If it seems that this video fails to take today’s health care Kabuki theater summit seriously, well:
…think of it this way: it’s taking it just as seriously as the Democratic party is. The only difference here is that the NRCC swapped out Democratic arrogance for GOP mockery.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
(Via Instapundit) Michael Barone unpacks the bind that House Democrats are in over the health care rationing bill, right now (to summarize, reports suggest that they really don’t want to pass the Senate version, promises of reconciliation later or no):
If you vote for the Senate bill, you’re voting for something that has 35% support nationwide and probably a little less than that in your district. You will have voted for the Cornhusker Hustle and the Louisiana Purchase. Your Republican opponent will ask why you voted for something that gave taxpayers in Nebraska and Louisiana better treatment than the people you represent (there are no Democratic House members running for reelection in those two states: Nebraska has only Republican House members and the single Louisiana House Democrat is running for the Senate). The only protection you have against this is the assurance that the Senate parliamentarian and scared incumbent senators will come through for you, and that Harry Reid will pursue a steady course.
Read the whole thing, and may I offer an observation? None of this would have happened if the Democrats had simply kept to their word and acted decently towards Republican legislators last year. If they had involved their colleagues in the process, they would have gotten a much better bill, absolutely crucial bipartisan support, and at least some of what they ostensibly wanted. But because they thought that they could get away with being arrogant and bullying and petty, the Democrats are now facing what could be the worst political backlash of the last thirty years. And they’ve earned every drop of it.
Isn’t it funny how often the virtuous option turns out to be the smart one, too?
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
You have undoubtedly seen by now that Senator Dick Durbin is now ready to try to kill the filibuster, not five years after praising the practice to the skies. You are also undoubtedly not surprised. But this particular bit below from Durbin is really quite interesting as an example of defiance against the tyranny of the majority: it’s an absolute pity that the senior Senator from Illinois has just demonstrated that he never actually meant a word of it.
I don’t believe I was elected to the Senate to be a rubber stamp. I believe I was elected and took the oath of office to uphold this Constitution, to stand up for the precedents and values of Congress and our Nation. We need to have, in our judiciary, independence and fairness. We need to have men and women on the bench who will work to protect our individual rights, despite the intimidation of special interest groups, despite the intimidation of Members of Congress. They need to have the courage to stand up for what they believe, in good conscience, to be the rights and freedoms of Americans.
I speak, as a Senator on the Democratic side, and tell you that our 45 Members will not be intimidated. We will stand together. We understand these lifetime appointments to the bench should be subject to close scrutiny, to evaluation, and to a decision as to why they are prepared to serve and serve in a way to protect the rights and aspirations of ordinary Americans.
The filibuster, which requires that 60 Senators come together to resolve the most controversial issues, that rule in the Senate, forces compromise. It forces the Republicans to reach across the aisle and bring in some Democrats when they have very controversial legislation or controversial nominees. It forces bipartisanship–something that tells us, at the end of the day, we will have more moderate men and women who will serve us in the judiciary. Those who would attack and destroy the institution of the filibuster are attacking the very force within the Senate that creates compromise and bipartisanship.
Those who are forcing this nuclear option on the Senate are not just breaking the rules to win, but they want to break the rules to win every time.
Mind you, Durbin’s hypocrisy on the filibuster is mostly about trying to look good – for given values of ‘good’ – when it comes time to pick the next Senate Majority Leader. The odds of Harry Reid holding that position in 2011 are currently not so much ‘slim’ as they are ‘withered.’
Moe Lane Continue reading Durbin (D, D Majority) vs. Durbin (D, R Majority) on filibusters.
…to die for Harry Reid’s mistake?
Senate Democrats may go into the bipartisan health care reform summit later this month holding a legislative gun to Republicans’ heads.
Some Democrats are readying a health care reform “Plan B” in case negotiations at the half-day televised forum on Feb. 25 go nowhere. The plan would involve passing part of the imperiled health care bill using reconciliation, a controversial procedural maneuver that would allow the package to pass with 51 votes, as opposed to the usual 60 required to overcome a filibuster.
“I think a decision has just been made — we’re just going to go ahead,” Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told reporters.
(Via @baseballcrank) Because there’s a whole bunch of supposedly ‘socially conservative’ Democrats who will then have to repudiate their pro-life stance for the greater glory of the Senate Majority Leader – who is, by the way, almost assured to be the former Senate Majority Leader by this time next year. And the rest of them don’t have to worry about being neglected, either: as Megan McArdle notes (in lieu of banging her head against a wall, no doubt), Republicans are looking forward to running on a platform of opposition to what the Democrats themselves described as a ‘trick.’
Fascinating.
Moe Lane
The Democrats are grinding metal at this point.
President Obama this week called for a televised bipartisan summit to get his health care reform plan back on track, but 61% of U.S. voters say Congress should scrap that plan and start all over again.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds just 28% who think it is better to build on the health care plan that has been working its way through the House and Senate.
It’s the independents that are making this issue such a killer for the current ruling party. Rasmussen reports:
And it’s the ‘strongly oppose’ that’s the worst bit. Opposition to the Democratic health care rationing bill has hardened, which is why it has died. How much longer do we have to deal with the stink before the Democrats will admit that they need to dig its grave?
Moe Lane
I’m going to sum this entire thing up, because the sooner we move past this the happier everybody’s going to be.
And I think that should end it right there: Republican Members of the House of Representatives don’t debate press secretaries, either.
Moe Lane
*H/T: FireDogLake (I know, I know, but there was nothing offensive about this specific post).
**H/T: Hot Air Headlines.
Crossposted to RedState.
It’s the only way to be sure.
OK, let’s walk through this. Mind you, I’ve already declared this bill dead anyway.
With me so far? Well, here are the two problems that the Democrats are now facing:
Shorter Moe Lane: eight years of karma just caught up with the Democratic party, and it’s charging interest.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Kicking and screaming all the way, to be sure. But the first tendrils of Reality Non-Unicorn are beginning to worm their way into and subvert the Online Left’s comfortable universe-consensus.
Obama Suggests Possibility That Health Reform May Not Happen
Maybe I’m misreading this. But if you look at the transcript of Obama’s remarks at a fundraiser last night, it seems like the President was at least raising the possibility that health reform may not happen.
Gee, I wonder could have possibly caused that realization to dawn.
Hold up: let me make this more explicit.
At this rate, they’ll be noticing that the upcoming 112th Congress isn’t controlled by Democrats by at least, oh, March of 2012.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
This unpopular:
RICHMOND, Va. — With five Democrats defecting, the Virginia Senate today passed a Republican measure that says Virginians don’t have to buy health insurance.
Voting 23-17, the Democratic-controlled Senate kicked to the House a bill by Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Suffolk, that supporters say will send a message to Washington about its efforts to overhaul the health-care system.
(Via AoSHQ Headlines) The bill should pass the GOP-controlled House of Delegates with no trouble, and likewise be signed into law by the Republican Governor, and will probably be used as ammo for a lawsuit by the Commonwealth’s Republican Attorney General, should he need it…
– Hey, remember when Virginia was inevitably going to be going Blue for unto the next six generations?
…so it’s interesting that five vulnerable state Senators broke ranks on this bill to vote with the Republicans. It’s also interesting to consider the implications that this bill – whether substanstive or cosmetic – has for, say, Democrats in the US Congress. Like Gerald Connolly! Hi, Jerry! Quick: what do you think of this legislation?
More importantly, what does your district think of this legislation?
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
It was a close-run thing, folks. The nearest-run thing you ever saw.
Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.
Labor leaders had announced an agreement with White House and congressional representatives over an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans on the Thursday before the special election.
[snip]
Harkin said “we had an agreement, with the House, the White House and the Senate. We sent it to [the Congressional Budget Office] to get scored and then Tuesday happened and we didn’t get it back.” He said negotiators had an agreement in hand on Friday, Jan. 15.
(Via The Corner) No chance at that point for calling an emergency session on Saturday the 16th or Sunday the 17th, of course. But Monday the 18th… was Martin Luther King Day. In other words, a federal holiday. So there was no chance of action until Tuesday the 19th; and Tuesday the 19th was too late. Imagine what it would have looked like if they had passed this thing on the very day that Scott Brown won a Senate election in Massachusetts on a platform of stopping this thing; but even if you couldn’t, Democratic legislators apparently could.
Moe Lane
PS: Nope, it’s not even ironic. Just… karmic.
Crossposted to RedState.
