Lieberman Back on Short List
Where before I noticed that Joe Lieberman had been left off of the media's short list of centrists who threaten to derail health reform, it seems that he's now back on it (h/t Sam Stein, HuffPo):
Over the Thanksgiving break, Reid talked to those four senators -- Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas -- to begin charting out compromise approaches to reform, a leadership aide said.
You need 60, and each of these moderates has a very viable and politically sound reason to not be one of those 60. They also have every incentive not to be one of 57, or 58, or 59, as the last holdouts can claim progressively more sway over the shape of the final bill.
If this group wants to see some real concessions made while averting the risk that one or another of them will jump ship at the last minute and demand even more , I would think that they'd have some serious conversations among themselves as to what provisions could swing them as a bloc into that 60. Holding out on an individual basis only makes sense if they can't reach a larger agreement and would rather see the bill as a whole fail, which mindset I can't imagine for a set of already-vulnerable Democrats.
Presidential Moms and Dads
Track-A-'Crat and The Greenroom jump on Michael Moore, Obama, and ideas of honor:
Moore rounds off his masterpiece by exhorting Obama to once again retreat [read: end our commitment to the Afghan quagmire], promising that if he does so, then,
"You can be your mother’s son."
Which makes about as much sense as the preceding entirety of the letter. That right there is surely going to form the central plank of Obama’s surrender-with-honor strategy, when it comes: we’re ditching Afghanistan, because “I want to be my mother’s son.” Flawless reasoning.
Yet, just eight short years ago:
[I]n discussing the threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Bush said: "After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad."
Conservative pundits didn't think this was such bad rationale back then.
Allusions of Grandeur
Maybe, if [Obama] can borrow a uniform, he can even be in costume when he delivers the report [on Afghanistan].
I have trouble believing that Obama is such a fool as this:
Washington Post Wrong on Health Costs, Bailouts
From the Washington Post:
Overall, though, the GOP is a party that has become increasingly conservative, particularly on fiscal issues. Obama's stimulus package of nearly $800 billion, bailouts for banks and the auto industry, and a health-care bill with a price tag of nearly $900 billion over 10 years have aroused strong opposition on the right.
Let's see that paragraph rewritten using the facts:
Overall, though, the GOP is a party that has become increasingly conservative, particularly on social issues. Obama's stimulus package of nearly $800 billion, Bush's bailouts for banks, Obama's bailout of the auto industry, and a health-care bill with savings of nearly $800 billion over 10 years have aroused strong opposition on the right.
Now that tells a much better story.