Leave it to the Professionals

Republican leaders are furious with the Democrat's shameless exploitation of children to force an overturn of the President's veto of the SCHIP health care bill for poor children.

It began when the Democrats used 12 year old Graeme Frost to rebut the President's Saturday radio address two weeks ago. Not only does sending a 12 year old up against the President put the President at an unfair intellectual disadvantage, conservative pundits argued that it was shameless to exploit a child in that way and expose him to a finely honed and shameless lie machine - their own, which they soon unleashed on young Graeme and his family. Seriously, these people have called war heroes in wheelchairs cowards, why would a 12 year old and his family think they were safe?

They then turned their eyes on other Graeme's around the country. One 2 year old child in St. Petersburg, FL appeared in a television commercial describing how SCHIP paid for her life saving heart surgery. House Republican leader John Boehner (a triumph for truth in naming) called it a "despicable ad that exploits a two-year-old girl with a serious heart ailment."

If you're scoring at home, it's not despicable to deny that child life saving heart surgery, but it is despicable to tell people about it - because that makes it really hard to vote on the record twice against the program. That's the beauty of the veto. Without SCHIP, more of these children will die and you won't have to worry about them appearing in commercials.

For using children to remind voters of that thing Republicans are doing, Republicans are accusing Democrats of using children as political shields. It evokes memories of Saddam Hussein's human shields during the first Iraq War - you remember the one where Cheney said invading and occupying Baghdad would be, well, crazy. But let's not forget, Saddam is a friend of the family.

It should never be suggested that this administration has ever people as pawns in a political debate.

Well, maybe just a little.

21 of the most adorable political shields in the world. Snowflake babies to show how selfish people with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and countless other diseases were for supporting research that could if not cure their disease cure the next generation of people with their disease. Just remember,'the President is in no way using those children to justify a shameless cave-in to religious conservatives.