Monday, May 21, 2007
``Are you kidding me?'' says Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, when asked why he's so critical of insurance companies.
Lott, 65, launches into a critique of the industry, peppering it with words such as ``arrogant'' and ``mean- spirited,'' statistics about company profits and executive pay and angry questions about why its lobbyists are fighting a clutch of bills he is pushing -- including one that would strip companies such as State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and Allstate Corp. of their 62-year-old exemption from federal antitrust laws.
``These are venal people,'' he says. ``I'm embarrassed for them.''
State Farm tried to screw Lott over for his Katrina loss. Then, the industry that he had supported for decades, who gave him tons of campaign cash was seen in a different light. Trent Lott became a human for a little bit. All those people accusing the industry of ripping them off in the past made sense to him now. They did it to him too!
I am glad Lott is fighting State Farm, but this phenomena is getting tiring. It's the gay bashing conservative who realizes a loved one is gay and re-evaluates. A conservative who has a sick family member with lousy insurance who realizes the mess that the system is in.
Mugged by reality is such a slow process. Is there something structurally different in conservatives brains that only allow them to see through these issues when it affects them personally?
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