"That is what the president is supposed to do, to use his bully pulpit," said Iowa's Sen. Tom Harkin on Saturday, in reference to Obama's rallying visit to Capitol Hill on Sunday. Harkin then added, rather unwisely, "I haven't seen much of it."
I'd bet he sure heard a lot from the White House by Saturday evening, though, well in advance of actually seeing President Obama. And what he heard, I'd further wager, was something less than polite, and heavy on reeducation: Look, fella, it was your recklessly overconfident, turf-protective Senate leadership team that told us, early on, to back off the legislative field of battling health-care reforms and let you guys handle things; so you can take your eleventh-hour pointed finger and plant it you-know-where.
If the corrective call came from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, you may pepper the above with the appropriate expletives. And I do stress "appropriate," since Capitol Hill's mealy-mouthed blame game now seems underway.
To hear some of them tell it, they, in this Democratic Congress, were innocent lambs in search of a shepherd all along. If only the White House had not forsaken them.
Yet as the Washington Post reminded us last week, although Majority Leader Harry Reid indeed "called on President Obama to act as salesman in chief for [economic stimulus] legislation, closing every deal with high-voltage White House charm," Reid has chosen to go for the glory and go it alone on health care, "opt[ing] to confine health-care negotiations largely to the Senate chamber and his adjoining suite of offices, urging colleagues to negotiate compromises among themselves and to bring their concerns directly to him."
That's not to deny the White House back-channeled negotiations through Max Baucus, knowing, as the finance chairman knew, that Mr. Reid was herding cats, not sheep. Max and Rahm could count, which is also why they both, along with the president himself -- and against the not infrequent, public objections of the Senate's Tom Harkins -- were schmoozing Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.
Don't hand us empty, idealistic boosterism, they were saying to Congress' liberal wing. That's for the campaign trail. Just give us 60 votes -- asap, because the more we prolong this bill, the more the conservatives will cut it to ribbons.
And, to absolutely no one's surprise, that's precisely what conservatives have done. Like keen prosecutors, they took advantage of the Senate's hapless defense team's delay of a speedy trial, weaving doubt among the electoral pool and sowing previously unimagined complications into their bill of indictment.
Now the health-care bill is little more than an unimaginable mess: the public option is history, as everyone with functional political antennae knew, by mid-summer, it inexorably would be, replaced most recently in negotiations by some yet-defined national not-for-profit plan; and worse, Capitol Hill's abortion foes have now dragged their intrusive knuckles into the fray.
Today, according to press reports, Nebraska's Ben Nelson will introduce a radical, Machiavellian anti-choice amendment likely designed to abort all progress on health-care reform. Last week he declared that should it fail, "I won't vote to move [the bill] off the floor."
Perhaps there's more political threat than determined reality in that ultimatum, nevertheless Nelson's Democratic colleagues "panicked," as the Post framed it, "as word spread of Nelson's filibuster threat" and the majority leader characteristically "shrugged off the statement."
Meanwhile, Reid's enablers were back at it: "We" -- meaning the Senate's liberal wing -- "are going to defeat" Nelson's amendment, said, flatly, a confident Barbara Boxer, just as she flatly asserted as late as last week that "we" could still see a vigorous public option. And maybe they will defeat Nelson. We'll see.
But keep this in mind -- "this" being something about which I have thundered for some time: Capitol Hill's progressive wing has inexcusably bamboozled its rank and file for months. There is simply no informed way around that conclusion.
The White House wasn't the only Democratic entity that could count. It knew, since mid-summer, where a robust public option was headed -- right into the legislative trash bin -- as did Harry Reid, as did Nancy Pelosi, as did Barbara Boxer and Tom Harkin and all their fellow Beltway progressives.
Yet the latter strung along the rank and file, pumping it full of ungrounded hope and unrealistic expectations. In assisting paleolithic Republicans in complicating and thereby prolonging a health-care bill, conservative Democrats have indeed acted unconscionably. But I can't see that Congressional progressives have behaved with much more honor.
They have lied to the base, repeatedly. That may be a harsh choice of verbs, but it's also a damn accurate one.
Now, just to compound their dishonor, they're blaming Obama -- the one Democratic progressive pol who was honest enough with the base to refrain from pointlessly blowing the smoke of a burned-out public option, alternative actions to which have only prolonged this politically indispensable health-care bill to a near-certain death.
The party's grassroots liberal wing should demand more from the party's Congressional liberals -- like often-uncomfortable honesty.
These season we are
Wow
Nice rewriting of history. Orwell would be proud. Especially when you use the words "Obama" and "progressive" in the same sentence. Thats downright insulting to any progressive with an IQ higher than 12. The will of the people will be achieved sooner or later on health care. Its only a matter of time, despite the surrender obsessed P.M. Carp.
Demanding more from progressive Buzzflash: FIRE CARPY THE LIAR!
'the public option is history, as everyone with functional political antennae knew, by mid-summer, it inexorably would be,'
Translation: There is no hope, so give up you dope! Nothing like dishonestly asserting your wrong headed opinions as facts, eh carpy? Nothing like rooting for the upper 1% fascist plutocracy, again, instead of fighting for what is right.
'Meanwhile, Reid's enablers were back at it: "We" -- meaning the Senate's liberal wing'
Of course, what would another dishonest Carpy propaganda rant be without a little pejoritive mud slinging directed at liberal Democratic Senators, again.
'Yet the latter [progressives] strung along the rank and file, pumping it full of ungrounded hope and unrealistic expectations.'
Out and out lies that distort reality, like the one above, is simply intollerable. The evidence is indisputable. Carpy wants Obama and the Democrats to fail. Good thing no one really pays any attention to Carpy, and instead, take effective action.
Buzzflash, when are you going to dump this FAUX Gnus show host wannabe? Don't you know he is singlehandedly driving traffic away from your website? By the way, how's the fundraising going?
if anyone's still here
it's not even so much that what he says is crap (or carp, to individualize the case) but how he says it, which is obnoxious. And yes, I can thunder as well as he can.
Oh, they've been lying alright...
But the King of the liars to progressives most of the summer about the public option was Obama himself--as, naturally, you neglected (likely intentionally given your intense Obama man-love) to mention, and instead, have uttered the complete reverse, turning the truth on its head once again in a true Carp-like fashion.
There are by count 56 senators who will allow a vote on the PO, and 4 who will not. And rather than use the bully pulpit against these 4 publically and use carrots and sticks privately, Obama has chosen to sit on the sidelines. Well, at least he isn't continuing to lie to progressives about a public option he never supported in the 1st place.
Is Reid blameless? Certainly not. He is trying to give the illusion of supporting the PO so the progs will come out en masse for him next year. But Harry, supporting it isn't enough. It's your job to get it done. Anything less will be considered failure and you will pay the price.
The PO by now has taken on a life of its own. It has become a metaphor for political power. Are liberals going to be rolled by these bluedogs on every issue in the future? That's what it means. It is a line in the sand to the bludog/GOP coalition and a clear dagger to the conservative elite status-quo that Carp so loves to forment and protect.
That is why we fight.
Nevertheless, I don't necessarily disagree with Carp's assessment completely. The PO (ala the robust version) may be dead. If it is, progressives should immediately begin determing the pound of flesh we will accept for this, the last of the compromises and the most painful.
We should demand the end of the anti-trust exemption for Big Insurance.
We should insist that 85% of income goes to payment to patient illness rather than the current 70%.
We should limit policy rate increases to the rate of inflation.
We should insist on the highest subsidies possible for low income people and make the rich pay for it.
And I'm open to other suggestions. Anything to avoid seeing Carp's precious bill go down over the PO impass. If the 56 must bend to the 4, we should make them feel the pain.
In a myriad of ways.
PM, you are being OUTRIGHT _DISINFORMATIVE_ here...
PM, you are being OUTRIGHT _DISINFORMATIVE_ here...
< I'd bet he sure heard a lot from the White House by Saturday evening, though, well in advance of actually seeing President Obama. And what he heard, I'd further wager, was something less than polite, and heavy on reeducation: Look, fella, it was your recklessly overconfident, turf-protective Senate leadership team that told us, early on, to back off the legislative field of battling health-care reforms and let you guys handle things; so you can take your eleventh-hour pointed finger and plant it you-know-where. >
You are BUYING and SELLING the FICTION, that poow wittle Barack Obama is A VICTIM of the Senate SABOTAGE of genuine health care reform, as your "eleventh hour" comment suggests. In fact, Mr. Obama has been treacherously and deceitfully SIDING WITH the LIEBERMAN, BAUCUS, LICOLN, NELSON, and Landrie OBSTRUCTIONISTS all along, he has been treacherously CENSORING the stories of America's health-care "CLAIMS and COVERAGE DENIED!" nightmares for MILLIONS of families out there in America from his BULLY PULPIT, thereby SABOTAGING the leadership and robust PR argument that would AROUSE and ENERGIZE the __60%+__ of Americans who FAVOR a Robust Public Option.
That is, PM, "60%+ FAVOR robust Public Option" DESPITE Obama, Republicans, and "major media" BAD-MOUTHING public option ALL these long months!
If you want PROOF that your "eleventh hour" blame-mongering is a CANARD - and that in criticizing Senator Harkin, you are blasting a PROPONENT of real reform, you are effectively blaming a victim of Obama & Emanuel's reform TREACHERY, just look at this YouTube video of Max Baucus having DOCTORS from www.SinglePayer.org ARRESTED out of Baucus' insanely corrupt Senate Finance "genuine health care reform OBSTRUCTED" committee.. back in MAY. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKP05AyfRsI
Neither OBAMA nor Emanuel EVER LIFTED A FINGER for those doctors, not to embrace their dedication, not to PUBLICIZE their sacrifice, certainly not to SUPPORT their efforts to get REAL reform despite Baucus' PRE-MEDITATED OBSTRUCTION and bribed-by-big-insurance SABOTAGE.
FOR SHAME, PM! You are outright BLAMING the VICTIMS (Harkin & other senators who want REAL reform) for Obama & Emanuel's BULLYING, SELL-OUT, CENSORSHIP, cold-blooded treachery on behalf of their Big Pharma, HMO, and Big Insurance donors.
FOR SHAME!
Link correction
The singlepayer.org is a bad link.
I think you must mean this website:
http://singlepayeraction.org/
Of course, you would never, ever read about it in Carpy's propaganda and lies. He does not want us to take action and fight for what is right for WE THE PEOPLE. Carpy wants to demoralize us. He wants us all to simply give up and accept our new status as serfs for the upper 1% fascist plutocracy.
PM, you are being OUTRIGHT _DISINFORMATIVE_ here...
PM, you are being OUTRIGHT _DISINFORMATIVE_ here... (continued)
WHAT could poow wittle Barack Obama DO about those BIG, BAD Senators who are OBSTRUCTING genuine health care reform, OBSTRUCTING a robust public option?
- He could TELL Baucus, Nelson, Landrieu, and the others, "You CROSS ME ON THIS, you will NOT GET A DIME from the DSCC in your next campaign, you will NOT get a DIME from any of the Big Dem donors who look to me as a leader, and I will TRY to get HARRY REID to STRIP YOU OF YOUR CHAIRMANSHIPS for SIDING WITH the Republican OPPOSITION PARTY, on a theme that was AT THE CORE of the Democrats' ENTIRE 2008 "Change we NEED" nationwide campaign efforts."
Obama is being a wimp, a bully, and a liar, he is WORKING FULL-TIME to OBSTRUCT the hopes, desires, and needs of a CLEAR SUPER-MAJORITY... 60%+ of Americans DISGUSTED with the "for profit" health care extortion system.