Here’s something I think you can give Jane Hamsher some credit for:
“There’s no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option,” Pelosi said during a press conference Thursday in San Francisco, according to Bloomberg News.
On the other hand, I think Harry Reid could say the exact opposite: that there is no way he can pass a bill in the Senate with a public option. But the advantage in this standoff goes, ironically, to the House. Why? Because Reid can use the budget reconciliation process if it comes to that, while Pelosi has no parliamentary tricks to pull out of a hat to change her situation.
Now, I want to make a few comments about White House messaging. Obama has come under withering attack lately, but I want you to consider something. Yes, it has become painfully obvious that there is no point in pretending that negotiations with Chuck Grassley, Mike Enzi, and Olympia Snowe are going to bear fruit. Asserting otherwise is a bit insulting to our intelligence. But, what does that mean?
It means that sometime in September, the Senate Finance Committee is going to have to declare the effort at bipartisan cooperation dead. And then the big argument is going to be over whom to blame for that outcome. If the president has been asserting all through the summer that he wants to work across the aisle and has even allowed for a painful delay in furtherance of that effort, then it will be easy to pin the blame on a Republican Party that remained unified in opposition. They didn’t just oppose the public option, but they opposed the compromise co-ops plan as well.
But, if we come out of Labor Day with the White House declaring the effort at bipartisanship already dead, then people who weren’t paying attention during the summer months will be easily convinced that Obama never gave compromise a chance. Andy Card famously said about the ramp up to war in Iraq that ‘you don’t roll out a new product in August.’ And that’s true.
If we know that we are headed for a split-bill with the financing coming through the budget reconciliation process, that’s a new product. And that new product needs to be seen as something only made necessary by Republican obstruction. It is premature for the White House to declare bipartisanship as dead. It might help them win some lonely late-August news cycles, but nothing is going to be resolved now. The real money-time is going to be in September. So, don’t worry, relax, have a home brew.
It means that sometime in September, the Senate Finance Committee is going to have to declare the effort at bipartisan cooperation dead.
I’m not so sure of that. If you change the SFC to the Baucus Bunch, then I think you’re right. Maxie and his girls, rather than the full committee are where the problem’s at.
I was thinking about what I wrote last night in the open thread, and it hit me before I left work to go home. Maxie wants a bill that can pass the Senate, when in reality all he needs is a bill to pass his committee. Big difference.
His committee has the following members who have not committed to a public option:
Kent Conrad
Bill Nelson
Tom Carper
Blanche Lincoln
Ron Wyden
He can’t necessarily pass the public option because in addition to himself, he has five members who might oppose it. And he can only afford one defection.
I’ve seen it at a hundred chess tournaments — Conrad and Baucus have a lost game, and are going to sit and stare at the board till their clock runs out and lose on time rather than get beaten.
The GOP have sold them out — Kyl said they won’t vote for anything — and Pelosi’s train is leaving the station.
Prediction: The HELP bill will be the only Senate bill.
we’re relaxing and having a home brew Obama could maybe work on getting us the hell out of Iraq? How much is he still pouring into that money pit every day?
It’s like John Stewart recently asked, “are you a Jedi or just getting your ass kicked by Health Care reform?”
I still believe Obama is a Jedi and all this is Kabuki. It’s frustrating as hell and scary and it pisses me off, and…. well, that’s exactly what he needs – a bunch of pissed off Democrats to pass this.
Like I said, I believe Jedi til proven wrong. He deserves that. Everyone said the same thing about the fight for the nomination, and as it turned out…. Jedi.
I really would like to know what great sea-change came along to make a politician trustworthy to a generation whose heroes all had ‘feet of clay’…or were murdered.
All the hippie rebels never seemed to make a difference in Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq…the list is endless.
I’m not surprised no traction was to be had cleaning up the mess on torture.Congress stymied that in 2002 with the Servicemen’s Protection Act.
Nor does an administration which completely ignored accountability leave behind a trail fit for trial.
But changing the focus of the U.S. war machine from killing Iraqis in their beds to killing Afghans and Pakistanis in theirs and calling it ‘progress’ leaves me cold.
In geometry we learned of axioms : “A difference which makes no difference IS no difference!”
Uh-huh. The wisdom transfers to other analogues quite nicely.
I find it painfully obvious that, for purely political and image reasons, Obama is absolutely correct to keep making public statements promoting a bipartisan approach.
It is astonishing to me that so many are upset with Obama about this. Nothing has been lost by his approach. Nothing would have been gained by announcing three months ago that the GOP is being obstructionist. And nothing now stops Obama from endorsing a purely Democratic bill.
I want to commend BooMan and the commenters here, especially bkharmony and gideon, for their intelligence. Over the past couple of weeks I have read literally hundreds of comments on this topic on other blogs and I keep asking myself whether the average progressive has any idea what the word “strategy” means. If you don’t think Obama is a master strategist, then how the hell did he ever get himself elected? We’re going to win this, and the GOP won’t even understand how it happened. They’re mud-wrestling, Obama is practicing aikido.