Welcome to your Friday open thread. Can I have a big TGIF? This week has been soooo long. Yesterday felt like it was about one week long all by itself.
The DADT repeal went down to defeat yesterday because the so-called Republican moderates are Lucy holding the football. Two Democrats did not vote for cloture – one was Blanche Lincoln who was getting a root canal at the time. The other was brand-new Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
In a statement to reporters tonight, Manchin suggested that as long as a vote on repealing DADT comes this year, he’ll be more than willing to shut it down.
“I do not support its repeal at this time,” he said in the statement. “I would like to make clear that my concern is not with the idea of repealing DADT, but rather an issue of timing.”
Manchin said the Senate testimony from military branch chiefs last week — most of whom said they were opposed to repealing the ban, but that they could implement it if asked to do so — was part of his decision not to back repeal for the time being.
“My concerns, as highlighted in the recent defense survey and through the testimony of the service chiefs, are with the effect implementation of the repeal would have on our front line combat troops at this time,” he said.
Manchin said he is “very sympathetic to those who passionately support the repeal,” but added that he needs more time “to visit and hear the full range of viewpoints from the citizens of West Virginia.”
I’m sure we’re going to love Senator Manchin as much as we love Senator Nelson.
At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News’ controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network’s journalists not to use the phrase “public option.”
Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox’s reporters should use “government option” and similar phrases — wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats’ reform efforts.
Journalists on the network’s flagship news program, Special Report with Bret Baier, appear to have followed Sammon’s directive in reporting on health care reform that evening.
Here’s a copy of the memo:
From: Sammon, Bill
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:23 AM
To: 054 -FNSunday; 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 069 -Politics; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 036 -FOX.WHU; 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers
Subject: friendly reminder: let’s not slip back into calling it the “public option”1) Please use the term “government-run health insurance” or, when brevity is a concern, “government option,” whenever possible.
2) When it is necessary to use the term “public option” (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation’s lexicon), use the qualifier “so-called,” as in “the so-called public option.”
3) Here’s another way to phrase it: “The public option, which is the government-run plan.”
4) When newsmakers and sources use the term “public option” in our stories, there’s not a lot we can do about it, since quotes are of course sacrosanct.
The news media has reacted with a collective yawn. They’ll continue to take their marching orders from Rupert Murdoch and his millionaire buddies.