradictory. Mr. Altmire and many other reps simply wanted to make sure the bill didn’t pay for abortions if passed. This happens all the time and is simply an effort to get what you can get.

“Why? Because those famous western Pennsylvania conservative Democrats will love it, and progressives will do anything to keep the seat from going authentically Republican, even if it means holding their noses to vote.”

[RWC] “[A]uthentically Republican?” Is Mr. Prose implying a Democrat rep with a two-year ADA LQ of 88% is a righty? Aren’t lefties always complaining it’s conservatives who demand ideological purity in the Republican Party?

“Heck, if Altmire votes against health-care reform again it probably won’t hurt him that badly because any Democrats who abandon him will probably be replaced by giddy blue doggy Democrats, Republicans and independents. He can’t lose.

“Remember, the 4th Congressional District is majority Democratic [sic], but it went for Republican presidential candidate John McCain just a year ago. We’d bet that influenced Altmire’s vote against health-care reform as much as cost containment … if not more.”

[RWC] You may recall racism was Mr. Prose’s explanation (here and here) for Mr. McCain winning Beaver County.

“BACKLASHED

“Not that he would care, but Democrats were letting Altmire know their displeasure last week. A protest rally at his Aliquippa office Thursday by pro-reform groups drew about 40 people on two days’ notice and left-wing MoveOn.org launched a TV blitz against Altmire and other Blue Dogs who voted against health-care reform.”

[RWC] By correctly identifying MoveOn.org as “left-wing,” Mr. Prose likely hoped readers would assume the “pro-reform groups” at the “protest rally” weren’t also lefty. That would be an incorrect assumption. According to Beaver County Blue, “The protesters were pulled together by the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, working with MoveOn.org, SEIU and other local unions. Political support came from Democrats for America, the 4th CD Progressive Democrats of America and other Democratic activists and community groups.”

As a point of comparison, in his November 8th column Mr. Prose described protesters against a government-run healthcare monopoly as “delusional” and “angry, mean, warped people who carry signs comparing health-care reform to Nazi concentration camps.”

“But it was Pittsburgh’s 2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com that really slapped Altmire hard. One post’s headline read, ‘Who’s going to run against Jason Altmire? (In the primary I mean)’ A subsequent question was, ‘Why exactly did anyone bother to vote out Hart?’

“Ironically enough, the junkies took a cue from none other than Melissa Hart and labeled Altmire a ‘health care industry lobbyist,’ adding that he ‘continues to bite the hand that feeds him.’

[RWC] I’m probably stating the obvious, but 2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com is a blog for lefties.

“Shock and denial make up the first stage of grief. Pain and guilt are next. That should be fun.”