Midweek briefing

Strange bedfellows

Here’s how weird the health-care debate has become: President Barack Obama and his leftist chums are linking hands with the pharmaceutical industry and Wal-Mart to push through nationalized health care.

The drug-industry trade group PhRMA is stepping forward to pitch in $150 million to an advertising campaign supporting the president’s health-care reform bid. Wal-Mart jumped onboard two weeks ago (and has been behind the push for some two years). Drug companies and Wal-Mart long have been viewed by the liberal crowd as the embodiment of evil, ruthless corporate empires with the morals of pushers and pimps.

But in the red-light district that is Beltway politics, hooking up with the enemy is all part of the seamless life of unseemly deal-making. Wal-Mart digs nationalized health care because its competitors can’t hang when saddled with the additional costs of an insurance mandate. PhRMA gets a cap on pharmaceutical savings and guarantees from the feds that they will neither price-fix nor import lower-cost drugs from Canada.

And the president gets, he hopes, nationalized health care. So now you know why he’s puffing that Camel filter.

Healthy debate

A growing source of frustration for Obama and the gang is the fact that rabble-rousers among the senior set are loathe to relinquish their aversion to universal health care. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls those stoking the furor over reform “unAmerican,” which says much about her definition of the term.

The action here has not been so thick as elsewhere, but Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, has been bold enough to venture into the town hall cauldron, holding a meeting last night (see story, Page A1). Give Perriello and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., credit for braving the so-called mobs. Cardin took a tongue-lashing Monday that was all the rage on cable news.

But take notice of how some among their elected brethren respond to people exercising their free-speech rights. It’s OK when fists are shaking over war in Iraq, but not when the sign-waving is over fears that reform (a loose use of the term) will bankrupt the country, shatter doctor-patient relationships and put the government in charge of treatment. Painting a collection of riled grandmas and working stiffs as mobs hardly assuages the worries. Nor has it been effective in silencing them.

Fair fun

The Augusta County Fair kicked off Tuesday at Expoland in Fishersville. It’s the crowning event of the summer, and a unique slice of the central Shenandoah Valley, featuring everything from dog shows and tractor pulls to Motocross races and a demolition derby, along with standards such as carnival rides and great eats.

New to the event that ends Saturday is the Hansens Spectacular Circus Thrill Show and Swifty Swine Productions’ pig races (yes, really). And, of course, the Chainsaw Chix will be there to carve up their usual array of wild art. Now, be honest, where else can you get that kind of entertainment?

Tonight is The News Virginian Night, so swing by our booth to sign up for subscriptions, give us news tips or an earful or just say hello to some among the gang who produce the newspaper and deliver it to doorsteps each day. We’ll look forward to seeing you.