the repugnants are slick...it usta be you could only come up with one scapegoat, one scare tactic... like jews... or slave rebellions... or illegals...

repugs have a whole panoply of devices to make everyone a victim of the Other, while simultaneously the Other for everybody else...

joke line called it nihilism... he might be a joke, but he's right.

These are garbage arguments, and Enzi knows it. No serious person should take them seriously.

They're not aiming for serious people. They're aiming for stupid, fearful low-information voters who are easily led (this would be their core base, in fact).

Does the President really get it? He's already negotiated publicly with himself, giving away the farm and getting nothing in return except tanking poll numbers and the very real possibility of major GOP gains in the midterms. It beggars belief.

Too much profit to continue to be had by the existing health care industry, and Enzi relies on these existing interests to campaign for election. Big Insurance, I may proffer, are the real constituents of the (Dis)honorable Senator from the great state of Wyoming! From his own rhetoric, he does not speak for middle class Wyomingites. He speaks to protect an existing system that donates big bucks into his political coffers.

Enzi is chincy!

I'll be contacting my kin in the Tetons to spur them into giving Enzi his walking papers!-Kevo

They're not aiming for serious people. They're aiming for stupid, fearful low-information voters who are easily led (this would be their core base, in fact).

Gotta disagree. There are loons as the core base, to be sure, but there are a great many people captivated by the right who can be reached with solid, rational arguments. Don't get too pissed at the politicians that you lose sight of the opportunity in their shaky constituency.

Are Repubs able to ride on "it's good enough as it is", or just fear that Obamacare etc. would be the worse of two evils? I find it hard to believe, all those people out there who had trouble with insurance companies just don't care about that anymore. Democrats have to remind people and motivate them about the inadequacy of what they are getting now.

PS: Local Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) has some good ideas.

Knights of the Obama Roundtable...

Krugman: This is the quest for bipartisanship gone stark raving mad.

Thoreau aphorism recast

The rich man is always sold to that which made him rich. Obama is sold to bipartisanship.

Your morning aphorism

Bipartisanship wins elections. Governing that way is like looking for the holy grail on the road to hell.

"Enzi, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee"
Uh, is that literal "ranking member" or just "ranking Republican member"? There is no excuse for the former, if Dems control Congress.

They're not aiming for serious people. They're aiming for stupid, fearful low-information voters who are easily led (this would be their core base, in fact).

Actually, in my experience, Republicans who sling this sort of stuff consider themselves to be quite clever

- and you have to admit that from their perspective slinging this sort of stuff does work.

neill: Joe Klein did call the Rethugs a Party of Nihilists, indeed. Trouble is, most Joe Sixpacks and Sally Soccer Moms don't know what "hihilist" means. Better to call the Rethugs the Party of the Greedy Bastards.

On the substance of Steve's post: some in the blogosphere (especially at the Daily Kos) believe that Obama's recent denial of the public option was not a trial balloon, but rather a salesman-esque tactic called the Take-Away. That is, testing the strength of the progressive commitment to the public option by rhetorically taking it off the table. I only hope that it is so.

As far as Enzi, fuck him and the horses that all the Rethugs and ConservaDems are riding on, just like they are in the process of fucking the American people.

We need an abrupt game changer to completely change the narrative. I'd like to see Rep. Anthony Weiner's vote in the house on single payer be re-framed as "Teddy Kennedy's Health Plan for All Americans Act." Most people don't know it, but Kennedy twice introduced a single-payer Medicare-for-All bill, in 2005 and 2007, but could not get it out of his own HELP Committee. THIS would be the "game changer" IF President Obama would stop nibbling around the edges of incrementalism and, instead, would finally commit whole hog to "change we can believe in" on health care.

Of course, while I'm dreaming, he would also sign an Executive Order to stop DADT discharges; he would order the Justice Department to immediately start vigorously enforcing our anti-trust laws; he would put Eliot Spitzer in charge of reforming the regulation of financial markets; he would lead the effort to amend the Constitution to strip corporations of any and all aspects of "personhood;" he would once again require FCC license holders to operate in the public good; he would stop enforcement of the Patriot Act and the Protect America Act; he would convene a truly independent 9/11 commission with subpoena powers; and he would thoroughly investigate and prosecute Bush, Cheney, Rove, Yoo, Bybee, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and all the other scum that have disgraced, pillaged, and virtually destroyed America and all that it once stood for. Whew... what a dream! Yeah, rrriiiggghhhhtttttt!

These are garbage arguments, and Enzi knows it.

You know it and he knows it, but to the people he's aiming at, these will sound like good arguments until someone they respect refutes them (and that won't happen).

Analytical Liberals, if Obama would come back from vacation with his baseball bat, walk into the senate clown car chamber and smash up a little furniture -- maybe a love tap or two for Baucus, Reid and Lieberman -- and then address those clowns extemporaneously and firmly that "single-payer now" is the slogan for the next fortnight to get to his desk real hrc... nice fantasy, huh?

but i speak metaphorically and half-heartedly...

## Enzi told constituents he has no intention of compromising with Democrats, and is only engaged in negotiations with Democrats so he can force concessions on a deal he's likely to oppose anyway. ##

How many more times do the Republicans have to say this, before the Dems finally get it?

##"Enzi, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee"
Uh, is that literal "ranking member" or just "ranking Republican member"? There is no excuse for the former, if Dems control Congress.##

Delver, the term "ranking member" MEANS the top person from the minority party. The top person from the majority party is called "Chairman".

@ Duncan Kinder:

I have no doubt that Republican elected officials think themselves clever. Dem elected officials do too. There isn't a whole lot of actual proof to back up their good opinions of themselves, but this doesn't stop them.

But the people the Repubs are pandering to during this horrible month are, basically, incredibly stupid. They cannot think coherently and rationally. They have to be told what to think. (I disagree with Bob M who thinks there are plenty of Republicans out there willing to listen to reason. I can't think of a half-dozen. And frankly, if there are Republicans willing to listen to reason, they should see what their party has become & get the hell out of it.)

Did you see the exchange between Barney Frank and the fellow who thinks Medicare is "unconstitutional"? It's very telling. The fellow repeats the same talking point, over & over, but has no real idea what it means. And I suspect he has never read the Constitution, which leaves plenty of lee-way for providing for the general welfare of Americans.

These are garbage arguments, and Enzi knows it. No serious person should take them seriously.

And again, the truth of the argument makes no difference to them. They see this as warfare, and don't believe their morality applies when dealing with an "enemy".

This is about making sure none of their wealth gets redistributed to "those people". But since that can't come right out and say that, this is what you see instead.

BL: Does the President really get it? He's already negotiated publicly with himself, giving away the farm and getting nothing in return except tanking poll numbers and the very real possibility of major GOP gains in the midterms. It beggars belief.

What about Obama is liberal, exactly? So far I'm not seeing anything liberal about him. He's carrying on way too many Bush practices for me to feel comfortable ever voting for him again.

My guess is that he wants to be seen as the anti-Bush (who wouldn't want that?) by reaching across the aisle to the minority party and achieving "great things" by "compromise." Given what the Repub party has become, this is both fatuous & impossible. Their entire reason for being at the moment is to impede the Democrats from accomplishing anything.

I won't vote for Obama again. & I won't vote for anyone who votes for a watered down worse-than-doing-nothing health care bill.

It has actually reached the point in our Democratic experiment where a majority of the people actually lack elected representatives that will, you know, represent them sincerely & accurately. Most people believe in stuff like Medicare & Social Security & civil liberties. But we don't have elected officials that will protect those things. So we will lose them.

What makes you think Democrats want health care reform? The Rethugs have made it abundantly clear that they don't. But what about the Democrats from Obama to Harry Reid to the Blue Dogs gives you the impression that they will go to the mat for anything having to do with health care reform that puts bite into reigning in corporate greed? More and more I'm getting the impression they want to blame Republicans for failure when, in fact, they no more want to cross swords with their corporatist handlers than the Rethugs. There are very few Dems who I trust with this issue. Or global warming. We are soooooooo fcuked!!!!

People must be living in a dream land if they think government will answer all their prayers when it comes to health care or anything else for that matter. Medicare and Medicaid are going bankrupt. Health Care on the Indian Reservations is a failure. The deficit has risen to over 9 TRILLION dollars under President Obama, more than all the other Presidents combined.

The bottom line is when government gets control over the health care dollar, like rats on a sinking ship, they will save themselves first, and let everyone else drown. As the ship sinks, more and more cuts will be made in health care and other critical services in order to save as many union worker jobs as possible.

That is what is happening right now in California. Instead of laying off CA union workers, the Democratic controlled legislature is making cuts in critical services that would never happen in the private sector. In the private sector, administrative staff and non essential personal are cut so critical services can still be maintained. The opposite occurs in government.

Think about it. The government is already broke so they will use the people's money to save themselves first. The people, us, will be last in line. Bottom line, don't tie your hopes to a sinking ship that is about to go bankrupt.

Sarah - you are confused! Ships do sink, but they don't go bankrupt! As for your observation, it seems based more oh hearsay than anything real!-Kevo

This happens over and over and over again, like Lucy holding the football for the trusting and gullible Charlie Brown to kick, then whipping it away at the critical moment. Do the voters never learn? The Republicans scare them witless, get back into power and then steal them blind. Again and again. The Democrats extend the hand of bipartisanship, and the Republicans spit in it. When the Republicans are in power, they don't even offer.

If you saps fall for it this time, you deserve the oft-bestowed title of dumbest demographic in the world.

About rushing the process, it really got underway with Clinton's push which was what? 15 years ago? They feel like 15 years is rushing?

I am from Thailand. I feel so sorry for American who have no health care.
I watch TV story about poor American people. They have jobs but not good insurance so they have take free health from volunteer. But there not enough for everyone so they must close.
What to do if someone has toothache??
In my country there is doctor for everyone.
No one has to have volunteer give the health care.
I think America is go down. Not leadership nation.
I think in Thailand has many American come here see the doctor because very expensive in your country.
Very sad in America

Frankly.. I am not impressed.

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