The Robertses Are At It Again

There’s so much wrong with the latest screeching from Cokie and Steve Roberts concerning that oh-so-ugly partisanship that has Washington, D.C. in its grip that it’s really impossible to refute it all (and to be honest, even if I did, they’d just be back about a month or so later repeating it all over again – I don’t like partisanship either really, but I like zombie-like compliance with the corpocracy’s dicta as articulated by their media slaves even less).

However, I just want to take issue with a couple of items. First…

When political advantage is the only goal, any lawmaker who tries to reach across party lines immediately takes fire from his or her own ranks. Consider (John) McCain's courageous attempts to work with Democrats like Ted Kennedy on immigration reform. To hear his fellow Republicans, you'd think McCain represented Hades (Kennedy's home state), not Arizona.

Oh, ha ha, did you read that? The Robertses made a funny! A slur against the commonwealth of Massachusetts. And it was printed. What a “laff riot”!

Sounds like it’s time for another blogger ethics panel (and by the way, to get the full story on “Senator Honor And Virtue” on immigration, click here.)

Well, guess what? Read this first in the column from the Robertses…

Just look at one issue: health-insurance coverage for children (which Hillary Clinton stressed on the stump in winning New Hampshire). There is no better way to spend taxpayer dollars than keeping kids healthy and out of costly emergency rooms. Congress did pass a bipartisan measure extending coverage to 10 million children, but Bush vetoed it and lawmakers upheld his action.

The bill financed the expansion by raising tobacco taxes — a smart idea, since higher prices would also reduce teenage smoking. But the president adamantly refused to cross his most conservative supporters and consider tax increases of any kind. Democrats were also reluctant to compromise, believing that gridlock gives them a great issue for the fall campaign. Bottom line: paralysis.

Cue scary-sounding incidental music: du-du-duuuuuh!

I don’t know how “Democrats were also reluctant to compromise,” but I do know this; Dubya eventually signed an SCHIP extension (here). But of course, you would never know that from the Robertses.

Must be nice to live in the world of accountability free punditry – cushy gig, that.