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WILLIE BROWN: Attacks from right, left kick health plan along
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 8/23/9 | Willie Brown

Posted on 08/23/2009 2:00:43 PM PDT by SmithL

Just got back from Washington, where I emceed the swearing-in of Rosie Rios as the new U.S. treasurer.

Rosie was part of my mayoral team, and we've been close ever since. My job was to introduce both her and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Geithner was incredibly restrained although very generous with his time, letting everyone take their picture with him.

All I asked in return for my duties was a tour of the Treasury and a few minutes to be left alone so I could pick up my own personal stimulus package.

No such luck.

Washington itself was pretty much a political ghost town. Every elected official but the president was gone for summer break, and even he was headed to Martha's Vineyard. The only people left were lobbyists, who it was pointed out to me now refer to themselves as "special interest representatives."

The conversation in the bars and restaurants was all about health care, and there was not a lot of optimism about the prospects of any of the plans passing in their present form.

I agree, but don't think pushing President Obama on the subject is a bad thing. Hell, if Howard Dean wasn't kicking his butt, he'd have to pay someone to do it.

Attacks from the left, like those coming from Dean, and attacks from the right, like those coming from the shouters at town halls, will ultimately produce support for something in the middle. And that is just where Obama plans to run this health care ball, right up the middle.

What he really needs to do now is set up the play with one of his Jeremiah Wright speeches, and then let it roll.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 0bama; obamacare; willieworld
Life in Willie-World.
1 posted on 08/23/2009 2:00:43 PM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL; Free ThinkerNY; TXRed; freekitty; unkus; Texas Fossil; 2ndDivisionVet; Clintonfatigued; ...

If these arrogant slimes pass the DeathCare/AuschwtizCare, they will have declared WAR on the American people. Not gonna be pretty, IMO. They will all be TOAST in 2010 and 2012. These Socialist Elitists can count on it.


2 posted on 08/23/2009 2:11:39 PM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: SmithL

Willie Brown already has stolen enough from the public trough.


3 posted on 08/23/2009 2:13:05 PM PDT by Joe Boucher (google; operation garden spot and REX84)
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To: SmithL

Willie, I hope brain transplants are covered in the Pelosi health care plan. If they are contact your proctologist ASAP.


4 posted on 08/23/2009 2:13:47 PM PDT by hflynn (The One is really the Number Two)
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To: hflynn
Willie, I hope brain transplants are covered in the Pelosi health care plan. If they are contact your proctologist ASAP.

Oh come on, Willie isn't THAT bad, he is a step ahead and just had his sucked out negating any need for a transplant.

It's cheaper. ; )

5 posted on 08/23/2009 2:32:09 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: ExTexasRedhead
Just D#MN ETR!

I'm getting to like you a lot! : - D

6 posted on 08/23/2009 2:33:49 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: hflynn
LOL, that's a great line.

But I dunno if Willie needs a brain transplant. I know many San Fransicans weren't thrilled with him in the mayor's office, and conservatives in Cali loathe him for when he ruled the Assembly but strangely enough I often find his take on politics in the SF Chron a breath of fresh - and very savvy - air, as long as you keep in mind where he's coming from. He's certainly unusual for a dem in that he actually has a pretty decent sense of humor, that's for sure.

7 posted on 08/23/2009 2:36:09 PM PDT by leilani
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To: leilani
I often find his take on politics in the SF Chron a breath of fresh - and very savvy - air, as long as you keep in mind where he's coming from. He's certainly unusual for a dem in that he actually has a pretty decent sense of humor, that's for sure.

Having watched Willie in action for a long time I can say he's VERY savvy. Frighteningly savvy. And he loves to laugh at conservatives' expense -- and I do mean expen$e!

8 posted on 08/23/2009 3:41:42 PM PDT by Bernard Marx ("Civilizations die by suicide, not from murder" Toynbee)
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To: hflynn

Willie Brown is one of the few liberals I have respect for. I’d love to have a beer with him.


9 posted on 08/23/2009 4:10:46 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist ("It (Gov't) can't make you happier, healthier, wealthier, and wise" - Sarah Palin 07/26)
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To: SmithL

This is a variation on the ploy that got conservatives to abandon culture wars in the 1980s-1990s. Back then, the Left falsely alleged that the Right’s protesting was turning controversial movies into hits. (It wasn’t, “The Last Temptationof Christ” couldn’t’ve paid its caterers with its box office take.)

The message is: “Give up, Town Hall protesters, you’re only helping it pass!” It’s nonsense.


10 posted on 08/23/2009 5:09:04 PM PDT by dangus (I am JimThompson)
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To: SmithL
[Willie in Article]
All I asked in return for my duties was a tour of the Treasury and a few minutes to be left alone so I could pick up my own personal stimulus package.

Bad joke, Willie. Everybody knows that every damned bag man in Gay Bay knows you by your first name. You've slept in all their houses, and they babysat your kids.

The house of Armani would be broke except for your buys in the 80's and 90's.

By the way, did you ever subdivide your old suit-closet for housing? Should be a good idea.

11 posted on 08/23/2009 5:33:11 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: leilani
I think Willie's projecting on this one. Obama has no intention of running up the middle. He thinks this IS running up the middle - public option as a backdoor to single payer.

Democrats don't need one Republican vote to pass this stinker. Hang it around their necks and let it rot there until 2010, 2012 and beyond.

Health care reform should get absolutely zero Republican votes without tort reform. None.
12 posted on 08/23/2009 9:16:30 PM PDT by VisualizeSmallerGovernment (This Little Piggie Gets Wee Wee'd Up All The Way Home)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Willie Brown is one of the few liberals I have respect for. I’d love to have a beer with him.

Respect? That's an odd term to use for Ole Willie. You'd be much further ahead to drink with a decent liberal like Nat Hentoff. At least you wouldn't be stuck with the beer bill -- and probably Willie's accumulated tab to boot.

13 posted on 08/23/2009 9:22:57 PM PDT by Bernard Marx ("Civilizations die by suicide, not from murder" Toynbee)
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To: Bernard Marx

That’s exactly why I like Brown. He’s a Democrat in an Eddie Murphy type of way.


14 posted on 08/23/2009 9:55:42 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist ("It (Gov't) can't make you happier, healthier, wealthier, and wise" - Sarah Palin 07/26)
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To: Bernard Marx
At least you wouldn't be stuck with the beer bill -- and probably Willie's accumulated tab to boot.

LOL! And his mortgage! And after you get home & check your credit car statement, you'll find out you've picked up his car payment too!

He's a wily one, that man. ;-)

Are you in SF? Didn't he alienate lefties there too by sucking up to developers in that town?

15 posted on 08/24/2009 9:17:36 AM PDT by leilani
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To: leilani

I’m in the LA area, but every conservative in CA knows how Willie works his “magic.” Term limits in CA were invented just to dump him from the Legislature. But like all liberal bad pennies (Jerry Brown’s another) they keep worming their way back into politics. My biggest fear lately is that Brown may be headed to D.C. to “assist” with “hope and change.” That is a scary possibility indeed. He does Chicago-style politics squared.


16 posted on 08/24/2009 12:49:19 PM PDT by Bernard Marx ("Civilizations die by suicide, not from murder" Toynbee)
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