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Should We Laugh? Cry? Both?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Nov. 23 (News Analysis) - The ritual is becoming familiar. Health care reform passes a major political hurdle. And progressives don?t know whether to laugh or cry. Last time, the occasion was a vote in the House of Representatives. Health care reform passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats had extracted a major concession on abortion rights. This time, it was a vote in the Senate--not on whether to pass a bill, but whether to begin debating one. This measure, too, passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats and one notorious independent made clear they were prepared to shut things down later if legislation includes a public insurance option. It?s no fun to watch this unfold. And yet this is the exactly the sort of drama you should expect for the next few weeks, as the Senate deliberations play out. The bill Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced last week is not everything it could be--not by a long shot. And progressives will try their ...

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Senate Dems to Obama: Um, a Little Help Here?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Oct. 26 (News Analysis) - After a weekend of furious activity, Democratic leaders in the Senate think they are close to getting the votes they need in order to pass an "opt-out" version of the public option. But they feel like President Obama could be doing more to help them, with one senior staffer telling TNR on Sunday that the leadership would like, but has yet to receive, a clear "signal" of support for their effort.

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WH: We're Happy To Exclude Fox, But Didn't Yesterday

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - By Christina Bellantoni - Oct. 24 (News Report) - Adding to the Fox News v. White House feud today is a dust-up over an interview with pay czar Ken Feinberg. Feinberg did a pen and pad with reporters to brief them on cutting executive compensation. TV correspondents asked to get the comments on camera; Treasury agreed to one pool camera, giving the list of those who asked. (Fox was not among them)

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Ohio Secretary of State shunned by fellow Democrats

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

daytondailynews.com - By Laura A. Bischoff, William Hershey - Oct. 20 (News) - Brunner accused Fisher of pressuring political donors not to give to her campaign. Still, she vowed not to give up. “I’m a bit of an underdog in the Senate race but that’s OK with me,” she said.

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Is Harry Reid Working The Inside Game For A Public Option?

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - By Brian Beutler - Oct. 16 (News Report) - "Reid and/or his staff has been in practically hourly conversations with a whole set of progressive players re how best to make sure we position ourselves to get a strong public option coming out of conference committee," said one progressive strategist, who asked not to be named. "He hasn't made any final procedural decisions yet RE how to get that done, but he's having really honest conversations [about] all his major options, pros and cons of each, etc. I'm actually pretty impressed, at least right now."

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Snowe Voting Yes On Senate Finance Health Care Reform Bill

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim, Jeff Muskus, Sam Stein - Oct. 13 (News Report) - Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Tuesday that she intends to vote for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform package. She cautioned that her vote should be seen as a sign of her faith in the process going forward, not as support for the final package that will arrive on the Senate floor. "Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it," said Snowe. "Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time." Snowe's statement came several hours before a scheduled committee vote. "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow," she said. It does keep her at the negotiating table and at the center of the debate; Snowe risked marginalizing herself if she voted no. Snowe is well aware of the math. Her vote, she said, comes with knowledge that Democrats don't need Republicans to pass the landmark legislation.

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Democrats Disgruntled as Obama Fails to Deliver

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Inter Press Service - By Eli Clifton - Oct. 08 (News Report) - Since before taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama has been no stranger to being in the crosshairs of Republican pundits who have accused him of everything from bring a "secret communist" to a tax-and-spend liberal who would oversee huge expansions in the federal government. But a growing voice of criticism here in Washington is Democrats who feel the president has failed to deliver on a large number of the campaign promises he made during the run-up to the November election.read more

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Why Reform Survived August

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Sep. 08 (News Analysis) - The August recess began with critics attacking health care reform because of its high price tag. It ended with critics attacking health care reform because of how reformers proposed to reduce that high price tag.

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Baucus Asks Democrats To Commit Political Suicide

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OurFuture.org - By Jonathan Walker - Sep. 08 (News Analysis) - The New York Times ran a story that outlines Baucus' health care proposal. According to the story: Mr. Baucus’s plan, expected to cost $850 billion to $900 billion over 10 years, would tax insurance companies on their most expensive health care policies. The hope is that employers would buy cheaper, less generous coverage for employees, thereby reducing the overuse of medical services.

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Van Jones seeks a ‘healing for our politics’

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Brad Johnson - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - Jones’s true record is one of turning away from anger and finding hope, abandoning division and seeking consensus. Speaking at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas this August, Van Jones argued that “for all of the battleground politics that’s going on,” energy policy should be “the one place that should be a safe harbor for all of us.” Van Jones praised the “bipartisanship” of Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who as a representative from Los Angeles succeeded in getting “the first president ever to sign into law a green jobs act, President George W. Bush.” He recognized that the summit participants came to find a “healing for our politics” in a “common ground agenda”:

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After Ted

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Boston Phoenix - By David S. Bernstein - Aug. 27 (News Analysis) - The death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy early Wednesday morning brings to a close the life and legendary career of one of Massachusetts's greatest political figures. It also hastens the issue of succession to the seat he has held since he was elected in 1962, a topic that has gripped the state's political class since Kennedy's brain tumor was discovered more than a year ago.

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Reid Under Pressure to Rein in Centrists

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Alexander Bolton - Aug. 21 (News Report) - Liberal activists are pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and party leaders to crack down on renegade centrist Democrats who might block President Obama's health care overhaul.

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Public Option Dying Because Of Dems' Political Collapse (VIDEO)

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Rachel Maddow - Aug. 18 (News Analysis) - MSNBC's Rachel Maddow went hard after President Obama Monday night for his willingness to give up a public health care option

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Labor Warns Dems: We'll Sit Out Election If You Oppose Public Plan

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Aug. 18 (News Report) - "We'll look at every one of their votes," Trumka said after his speech at the Netroots Nation convention. "If they're against the Employee Free Choice Act, if they're against health care for that reason, I think it'll be tough for them to get support from working people."

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Health care reform: A simple explanation

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Aug. 14 (News Analysis) - From death panels for the disabled to euthanasia for Granny, blatantly, patently wrong information about health care has gotten a lot of attention. (See our Greatest Hits list for the ones we found most significant.) But set aside the shouting, and there are still many legitimate areas for debate. Details on health care are very much works in progress, and Congress is considering a number of measures. With President Obama and the Democrats largely on the defensive, a lot of the debate has focused on what the bills are not. Here, we'll explain what's actually in the bills, and where the genuine disagreements lie.

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Four Democratic senators call for delay on climate legislation

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Kate Sheppard - Aug. 14 (News Report) - “The problem of doing both of them together is that it becomes too big of a lift,” Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told Bloomberg. Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) are also calling for a delay on climate action. While they are amenable to moving ahead with the energy bill that passed out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June, they are less enthusiastic about passing a bill that would cap carbon dioxide emissions.

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DNC Blasts "Sham" Town Hall Protests

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sahil Kapur - Aug. 05 (News) - Jen O'Malley Dillon, Executive Director of the DNC, says the protests "are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform." She accuses them of using "lies" and "fear" to sustain the status quo. "Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families -- we can't let distortions and intimidation get in the way," writes O'Malley, before offering five facts about the protests:

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Feingold Writes Holder: Investigate Bush-Era CIA Policies

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Jul. 14 (News) - Senator Russ Feingold, who has played a leading private and public role in pushing for an investigation into possible illegalities under President Bush, upped his efforts on Tuesday. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Wisconsin Democrat urged the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into recent revelations about the CIA's Bush-era interrogation program.

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Most Scientists Politically Liberal (Reality Must Have a Liberal Bias)

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steve Benen - Jul. 13 (Poll) - Only 9% of the scientists, meanwhile, consider themselves conservative, while fewer still (6%) identified themselves as Republicans. It's just speculation, but the party's hostility towards the basics of modern biology, global warming, and evidence-based reasoning may have something to do with this. Call it a hunch.

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Senators Debate ‘Public Plan’ Health Care Option

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Congressional Quarterly - By Kathleen Silvassy - Jul. 06 (News Analysis) - A government-run insurance program would be an “obstacle” to health care overhaul, a top Senate Republican said Sunday, and such “unfair competition” would lead to nationalized health insurance, while a top Senate Democrat defended it as one means to “keep the private insurance companies honest.”

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Dem Congressional Candidate's Event Raided by San Diego Sheriffs

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Eric Kleefeld - Jun. 29 (News Report) - Now this is a truly bizarre story, about a Democratic Congressional candidate's fundraising event being raided by a whole squad from the San Diego Sheriff's Department - including pepper spray and a helicopter!

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Polls: Obama Honeymoon Ending But He’s Still Highly Popular

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Moderate Voice - By Joe Gandelman - Jun. 23 (News Analysis) - Several polls show that the honeymoon is ending for President Barack Obama but, five months into his term, he remains highly popular personally. The bride still loves the groom — but she’s now beginning to seriously question his judgment and ability to be a good provider. Even so, Republicans shouldn’t be smiling: polling suggests the party is at an all time low and one analyst wonders if the stage isn’t being set for another third party anti-deficit candidate in the style of Texas’ Ross Perot.

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Blue Dogs Backsliding On Health Care

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim - Jun. 08 (News Report) - The Blue Dog Coalition issued a statement that said it would only support the public health care option as a fallback measure that would be triggered sometime down the road if private insurers don't meet a particular set of goals.

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Rx and the Single Payer

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Bill Moyers, Michael Winship - May. 22 (News Analysis) - In 2003, a young Illinois state senator named Barack Obama told an AFL-CIO meeting, "I am a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program."

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Senate Blocks Funds for Gitmo Closure

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

newser.com - By Andrew Taylor - May. 20 (News Report) - In a major rebuke to President Obama, the Senate voted overwhelmingly today to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States and denied the administration the millions it sought to close the prison.

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