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Georgia Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker, a Democrat, has responded to calls for his state to join the suspect lawsuit against health care reform with a letter (PDF) that makes one wish our own AG, Rob McKenna, had the intestinal fortitude to do the same. Well, McKenna could have just said nothing, because Georgia has a wingnut Republican governor, and we don’t.

It’s not that long, so I encourage readers to click through and have a read.

What’s really hilarious is how Baker smacks down one of the most widely publicized contentions of the lawsuit, that mandates for people to purchase insurance are unconstitutional:

In fact, earlier this month, an appellate court decision rejecting such arguments was issued in the only case I am aware of to be litigated on this topic to date. As you may know, then-Governor Mitt Romney proposed and signed into law in 2006 a bill that requires all Massachusetts residents to purchase health insurance. A suit was brought against the Commonwealth by a plaintiff who alleged that the requirement violated his rights under the Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments of the United States Constitution and various provisions of the Massachusetts Constitution. In Fountas v. Commissioner of the Depørtment of Revenue, 2010 Mass. App. Unpub. Lexis 223 (Marchs, 2010), the Massachusetts Court of Appeals rejected all of those arguments.

The concept of mandates is a Republican idea. In a normal political world the GOP would be demanding partial credit, and at least a dozen or so of their House members and a couple of senators would have voted for final passage.

But we don’t live in a normal political world, because the GOP and its noise machine cannot abide defeat, and even those Republicans who know the Tea People are full of shit are too cowardly to stand up to them. This potentially leaves the GOP, once again, facing status as a permanent rump party.

Republicans say they know something had to be changed, but all they did was obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. They’re still doing it, like a gambler who knows deep down it’s time to get up from the table, but can’t. But thanks, Rob McKenna, for making this pathetic state of affairs obvious to hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians who thought you were a straight shooter.

On the same day that real estate salesman Dino Rossi teases the NRSC with word that he’s seriously considering a run for the U.S. Senate, the 18,000-strong Washington Association of Realtors announce their enthusiastic endorsement of Democratic incumbent Sen. Patty Murray:

“Realtors are proud to endorse Sen. Murray as she has been a tireless advocate for housing affordability and the American dream of home ownership,” said Bill Riley, Washington Realtor president. “She has also been keenly aware of the state of the housing market and its importance to our economic recovery.”

With the Realtors’ endorsement comes the financial support of the RPAC, the state’s largest political action committee, with as many as 10,000 annual contributors. RPAC endorses Democrats and Republicans who share the organization’s concerns for the housing industry, home buyers, and homeownership in Washington state. In 2008, Realtors invested more than $750,000 to support political races around the state; about 93 percent of Realtor-endorsed candidates were elected to office.

Oh man, that’s gotta sting, doesn’t it, when the folks who know you best endorse your opponent? Kinda like David Irons losing the endorsement of his own mother.

Yesterday the Palm Beach Post ridiculed Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum for backing “the rights and freedoms of insurance companies” over that of the people, and today two more Florida editorial boards joined the chorus:

“Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s decision to sue over the new federal health-care law is a divisive, overly political waste of state resources.…McCollum has a duty to use the resources of his office — paid for by taxpayers — in the public interest. Taxpayers should also question the propriety of hiring McCollum’s former law firm, Baker and Hostetler of Orlando, to work on the lawsuit for McCollum and 12 other attorneys general. The firm will be paid whether the states win or lose.”
— Sarasota Herald-Tribune

“Beyond the political gamesmanship, the maneuvering in Tallahassee seems especially callous given that as many as 4 million Floridians currently have no health insurance.  Sadly, like the Republicans in Washington the Republicans in Tallahassee have no plan of their own to provide affordable coverage for uninsured Americans. All they have are political games.”
— Gainesville Sun

And yet the editorial board of the Seattle Times — the paper of record in a state that voted for Barack Obama and his promise of health care reform by an 18-point margin (and in a county that went for Obama by a better than 42-point spread) — has thus far remained silent on our own AG’s role in this Republican political charade.

Cowards.

As McJoan points out over on Daily Kos, much of the conventional wisdom about U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s presumed vulnerability has been driven by Republican pollsters, but according to the latest Research 2000 poll, not so much:

What R2K found? Patty Murray is the most popular Democrat in the state, with (contra Rasmussen) a 52 percent approval, and a 51 percent approval among all-important Independents. Only Obama is more popular with Washingtonians.

What’s more, she handily beats the leading conventional-wisdom contenders Rossi and Rep. Dave Reichert (WA-08).

Patty Murray (D)   52
Dino Rossi (R)     41

Patty Murray (D)   51
Dave Reichert (R)  43

While Republican pollsters and consultants have made an awful lot of money over the past 18 years underestimating Murray, Republican challengers haven’t done nearly so well, with the diminutive Democrat ending the the political careers of three sitting Republican congress-critters in a row. I suppose Dino Rossi or Dave Reichert might be dumb/arrogant enough to take a shot at Murray and hope for a Big Red Wave, but if I were them I’d wait to see a little more post-health-care-vote polling before counting on a right-wing surge to sweep them into the Senate.

Though as a liberal blogger, I gotta admit that a Rossi, Reichert or Susan Hutchison candidacy would make for an awful lot of fodder and fun.

Tomorrow at noon, pro-health care reform protestors will gather at the Tivoli Fountain on the Capitol campus in Olympia, and then march to the Attorney General’s office at 1125 Washington Street SE to deliver over 10,000 petitions demanding that AG Rob McKenna drop his lawsuit to block implementation of the Affordable Health Insurance Act.

No doubt the protestors will be polite, disciplined and well mannered. But I sure as hell hope not.

One of the reasons the Teabaggers have received attention far in excess of their actual numbers, is the presumably genuine anger they’re not afraid to express. They openly carry guns, or carry signs promising to use them. They mob congressmen, calling them “niggers” and “faggots”, fax nooses to their offices, and cut the gas lines of congressional relatives. They yell and they scream and they threaten and they disrupt… and they’ve been well rewarded for their efforts.

See, angry outbursts make for a good story, and thus emotion trumps policy almost every time. And that’s why it’s past time for some of us progressives to break with character and show a little genuine anger of our own.

Tomorrow at the AG’s office, let the polite petitioners do their thing, but if you’re pissed off at Rob McKenna for pandering to Teabaggers and threatening health care reform with his cheap political ploy, I encourage you to show up at his office and make a ruckus. Get loud, get angry, get threatening. I don’t particularly want to see any actual violence or property damage, but I’d love to see the genuine fear of it. Let McKenna and the media know that we may be peaceniks, but that doesn’t mean we’re not mad. Let them know that if they don’t start taking our side seriously… well… it’s not our fault if some people get out of hand.

Oh… and if any Teabaggers show up trying to grab the spotlight for themselves, don’t be afraid to get right in their face. Bullies are cowards by nature, and you’ll be surprised how quickly most of them sit down once we start standing up.

The Palm Beach Post has taken Florida Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) Bill McCollum to task for his role in the lawsuit seeking to invalidate health care reform, but so far the Seattle Times editorial has been silent on Washington Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) Rob McKenna’s role in the fiasco.

No surprise there.

See, the Times editorial board loves Rob McKenna. No, that’s not quite right. They’re in love with McKenna. They want to have his baby. They’re willing to do uncomfortable sexual acts for McKenna that they wouldn’t do for just any guy. You know, metaphorically speaking.

But McKenna’s faux legal arguments are so ridiculous, and the Times own customers so overwhelmingly in favor of health care reform, that coming to their embattled AG’s defense could prove a risky business. If Frank Blethen thinks some of his paper’s previous editorials have generated an angry backlash, just wait until he sees what happens if it blatantly comes out in defense of McKenna’s purely political effort to undermine health care reform.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of boycotts, and as critical as I’ve been, I don’t think I’ve ever urged my readers to cancel their subscription. But if the Times blows McKenna on this one, they shouldn’t be surprised to ultimately lose hundreds, if not thousands of paying customers.

And that perhaps explains their reluctance thus far to editorialize on such a controversial issue.

Shira Toeplitz at Roll Call tweets:

Dino Rossi is meeting today with @johncornyn @NRSC about a Senate bid against Sen. Patty Murray (R-Wash.)

Huh. Well there goes one explanation of Rob McKenna’s incredibly stupid political misstep.

No doubt Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna was surprised by the furious backlash to his lawsuit to throw out the Affordable Health Insurance Act and the many benefits it bestows on the citizens of Washington state, but if we really want to shock and awe McKenna into submission, it’s time to put our money where our mouth is.

That’s why I’m proud to be a part of  the “No Reversing Our Benefits Political Action Committee,” or as we like to shorten it, the “No R.O.B. PAC“, an organization dedicated to teaching McKenna — and anti-reform Republicans everywhere — a very important political lesson.

Every dollar raised by No R.O.B. PAC will be spent toward defeating Rob McKenna in 2012, regardless of the contest, and whomever his opponent is. Presumably that means the gubernatorial race, but, well, we won’t be particular. If McKenna insists on abusing his office to pander to the big insurance companies and the fringe Teabaggers instead of representing the citizens of Washington state, then we’ll make sure he won’t have an office to abuse.

How big an impact can we make. Well, McKenna has already raised $256,000 toward his 2012 campaign, a total we can easily pass if all 13,000 members of the Washington Tax Payers OPT OUT of Rob McKenna’s Lawsuit Facebook group each donate just $20.00 each. And if we only manage to average a mere $10.00 each, that would still leave us with more cash-on-hand than McKenna himself.

Just think of what kind of message that would send!

Yeah, the Teabaggers may be damn loud, but there are many more of us than there are of them, and we’re willing to do much more than just hurl threats and insults. The contributors we chalk up, and the more money we raise, the more we will make it clear to the political and media establishment where public opinion really lies in Washington state and throughout the nation.

So please give generously today!

The Podcast emerges from its undisclosed location to make a fleeting appearance at Drinking Liberally. Goldy and his panel of political wonks and blogoratti take the opportunity to celebrate the passage of sweeping health care reform legislation…because it IS a big fucking deal! At the same time, they express collective bemusement in the Republican response to the new law: “It’s Armageddon!”

At the local level, the panel takes bewildered delight in the decision by Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna to join the Florida anti-health-care-reform lawsuit. Rob, who everyone knows is running for Governor in 2012, has done a wonderful job maintaining the façade of a moderate Republican. The panel dissects the decision and concludes that the lawsuit was a huge political blunder, and one that will re-brand McKenna as something of a “far rightie Tenther nutcase.” Explaining McKenna’s blunder proves more elusive for the panel. Was it anger? Was it self-delusion? Was it extortion? Was he reacting to a potential primary challenge by Dino Rossi?

The panel wraps up with a discussion of the remaining reconciliation process and Republican prospects and reactions in the immediate post-health-care-reform world…seemingly, “no!,” “nuh-uh,” and “naaah.”

Goldy was joined by Drinking Liberally Seattle co-host Chris Mitchell, Effin’ Unsound’s & Horsesass’s Carl Ballard, Peace Tree Farm’s N in Seattle, and me.

The show is 53:07, and is available here as an MP3:

[audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_mar_23_2010.mp3]

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for hosting the Podcasting Liberally site.]

The Facebook group that proclaims “Washington Tax Payers OPT OUT of Rob McKenna’s lawsuit” has reached an astonishing 10,543 members as I prepare to post this, and shows little sign of slowing its growth. Yeah, a Facebook group is “just” a Facebook group, but what I’ve noticed is the sheer volume of people who feel utterly betrayed, because they voted for McKenna.

At times it seems like every other comment or so is along the lines of “wow, I voted for him because I thought he was a straight shooter and would run the AG’s office in a non-political manner, but I was wrong.” And then they promise to never vote for him again, because they simply cannot fathom why this guy is trying to destroy something that took so long to achieve, flawed as it is. Some people tell their stories about lack of health insurance coverage and what it’s done to their lives, and frankly I’m amazed at how restrained most have been in the tone of their comments.

They’re hurt, and they’re angry, because a lot of folks still believed, deep down, that Rob McKenna was a good guy. But good guys don’t pull petulant political stunts like throwing down with Florida attorney general and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum, who hired a D.C. law firm that he used to lobby for to pursue the lawsuit.

This lawsuit not only seems to have little chance of success, it also has the rank odor of sour grapes left to rot in expensive, hand-tailored suits. It’s pandering of the worst sort. A small minority of citizens, egged on by monied interests, have employed every idiotic and demagogic claim possible to discredit health care reform, and yet it passed anyhow, with admitted imperfections. Many of these imperfections were caused by the political situation itself, as conservative Democrats leveraged their positions over endless months of searching for a bi-partisanship that could never be achieved.

Instead of deciding to work with President Barack Obama, the GOP decided to be a completely obstructionist party. Think about that, it’s not just terminology. They would not allow a single, solitary member of their party to vote for the package, and they simultaneously negotiated in bad faith while standing before microphones claiming they were being excluded.

Despite the relatively conservative nature of the final plan, for political reasons the GOP cannot now admit defeat nor error. Rather than show some courage, McKenna decided to become a poster boy for this pathetic party of nothingness, nihiism and nuts. Republicans are fond of trying to taunt Democrats with cries of “political suicide,” but the ones engaged in ritualistic acts of self-destruction (like the lawsuit) have an “R” after their name.

From what I can tell, lots of the folks commenting on Facebook are not your hard-bitten political activists, because people keep wanting to know if we can impeach McKenna (yeah, with 3/4 of each chamber of the Legislature) or if he can be recalled (short answer: for cause, with a buttload of signatures and a whole bunch of other hoops.) Good old liberals, always looking for the rational, legal solution, I love ’em.

Sure, we can promise to defeat McKenna if he runs for governor in 2012, but we also have to keep the heat on right now. So go join up on Facebook if you haven’t already, and tell your friends and relatives (the ones who don’t watch Fox Noise, anyhow.) It’s going to be an interesting time.

The trial of a terminally ill medical marijuana patient in Mason County begins tomorrow:

Karen Mower is a terminally ill medical marijuana patient. Her husband John Reed is an authorized patient as well. In January 2008, the Mason County Sheriff’s “Special Operations Group” raided their home garden, seizing 38 flowering plants and 36 immature plants.

The Mason County Sheriff issued a press release announcing the raid in which they estimate each plant would produce one pound of dried pot. The press release states that both defendants are medical marijuana patients, but “the amount of product found by deputies clearly exceeded the amount the couple was authorized to possess.” See [here]:

Their case has been dragging on, and is finally going to jury selection. Please consider spending a day in Shelton to observe this trial.

And if you’re going from the Seattle area, on your way back you can stop in Olympia to see Attorney General Rob McKenna not giving a fuck about how the federal government’s broad definition of the Commerce Clause is an “imposition” upon certain citizens in this state.

The U.S. has shaken its last vestige of being a lesser-developed nation and has joined the civilized world. This calls for a toast…a toast to our health. So join us tonight for a celebratory evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning at about 8:00 pm. Stop by even earlier and enjoy some dinner.

It is fucking BIG!

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 343 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

Via DailyKos.

“[Rob McKenna] may represent the people of Florida, but not on the dime of the taxpayers of Washington.”
— Washington Governor Chris Gregoire

Perhaps this helps explain why over 6,500 Washington citizens have already joined the Washington Tax Payers OPT OUT of Rob McKenna’s Lawsuit Facebook group?

UPDATE:
Oops.  A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows public opinion swinging strongly in favor of health care reform.

Americans by 9 percentage points have a favorable view of the health care overhaul that President Obama signed into law Tuesday, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, a notable turnaround from surveys before the vote that showed a plurality against it.

By 49%-40% those surveyed say it was “a good thing” rather than a bad one that Congress passed the bill. Half describe their reaction in positive terms, as “enthusiastic” or “pleased,” while about four in 10 describe it in negative ways, as “disappointed” or “angry.”

The largest single group, 48%, calls the bill “a good first step” that should be followed by more action on health care. An additional 4% also have a favorable view, saying the bill makes the most important changes needed in the nation’s health care system.

Perhaps this is why Republicans vehemently opposed passage… because the knew public opinion swing in the Democrats favor once it was passed? And notice how 48% call it “a good first step”… seems to be a pretty clear indication that a lot of the folks previous polls reported as opposing the bill, merely thought it didn’t go far enough.