Sen. John McCain was well within his province to criticize the Medicare Advantage (grandfather) strategy of Florida Sen. Bill Nelson as inappropriate, home-state help. Indeed, it had been labeled “Gator-aid” by many a non-Floridian politician. Fair game. A number of vested interests are going to have to take one for the team for meaningful health-care reform. And as it turned out, Nelson’s plan to spare some 800,000 Floridians from cuts in Medicare Advantage won’t be part of the final health care bill.
But the rhetoric used by McCain was as outrageous as it was ironic.
“People are enraged,” McCain said of Nelson’s plan. “They should be. It’s sleaze. It’s Chicago-style sausage making.”
If you want to define rage-worthy “sleaze” there are better examples than add-ons to benefit those who wanted to keep their extra coverage, such as eye care and gym memberships. Frankly, that’s pretty bland sausage; hardly worthy of the Daley Machine grinder.
You want “sleaze”? How about being so consumed with winning the presidency that a candidate would be willing to put the United States at risk by putting the preposterously unprepared Sarah Palin a heartbeat from the presidency?