Your two lips are dripping honey, ah

How can you tell Dick Morris is lying? He writes an editorial:

As the suicidal Democratic congressmen proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama health care reform despite the drubbing their party took in the '09 elections, the president trotted out the endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support.

Um, yeah. Say, Dick. Go ahead, say Dick, because you are. Seriously, I appreciate the concern trollphrase "suicidal Democratic congressmen", but first, some of them are women, and I do agree with you, some of them are suicidal but for far different reasons that you propose. And "drubbing their party took..."? Yes, we lost 2 Governors, which has NO Federal impact, but gained 2 Congresspersons, which does. Say Dick.

Sadly, Dick goes on:

•The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5 percent to 6 percent reductions in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill ... or else!

So Congress was brave when they refused to let physician reimbursements be cut, but when Obama does it, it's blackmail. I see, Congress good, Obama bad. Say Dick.

But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues.

Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medi-gap, but the AARP – which supposedly represents them – will make more money. (If this galls you, join the American Seniors Association, the alternative group. Contact sbarton@americanseniors.org.

Not so fast, Sparky. Medicare advantage offers exactly the same coverage Medicare offers, with a few extra meaningless perks, yet bills the government higher rates. And has higher overheads. Who wins? Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Aetna, that's who. So when Morris et al complain about cuts in Medicare to scare seniors, what they're talking about is stopping the taxpayer support for insurance companies profiting on what Medicare gives seniors for free.

Oh, and about the American Seniors Association? From Avenging Angel's diary at Kos:

A little digging into Stuart Barton's 60,000 member American Seniors Association would have made that clear. Founded in 2005 by Barton's father Jerry as the National Association for Senior Concerns (NASCON), the group targeted the "radical agenda" of the AARP. Topping its program is Social Security privatization, hard-line opposition to immigration reform, and an overhaul of Medicare, which Barton deemed "the most abused and wasteful of all federal programs that could be bankrupt even before Social Security." As its press page shows, the ASA is a right-wing talking point regurgitation machine:

"On page 425 of the bill, a person must go to counseling every five years to basically learn how to die," Barton says. "As I read this and hear about no preventative care, it dawned on me that Obama's plan is to let all these baby boomers die quicker so we don't have to care for them in old age."

The ASA's "Four Pillars," also extolled by former Hollywood Squares game show host and honorary chairman Peter Marshall, are a hardliner's dream and a senior citizen's nightmare:

Medicare Reform: This most abused and wasteful of all federal programs could be bankrupt before the Social Security System runs dry!
Social Security Reform: Voluntary personal accounts safe from government meddling must be approved providing senior citizens options and keeping the system solvent.
Illegal Aliens: Lawbreakers do not deserve Social Security payments intended for you and your family who are citizens.
Tax Reform: An easily understood and simplified tax code in the form of the Fair Tax.

Swell. Remember Little Red Riding Hood? Granny, meet fox (pun fully intended).

But you get the idea. Dick Morris will lie, say anything anyone wants him to, as long as he has toes to suck:

On the eve of the Democratic Convention in September 1996, Morris was forced to resign as head of Pres. Clinton’s reelection campaign after Sherry Rowlands, a call girl with whom he had a long-term for-pay relationship, sold her story to the supermarket tabloid “The Star” for around $50,000. In the article, Rowlands revealed that Morris had a fetish for toe sucking, a fact that will always have a place in the TMI hall of fame.

She also offered a glimpse into Morris’ marriage that may have some saliency today, if his phone number does appear on Palfrey’s list:

Asked about Morris’s wife, Rowlands said: “I’m sure this is hurting her, and was not meant to hurt her. He’s the one who hurt her, not me. . . . He loves his wife — that’s why he would pay me . . . to come see him. That makes him feel he is not cheating on his wife. This is business as long as he’s paying for it.”

Shorter: It isn’t adultery if you pay for it.

Since the Clintons kicked him out, Morris has earned millions as a professional Clinton hater inside the GOP noise machine. He bloviates regularly on the Fox News Channel, writes a syndicated column for the Fox aligned New York Post and has authored several books trashing the senator and ex-president.

He also converted to Catholicism.

Bastard.

After all the bad Dick, here's some good Dick: Dick Dale