To make matters worse for Republicans who are struggling to get reelected in Kansas this November, the state’s tea party activists are quite upset that their favored extremist, radiologist Milton Wolf, was hit with an ethics investigation during the US Senate primary against Pat Roberts. In fact, they’re so mad about it that headline endorsements from Sarah Palin and Ben Carson can’t persuade them to turn out and vote, much less knock on doors or make phone calls. The only thing that will satisfy them is…well, everything:
In large part, the Tea Party’s demands center on the investigation launched by a Kansas medical ethics board into Wolf’s controversial postings of patient X-Rays and off-color commentary to his Facebook page, which helped sink his campaign when the details of the posts and the investigation were leaked to the press. Conservatives believe the leaks and the probe were politically motivated, and an inappropriate use of a state agency to knock out a political candidate.
“They’ve just done some nasty, ugly, backhanded stuff here and things they shouldn’t be doing, and it’s a frightful despotism,” Rob Wood, another conservative activist engaged in the negotiations, told The Hill.
(Tea party activist Steve) Shute declined to confirm the parameters of the demands from conservatives, but conversations with members of both wings of the party indicate that they include, but aren’t limited to, Brownback intervening to dismiss the ethics investigation into Wolf.
Conservatives are also demanding Anne Hodgdon, a member of the state organization that launched the investigation — and who conservatives believe not only triggered the investigation but leaked the news of it to the press — be removed from her post and barred from ever working again in any state agency.
See, in the tea party mind it’s okay for radiologists to violate HIPAA laws and medical ethics as long as they’re conservatives. It’s not an abuse of power when right wing Republican governors quash investigations into tea party favorites, or fire the investigators, or unconstitutionally ban said investigators from ever working for a state agency again, because ‘real’ abuses of power can only happen to the tea party Republican, and never the other way around. Just ask Lois Lerner how that works.
If you read this and think Schute and his friends sound just like Mississippi challenger Chris McDaniel demanding to have the primary runoff results annulled and himself appointed the winner, you are getting it. That overwhelming sense of entitlement and privilege emanating from the tea party right is not just your imagination.
FYI: It’s HIPAA laws, not “HIPPA.”
Fixed.
Thank you kindly.
You know I worked at a pharmacy call center for years and STILL make that mistake all the time.
I worked in medical transcription for 20 years and had to type the acronym often, yet still had to constantly look it up to verify. Even had to look it up before posting about it here because I still wasn’t 100% sure.
The tea baggers are utterly incapable of responsible governance in a democratic America, which explains why their real desire is to rule rather than govern.
“They’ve just done some nasty, ugly, backhanded stuff here and things they shouldn’t be doing, and it’s a frightful despotism,” Rob Wood, another conservative activist engaged in the negotiations, told The Hill.
Hey, here’s an idea for a new game show, which I offer to TV producers for free: present a Righty with a set of facts or a situation that runs counter to his worldview and ask for his comments. If he can go more than twenty words without saying “tyranny” or “despotism” or “unconstitutional,” he wins.
The producers can rest assured they won’t have to pay more than one contestant in a thousand.
–alopecia
Alternatively, see how many Ronpaulites can talk for thirty seconds without saying the words “fiat currency.”
No, the point of a game show is that there’s a chance a contestant will win. Paulites would all open with “fiat currency” and lose every time.
–alopecia
We make it the bonus round, that way it never pays out.
Sneaky, Osborne. Very sneaky.
I see a bright future for you in Hollywood.
–alopecia