Congressman John Dingell Blurts:
Takes a long time to control the people, sez he!

03-24-2010 -- In the last post here, entitled "All About Control", I cited the observation of the left-wing blog, Talking Points Memo (TPM) for the fact that the White House final "talking points" made it very clear that the operative word, and the operative concept contained in their healthcare initiative was "control".
Indeed it was. And is.

Ed Morrissey of HotAir has since posted about a comment by longtime Congressman John Dingell of Michigan, including having posted the following podcast clip on YouTube.

It is a portion of a post-passage radio interview of Congressman Dingell by WJR, 760 AM radio host, Paul W. Smith, who asked Dingell about all those who Dingell presumptively claimed would "die" between now and 2014, as a result of ObamaCare not taking effect prior to then. According to Dingell's numbers, 72,000 Americans would die before ObamaCare takes effect in 2014!

Dingell's answer was a real chiller. Here it is (my emphasis):

" . . . but let me remind you this has been going on for years. We are bringing it to a halt. The harsh fact of the matter is when you're going to pass legislation that will cover 300 [million] American people in different ways, it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people."

Now, Ed calls that "control the people" comment a Freudian slip -- one in which Dingell unwittingly told the truth.

The characterization does make sense, as the remainder of the clip makes it clear that the Congressman is quite a liar, especially when he added,

"You know, our Republicans have spent a long time not participating, not helping, carping and delaying, but at the same time they have contributed nothing to this and made no offers whatsoever at to what it is they want or what they stand for."

What rubbish! Even the President acknowledged that the Republicans had a number of good healthcare reform suggestions which they offered when he held his P.R. summit a few weeks ago, in order to take a last-second stab at garnering some GOP support for the measure. Notably, the key specific measures he said at the time might be worthy additions to the legislation were summarily excluded by the Democrats from inclusion in the reconciliation bill -- such as medical malpractice reform.

And here, for example, is a good exchange in the House Rules Committee between Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, ((R-WI), and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) on Ryan's specific proposal for healthcare reform in the contest of a necessary Medicare fix that will be occasioned by the ObamaCare legislation. She, of the ultimately still-born "let's deem it passed" gambit, does her level best to try to interrupt and to talk over Ryan, but is simply no match for him.



Nor is Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA), or Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), both of whom she then called on for a political assist in the exchange. They can't even touch Ryan with a three-person tag-team!

Getting back to the Dingell blurt . . . call me cynical, but I say the proper way to qualify Congressman Dingell's "control" comment as "truthful" and, therefore, admissible in the court of public opinion -- amid all of his obvious prevaricating -- would be to properly identify it as an admission against interest. He won't repeat it, or admit the truth of it.

Let's just hope the public duly responds with, "So ordered!" come this November.

Only disgraced and impeached former federal judges, like Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), would dare to go that far!

You may recall that Hastings was the guy Nancy Pelosi wanted to put in charge of the House Intelligence Committee, before the public firestorm of opposition finally put an end to the effort. Someone apparently reminded her that she has voted for Hastings' impeachment!

But as John at Powerline points out, the public is not necessarily as aware as some might think of just how completely out-of-control certain Members of Congress really are!

We have to take the time.

"I Will Stand Where I Stand . . ."
-- Senator John McCain, Senate floor speech, all-night debate, July 18, 2007

(Update: 03/02/08)
Campaigning down in Tyler, Texas early today (02/27/08), Republican Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, delivered a direct ripost to a comment made by Democrat hopeful, Senator Barack Obama during the final Democrat presidential debate last night. Senator Obama said, in response to a question, that if al-Qaeda came back to Iraq and established a base after he, as President withdrew the troops, then he would send military troops back to Iraq.

But as John carefully and pointedly explained today, al-Qaeda is already in Iraq. "It's called al-Qaeda in Iraq!" he said. And he further noted that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) does not want a base; they want to take the country. McCain said, "I will not surrender to al-Qaeda."

Here is the video*:


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The words in the title quote (above) of our post today, were taken from a early morning speech delivered by McCain during the debate over a Democrat proposal to force the Administration into a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq, way back on July 18, 2007.

It was, in my opinion, one of the great speeches in American history, coming as it did at a pivotal moment in our nation's contentious internal debate and, at that moment, institutional confrontation over the future of our commitment to the struggle in Iraq. Yet, his stirring remarks went utterly unreported by any in our national media, save for a few bloggers who picked up the significance of his speech and shared them.

Most notably, Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters quickly turned around a transcription of McCain's remarks, which the Senator actually finished delivering at about 4:10 am, and Ed astonishingly was able to have them posted them on his blog, along with commentary, by 10:46 a.m. that morning!

Ed properly entitled that post, employing John's own words, ones embodying his determination that whatever the ultimate verdict of history, or the shorter term judgment of the people, that "I will stand where I stand." Ed introduced the Senator's remarks thusly:

Harry Reid wanted a debate, and he got one, especially from John McCain, during last night's stunt -- which Reid himself mostly skipped. It didn't change a single vote, and more importantly, Reid didn't get what he wanted -- a Republican refusal to engage. Instead, Republicans made it clear that they had no intention of allowing Congress to usurp the role of the executive, and McCain made it clear why. Here's his entire statement from the debate early this morning:

. . . .

The AP reported on the debate back then in a story that began:

"WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans scuttled a Democratic proposal ordering troop withdrawals from Iraq in a showdown Wednesday that capped an all-night debate on the war.

The 52-47 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate under Senate rules."
. . . .

Had the Democrats succeeded in forcing a withdraw back then, our nation would now be humiliated and retreating, having opted to abandon an ally whose people we freed, and having, in our cravenness, emboldened al-Qaeda to become a major force, not only in Iraq, but throughout the Middle East, freely recruiting future terrorists. And, we would have also clearly signaled our other allies, both there in the region, and throughout the world that we can no longer be relied upon.

One wonders how long would it have been before al-Qaeda operatives and other terrorists would have been back on our shores, and at our throats? But because of the surge, which the Democrats opposed -- AQI is quickly becoming a discredited and defeated force, with recruitment down, prospects dimmed and increasingly, a Sunni populace that has rejected their approach.

During that all night debate, at a little after 4 am, John McCain, his campaign for the Presidency on the brink of collapse, nevertheless stood and delivered one of the great speeches in all of American history. Yet no one but a few bloggers such as Ed Morrissey reported his stirring words at that moment.

Senator McCain concluded his speech as follows:

"I am privileged, as we all are, to be subject to the judgment of the American people and history. But, my friends, they are not always the same judgment. The verdict of the people will arrive long before history’s. I am unlikely to ever know how history has judged us in this hour. The public’s judgment of me I will know soon enough. I will accept it, as I must. But whether it is favorable or unforgiving, I will stand where I stand, and take comfort from my confidence that I took my responsibilities to my country seriously, and despite the mistakes I have made as a public servant and the flaws I have as an advocate, I tried as best I could to help the country we all love remain as safe as she could be in an hour of serious peril."

"I will stand where I stand . . ." should, and one can only hope will likely become words embodying courage and steadfastness of purpose at a moment of real peril. That, it seems to me, is the very mark of good leadership. Please, go to the post and read the Senator's full remarks.

Finally, as we noted in a comment on that post at Captains Quarters, McCain's remarks were immediately followed by those of Hillary Clinton. Imagine, if you will, being in her position that day. She no doubt figured that, as the putative Democrat candidate, she had been given the advantage of the final word, by being scheduled to speak after him. But as she listened to his remarks, surely it had to cross her mind that something quite extraordinary had just been said. I wonder if, for even one brief second, a thought crossed her mind that she was indeed on the wrong side of history. We'll never know; she would likely never admit to it. And, neither will many likely know or care what she had to say that early morning. The moment had passed her by.


Thank you President Bush and John McCain, and General Petraeus, and thank you to all those brave troops who have put their lives on the line for our nation, and so effectively taken on an implacable enemy of this nation. We must not abandon them.


*A news report, from Brietbart, embedding the video of the Senators remarks today can be found located here. Reader comments are also linked to that post. (No comments were permitted with the original Dailymotion video, posted above.)

** The McCain campaign website indicates that he began speaking at about 3:45 a.m., which may only be slightly inconsistent with the AP report published the 18th that indicated he finished at 4:10 a.m -- it was not a 25 minute speech.