good gawd, dianne,
(as herb caen might have said)
you get a "10" for that spin!

the american people are so fuckin' dumb they jess caint git that thar helath care whatchacallit...

so we just gotta slow it down a little... just slow it down a little...
and then quietly... quietly... like a little mouse... why. maybe...it'll all just go away...

a fine piece of service to your corporate masters... bet the luncheon today will be super, Senator!
(say hello to Dick for me...)

It would be good if the President took over by doing something dramatic to change the health care reform story. I don't like how this one ends.

I'm not the only one to say this: the choice is stark. Either the House passes the Senate bill or nothing in health care will get done. Piecemeal won't work because of Republican intransigence; because everybody is way tired of a process that has taken much too long already; and because progressive support for Obama is cratering, which means that his political power is weakening as we speak, with the necessary consequence that he'll be able to do less and less.

1) how many Americans understand every piece of legislation that is passed (that even applies to Senators), how Americans many are actually even aware of most legislation?
2) the best way to counter the myths would be to pass it and show that there are no death panels or government takeovers.

Worse than wasting a year getting very little done with a supermajority (if barely), the Dems have hit one little roadblock and decided the best way to motivate the base and inspire independents is to admit that the last year was a big liberal giveaway that needs to be dismantled and slow walked. These people sure sounded like fighters when they were cashing my DNC contributions and screaming about "hitting 60" a few years ago, but it is beyond depressing to see how quickly they all, INCLUDING OBAMA, turned into gutless triangulators at the first sign of trouble. Setting aside the hackneyed political "analysis" that pundits keep barfing about the Mass election, MOST of the people who voted for Obama in '08 and Brown in '10 did so because he has been TOO WEAK on financial reform, reigning in Wall Street, and copping out on healthcare. Going slower or essentially CONFIRMING the GOP talking points in the face of ONE DEFEAT (that reduces their majority to a MEASLY 18 in the Senate) only serves to repulse those voters, both liberal and independent, that just want SOMEONE to fight for us! If an 18 seat majority in the Senate turns the Dems into jellyfish, then they don't deserve to control the levers of government, and should all be sent packing to the private sector. Get out of the way and let the base start looking for FIGHTERS, not gutless wimps. PRIMARY EVERYONE!

Jesus. Just pass the Senate bill, then take your time fixing the Senate bill.

"Morons. I've got morons on my team."

"People do not understand it. It is so big it is beyond their comprehension..."

This is condescending almost beyond redemption. IF the election were tomorrow I might vote for her opponent. Senator Feinstein, YOU owe the American people an apology for hubris and arrogance.

The public can understand almost anything if you explain it properly. They understood social security, the FDA, medicare, medicade, civil rights. For the most part, they understand their insurance coverage, their budgets, and thier taxes.

If this was ancient Rome, the Gods would strike you down so fast you would not know what hit you. Lucky for you, you hope, the Gods have retired.

News Flash:
Supreme Court rules 5-4 to ease restrictions on spending by corporations and unions in political campaigns

If you thought it was bad before ... WE ARE TOTALLY FUCKED NOW
Your candidate of choice brought to you by...Mega Corporation..We know what's best for you

I think it it was Paul Krugman who said that the healthcare bill is easy to understand. People will always be able to have insurance(thats the regulatory said of the bill) and the government will help people purchase insurance(subsidies, medicaid expansion, etc.). Anyone who doesn't understand that is someone who doesn't want to understand.

For the last month Scott Brown went all around his state telling people, literally, why should Massachusetts residents pay again for the Democrats' federal health insurance when we already have a good state plan -- that I voted for!

Shorter Scott Brown: If you want decent health insurance move to Massachusetts!

Even Shorter Scott Brown: We got ours so f^@ck you!

So maybe Sen. Feinstein has a point -- let's all take our time to sell our homes, pack our bags and move to Massachusetts where we can all get health insurance!

Jesus Christ. How about some leadership up there? Go slow, slow down. Christ. Now the freaking dems are spinning the Republican talking points.

I'm out.

Only the most obtuse, blinded, frankly dumb-ass among us believed that Repugs were going to meet us halfway on anything.

The Obama folk are obtuse, blinded and frankly dumb-ass.

I'm shopping for a new candidate. Not a Repug and sure as hell not Nader. But a new Democrat. Pickings are slim but damn near anything is better than what we got now.

oh sweet jesus -- Corporate America has hit the god damn jackpot
jackpot
jackpot
jackpot
jackpot
jackpot

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/21/us/AP-US-Supreme-Court-Campaign-Finance.html?hp

How much slower could this possibly go!?

Kevin nails it:
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/01/facing-reality

Does anyone really debate that we've arrived at fascism, as defined by Mussolini? "the merger of corporate and government power" is now complete, no?

We need to go more slowly on desgregation. Because we know that justice delayed is justice, uh...more palatable to the entrenched interests.

I wonder if any Senator, other than the Republican ones, understands that if HCR had been passed last summer, Coakley would have won going away. I bet Newt could explain it to them.

The kind in Feinstein's office who answers the phone denies she said this. When I tried to read him the quote, he hung up on me.

I guess they don't want to talk about it.

The requirement for senate Dems to have 60 votes was a convenient excuse for not passing bills that are good policy -- that are also good politics. Unless the filibuster in he Senate can be broken, very little reform of anything is going to happen. The filibuster is a parliamentary maneuver requiring at present 60 votes for cloture to be able to vote on a bill, nominee, whatever. However, it is no big secret that the filibuster can be broken (probably for good) by 50 votes plus the VP. The nuclear option is perhaps the best known filibuster-breaking parliamentary maneuver. Google it, if you don't know how it works. It's not Rocket Science. It does not have to happen at the start of the senate session (Note that the 1975 change in cloture rules came several months AFTER the Senate convened and set its rules for that session.]

You think the Republicans would not have used the nuclear option in mid-session in 2005 if what they wanted wasn't handed to them by a "Gang of 14?? [They wanted a set of right-wing judges approved for Federal bench positions -- and they got most of what they wanted by threatening the nuclear option.] You think they wouldn't use it again to pass whatever once they again become a majority? You think “Senate Tradition” is going to stop them -- like it now paralyzes Democratic Senators and many pundits from seriously advocating breaking the filibuster?? Get Real.

If there are not 50 votes to end a filibuster, then passing bills or amendments to really reform or improve health care, climate change, judicial nominations, whatever, are going to be dysfunctional exercises in "try to pass inadequate bills and pronounce those bills as ground-breaking -- or dead at time of introduction". And hope the American voters don’t notice. Voters on average may be generally uninformed, but they are not THAT dumb. They weren't in MA.

In health care and other issues, Obama and Senate Democrats , most Pundits, and many Broderesque -bloggers constantly reinforce a meme that liberal or progressive Democrats are easily rolled by those making intransigent demands. This reinforces a long-standing meme that Progressives/Liberals are wimps, wusses, chumps-- pick your term. McCain, Coker, DeMint and most Republicans may be batshit bonkers pushing insane ideologically-based solutions, but they appear very willing to take a lot of flack to push their agenda.

It is unfortunate -- and politically risky-- but I conclude that the only hope is for Progressives to support a strong movement that challenges elected DINOs, possibly including Obama who has a primal need to compromise. Accept that. Worked well for Senator Spector. Give Obama some intransigent demands from Progressives so he can feel all good and moral on about compromising on bills that are better social policy.

She voted for Bush's tax cuts, his wars, his torture schemes and his torturers. Could someone point out to Dianne that she is the one who has trouble understanding things, not the American people.

Then again, she keeps getting elected.

Fuck me.

Feinstein's right. The HCR bill is just too damn big and complicated, and they have to slow down and explain it all to the American people.

I remember how they slowed down the process and explained every aspect of the No Child Left Untested law and the Medicare Prescription Drug Ripoff law before passing them. Is that how we should slow things down, Senator?

I'm so freakin sick of the Democrats I'm thinking of sitting out the next 20 elections . . .

"I think we do go slower on health care."

Feinstein does realize that if she goes any slower on health care she'll be moving backwards right?

How would Feinstein like it if we went slow on her health care?

The current bills from the Senate & the House already go painfully slow and will likely anger most voters by imposing immediate obligations without immediate benefits.

We are not talking about reforming the space program or baseball. Health care reform needs to address health disasters: the consequences are life & death. When the issue is "I'm not happy with this," the answer might be to proceed slowly. When the issue is "Help! I'm dying!" no one--certainly no Democrat--should have the nerve to counsel patience.

We have one party that basis everything on politics and whose policies have and will harm America, but which typically wins the PR war and has conviction to proceed with its ideals despite contrary public opinion. Then we have another party of which, a large percentage of its members pursue policy that betters America, but which is often lousy at the PR war and who has a good number of members who turn coward at any real, or imagined, contrary public opinion. I have been a Democrat my entire adult life and will continue to be one but, unless the House passes the Senate Helath Reform bill (portions of which can later be improved through the budgetary process that is not subject to a fillibuster), organizations such as the DCCC and the DSCC are not going to see another dime of my money. I cant believe we have gone through all this effort to improve America and those efforts are going to prove futile over an election that, while unpleasant, still leaves Democrats in charge of things.

As usual, Feinstein is demonstrating that she has less value than what I scraped off the bottom of my shoe this morning. Maybe, and I'm just spitballin' here, maybe if she spent the time trying to educate the people as to what is actually in the health care bill instead of squandering her camera time complaining about how complicated it is, maybe then she could for once in her miserable careeer render a valuable public service.

The Senate bill is pretty bad, but I hope the House ends up voting to pass it just so the corporate shills like Feinstein, Nelson, Bayh, Lieberman, etc. have to go out and defend their vote for it. I think they had rather attack the bill and those pushing for improvements that explain why the bill is actually better than the current situation.

Thank you Senator Feinstein for reminding me once again why I was only ever stupid enough to vote for you once - the first time in 1969, when nobody knew what a fucking asshole you are, you conniving bitch.

Unfortunately, Feinstein will likely be right as to what is done, given that the Coward-in-Chief has had this to say, as reported in today's New York Times:

WASHINGTON — President Obama signaled on Wednesday that he might be willing to scale back his proposed health care overhaul to a version that could attract bipartisan support, as the White House and Congressional Democrats grappled with a political landscape transformed by the Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race.

“I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on,” Mr. Obama said in an interview on ABC News, notably leaving near-universal insurance coverage off his list of core goals.

Yes... But its a kinder gentler fascism a compassionate conservative fascism, except for people who look ethnic. See Sen. James Inhofe's (R-Okla.) comments on racial profiling.

"Kevin nails it:
"http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/01/facing-reality

"Does anyone really debate that we've arrived at fascism, as defined by Mussolini? "the merger of corporate and government power" is now complete, no?

"Posted by: Dems lose huge in 2010

"FEINSTEIN POINTS IN THE WRONG DIRECTION"

As someone who has followed her career for nearly 30 years now, I can only say that this is a headline with one hell of a long shelf-life. You could sell it at Brooks Brothers; it'll never go out of style.

I am actually old enough to remember Democrats who were Democrats ... I may die at any moment.

Shorter Feinstein: "People are lying about this bill. So I say, let's just abandon the effort and cede everything to the liars." What a horrible human being.

As a California voter in the Feinstein district, I assure you that we have noticed Diane's propensity to support Corporate policies over the last few years.

She will not only get a primary opponent, but she will soon lose that cushy little senate seat she's enjoyed for so long. Di-Fi is soon to be history, no longer will she be able to fund her husband's companies under the guise of the federal government.

Word!