Can't imagine Shep Smith gets to keep his perch at Faux much longer stating facts like this.

"Republicans shouldn't be too surprised to see the new majority walking through the door the old majority opened."

Why shouldn't they be? The Dems have been a model of gutlessness, and Republicans know it. It'll surprise us all if they stand up on their hind legs and play the sort of hardball this issue deserves.

i woke up this morning to hear that ted kennedy had died and president john mccain was assuring the american public haig-like, that he is in charge and "everything is cool, my friends."

in memory of ted kennedy, i've decided to stay awake until universal health care is the law of the land. and i have decide to fight even harder against the thugs, and the crooks, and the sociopaths in the Repugnant party -- and the spineless in and among the Dems.

and more... god damn it, we all need to do more.

For a little blazing memory of what teddy was doing -- that the media did not think cool enough to spread around, see the transcript of his"illegal iraq invasion" speech at juancole dot com today.

Well, duh. Majority rules. But only when Republicans are in the majority.

John McCain was already displaying a rather shaky memory last year during the campaign. The question is whether his poor memory is a matter of convenience or of dementia.

But of course George S. did not raise that embarrassing inconsistency in his extended interview last Sunday.

The booing Sun City town hall crowd might seem like selfish assholes who care only about their Medicare and damn everyone else. But I think the real reason is that large numbers of Medicare recipients are simply in the grip of declining mental capability.

That Republicans use scare tactics to manipulate these people is taking advantage of them in a most shameful way, even by Republican standards.

I don't doubt that McCain's opposition to the use of reconciliation bills is principled. But he can't deliver votes against reconciliation, except when Dems wish to avail themselves of it. So it doesn't matter what McCain's principles are; considered en masse, the Republican Party is wholly opportunistic and hypocritical on the matter (big surprise there, I know).

Why does the MSM give Senator McCain so much airtime? I don't recall John Kerry or Al Gore getting even a fraction of the attention McCain gets.

So WHY is OBAMA so AFRAID of RECONCILIATION ?

Still trying to be President Good Vibes ?
Still intent on becoming the Republican's BEST FRIEND ??

GET ON WITH IT !!

PASS HCR with a PUBLIC OPTION
USE RECINCILIATION

WHAT IS WRONG WITH OBAMA ???

yes, please "blow up" the Senate. Do reconciliation. End the filibuster. Pass health insurance reform legislation. Do all this and Democrats will ensure they stay in the majority. Contrariwise, if they wimp out, they'll lose the midterms.

"I think it would fundamentally change the way the institution functions."

As thought that were a bad thing.

As for the "Sun City town hall crowd": younger residents of the Phoenix area are rarely so rude as to call them "selfish assholes," but "greedy geezers" is quite common.

I think, speaking figuratively, that "blowing up the Senate" would be just about the best thing that could happen to that institution.

President McCain has degenerated into nothing more than a SHIT STAIN .......

Of course when talking aobut the Sun City crowd, selfish and senile are appropriate adjectives, but so is racist. Racism gives their hatred for Obama the extra spice that makes it special.

Man this is confusing. Do these guys really think that 99.99999% of us care, know, or want to hear about arcane senate clubby rules ? In the world we live in, no.

I guess this is all so complicated, but here is an idea. Ted Kennedy realized that to get forward, you had to work with people... Can some other senate committee do a markup on Wyden-Bennett bill, AND hold the senate co-sponsors feet to the fire: Bennett, Crapo, Alexander, and Graham ? Get Reid to like, lead, and find some lame reason for the Senate Ag comm., or VA, etc. comm. to report the bill out. OR, bring it straight to the floor. THEN let the senate do something that never happens anymore - an actual debate of the HELP plan; whatever crap comes out of Bacus's club, and Wyden-Bennett. Hmmm . 4 R cosposors on WB, + Snowe and Collins ...

Maybe the righties get bent out of shape. Promise Bennett an ambassadorship, Univ. presidency, etc. if he loses next year: Make Alexander head of - - some easy agency; etc. in case they lose their seats for life...

"With the Senate Democratic caucus now at 59 seats..."

Oh. This really brings Kennedy's death home with a punch. RIP, Sendator.

The only people who care about Senate rules are senators.

It cannot be said often enough: no legislation can be challenged in court on the basis that the Senate failed to follow its own rules.

The average American would probably reward a politician for bucking the rules, and would view following the rules as no better than a neutral thing. Resorting to "Senate rules" as an excuse is like me refusing to go out on a date because I "always" wash my hair on Saturday. It's a pathetic and transparent way of saying, "I don't want to have anything to do with you."

The question that Steve often raises -- why is this man still given platforms and significant public time on TV and elsewhere? -- comes to mind. Is it that the Republicans have no other even remotely credible or recognized figure who, about 30% of the time, appears somewhat normal? Almost everything he says is either a lie, a contradiction of a previous statement, or grossly uninformed, even ignorant. This is a man who revealed, last year, that after years in the Senate (and years of collecting for himself despite his wealth), he did not know how Social Security works.

No, pass single-payer.

If you are going to "blow up the Senate", one might as well go all the way.

I worked on a survey crew. We were supposed to leave the office at 7:00 AM daily. We had a new worker who had a problem getting to work on time. After delaying the crew 3 times in a couple of weeks, he was told we would no longer wait for him to show. A couple of weeks later he was once again late. We left the office at 7:00 as usual. He showed up a few minutes later and was told to either drive his own car to the work site ( 60 miles ) or go home. After missing out on 8 hours+O/T pay he got his ass to work on time, like the rest of us. The moral of the story...Sometimes you need to do the un-convential thing ( reconciliation )at least one time to convince the doubters you mean business.

McCain was on Fox News and said use of reconciliation would set a "terrible precedent" that would "blow up" the Senate. He added, "I think it would fundamentally change the way the institution functions."

Exactly. Every branch of the US government would operate on the principle of majority rule. Couldn't come a moment too soon.

The fact that the Senate frustrates all substantial policy changes means that both parties focus on side and minor issues, rather than serious plans for governing. Everybody becomes unaccountable -- always posturing about what they would like to do, safe in the knowledge that they will never get to actually do much of anything at all.

"He added, "I think it would fundamentally change the way the institution functions."

Oh gee, do you think he means that if Health Care Reform is passed by using reconciliation, the Republicans will refuse to help pass anything else in the future? Imagine that!

i suspect that mccain thinks he can flip flop 'cause in the old days stuff said in march had gone down the public's memory hole by august. problem is that he forgets about the google and the youtube where it's all current info...and when grumpy grampa
says "I think it would fundamentally change the way the institution functions," it makes me wonder if he understands HOW "the institution functions," ala bachmann's continuing confusion about the way the house works

Yeah, but what about the torture, John?

McCain's silence in the face of all the frantic Gooper spin to excuse and justify power drills, strangulation, and freezing captives to death is deafening, and should not be ignored any longer by journalists who have a mic in his face.

I don't see how anyone can give McCain quote time for what amounts to details of parliamentary procedure without first insisting he explain what he thinks about Cheney's desperate lying and ass-covering over his role in what the "Greatest Generation" used to call "Crimes Against Humanity".

Didn't he tell us all repeatedly during the campaign how horrifically immoral it was when it was done to him? Yet when Cheney defends it being done in America's name he swallows his good moral Christian family-man veteran tongue. What a pathetic tool.

One would hope that reconciliation kills cloture.

One could argue that cloture is the most undemocratic element in our government. With it the Senate is the only place where a majority is not a majority. Cloture is simply a means by which the small population states can dictate government policy. It was enough that the Founding Fathers sought to throw a bone to the small population states by even HAVING a Senate. When a Senator from Montana is equal to a Senator from California, we'd already lost majority rule, and allowed small-minded small-population Senators to run the country, running roughshod over the underrepresented people in the populated states.

Without cloture (meaning through the use of reconciliation) we can get back to government by majority rule, which is where we started.

All I can say is that Reid had BETTER use reconciliation.

BUT WHILE THEY ARE AT IT, WHY DON'T THEY ALSO PUT IN SINGLE PAYER. The HELL with "the public option." Nothing less than single payer makes any sense. And there are enough votes for single payer. Fuck the GOP. Pass single payer and tell them to STFU.
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IntelVet said:

No, pass single-payer.

If you are going to "blow up the Senate", one might as well go all the way.

I 100% agree. Don't pass a watered-down bill when you can get everything you want.

AND ALSO: IT TELLS THE BLUE DOGS TO GET WITH THE F*ING PROGRAM OR GET LEFT BEHIND.

And the Blue Dogs, then being on record as being against what is good for their people, are so totally going into the next election with a target on their backs.
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(Reformatted):
IntelVet said:

No, pass single-payer. If you are going to "blow up the Senate", one might as well go all the way.

I 100% agree. Don't pass a watered-down bill when you can get everything you want.

AND ALSO: IT TELLS THE BLUE DOGS TO GET WITH THE F*ING PROGRAM OR GET LEFT BEHIND.

And the Blue Dogs, then being on record as being against what is good for their people, are so totally going into the next election with a target on their backs.
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