Chris's Rants: Last Gasp of a Lame Duck

Here's some more reaction from last night's SOTU (emphasis mine).

Rep. John Conyers:

This year's energy independence initiative is staggering in its insincerity. A President of and by Big Oil will break America's addiction to it? It's like a drug dealer offering to be your substance abuse counselor. It's just not going to happen.

A President who has consistently cut education spending and who reneged on his promise to fund his No Child Left Behind Program (previously touted in another fanciful address), now wants to fund Math and Science Education. Does anyone believe him?

In the most outlandish flight of fancy, the President claimed the federal government was meeting its responsibility to provide insurance to the poor and the elderly. I guess that depends on how you define poor. The forty million uninsured in this country would be shocked at this assertion. I guess it also depends on how you define elderly. Visit a pharmacy this week and find out how the President's prescription drug plan is working out for them.

I take great comfort in the fact that a majority of Americans no longer agree with the President or trust him. The charade is over. Republicans are running out of time and long ago ran out of ideas, and it is time for a change. I agree with the President that this year we will make choices that will determine the future of our country. I believe Americans will decide to put a check and balance on an out of control Republican party.

And I believe you just heard the last gasp of a lame duck.

Sen. Reid:

Finally George Bush's healthcare policies are just more Orwellian doublespeak: instead of real solutions, he offer an attempt to cut the poor from Medicaid; instead of a Medicare Drug Benefit, a program that denies our seniors their medicine. Americans need real reform that makes healthcare less expensive and more accessible, not corporate giveaways to lobbyists, drug companies, HMOs, and special interests.

Former Rep. Bob Barr (yes, he is a Republican):

Although the President continues to insist that his Administration does and will continue to protect the civil liberties of Americans, repeatedly saying it is so does not make it so. Neither continuing to illegally eavesdrop on our conversations, nor gathering evidence on citizens without any suspicion they have done anything wrong, is an action that protects civil liberties.

Sen. Feingold: