Skewering Sebelius–not so much

MoonHowler

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Republicans who set out to skewer Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius  got off on the wrong foot.  First off, some of the first speakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee started with the Wizard of Oz theme.  Sebelius is the former governor of Kansas.  “We’re not in Kansas any more” was used on several occasions, to no avail.  Their theme simply didn’t fit into the day or its events.

Sebelius disarmed her attackers by immediately opening up with the following statement:

“Access to HealthCare.gov has been a miserably frustrating experience for way too many Americans,” she said in her opening statement. “So let me say directly to these Americans: You deserve better. I apologize. I’m accountable to you for fixing these problems. And I’m committed to earning your confidence back by fixing the site.”

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Candidate haunted by “Cuccinelli Compass”

MoonHowler

“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
―     Maya Angelou

Washingtonpost.:

Throughout Virginia’s gubernatorial race, Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate, has cast Cuccinelli as a tea party extremist, incapable of forging the centrist consensus necessary to manage the commonwealth. The portrait has stuck, according to recent polls; McAuliffe appears to be ahead in the race — and Cuccinelli’s conservatism is a leading reason.

For years, he articulated that conservatism in the Cuccinelli Compass, honing a combative political persona and providing opponents with material that has now driven up his negative poll ratings and lifted McAuliffe. At the same time, Cuccinelli has accused Democrats of turning him into a caricature, seeking to scare off voters by distorting and lying about his record as a state senator and Virginia’s attorney general.

The Cuccinelli Compass is where Cuccinelli presented himself as an unbridled firebrand, venting about the “left-leaning media,” “gun-grabbing liberals” and “liberals wigging out” over, say, his proposal to allow employers to fire workers for speaking inadequate English.

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