Dick Armey Says “In September or October there will be a Hyped Up Outbreak of the Swine Flu to Scare Bedwetters to Vote for Health Care Reform"

Dick Armey resigned from DLA Piper, the Washington-based lobbying firm that he has advised since leaving Congress in 2002. He said he decided to resign in order to spare the firm, which counts pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb among its big healthcare clients, any further embarrassment by association with Freedom Works, his pet project. Mr. Armey has inferred that the Obama Administration will use another swine flu outbreak expected in September or October to force "bedwetters" to vote for the health care reform. Those comments are not only reckless, but deeply divisive and makes light of a serious situation.

Mr Armey, 69, predicted that the “grassroots” backlash against what he called Mr Obama’s “hostile government takeover of a sixth of the US economy” would cause the reform to fail spectacularly. But he predicted that supporters of reform would attempt to win over the “bed-wetters caucus” – a group of wavering lawmakers who spanned both parties, he said – with a fear campaign in the autumn.

“In September or October there will be a hyped up outbreak of the swine flu which they’ll say is as bad as the bubonic plague to scare the bed-wetters to vote for healthcare reform,” said Mr Armey. “That is the only way they can push something on to the American people that the American people don’t want.”

Democrats have portrayed groups such as Freedom Works as demagogues out to disrupt town-hall meetings rather than enter into civil debate. Mr Armey said he doubted members of Freedom Works attended meetings to shout down people with whom they disagreed. “I know people have been doing that but that is not the tactics we recommend,” he said. Source: Financial Times

So, it's pretty obvious that Dick Armey hasn't lost his old rabble-rousing ways. Bed-wetters? Wow. Swine flu is nothing to take lightly or even have the hubris to joke about. There have been hundreds of deaths as a result and yes, there will be more cases of the swine flu in the Fall, whether the Democrats or Republicans want to see this or not.