Monday, August 3, 2009
Congress / Woods Cooper on the Hot Seat in Health Care Debate
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 11:42 AM
"We are getting thousands of phone calls and e-mails, many deeply angry. Some want to do nothing, others want to do everything. We can't distinguish between what is just grumbling about change and what is a precursor of an earthquake."
Comments (24)
Showing 1-24 of 24
I just called Cooper's office to inquire the # of uninsured people in the 5th district. They didn't know immediately, but promised to get back to me.
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Bush, Cheney, Clement, Cooper - all conservatives who want limited government safety nets. Government, they say, should get out of the way so that Bubba can be highly successful people like these four. Can you imagine where these 4 guys would be if they weren't born into privilege? These 4 guys were born on third base and are going through life thinking they hit a triple.
Can't figure out who is worse: self-righteous conservative radio hosts or self-righteous liberal bloggers? All sounds like noise to me.
"Born on third base and are going through life thinking they hit a triple."
Amazing. I am stealing that.
Ashley,
"I am stealing that."
Not really, but better someone else's quote than my property.
Of course, I have no doubt that you and the 'Free Health Care' crowd will be coming for my property soon.
Cooper deserves a primary challenge. There's no actual health care/insurance plan he wil ever not try to stop. That's clear now.
He stands up or insurance companies, not constituents. And if Nashville wanted a Republican, there are always plenty around. If it wants a Democrat--it's time to find one.
Cooper deserves a primary challenge. There is no actual emerging health care/insurance plan he will not try to kill; that's clear now.
He represents insurance corporations, not constituents. If Nashville wants a Republican in that seat, there are always plenty of them around. If we want a Democrat--we'll need to find one.
Ashley,
Hah! Well said
That would be comforting except that the Left in America is like the Union Captain in 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' who responds to a comment that after Wales is dead, it will all be over.
The Captain gets this look in his eye and starts listing others to go after and finally he says "There ain't no end to doin' good."
The Left will never stop finding crises to solve because it needs the justification to preserve power or its sense of moral superiority.
Yeah, I never heard of that movie (I'm a liberal, I only watch documentaries about fair trade or porpoises) but that poster on Wikipedia? AWESOME.
It is actually an excellent movie. It features great performances by Chief Dan George and Will Sampson.
The book was written by a wacko white supremacist but Eastwood must have cleaned it up.
Best line:
After Eastwood and Chief Dan George escape a town by shooting several Yankee soldiers, Eastwood laments the loss of an Indian woman traveling with them. "It seems like when I get to likin' someone, pretty soon they just aren't around anymore."
The Chief observes "I noticed that happens when you get to disliking them too."
Studs Longegan said: "Cooper deserves a primary challenge. There is no actual emerging health care/insurance plan he will not try to kill; that's clear now."
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I agree completely. Cooper's district is a Democratic district. It voted Obama +13%, and it even voted for Kerry over Bush. The majority of its constituents certainly favor health care. The Democratic primary electorate in the 5th districts includes African-Americans, liberal whites who are musicians, and West End liberals (of all races, but mostly white). Only 1 of these 4 groups probably doesn't want health care reform, and they live in the same neighborhood as Bill Frist. The musicians almost certainly don't have health care, and a number of residents who are in the Dem. primary electorate (black and whtie) don't have it either, or have poor coverage.
A credible Democratic challenger could easily defeat Cooper with a coalition that favors health care. Someone with the intention of working for the constituents, and not blocking meaningful reform so he can appear on 'Face the Nation' and get quoted in the Economist. It is time the 5th district of Tennessee was actually represented by someone in Congress who agrees with the constituents.
Karl Dean, once he is done as mayor, perhaps? Howard Gentry could make a great run? Or how about someone who got involved with the Obama or Clinton campaigns in '08 that cares about health care who will take on Cooper in the primary?
In 1994, when Cooper tried to kill health care the first time, he represented a completely different, much more rural and conservative district. He basically represented what is now Lincoln Davis's district. I don't have problems with Reps like Davis voting against health care, because their districts don't favor Obama or national Democrats. But why does Cooper still think he is representing conservatives when in fact he represents an overwhelmingly Obama district?
Please, someone step up and run against him in the Democratic primary in 2010 if he votes against--or continues to obstruct--health care.
Bill Purcell would represent what Nashville is, not what it is not.
Now how to get him back?
Purcell would easily beat Cooper. Does he have the guts to take Cooper on?
I like Jerry Maynard. He was elected county-wide as an at-large council member, is a minister, and is more sensible than Cooper. He is not a super-liberal, so he could win the general. But he is more liberal than Cooper.
Please someone step up and run. And please also call Cooper's office telling him you will support a primary challenger if he doesn't stop blocking health reform.
Mark Rodgers, if you have an insurance policy you are already paying over a $1,000 if you have a family policy, to pay for health care provided to people like Jeri Thompson who either can't or don't pay for themselves.
Health reform would mean you are getting more for your money, fewer people sneezing their germs on you, food service workers who go to the doctor instead of to work, etc.
You will also be getting fewer babies dying and more cancer patients surviving.
Mark, I'd check your policy anyway. You could easily be one of many Americans who lose it all with one catastrophe.
Since when does "health reform" mean "we've got to pass the first bill we put on the table?" I have trouble believing that the only way we can reform the insurance industry is by passing a bill that nobody seems to know anything about. Why the hurry? Why does it have to be passed yesterday to be effective?
Hey Nashville Scene,
Not all your readers share your liberal views and are offended by your built-in bias in this article. The conservatives are not the bad guys, but rather watchdogs of the Republic. In case you've forgotten, this isn't the middle east or North Korea, and we didn't sign on for a totalitarian government in this country. Since that's what Obama intends to do to "remake America" in his ideological image of a big brother, Marxist utopia, then he will have to do so over my dead body, and I suspect over the bodies of many millions like me who intend to do our part to save the Republic from being destroyed by a neo-Marxist president and his radical czars and cabinet secretaries. Ya'll thought Bush was a dictator? Obama makes Bush look like an anarchist. This is the Second American Revolution, Nashville. Let's hope we can bring the big and little tyrants down without firing a shot. God help America. Let's throw the bastards out in 2010 and 2012, that is unless Obama's power cabal has the election system rigged, and then it will have to be an all out war on tyranny as our Founding Fathers had to do. "I will oppose this tyranny at the threshold, though the fabric of liberty fall and I perish in its ruin." Where is Samuel Adams when we need him?
"These 4 guys were born on third base and are going through life thinking they hit a triple."
What "base" anyone else was born on doesn't mean you are entitled to any handout paid for out of their pocket.
"Bush, Cheney, Clement, Cooper - all conservatives who want limited government safety nets. Government, they say, should get out of the way so that Bubba can be highly successful people like these four. Can you imagine where these 4 guys would be if they weren't born into privilege? These 4 guys were born on third base and are going through life thinking they hit a triple."
Well actually monkeyboy Bush, & Cheney Tripled the size of government, and expanded it to SS levels of power. Limited govenment is 100% BS propaganda with these guys. It's anything but.. The mega corporations just use government to shut down the smaller biz or they buy them up with a little help from the private Federal Reserve. There by shutting down Bubba. To say that Bush is for limited govt is like saying Mike Vick loves PETA.
Most of the Bush power came from trading with Hitler and Daddy heading up the CIA. That even got him a Hardvard MBA and a ticket to Bilderburg and Scull & Bones.
ANd Yeah Coooper voted for the Bush/Obama Banker Takeover bill so he is in the club
Well we are not going to get any reform of any kind till we wake up and see how these guys, that are not only "on third base and going through life thinking they hit a triple," are all batting for the same team. AKA The New World Order
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Betty
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