Where would the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) be without crazy congressman Dana Rohrabacher? He can always be counted on for fun and games and it seems like every day we get a press release from them about the guy–almost as many emails as we get from the Republicans bashing Loretta Sanchez. Today's offering is ominously titled “Representative Dana Rohrabacher Says No to Preparing for H1N1 Flu Epidemic.”
The hook for this screed is today's H1N1–that's swine flu for us non-scientists–Flu Preparedness Summit by the National Institutes of Health, which the DCCC claims “serves as a stark reminder” of Rohrabacher's “just say no approach to preparing for the pandemic” which has infected 1985 people. Now, there's no denying that swine flu is serious business. Scientists say that the next outbreak of the flu could involve a much more virulent strain of the disease. Our ability to fight the flu depends in part on whether government researchers can develop an effective vaccine in time. That's why legislators included $2 billion in funding for swine flu research in last month's Supplemental Appropriations Bill.
Here's where our story gets ominous, or was “stark” the word? I forget. Anyways, Rohrabacher voted against the bill because he doesn't care about swine flu! Actually, that's not really true. Rohrabacher voted against the bill because it didn't include as much war funding as he wants and didn't include language blocking the release of photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees. His rambling explanation of his vote mentions the swine flu funding, but doesn't really explain what his position on it is.
All which goes to show that the DCCC is kind of reaching on this issue. Additional proof: Rohrabacher's April 28 letter to his constituents in which he made clear that he feels that swine flu is a serious problem, recommended that people who feel sick go to the doctor, and promised that he will “closely monitor” the situation.
See how the Democrats lie, folks?
Rohrabacher not only isn't “just saying no” to swine flu preparedness, he's personally monitoring the situation, and it might not be too big a stretch to say that the fact that only dozens of people in America have died from this disease means that he's doing a great job.
Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).