The President’s Nun: Obamacare Scranton Scandal Explodes
(h/t: rain of lead)
By Jeffrey Lord on 10.11.10 @ 6:09AM
Can you say “October Surprise”?
A mushrooming political battle over ObamaCare involving the White House, two incumbent Pennsylvania congressmen, three Catholic hospitals and a nun has just exploded in, of all places, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Charges from the Scranton medical community of intimidation by the Obama White House and its allies are filling the air.
All of this just as Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Scranton today to raise money for one of the participants.
There are two issues at the core of the controversy.
1) ObamaCare and the sale of three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals.
2) The re-election prospects of the two House members, Democrats Paul Kanjorski and Chris Carney, both of whom cast key votes to pass ObamaCare.
Here’s the list of players — major and minor — so far.
- * The President of the United States.
- * The Vice President of the United States.
- * Three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals suddenly for sale.
- * The CEO of the three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals for sale.
- * ObamaCare, otherwise known as “health care reform” or the “Affordable Care Act.”
- * A Catholic nun.
- * Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak.
- * A pen.
- * Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.
- * Time magazine.
- * The Scranton Times.
- * The two Scranton-area House members Kanjorski and Carney, both losing in the polls.
- * U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Jr., a native and resident of Scranton.
- * Congressman Joe Sestak, the Democrats’ nominee for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat.
Where to start? That would be….
The article recaps the ruthless efforts of the White House to suppress all indications from the corporate world, the health care industry, or anywhere else, regarding the negative effects of ZeroCare. The latest example of such strong-arming has cropped up in “the unlikely location of Scranton, Pennsylvania”:
IN THE MIDDLE OF THESE two hotly contested re-election races for a pair of Pennsylvania Democratic congressmen, the controversy first erupted over the suddenly announced sale of three Catholic Hospitals spread out between Paul Kanjorski’s and Chris Carney’s two adjoining congressional districts.
The initial announcement was made by Mercy Health Partners CEO Kevin Cook.
Cook is based in Scranton, while Mercy Partners and the three hospitals up for sale are in fact a subsidiary of the larger Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP) based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The three Catholic hospitals involved are: Mercy Hospital in Scranton; Mercy Special Care Hospital in Nanticoke, both in Kanjorski’s 11th District. And the Mercy Tyler Hospital in Tunkhannock, located in Carney’s adjacent 10th District.
The Cook announcement was big news in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Sisters of Mercy had opened Mercy Hospital in Scranton, a major facility for the city, in 1917 — 93 years earlier. Inevitably it drew media attention. Which is where the plot thickens.
WNEP TV (Channel 16) reporter Jon Meyer filed a story about the sale at 4:40 pm. that afternoon. WNEP TV anchor Paula Giangiacomo led the story on the air by saying that “one big” reason for the sale “is the health care reform bill signed into law this year.” Mercy Health Partners CEO Cook was interviewed on camera along with Sister Marie Parker. When Meyer asked Cook if ObamaCare had anything at all to do with the sale, the CEO replied:
Health care reform is absolutely playing a role. Was it the precipitating factor in this decision? No, but was it a factor in our planning over the next five years? Absolutely.
Notice the use — twice — of the word “absolutely” by Cook, leaving no doubt with viewers that while ObamaCare wasn’t the “precipitating factor” it was “absolutely playing a role…Absolutely” in the decision by Mercy Health Care Partners to put the three hospitals up for sale.
But just 48 hours later, came the effort to flush the truth down the memory hole. Mr. Cook twice issued statements denying his earlier statement about ZeroCare being a major reason for selling the hospitals. A certain Catholic nun, Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association (CHA), weighed in furiously, calling the original story about the reason for the sale of the hospitals “false, misleading, and politically motivated.”
Why hide the reason for the sale of these three hospitals?
And who is Sister Carol Keehan?
One doctor in Scranton — who was deeply disturbed by the announcement — is certain he knows the answer. That answer? Mr. Cook was absolutely right the very first time he spoke to WNEP on camera. Hospitals, said this doctor — frequently run a debt. “What’s different? Why now?” he said in terms of the rationale for selling the Mercy hospitals. The reason is exactly as CEO Cook originally said it was. ObamaCare cuts in Medicare reimbursement have changed the rules so drastically for hospitals “you [Mercy Health Partners] are in an untenable situation,” said this physician. Most hospitals have accumulating debt because of capital investments, says the doctor. But they can’t deal with that debt if in fact their ability to earn money is cut off or drastically reduced over time.
If the doctor is right, and he is not alone in saying this, the proposed sale of the three Mercy hospitals becomes a harbinger of what will happen nationally as a result of ObamaCare slowly tightening its government tentacles over the private health care system. Which means the sale of the three Mercy hospitals has added Scranton to what the Wall Street Journal has already called ObamaCare’s “trail of destruction.”
Ahhhh. But who is Sister Carol Keehan? What’s the big deal here with her? Why would a statement from simple Catholic nun appear to cause so much consternation with Mercy Health Partner CEO Kevin Cook in Scranton, Pennsylvania?
LET’S GO BACK to that presidential signing of the health care reform law. There were 21 very powerful people in that little group who received signing pens from the President. As mentioned that included the Vice President, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy’s widow Victoria Reggie Kennedy. And someone else.
That would be Sister Carol Keehan.
Impressive, no? The Catholic News Agency thought so, and prominently noted the story here. It also noted that Sister Carol was receiving her presidential pen from the President himself because she had been “supporting health care despite bishops’ objections.” The story even pictured the pen itself alongside the presidential seal on the box in which it came, with “Barack Obama” clearly visible scrawled along the side. Meaning, Sister Carol had enough clout to take on the Catholic Bishops on the President’s behalf — and win.
Does the name Bart Stupak ring a bell? The much ballyhooed pro-life Democrat Congressman from Michigan? The Catholic Congressman Bart Stupak who was said to be such a sturdy obstacle to passage of ObamaCare because it would allow abortions? In the aftermath of the ObamaCare passage, Slate came forward to note that a letter signed by “representatives” of Catholic nuns finally swayed Stupak to break his staunch anti-abortion pledge and sign on for ObamaCare with a simple promise of an executive order on abortion, executive orders being overturned by successor presidents with the rapidity of rabbits doing the breeding thing. Wait! Stupak was persuaded by Catholic nuns? Isn’t Sister Carol a …nun? How about that? What a coincidence? Yes indeed, the letter in question was signed — solo — by Sister Carol.
Tags: Abortion, Bart Stupak, Catholic Church, Joe Biden, Obamacare, Pennsylvania
Okay, not a catholic at all here, but isn’t the Catholic Church still staunchly against abortion? If it his, how the heck is this “nun” still getting communion?
There has been some serious nun-sense in these parts as well.
It appears in a letter to Rep. Joe Cortnoy from a group called the “Leadership Council of Aging Organizations” that the so-called “Catholic Health Association”
has aligned itself with groups such as AFSCME and the “Gray Panthers” in support of the sham that is Obamacare.
@ PaladinPhil:
Perhaps the disease of Social Justice is at play? I am not Catholic either, so this is mostly conjecture based on my in-laws who are very devout Catholics, and are into Social Justice.
@ Bumr50:
Don’t forget Andy Griffith.
@ PaladinPhil:
I’ve never uunderstood how radical pro-abortionists like nancy Pelosie and Ted Kennedy were still considered Catholics. As far as I can tell, they don’t believe anything that the Catholic Church teaches. “Catholic” is a pose that they take for votes, just as Obama pretended to be a “Christian” at the Racist Church he attended for 20 years. They don’t believe anything but Orthodox Leftism, whatever they claim to the voters.
@ Iron Fist:
Didn’t bella-pelosi lecture the Church at one point to justify her support of abortion?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,411101,00.html
Off-topic, but after an absence of 104 (!) days, Dennis the Peasant is back to blogging.
citizen_q wrote:
I think Andy Griffith forgot Andy Griffith
The only surprise coming is the one that Nancy Pelosi will receive on the morning of November 3.
@ Nevergiveup:
lol! Quite possibly!
Speranza wrote:
She will not take losing her position and perks well. I predict an epic tantrum, the likes of which not often seem away from the toy section of Walmart.
citizen_q wrote:
She will have to move up to Thorazine from the Paxil and Xanax.
Bet she runs up quite a tab on her Airforce provided Personal Princess Plane too in the interim before January
PaladinPhil wrote:
I was wondering the same thing!
The European Union on Tuesday urged Israel to guarantee equality for all its citizens after Prime Minister Binymain Netanyahu’s offer the previous day to continue the building moratorium in the West Bank in return for Palestinian Authority recognition of Israel as the Jewish national home, according to the AFP.
“We support the two democratic states living side by side in peace and security,” a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told AFP. “We also stress that the future states of Palestine and Israel will need to fully guarantee equality to all their citizens.”
They already do you freaken ignorant moron
Mike C. wrote:
There are a lot of things I don’t agree with him on, but he’s usually good for a laugh.
I’ll have to go check him out.
http://dennisthepeasant.typepad.com/
Scott Madsen wrote:
Guess she’ll have to go back to getting around on a broom!
@ Nevergiveup:
Shouldn’t that be, They aready do you Jew-hating dhimmis?
Perhaps they should address why paleo-stine is to be cleansed of Jews without argument?
@ 1389AD:
As long as it doesn’t rain and she melts.
@ 1389AD:
Here she is in all her glory.
http://grandrants.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/pelosi-with-gavel-wicked-witch-cropped2.jpg
@ chickadee:
My eyes! My eyes!!
citizen_q wrote:
I can’t wait until that gavel is ripped from her evil claws.
This photo is from her aggressive in our faces walk to the capitol to sign the zero-Hell-care bill.
[...] Originally published on 2.0: The Blogmocracy [...]
Well, I got to give it up to my friend Karma. It seems that the thuggish way in which the Demoncrats got this POS legislation passed is coming back to bite them in the rear. The amazing thing is watching the MSM continue to tout it as though none of this alter news exists. I wonder if the good folks at ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CMBC, CNN, Time, Newsweek, NYT, LAT, WAPO, and whoever else will take notice that at least 60% of their demographic use their product to wrap fish and line bird cages rather than a useful source for information.
@ PaladinPhil:
They ain’t happy with Pelosi either.
Speaking of hospitals & zero care
The video that Barak Obama doesn’t want you to see
Scott Madsen wrote:
I hope her pilot is drunk off his ass during that flight…
/Ooooh! I am wishing Bad Things™ on Queen Lugosi, quick, lizards, report me and ban me off the innerwebz!
I also suspect that Obozo’s anti-Chamber-of-Commerce rant at the recent Stupak rally might have been partly intended to deflect attention away from this particular scandal.
Just sayin’.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by 1389, The Blogmocracy. The Blogmocracy said: ZeroCare October Surprise http://goo.gl/fb/MYHrf #abortion #christianity #elections2010 #healthcare #healthcare [...]
PrincessNatasha wrote:
Why not? From what I have read about liquor bill for her flights, you’d think they were using if for fuel.
@ mjazz:
BTW, if you want to embed a YouTube video directly, just put the URL for the link without any tags around it in your comment, and substitute httpv for http in the prefix. Fixed it for you!
@ 1389AD:
I’m hoping it has the effect of MSM scrutiny of his election finances.
@ mjazz:
Michelle’s nose looks different in those old videos.
I didn’t realize she got a nose job when she moved on up to the East Side
citizen_q wrote:
Maybe I should take some time off, find him and take him out drinking right before he has to fly that nasty old corpse-creature somewhere… LOL
Scott Madsen wrote:
Sasquatch with a nose job… ROTFLMAO
@ mjazz:
Some oldies but goodies there that need to be resurected for the next general ecection cycle….especially now that more people are paying attention to the Emporer’s clothes
@ PrincessNatasha:
I can’t imagine have to deal with that arrogant harpy as one of the little people without being medicated in some fashion.
PrincessNatasha wrote:
Sasquatch? Wouldn’t that be a snout job?
Sorry to be a party-pooper, but I got called in to go to work earlier than originally scheduled today, so I gotta sign off now. See y’all much later!
@ PrincessNatasha:
Hey don’t insult Sasquatch!
@ Iron Fist:
Obama at church
I don’t know why they call it The Obama Picture they don’t want you to see!
@ Flyovercountry:
Yup, the bill is doing the opposite of what it claimed it would do!
@ Nevergiveup:
@ mjazz:
Damn! That is creepy! The deification of Obama was something I could never understand. It guaranteed that he’d never live up to expectations. The only thing I can figure is that he really believes he is some kind of god or messiah. That is a scary thing.
@ citizen_q:
Like the rights of Jews in gaza are protected?
@ Iron Fist:
He does view himself as above it all. He’s the culmination of Neo-Feudal thinking.
@ mjazz:
Well, of course. Obama telegraphed to the Palestinians what he would find as an acceptible position from them, and not surprisingly they took it. Obama is no friend to Israel. He is not even a neutral arbiter. He is on the Palestinian side, lock, stock, and barrel. If it were up to me, there’d be no negiotiation until the Palestinians dropped the demand for a Judenrein Judea. That would be non-negotable.
@ Iron Fist:
Beat me to the Creepy.
Looks like there was more to the witchdoctor analogy than was apparent at first glance.
@ Scott Madsen:
You don’t hear about it much but I’ve seen before and after pictures.
@ Rodan:
These idiots believed it would take until 2013 for the American People to realize that it would destroy our health system and cripple our Nation economically. Like every other model for liberal economics, they failed to account for human behavior and the preservation of self interests. Even as their propaganda pieces are touting it’s wonderful virtues, (sarcasm intended,) the disasterous effects are destroying the Demoncrats electoral bids. Exit Question: if it is this bad now, what will this monstrosity of a bill be doing to them in 2012, 2013, and beyond?
@ Scott Madsen:
-paid for by charging uninsured minorities 3½ times as whites with insurance for the same care.
Close the hospitals and spread the
wealthmisery.Maobama wants everything to be equal !
Except of course for himself, his family, his cronies, and his loyal party members.
Calculate YOUR tax increase:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/08/tax-hike-record-bush-tax-cuts-congress-expiration-consequences/
@ mjazz:
That is a frightening photo. Thank God the cult of zero is unraveling.
@ NoThreat2U:
That is getting emailed.
I was lowballing it but I put in 26k and there still is an increase.
NoThreat2U wrote:
The people in my wife’s firm haven’t recieved a raise in two years due to their exposure to the bust of 2008.
Any raise this year if equal to those of past years will be swallowed by Zero’s tax increases.
mjazz wrote:
And lots of indigent people were shipped off to other care facilities. Squatch did not want such lowly people sullying the place where she “worked.”
BTW, when she left, her job at the hospital was NOT filled. She was a money hole there.
Alan West to debate opponent live at noon
Live Link:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/videobeta/?watchLive=sfl-klein-west-debate-sun-sentinel-tivid
Iron Fist wrote:
If the Arabs were not genocidal rejectionists demanding Jew-free land, the Arab-Israeli conflict would be over tomorrow. It would not matter where you drew the border; Jews living in the West Bank, or Jews who wanted to live in Gaza, could do so, as Arabs can now live in Israeli-controlled land in peace and security.
The entire existence of any conflict in this area is due to Arab rejectionism, Arab apartheid, Arab intolerance, Arab dreams of genocide and triumphalism, exacerbated by the UN and by people like Obama and Carter.
@ chickadee:
My wife has been on several charity boards and never sought compensation.
Her sense of ethics concerning charitable work and conflicts of interest if she ever had to represent those charities as counsel precluded it even if it was ever offered.
The Obama’s are bottom feeders, plain and simple
Rodan wrote:
Can we insult the Wookiees or Klingons instead? At least they’re imaginary people.
Scott Madsen wrote:
Ut—oh… Show down at OK Corral… Col. West is packing a mini-gun… His opponent.. A Banana…
Speranza wrote:
The problem with that is the lag between then and January 20th. The soon-to-be-replaced-or-minoritied representatives will have NOTHING hanging over their heads and political lives to prevent any and all of them to have one major “SCREW YOU, AMERICA” petulant fest of passing piss-ant legislation.
@ mjazz:
Happy to share the link
@ F:
Hence, the “Mad Duck” session of Конгресс.
Nevergiveup wrote:
Like that’s going to happen. They’ll probably make the Jews pay a jizza (sp) tax: that is if they allow any Jews. Has the PA said they will ethnically cleanse the state? Doesn’t really matter, Hamas will be in charge. And of course the international community will give them a pass. Obama rains missiles down on buildings where he thinks there might be a terrorist killing everyone else in the vicinity, (which I think is great BTW), but gets a pass. Israel targets one terrorist for assassination and the world goes nuts.
@ F:
I expect it to be really, really bad. Cap and tax, amnesty, gun control, I expect to see it all on the table. Fucking RINOs like that cunt Murkowski will side with the exiting Donks to prevent a filibuster. There is really nothing that the Republicans can do to stop it. I am very worried about the Mad Duck Season.
Rancher wrote:
The world has been nuts for some time.
The UN hates Israel because—let’s face it—the creation of Israel is the only successful thing the UN has ever done. And the UN didn’t really even do that; all it did was ratify the fact of a state that the Jews had built, on the ground, over the course of the preceding sixty years—first within the shell of the decaying Ottoman Empire, and then under the rule of the British Mandate.
The Jews, with intitial UN endorsement, created a democratic state with thriving agriculture and industry, and political equality, in most unpromising soil against formidable odds. Compared to that, what has the UN accomplished? Virtually nothing—its peacekeepers don’t keep the peace, and indeed have been cited for aiding terrorists and sexually abusing children.
The UN wants to destroy Israel not merely because the UN is dominated by Arab and other totalitarian regimes, but because the success of Israel shows how utterly paltry every single other endeavor the UN has engaged in actually is.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Wow, that’s a great summation, observation, and analysis of the Useless Nations organization.
@ chickadee:
That position wasn’t there before she was there either.
I am not one whit surprised that there is a Catholic Nun being pimped to smooth the passage of BarryCare. Marx did say that religion is the opiate of the people, and what better way to addict Americans to Socialized Government run medical care than to have a nun do the hard sell.