The Tolbert Report

If you were curious where Fox News contributor Dick Morris stands on the Health Care Bill, he cleared it up today at an Americans for Prosperity Rally in Little Rock. He is against it. Surprise!

Morris threw out the red meat to the crowd after first being worked up to a frenzy by state coordinator for AFP Teresa Oelke, neurologist Dr. Kathy Chenault, and president of 60plus Jim Martin (who as an uncanny resemblance to Ted Turner.)

Morris joked about having been to the state capital before when he worked as an advisor to Bill Clinton’s President Campaign and noted how different the circumstance are now. Morris encouraged the crowd to make it clear to Sen. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln that they oppose the health care bill. A funny moment came when Morris kept referring to the poll between Lincoln and her Republican opponent “Bennett.” I think he meant Gilbert Baker but perhaps there is another candidate out there named Bennett who is thinking of joining the crowd.

“Mrs. Lincoln, if you want to know how to go from two points ahead to thirteen points back, vote yes (to the health care bill,)” said Morris.  I have no idea what poll shows Lincoln two points up but fair point anyway I suppose. Morris was referring to a recent Zogby poll which shows Lincoln only two points ahead of Baker 41% to 39% but pulling way ahead of State Sen. Kim Hendren 45% to 29%.

Morris really got the crowd fired up when he started talking about illegal immigration saying he preferred that they “be covered by a prison policy not by us.” He emphasized the impossibility of covering 36 million new people while at the same time lowering costs. “What they are going to do is to start saying ‘No,’” said Morris. “The fact is they are going to start saying ‘No, you can’t have this knee replacement. You can’t have this hip replacement. You’re an 80 year old overweight diabetic who smokes and I am sorry you can’t have that bypass surgery. And I know you are going to die but that is just too bad.’”

“How are you going to spend less on health care when your population is getting older,” asked Morris. “Who are you kidding? You are going to need more doctors, more nurses. We need more equipment. And thank God this country can afford it.”

But Mariah Hatta, Executive Director of the Democrat Party of Arkansas is not buying it. “Of course Dick Morris is going to say outrageous, extremist things, whether he believes it or not,” said Hatta in a release today. ”He’s trying to earn a living as a speaker-for-hire so he can pay down his $1.5 million tax lien. Big shots like him think they can get away without paying their taxes unlike the rest of us, but he got caught. Now, he’ll say anything he’s paid to.”