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Neil Zevnik: Perilous Journey: Surviving an Insanely Healthy Food Regimen & Intense Training Top
Something new -- check out my website at neilzevnik.com Let's be honest, as a private chef to the definitely rich and occasionally famous, I have become happily and inevitably accustomed to eating extremely well. And what is an excellent meal without a suitably satisfying glass (or three) of an intriguing red wine? So what happens when said private chef, in his quest to achieve a healthier, firmer, leaner, stronger, and (confess it) more desirable bod, surrrenders himself into the hands of a talented private trainer, who dictates a rigorous exercise regimen and a restrictive and highly specific food plan? My guess would be that an appalling level of deprivation of the finer senses and exhaustion of the aging body will be the result! And yes, I have just embarked upon such an adventure. Two Boot Camp sessions a week, two private training sessions a week, and a carefully orchestrated but oh-so-tedious food regimen that utterly forbids alcohol of any kind, even that derived from the noble grape. In the interests of full disclosure, I will reveal that I have already been working out with my trainer for some time. But now we are kicking it WAY up, and I am training alongside the members of his triathlon team, so the demands and intensity levels are multiplying like the biblical loaves and fishes. My friend Valli Herman (hotel reviewer for the Los Angeles Times and others), after making the appropriately awed and commiseratory comments, suggested that the experience cried out for blogging... so away we go! Here's my battle plan (aside from whining a lot): there's not too much I can do to mitigate the rigors of the physical training -- boot camp is boot camp, no mercy there; and Franco is equally without pity in the gym. But surely I can find a way to translate the bare bones of a specifically modulated food regimen into something that satisfies the palate and the soul in addition to fulfilling the direct nutritional needs of my body -- and without cheating. A formidable challenge! So I'm writing this for all you determined souls out there who are slaving away at your physical improvement, or contemplating beginning such a program. Hopefully we can offer each other support, some good ideas, and a few laughs, swap some horror tales and triumphs, and share our individual journeys to better health and hotter bods... and I promise to discover some tricks to make seriously healthy food also seriously rewarding. Wednesday was my first day. And the worst single day of the week -- boot camp outdoors in the park from 8-9 a.m. , an hour's break to catch my breath (or lay on the ground panting and heaving), then a training session in the gym from 10-11 a.m. -- brutal! Have any of you ever done a boot camp exercise class? If not, believe me, it's exactly what it sounds like... practice drills for high school football are a stroll on the beach compared to this. Non-stop intense cardio activity at an escalating level and pace, resulting in puddles of sweat everywhere you look (if you could see through the sweat pouring down into your eyes). Running laps, walking lunges the length of a football field, jumping jacks and squat leaps, bunny hops and crab crawls, push-ups and planks, sit-ups and leg-raises in every imaginable combination (and some you don't even want to imagine), all executed in relentless succession with only an occasional moment's pause here and there to suck in air and beg for mercy... Then there was the training session. We're now doing single body parts per day -- arms, say, or back, or chest/shoulders -- to achieve strength and mass. In other words, we torture that one body part until it cries uncle and refuses to function any further. Wednesday was legs... and yes, afterwards I looked like a sailor who just got off a rolling, pitching boat after weeks at sea. But enough of the Marquis de Sade aspects of this adventure. Lets talk about the food -- after all, that's what I do for a living, I should be able to work my magic here. There are six "food stations" to the day -- a pre-workout "snack" (he uses this term very loosely), then breakfast, a "snack", lunch, a "snack", dinner, and a final dose of supplements with an optional protein shake if I'm really hungry. Here's what it looks like in all its glory (not): # 1 Rice milk 1 c. / yoghurt 1 c. / fruit L-carnitine 1 tbl. w/ coffee before workout # 2 (breakfast) 1 slice whole grain bread / rice milk 1 c. + 25 grams whey protein / OJ 1 c. / 5 egg whites, 1 yolk Super digestive enzymes, 2 caps DMG 125 mg. Conjugated linoleic acid Zinc 50 g / magnesium 140 mg L-carnitine 1 tab # 3 2 slices bread / vegetable 1 c. / edamame 1 c. or genisoy crisp or lean chicken / avocado ½ # 4 (lunch) turkey wrap (4 oz. turkey, 1 oz. cheese + 2 veggies + mustard) Super digestive enzymes, 2 caps DMG 125 mg. Conjugated linoleic acid magnesium 140 mg # 5 1 fruit / 8 dried apricots / non-fat milk 1 c. or tall non-fat soy latte / avocado ½ # 6 (dinner) 2 slices bread / baked sweet potato or russet potato / veggies + salad / fish 8 oz. / 8 large black olives / 1 fruit / green tea Super digestive enzymes, 2 caps DMG 125 mg. Conjugated linoleic acid magnesium 140 mg # 7 (before bed) If hungry, protein shake B-12, 2.5 g B-6, 100 mg CoQ10, 30 mg Cardio: 30 minutes, three times / first week 40 minutes, three times / second week 50 minutes, three times / thereafter Oh yes, note the "cardio" notation at the end -- sweet... that's in addition to the training sessions of course. One almost begins to think longingly of waterboarding... So that's my "diet" -- horrifying, is it not? When I think of the prime steaks and steamed lobsters and sour-creamed baked potatoes that I would like to be devouring -- well, it's enough to make a grown man weep for sure. I've done the bare bones of it (and that's what it is, bare bones) for 2 days; now I propose to shake it up a little, and still keep it everything that Franco intends it to be. So that will be my journey and my adventure: survive and triumph with the training regimen, and coax the food plan into a satisfying and even delightful gratification that leads me to my goal of a healthier, hotter bod. Wanna join me?
 
Mark Goulston, M.D.: Michael Jackson, Not Guilty; You and Me, Guilty Top
A "used to be" famous person once told me: "When you go from somebody to anybody, it's the same as being nobody." If that's true, then imagine what it's like when you go from "somebody" to being laughed at as a freak. I wonder what the toll on someone's peace of mind, subsequent stress level and need to take meds to deal with it would be when a world that used to idolize you ridicules you as a screwball. In Hamlet Shakespeare wrote that: "The lady doth protest too much." It's understandable that the untimely death of the "King of Pop" would generate such an emotional reaction since Michael Jackson's life, accomplishments and setbacks have occurred alongside our own. I just wonder how much of the outpouring that we see and that we may feel coming from within ourselves is fueled by a touch of guilt that maybe our laughing and parodying of him over the past decade may have contributed to what finally made his heart give out. Whatever the case, it appears that his memory will be less about the person whom we felt embarrased for and more about the superstar who "thrilled" us for so long. So long Michael. May you rest in peace and I hope that when you run into Elvis and Frank Sinatra you're jammin away. More on Michael Jackson
 
Beth Broderick: The Betrayed Top
The headlines are abuzz with the gleeful news that yet another man has betrayed yet another woman. Governor Sanford let loose with a 20-minute statement that was as selfish and self-pitying as any I have heard, well on the nightly news that is. I have unfortunately heard it before and I can tell you from experience that the pain is excruciating, the shame enveloping, and the damage immeasurable. Those thoughts and prayers that we are urged to hold for the wife and family? Well, you'd best plan to keep them coming for the next several years, because that is how long it will take them to recover if indeed they ever do. He will be of no use in that process as was made clear by his actions as well as his apology. Clearly, the only person the Governor is sorry for is himself. He seemed to revel in the fact the he alone had the capacity to hurt so many. His Mistress, his Wife, his Sons, his Staff, his State, his Party...they were all given equal value with perhaps a smidgen of empathy for the mistress, she of the" beautiful handheld body parts". Oh the importance of the man! Let us all behold the glorious power of him and his own now infamous body part. Many people seem baffled by the fact that he concocted such an elaborate lie in order to cover his tracks. This does not surprise me at all. It is the hallmark of narcissism, this belief that if he says it then it must be so. Hiking for six days in the Appalachians? Hilarious, really, and doubly hurtful, insinuating as it most certainly did, that we are all fools and that the great legend of his complexity should suffice to explain any action he chooses to take. The larger point it makes is that we really do not matter. The story will keep changing to fit his impression of himself. That loyal wife and those four perfect boys are no match, for the ego of this man...the next JFK no less. What was good enough for Jackie and her kids is good enough for them. They will not get the truth, not ever. They are expected to be consoled by their proximity to the great one. He made a fool of himself to be sure, but she of the" tender lips and gentle touches", that gal made an ass of him. Any woman willing to be an accomplice in the affliction of so much pain upon so many is in it for one thing and it's not a body part. Two words...meal ticket. He reeked of cashola with his two houses and his expensive suits and his penchant for bad poetry. He was an easy mark and she definitely made hers. This woman may or may not be heard from, but you can bet someone is being asked to buy her off and shut her up. It remains to be seen if they will dig down deep enough and soon enough to silence her. The folks around Edwards seem to have made the nincompoop who trapped him and bore his child disappear. I hope for everyone's sake that the team around Sanford will draw the wagons and pony up. When will men ever figure out that this big swinging dick action only makes them into midgets? That the capacity to give and receive love is the only legacy we leave. Ryan O'Neal has proved himself a giant of a man in this same week. He has writ his legacy large with tenderness and courage. He did what a man is supposed to do, what each of us hopes we will do in the face of death. He looked it in the eye and said "no dice pal". You can claim her, but you cannot take her from me. She is the woman I love and she will forever be mine. We grieve with him, but we are happy for them both. We will all die and we all hope that it will be in the embrace of love. That is the one abiding and amazing grace of life on this Earth. Sanford and his ilk will leave a legacy, but they have lost their grace. "I made a mistake" he will say as they all do, and then hang their heads while we are asked to respect their honesty and admire their humility. A word of warning gentlemen, when we say that you are forgiven, we are lying. You have shown yourselves to be true cowards...no amount of prostrating and praying will convince us that you are anything, but weak and careless. There is an old saying in business: "Never trust a man who cheats on his wife". Now this is not meant to apply to the moron who goes to a strip club in Vegas and finds himself carried into the night by a pasty-clad specter of his fading youth. No, they are talking about betrayal and if you will do it to her, then you will do it to them, clearly you will do it to anyone. By now it should go without saying that I have a dog in this hunt. Or rather I married a dog. He has been out of my life for some time now, but I am still struggling with the shame and the sorrow of being lied to for years. I am left to wonder if every instinct I possess is flawed. We are told repeatedly that we make choices in life and that we must take responsibility for them, and so I try to hold myself up to the light to see what darkness lies within that could have drawn this man to me. How stupid must I be to have bought into the lies, worrying for his well-being while sacrificing my own? Pretty damned stupid is the conclusion I usually draw and then I try to forgive myself, try being the operative word here. Mostly I just get on with it, with the business of the every day and I do that pretty well. I continue to care for the people I love and dedicate myself to the work that inspires me and I try to laugh as often as possible at myself and at this crazy mixed up world. Life goes on and I am grateful for the love and support of so many in mine. I am lucky and I know it, but I am not over it and I wonder will I ever be? Watching that press conference was a trip down a highway of hurt. I have stumbled through the last two days with my gaze averted, trying to swallow the lump in my throat, trying to breathe through the re-awakened agony of it all. This much I know. He will say that he loves his wife, but she will never believe him. He can say that he never meant to hurt his sons, but he left them fatherless on Father's Day and so they know that is not true. I actually feel sorry for my ex-husband as I do for this Governor and for all of the men who have shamed themselves and their families, because they will be haunted by this fact for the rest of their days. We do not know you and deep down we now believe that we never did. How sad that in the pursuit of your ego and the vision of yourself as a man of power, you have lost both. All eyes are on this poor wretch from South Carolina, but he will soon find that he has become invisible. It is he who has been betrayed. More on Marriage
 
'Jena 6' beating case wraps up with plea deal Top
JENA, La. — Five members of the Jena Six pleaded no contest Friday to misdemeanor simple battery and won't serve jail time, ending a case that thrust a small Louisiana town into the national spotlight and sparked a massive civil rights demonstration. State District Judge Tom Yeager then sentenced the five, standing quietly surrounded by their lawyers, to seven days unsupervised probation and fined $500. It was a far less severe end to their cases than seemed possible when the six students _ all of whom are black _ were initially charged with attempted murder in the 2006 attack on Justin Barker, a white classmate. They became known as the "Jena Six," after the central Louisiana town where the beating happened. "I just thank God that it's all over," said John Jenkins, father of Carwin Jones. "It's been a long, painful journey for everyone on both sides of this thing." Barker and his family and friends sat without expression throughout the hearing. Barker's attorney said he graduated and is now an oil field worker. The family did not comment. As part of the deal, one of the attorneys read a statement from the five defendants in which they said they knew of nothing Barker had done to provoke the attack. "To be clear, not one of us heard Justin use any slur or say anything that justified Mychal Bell attacking Justin nor did any of us see Justin do anything that would cause Mychal to react," the statement said. The statement also expressed sympathy for Barker and his family, and acknowledged the past 2 1/2 years had "caused Justin and his parents tremendous pain and suffering, much of which has gone unrecognized." Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack, but was discharged and attended a school event the next night. By pleading no contest, the five do not admit guilt but acknowledge prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction. LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters said in a statement that he could have won convictions but wanted to end the matter for Barker. Charges against Jones, Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw had previously been reduced from attempted murder to aggravated second-degree battery. All but Shaw were assessed $500 in court costs. The judge did not tack that punishment on to Shaw's case because he stayed in jail for almost seven months, unable to raise bail, following his initial arrest. Each paid the fine and court costs immediately. The payment of restitution to Barker was also part of the deal, but the amount was not released. A lawsuit filed by Barker against the group was also settled Friday, though the terms were confidential. The only member of the group to serve jail time was Bell, who pleaded guilty in December 2007 to second-degree battery and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Four of Friday's defendants have graduated from high school, and all are attending or getting ready to attend college. Purvis has completed his first year and Bell is planning to attend college this fall. Beard is a senior in high school in Connecticut. "They can move along with their lives," said Bailey's attorney, James Boren. "And because there are no felonies they can look forward to full lives ahead." The severity of the original charges brought widespread criticism and eventually led more than 20,000 people to converge in September 2007 on the tiny town of Jena for a major civil rights march. Some $275,000 was raised to hire a large defense team for the six, said Beard's attorney, David Utter. Racial tensions at Jena High School reportedly grew in the months before the attack. Several months prior to the attack, nooses were hung in a tree on the campus, sparking outrage in the black community. Residents said there were fights, but nothing too serious until December 2006 when Barker was attacked. "Everybody pointed a finger at Jena during this, but this happens to African-American males across the country," Utter said. "These young men were lucky that people cared and donated money so they could afford good attorneys. That made the difference."
 
Jonathan A. Schein: Don't Write Off New York Too Fast Top
At the New York Real Estate Economic Survival Kit Conference this week in Manhattan, some of the city's biggest names gave some well needed perspective about what we're really going through and where we could end up. I had the honor to host Peter Malkin, Chairman of Wien and Malkin LLC and owner of the Empire State Building and Richard LeFrak, Chairman and CEO of the LeFrak Organization and owner of LeFrak City shared insights about the market in a rarely seen forum. Also participating on this panel were Michael Katz, Co-CEO of Sterling Equities and owner of the New York Mets, Howard J. Rubenstein, PR Guru and President of Rubenstein Associates and David Levinson, Chairman and CEO of L & L Holdings which owns many A-list office buildings in New York City. The amount of history their respective firms represent is over 250 years of continuous activity in the New York marketplace and these principals have an enormous amount of experience to reflect upon. And what is their take on the market at this time? First, they acknowledge that this is one of the deepest drops in activity and property values in a very long time. Perhaps one of the worst in their careers. Secondly, the lack of liquidity from the financial sector is the real depressing factor and when it loosens up will determine when we're going to pull out of it. The next 24 months, it was agreed, will be the worst of it all based on the billions of dollars of commercial real estate loans coming due. However, each and every one of these people agreed that this is also one of the most opportunistic times to be in the market as a buyer. Profits and growth are made on the "buy" and based on the current valuation of real estate, this may one of the best times to make acquisitions. Will it be easy? Not at all. But if you consider the impact these business leaders have had over a very long period of time, their perspective is something to really learn from. Jonathan A. Schein is the publisher of NYinc magazine(nyinc.com) and New York House Magazine(newyorkhousemagazine.com). More on Real Estate
 
Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [83] -- Dan Froomkin's Final WashingtonPost.com Column Top
It's been a crazy rollercoaster of a week, and at the end of it, California can proudly state that not only do we no longer have the most embarrassing governor in the country, we are not even in the top three anymore! With the antics of Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, and (now) Mark Sanford, we've slipped into fourth place in the state comedians look to for jokes. Or course, some might argue that Spitzer doesn't belong in that category since he's no longer governor of New York, but then the guy who replaced him started his term by admitting his own bedroom wandering, so I'm still going to include New York. Speaking of New York craziness, Albany appears to be mired in a schoolyard spat of its own, as duelling senates tried to hold two independent sessions (one Republican-led, one Democratically-led, both with gavels) -- from the same room . You just can't make this stuff up, folks. But back to Sanford's problems for a moment, because Salon's War Room gave their Quote Of The Day to anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist for his take on Sanford's affair , which simply must be reproduced here for your enjoyment: "It does indicate that men who oppose federal spending at the local level are irresistible to women." Um, OK. In other news, Rhode Island is getting a lot closer to changing their name. A bit of trivia: the smallest state in the Union has the longest official name. "The State Of Rhode Island And Providence Plantations" has always been their official name, but now a movement is on to pare this back to "The State Of Rhode Island" instead. Trivia fans everywhere await the outcome with bated breath. But there was also sadness this week, and I'm not talking about the deaths of entertainment icons from the 1970s. I am talking about the WashingtonPost.com website, which has booted out one of the best bloggers on the web. Dan Froomkin's "White House Watch" column today will be the last one that appears on WashingtonPost.com. Froomkin has expressed interest in possibly moving the column elsewhere and continuing it, and I consider this a test of whether newspapers are (a.) smart enough to realize this is the way to modernize and move into the future of journalism, or (b.) dumb as a bag of hammers. WashingtonPost.com has obviously chosen the (b.) route. Because Froomkin's column is a shining example of how newspapers could migrate from their print business model to the more interactive web-based model they need to be in to survive. Froomkin was fired, it was announced, because his "ratings" had dropped after Obama was elected. This is utter hogwash. In the first place, his column "White House Watch" (it started as "White House Briefing" but was changed later) was dedicated to putting the executive branch under a microscope and reporting what was there. Of course, the Bush White House was more fertile ground for this, especially towards the end. But Froomkin did not back off from examining Obama's White House, and has been severely critical of Obama's decisions on secrecy and openness and torture and accountability. The real reason his numbers dropped is that the editors stopped putting a link to his column on their front page. When Froomkin got progressively harder and harder to find, fewer and fewer people found him. In other words, his ratings dropped because they didn't feature him as prominently anymore. This is the new online reality -- your hit count depends on a link on the front page of the site. The more prominent, the higher your hitcount will be. But dark suspicions have been raised (mostly by his loyal readers) that Froomkin was fired because he dared to contradict one of the very conservative op-ed writers on the Washington Post payroll (the two entities, Washington Post and WashingtonPost.com are supposedly "separate," I should mention). The Washington Post has become a safe haven for such ultra-conservative commentators (they not only have an ex-Bush speechwriter, but they also hired William Kristol after the New York Times got tired of him being so wrong so often). So, in keeping with this conservative bent, Froomkin had to go. This is pathetic and is an outrage. Anyone who agrees should contact the ombudsman at: ombudsman@washpost.com and let him know how you feel. What is truly pathetic is that the newspaper which a few decades ago brought down an American president is now not even worth reading anymore, because the only thing in it that isn't the equivalent of Fox News is their cartoonist Tom Toles (who is excellent). A bastion of journalism has, quite literally (at least for me) been reduced to a cartoon. Pathetic. Let's see... bring down a government, sell lots of newspapers... pack the staff with neo-cons in possibly the most liberal city in America, get ready for bankruptcy. No wonder newspapers are in such trouble, if this is the way they plan their business models. Anyway, I encourage everyone to read Dan's last column , because come Monday it'll just be an online memory.   Thankfully, we have quite a few impressive Democrats to choose from this week, which means a lot of Honorable Mentions before we get to the main event, awarding the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award. The first Honorable Mention goes to President Obama, for continuing the full-court press on healthcare reform. Obama gave his monthly press conference this week, and strongly defended the concept of a public option in the healthcare debate (no matter what you may have heard in the mainstream media). Then he went on ABC and did a primetime show to drum up further support for his ideas. Obama, it seems to me, has not fully reached his potential in the "bully pulpit" category, but he got a lot closer to that goal this week, and for that he deserves a nod. Also deserving of a nod, although it can be written off as sheer opportunism (for the cynical), is newly-Democratic Senator Arlen Specter, who came out strongly for a public plan in the health insurance debate (not surprisingly) in front of a union crowd. Hey, he may just be trying to hold onto his job, but his support is duly noted nonetheless. It's more than some Democrats can say at this point (more on that in the next section). Senator Charles Schumer has hit his stride as well in the healthcare debate, and for strongly standing up for the public option, Schumer deserves an Honorable Mention as well this week. And, as a surprise for regular readers of this column, I also have to give credit to Majority Leader Harry Reid for saying in his weekly press conference what many Democratic groups have been waiting to hear -- that "bipartisanship" (when it comes to healthcare reform in the Senate) -- at best -- is going to mean "three or four" Republicans vote with Democrats on the issue. Here's his quote: We want to do a bipartisan bill. That's not saying we need half the caucus to come with us. We need about three or four Republican senators to join with us to have a bipartisan bill. That's what we would like. That's my preference. And we're going to continue working on that. I just completed a very, very informative, important caucus. We spent a lot of our time talking about health care. And there was not a single senator said, "Forget working with these clowns, let's just go ahead and go to the reconciliation." Everyone there, liberals, moderates, conservatives in my caucus, said, "Let's try to come up with a bipartisan bill." We're going to continue to go down that road. . . . But remember -- and I don't want to bore everyone with this -- but we have accomplished a great deal. Pundits have said we've accomplished more this first five months than any first-year Congress since Roosevelt -- FDR. We've done some very difficult things, complicated things. And with each one of them, we've need -- we've needed Republican support. We haven't gotten much, but we've gotten enough to get them passed. And that's how I look at this health-care bill. This is actually a pretty bold stance to take, when you consider the wet-noodle-instead-of-a-backbone stance other powerful Democrats have been taking (again, see the next section for details). This is a reversal of the normal state of affairs, since Reid's backbone isn't normally associated with the word "strong," but I do have to give credit where credit has been earned, so Reid wins at least an Honorable Mention this week for (realistically) setting the "bipartisan" bar so low, which should end all that crazy talk about a bill passing with 70 or 80 votes in the Senate (which just ain't gonna happen). Reid also beat back a filibuster attempt this week to get an Obama nominee confirmed, further evidence of spinal growth in the Senate Majority Leader. But the real Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award goes to the people on the front lines of this fight -- the issues advocacy groups who have been putting their money where their convictions are, and have been advertising directly against Democrats (so-called "Democratic" senators in particular) who have come out publicly against the public option. These groups are numerous, and they've all been busy this week. Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) is not only running ads targeting wavering Democrats (whose campaign war chests are suspiciously stuffed with healthcare industry contributions), but also held a rally yesterday on Capitol Hill. Of course, with Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett dying on the same day, it didn't even register on the mainstream media's radar, but I mention it because there's one more Democrat who deserves an Honorable Mention for showing up and talking to the crowd -- Ohio's Senator Sherrod Brown. Here is Brown from the rally : "The goal is not to write a bipartisan bill. The goal is to write a good bill." But HCAN will have to share the MIDOTW award with MoveOn.org , Change Congress , the Progressive Change Campaign Committee , and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). MoveOn and Change Congress are both out with their own ads targeting weak Democrats on healthcare reform, and SEIU is working the phones randomly calling Californians to urge them to let Dianne Feinstein know that her recent remarks were not appreciated (details of all of this stuff are in the next section, by the way). I know SEIU is doing this because I was randomly called myself while writing this today. These groups, and others like them (apologies to any I've missed), are out there in the trenches in the healthcare reform battle. They are raising money and spending it wisely . They are making their voices be heard . Their goal is to put the fear of angry voters in Democrats who take millions from the healthcare industry in order to kill off reform. This is democracy, folks, and sometimes it ain't pretty. The GOP, with millions from people fighting for the status quo, are unleashing their own ads . Which means, like I said, the liberal groups are all out on the front lines fiercely fighting for what they believe is right. Since Democrats in Congress have been rather slow to jump into this battle (or have even jumped in on the wrong side), they deserve commendation, and they all have more than earned their Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award.   I warn you, this is going to be a longer section than usual. Because, sadly, there's a lot of disappointment to be spread around. It seems that Joe Conason has done my work for me this week. Because I really can't add much to his recent column "The Sickening Addiction That May Kill Reform," where he talks about the relationship of Democratic senators opposing a public option to their millions of dollars of campaign contributions from the healthcare industry. He opens his column thusly: If Congress fails to enact health care reform this year -- or if it enacts a sham reform designed to bail out corporate medicine while excluding the "public option" -- then the public will rightly blame Democrats, who have no excuse for failure except their own cowardice and corruption. The punishment inflicted by angry voters is likely to be reduced majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives -- or even the restoration of Republican rule on Capitol Hill. Pretty strong words, and he ends with even stronger: The excuses sound different, but all of these lawmakers have something in common -- namely, their abject dependence on campaign contributions from the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations fighting against real reform. Consider [Mary] Landrieu, a senator from a very poor state whose working-class constituents badly need universal coverage (and many of whom now depend on Medicare, a popular government program). According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog outfit, she has received nearly $1.7 million from corporate medical interests, including hospitals, insurance companies, nursing homes and drug firms, during the course of her political career. The same kind of depressing figures can be found in the campaign filings of many of the Democrats now posing as obstacles to reform, notably including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who has distinguished himself in the most appalling way. The Montana Standard, a news outlet in his home state, found that Baucus has received more campaign money from health and insurance industry donors than any other single member of Congress. "In the past six years," the Standard found, "nearly one-fourth of every dime raised by the Montana senator and his political-action committee has come from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals." Whenever Democratic politicians are confronted with this conflict between the public interest and their private fund-raising, they take offense at the implied insult. They protest, as a spokesman for Sen. Landrieu did, that they make policy decisions based on what is best for the people of their states, "not campaign contributions." But when health reform fails -- or turns into a trough for their contributors, who
 

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