The National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez has an odd threshold for outrage.
A couple years ago, after Mel Gibson made remarks denying the magnitude of the Holocaust [1], she said, "I give the guy the benefit of the doubt." [2]
But when our own Roger Hickey said, [3] "One hundred and fifty-six House Members declared themselves enemies of children and families" by denying health insurance to nearly 5 million kids, Lopez publicly put that in her "Starkly Outrageous File." [4]
Million of kids without health insurance? No outrage there.
Lopez's fellow National Review editors [5] tried to soothe nervous Republicans after the vote to sustain Bush's veto, arguing that Republicans and conservatives remain in a strong position on health care issues in general.
Of course, no poll backs up that claim. A recent survey taken during the children's health insurance debate found only 26% of the country trusts Republicans over Democrats to improve health care. [6]
And while the National Review assures conservatives that "Universal coverage, [the Democrats'] ideal, is not the public’s greatest concern," in fact 60 percent of Americans -- including nearly half of Republicans -- not only want our government to guarantee health coverage for everyone [7], but are willing to pay more in taxes to achieve it.
Even larger numbers than that support expanding SCHIP [8] to cover millions more kids.
It's a wild guess, but I bet more Americans will be outraged at the enemies of working families who need health insurance, than at those who accurately call them, "enemies."
Links:
[1] http://www.hecklerspray.com/mel-gibson-sorry-for-all-the-boozy-jew-slagging-and-that/20064197.php
[2] http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzUyOTA3N2VmMmY2ODc4NzhmM2MyNTMxYzY5ZTkyNDc=
[3] http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/schip_vote_record_clear
[4] http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2ZiOWJiZjY4ZWIyMDNhYjA3ZTdiZTdiYzYwOGQxMDU=
[5] http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDVlNDQ2ZjcxOTM5NTFkMzRkNzgzM2E1ZjA3MGI4NGQ=
[6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_100107.html
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/washington/02poll.html?pagewanted=print
[8] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/17/opinion/polls/main3378278.shtml