Megan, just admit it

You read this blog.

However, I am also not prepared to get all huffy and indignant because conservatives dared to question whether Graeme Frost needed S-Chip. Obviously, nut jobs harassing the Frosts, or calling employers, or performing all of the other nutty invasions of privacy that I have read about, are vile creatures who have gone far, far beyond the bounds of human decency, with less reason than is generally offered by the perpatrator of the latest road rage indignity. But a number of people seem to believe that the very act of questioning whether Graeme Frost really needed the state to pay for his health care is somehow tantamount to accusing him of mopery while simultaneously suggesting that he be chopped up into small pieces and served flambeed to a party of laughing Republicans along with their Bébé Irakien en Croute.

Maybe, Megan, it's possible to make a case against S-CHIP without going after crippled kids? Oh, but the Dems are the truly bad ones, cause they started it by giving the kid a platform to speak out.

The reason that Democrats put him up on the radio in the first place is that they thought Graeme Frost's need was a better argument for S-Chip than any boring old policy discussion. Well, if you make Graeme Frost's needs the measure of the program's success, then you can expect the program's opponents to question Graeme Frost's needs.

Democrats put him on the radio, of course, precisely because they expected him to be some sort of trump card whose need could not successfully be challenged. And in fact, I think they succeeded. But children should not be played like trump cards.

Yeah, how dare the Dems put a human face on an issue affecting actual humans? This isn't Reagan's non-existent welfare queen or Bush's snowflake babies. Graeme Frost wasn't being manipulative, he was being honest. The Dems were minorly manipulative, but they were not dishonest. That's why the lies are now flying from the right, because his case is real, the facts are true, and there's no response available except attacking the messenger. That you don't find this tact distasteful to its core does not speak well of you, Megan.

Oh, and yeah, Radiohead are a great band. Amazing scoop, Mizz Woodward.

Update:

In response to Instaputz, Megan sez

It's a fair point; I suppose, in the end, it's a judgement call. I think that making this a loud debate frames Republicans as people who want to deny health care to children. On the other hand, I think that if Republicans had let S-Chip go through, that would rob the Democrats of many of their poster children for a broader national system next year. I'm sympathetic to the arguments about creeping socialism, etc; but ultimately I think that this political battle is lost, so it's best to cede quickly.

On the other hand, as I've stated, I'm broadly sympathetic to the goal of providing health care and other goods to children, so perhaps your mileage will vary.

Which seems to amount to "I'm in publicly in favor of helping kids, but providing health care to people is still 'creeping socialism'. If only the Dems hadn't been so smart as to put a human face on the issue... I mean, the Dems are dishonest and want to give my money to someone who is not me."