Democrats have just had a great idea. Healthcare reform is so precariously poised that reasonable people can’t even agree whether it’s a coin flip at this point or a long shot. It’s a complicated, messy situation, fragile in the extreme.
So, hey, why not just go ahead and complicate it further?
Democratic leaders [...]
Yesterday brought us dueling versions of vote-math for the heathcare bill in the House.
Here’s ABC News’ version of Nancy Pelosi’s half-empty arithmetic:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has signaled to the White House that it’s unclear if there are enough votes in the House to pass the Senate bill.
The House version passed in November by a [...]
Yes, it’s hard to believe but David Paterson’s political standing got even worse last month:
A new Siena College poll finds New York Gov. David Paterson’s (D) favorability, job performance and electability ratings all slipped over the last month.
Paterson now trails Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D) by 42 points in a potential Democratic gubernatorial primary, 64% [...]
So now it looks like the possibility of passing a healthcare reform fix in the Senate via budget reconciliation is going down the toilet:
As it turns out, Senate Democrats may not be able to force healthcare legislation through the chamber on a simple majority vote.
Republicans say they have found a loophole in the budget reconciliation [...]
You may have heard that Democrats have agreed to swear in Scott “Cosmopolitan” Brown today, one week ahead of the date that he himself had picked, February 11. But that’s okay, because he himself demanded to be seated a weak earlier. And as everybody knows, a centerfold model is entitled to change his [...]
The TPMDC headline reads for Brian Beutler’s story reads: “House to Senate: We’re Ready On Health Care If You Are“.
There are two angles to Beutler’s story. One, when it comes to Plan B — which involves the House passing the Senate bill as is, followed by the Senate making key changes via the budget [...]
Shell-shocked by Scott Brown’s victory, how dysfunctional has the Democratic party become?
I think Steve Benen summed it up nicely:
What I find interesting is the sizable group of progressive champions — allies of the Democratic Party who have no interest in steering Dems in the wrong direction — who are all urging the House [...]
Apparently, there was an earthquake on Tuesday night that registered way up there on the Richter scale, an earthquake that was felt all over the country but which affected only the Obama administration and Democratic members of the House and Senate. Since then, these Democrats have been stumbling around, fearful, confused, and pathetically frightened [...]
What’s with all the hysterical overreaction to the Massachusetts special election?
The NYT talks wildly of “a drastically altered political environment”.
Is it so hard to keep things in perspective?
One year ago, as Obama assumed the presidency, the Democratic caucus had 58 seats in the Senate, plus Al Franken in the incubator. After holding 60 seats [...]
When Barack Obama assumed the presidency, exactly one year ago, many Democrats felt that yes, we can, and maybe we will.
Now, with enough voters in the Massachusetts special election having stuffed their votes into Scott Brown’s g-string, we would seem to have come to the end of that phase of Obama’s presidency. [...]
