Competence isn't the issue.  

Limbaugh used to attack CNN as the "Clinton news network" and as so called "sinners."  Boy, that's rich.

Tom Delay attacked CNN as the "communist news network

After 40 years of abuse (starting with Spiro Agnew) they cower like a battered spouse before the right wing.

Two weeks ago, a reporter from The New Republic was whinned about Hillary Clinton working the press.

This is why Hillary Clinton is running so far ahead in the national polls right now, that she has really learned how to control the press.  That campaign is become notorious among my friends who are reporters for pulling things like this, not quite as heavy-handed, but for working the refs constantly, calling editors, calling reporters.  They are very aggressive much more than anyone expected.

And I think that her ability to control the media is a big part of that.

I`m constantly hearing stories about how aggressive her staff is, about working reporters and editors to make sure that, you know, they`re getting the kind of coverage that they want.  I think it`s been very effective.

A lot of reporters say it reminds them of the Bush administration.

Michael Crowley on Dan Abrams

To me, what REALLY stood out wasn't their objection to Clinton working the refs, but rather the complete silence to the way Rove has bludgeoned the media.  

Why are they willing to cry FOUL at Clinton, but never at Bush?  Cause they're scared of being labeled biased by Bernard Goldberg et. al.

They're not looking for sympathy. Just acknowledgment that the program helps people. Evidently, though, the right-wingers would rather heap scorn upon badly injured children.

Keep it up, 28%ers. Seriously. Keep flogging this story right up until election day. Put yourself on the front pages, bashing sick kids.

After my husband quit his job earlier this year (to become a full-time stay-at-home dad), we had a choice. We could either buy health insurance from his former employer through a program called COBRA at a cost of more than $1,000 per month(!) or we could go it alone in Maryland's individual market. Given our financial circumstances, that "choice" wasn't much of a choice at all. We had to go on our own.

We discovered that the most generous plans in Maryland's individual market cost $700 per month yet provide no more than $1,500 per year of prescription drug coverage-a drop in the bucket if someone in our family were to be diagnosed with a serious illness.

With health insurance choices like that, no wonder so many people opt to go uninsured.

Choices? Let's talk about the horrible choices made by this irresponsible individual. They deserve to die of appendicitis if they get it, because they're so monumentally... wait, sorry, that was Michelle Malkin.

Is this really the America we want , where anyone who is faced with catastrophic medical problems that create lifelong or chronic problems, must cannibalize their assets until they reach a level of poverty that qualifies them for assistance? That's just ridiculous, and destructive to the entire economy because it helps destroy the middle class, the people who drive the economy.

Tens of millions of Americans are faced with this problem every day, pay for health insurance, or pay the mortgage on their home and property, pay for health insurance or make the car payment, pay for health insurance, or let some of your employees go etc.

In all of these scenarios, people are going to dump their health insurance, especially when that insurance provides so little actual coverage for the money you put into it.

The entire system is configured in such a way as to make health coverage a luxury item, for those with sufficient disposable income, and everyone else is left out in the cold, and you become a member of that group the moment you have a serious illness or a major injury. Just pray you're not the one that picks the black bean.

The ability to access quality medical care should be a right in this country, not a luxury item that excludes those who have been priced out of the market, or those with a pre-existing condition, or those who are sick, or those who were injured.

A market-driven health insurance industry, by its very nature wants to insure as many healthy people as possible, because the odds of actually having to pay off on that insurance or very low. They also want to exclude the people who really needed health insurance, because they are seen as nothing more an element which is counter to the primary goal of every insurance company, profit.

Personally I don't have a problem with even the very wealthy receiving free medical care, I don't believe anyone should have to pay for it directly.  As far as I'm concerned, the American people pay taxes and are citizens of this country, and in my book just one of those should be enough to qualify for the very best medical care this country has to offer.

The disgusting reality is that even people who pay for premium health insurance are not getting what they pay for. The whole system is one giant revolving conveyor belt of money, where far too many unnecessary entities are gorging themselves from the trough that everyone is already contributing to, but far too few get their fair share of benefits from.

One example are largest public hospitals in the most demanding and fastest-growing urban areas which use our tax dollars to expand, building new wings and state-of-the-art facilities, but which amazingly cater to cash customers only.  They don't except any insurance whatsoever in these reserved sections, the only way you can get into these wings is if you pay before services are rendered, actually provide the hospital with cash or secured collateral before you receive your surgery or care.

Wealthy people, non-US citizens, fly into the United States from all over the world to have their surgery in wings of public hospitals that are off-limits to US citizens who are uninsured, and even those who have premium insurance, even they are excluded.  And these hospital expansions have been largely paid for with US taxpayer dollars.  In my book that's theft, every US citizen is being ripped off by a number of corporate entities which have colluded among themselves to create privileged access for the wealthy, while the remaining resources, the older poorer quality facilities and the less capable  less qualified doctors, are rationed to the rest of us.

This information comes directly from people who work in these hospitals, doctors and nurses, who are afraid to speak out openly because they know they'll lose their jobs and be blackballed in their profession.  It's an extremely demoralizing experience for people who have worked in the health-care profession for decades and watched as conditions have continually worsened for patients over the years, even in some of the very best most highly rated hospitals in the US.

Sell your house and live on the street. Then start working three jobs so nobody cares for your disabled child. Pay for it all out of pocket, and then when you're destitute... the Republicans will still bash you because you will then be a lucky duckie seeking even bigger government handouts via Medicaid.

Argue the merits if you like, but your argument about mentioning children to defend the policy is as absurd an argument as one could see.

The only thing not smart about the Democrats using a child to make their point for S-CHIP, was their not anticipating the right-wing machine "stooping" to a smear campaign on a child and the child's family. The Dems should have learned better by now.

As Paul Krugman says in his NY Times Editorial today.

All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they're "phony soldiers"; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he's faking his Parkinson's symptoms; if an injured 12-year-old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he's a fraud.

Were their better candidates for the Dems to focus on? I'm not sure it would have mattered given the morals of this long entrenched right-wing smear machine in place in the corporate media. They would go after any child that spoke against their policies without remorse. That is what is despicable, in my opinion. I agree wholeheartedly with Krugman on this one (not necessarily a surprise since I agree on much, though not everything he says).

Politics aside, the Graeme Frost case demonstrates the true depth of the health care crisis: every other advanced country has universal health insurance, but in America, insurance is now out of reach for many hard-working families, even if they have incomes some might call middle-class.

And there's one more point that should not be forgotten: ultimately, this isn't about the Frost parents. It's about Graeme Frost and his sister.

I don't know about you, but I think American children who need medical care should get it, period. Even if you think adults have made bad choices -- a baseless smear in the case of the Frosts, but put that on one side -- only a truly vicious political movement would respond by punishing their injured children.