Nebraska
The Dems Need a Shove. Will Obama Give It?
Failed Reform Would Haunt the Democrats Like the Undead
President Obama is going to address another Congressional gathering today. The audience will be more friendly this time: It will be the Senate Democratic caucus. But the stakes will be just as high as they were when Obama spoke to Republican House members last week. READ MORE >>
At the Two-Yard Line
In the days immediately after the special Massachusetts election, which gave Senate Republicans the ability to block votes on legislation, the prospects for reform looked so bleak that one reliable source emailed me a one-word message: “Dead.” But within 24 hours, that same source had emailed me another one-word message: “Alive.” READ MORE >>
The Bipartisan Trap - And How Democrats Fell Into It
Critics of health care reform have been hammering away at its substance for months. But, since last week's election in Massachusetts, they’ve been focusing their attacks more on the way reform has come together in Congress. As the argument goes, Democrats wrote the bill on their own and in secret, producing proposals full of shady back-room deals that aren’t in the public interest. The symbol of reform’s hidden corruption is the so-called Cornhusker swindle: A promise, extracted by Nebraska Sen. READ MORE >>
Republicans Aren’t Sitting as Pretty as They Think
Negative Nancies
Talking Points Memo has done a terrific job of reporting on the health care fiasco on Capitol Hill. But I think their latest report may be conveying a misleading impression. The headline reads, "Pelosi: We Can't Do It." The lead reads: READ MORE >>
Fred Barnes Is... Right?
Credit where credit is due: READ MORE >>
Grijalva: Use Reconciliation to Pass Reform
As Democratic leaders scramble to salvage the imperiled reform bill, Congressional liberals seem increasingly wary about a plan that would ask the House to pass the current version of the Senate bill and send the bill directly to Obama’s desk. “The House needs to be very careful about not merely rubber-stamping the Senate bill and sending that to the president… I just don’t think it’s wise policy or wise politics to merely regurgitate [it],” Rep. Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told me this morning. READ MORE >>
Does Massachusetts Really Tell Us Much?
Pulling back just a bit, I feel like the long-term implications of Republicans winning the Massachusetts Senate seat have been oversold. The short term-implications -- creating the real potential to kill health care reform for another generation -- are real. But people are getting carried away with what it means about the political environment. READ MORE >>
The Alternative Is Catastrophe
WASHINGTON -- Reaching agreement on a health care bill is harder in theory than it will be in practice. Between now and the day the measure goes to President Obama's desk, there will be many crisis points, much posturing and dire warnings of impending failure. There are real differences between the bills passed by the House and the Senate. The last few votes are always the most difficult to get. READ MORE >>
