Ratigan’s Smackdown with Betsy McCaughey

“My opinion is not the issue here, but to distort the facts in order to pursue some political agenda that is to the detriment of this country is borderline treasonous, if you ask me.” – Dylan Ratigan

Dylan Ratigan, who can be as rude as anyone in cable, which was witnessed yesterday when he went over the top on Mark McKinnon, is proving to be an interesting host with serious potential, provided his instincts for the jugular are honed. As off the mark as he was yesterday, today he found a perfect target in Betsy McCaughey’s blathering and blew it to smithereens.

Michelle Cottle has a profile of Ms. McCaughey (pronounced McCoy) whose sub-header reads: The never-ending lunacy of Betsy McCaughey. Cottle links to McCaughey’s take down of Hillarycare back in 1994, a piece that gives you an idea of her irrationality.

[...] … While not everything she says is off the mark, says Gail Wilensky, one of McCaughey’s conservative critics, “It’s very frustrating to see somebody who makes outrageous statements that bear no relationship to reality receive so much attention.” Yes, McCaughey professes to have read the legislation currently circulating, and, as in 1994, she brandishes that fact like a talisman that can dispel any conflicting viewpoint. But, also as in 1994, she spins out an indefensibly sinister, apocalyptic translation of the text that no amount of countervailing evidence can shake. Thus, health care adviser Emanuel’s theoretical writings about how to allocate scarce resources, such as human organs, morph into McCaughey’s conviction that Obama’s “deadly doctor” advocates denying treatment to the elderly and infirm on cost-benefit grounds. Likewise, a database to coordinate information on which treatments work best for which patients–an initiative supported by wonks across the political spectrum–is seen by McCaughey as the first step toward government-programmed computers ordering doctors how to do their jobs. Within the self-styled empiricist resides the mind of a pathological alarmist. …

The woman who was instrumental in helping bring down Clinton’s healthcare plan in the 1990s is enjoying her current reprise on the same subject, but this time there is cable news and new media to make sure her lies and distortions don’t go unchecked. However, it’s a full time job as we all saw this summer, when McCaughey’s “death panels” hijacked the health care debate and put Obama and the Democrats on the defensive until fall, because they didn’t see it coming. She may be wacky (read: pathological right wing liar), but she’s loud, knows how to craft a soundbite that sticks, with her aim at perception pinpoint, which often wins where political debate is concerned, regardless that facts and reality lie well beyond.