Here's Your Bipartisanship

Check out President Obama's conservative BFF Senator Tom Coburn ask for people to pray that Senator Robert Byrd died or at the least was incapacitated so he couldn't show up for the health care cloture vote last night.





Now see this is the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans wouldn't have been on the floor asking what a Democrat meant by what Coburn said. Hell nah. They would have been on the floor en masse pounding his ass into oblivion over and over and calling him all kinds of names probably including domestic terrorist. Hell they would have called for hearings over that kind of shit. And you know who would know better than anybody else? Well Dick Durbin, that's who. Or have you forgotten how they pilloried him and made him apologize for speaking truth to power when he said the torture that went down at Guantanamo would have made folks think it was something that the Nazis or Russians had done if they didn't know who had actually done it.

But hey, its Tom Coburn so I guess he deserves the benefit of a doubt....

Will somebody, anybody in the Democratic Caucus of the Senate PLEASE GROW A FUCKING SPINE!

Its About Damn Time

It appears that the White House is finally willing to ackowledge what has been apparent from the start, that Republicans aren't interested in bipartisanship in the least when it comes to health care reform.

"It appears that at least in Senator Enzi's case, he doesn't believe that there is a pathway to get bipartisan support, and the president thinks that is wrong," said Gibbs. "I think Senator Enzi has clearly turned over his cards on bipartisanship and decided it is time to walk away from the table."

Gibbs's comments came after Enzi told a Wyoming town hall audience last week that would not compromise with Democrats. And in a radio address on Saturday, Enzi accused Democrats of proposing health care reform that "will actually make our nation's finances sicker without saving you money."

"I think the radio address over the weekend by Senator Enzi, repeating many of the generic Republican talking points that Republicans are using, that have bragged about being opposed to health care, are tremendously unfortunate, but in some ways illuminating," said Gibbs.

In targeting Enzi, Gibbs offered the strongest hint to date that the White House is fed up with the process and progress of bipartisan negotiations in Congress. Asked whether he thought Republicans were negotiating in good faith, he shot back:

"That is a question you should ask them. I think, again, some of the comments that have been made certainly seem to suggest to anybody who reads them that they see to be less interested in the bipartisanship they talked about only a few weeks ago."

The press secretary called the recent slew of largely negative health care-related comments from Republican senators "tremendously unfortunate."

"It looks like Republicans are stepping away from seeking a bipartisan solution," said Gibbs. "It is bad for this town but it's worse for this country."

Now honestly it has taken so long for them to be honest about this that it almost has a "too late" quality to it. Still late is usually better than never and I can only hope that this signals a change in tone and message out of the White House for getting health care reform passed this year.

We shall see.

That Makes 2 out of 3

We already had already seen one member of the so called "Gang of Six", Chuck Grassley, admit that he isn't voting for any bill that he negotiates "compromises" into. Now the second of three Republicans in this clusterfuck, Mike Enzi, has come out and admitted that he is just there to obstruct and water down the bill as well.

Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly negotiating health care reform as part of the Senate's "Gang of Six," told a Wyoming town hall crowd that he had no plans to compromise with Democrats and was merely trying to extract concessions.

"It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out," Enzi said Monday, according to the Billings Gazette.

Enzi found himself under attack at the town hall simply for sitting in the same room as the three Finance Committee Democrats. Republicans in the crowd called for him to exit the talks. He assured conservatives that his presence was delaying health care reform.

"If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care," he said.

Excellent job there Max Baucus.

I don't want to hear another gotdamned word from President Obama or anybody else in his administration about these assholes negotiating in good faith. It is time to say to hell with it, pull the fucking bill back into the full committee where it should have been from the get go, mirror the HELP committee bill and bring the damn thing to the floor for a vote. And as an alternative drop it all and just move to reconcilliation and be done with it. Its over for this namby pamby farce of a bipartisan negotiation. It is time for Democrats to shit or get off the pot. We voted for change dammit not another 4 years of Republican rule.

Its time to make it happen!

Well Past Time To Cut Bait

Yesterday President Obama was asked a question at his townhall about how important it will be to have a health care reform bill be bipartisan if Republicans flat out refuse to be a productive part of the process. Here is part of his response:

Now, I think that there are some of my Republican friends on Capitol Hill who are sincerely trying to figure out if they can find a health care bill that works -- Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Olympia Snowe from Maine have been -- (applause) -- yes, I got to admit I like Olympia, too. (Laughter.) They are diligently working to see if they can come up with a plan that could get both Republican and Democratic support.

Now after saying that yesterday this is what Senator Grassley, who supposedly is "sincerely trying to figure out" if he can find a health care bill that works had to say about the bogus assed "death panels" first proposed by Sarah Palin.



I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER GOTDAMNED WORD ABOUT BIPARTISANSHIP!

President Obama needs to drop the act and go right at these assholes from now on and put Grassley's punk ass on the spot. There are no more Republicans working in good faith and the sooner he acknowledges that the sooner we can move on health care reform legislation. That's what a real leader would do and that's what needs to happen like yesterday.