"Kick Me"

So the Democratic strategy for tomorrow's health care summit has now been revealed......and its the equivalent of walking in with a "kick me" sign on their back.

At a private meeting today, top Democrats settled on a strategy for tomorrow’s summit: They will strive to project a strong sense that they’re in “listening mode,” even as they make it clear that under no circumstances will they scrap their plans and start again, sources say.

Top Dems also agreed to make a concerted effort to highlight Republican ideas that are already in Obama’s bill, in order to disarm GOP charges that Dems aren’t serious about compromise, the sources add.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the other Congressional Dems attending the meeting gathered today behind closed doors to chart their plan for tomorrow. Attendees agreed on the need to strike a balance between projecting openness to GOP ideas, while leaving no doubt that if Republicans don’t compromise, Dems will move forward.

“The consensus that was arrived at is that we have to be in listening mode,” one senior Dem aide familiar with the meeting tells me. “We will say, `We are listening to your ideas, we have been and we’ll continue to do so. But at some point, if you are not gonna be willing to vote for this, we have to move forward.’”

Yeah, good luck with that.

The Repubicans are going to come in with flamethrowers tomorrow and they are going to try to burn down as much of the support for the bill as they can in six hours. They have already telegraphed that they won't be bringing any ideas of their own so what do the Democrats think they will be doing with their time?

Listening mode, heh. Welp, if the Dems really fall through on this strategy you can full expect the Republicans to frame the entire debate tomorrow and you will see even more skittish Dems running for the hills. This has all the makings of an unmitigated disaster.

What We Missed (Was Edited Out) Of Bill O'Reilly Vs Jon Stewart

If you were wondering why Jon Stewart was so lame on Bill O'Reilly, well its because they edited the shit out of the video. He kicked the shit out of Bill O and it wasn't even close.

Thank God for Gawker!

Update: The good people over at Crooks and Liars put some of the clips that didn't make it on air together for your viewing pleasure.

John Kerry Brings The Weaksauce

How did this guy ever get to be the nominee in 2004?!

STEPHANOPOULOS: But, Senator Kerry, there already is a big debate over what would Teddy do. I mean, I think a lot of liberals and progressives saying he would fight for this public health insurance option and, you know, if that -- if you didn’t have that, it wasn’t worth doing.

Others look at it, and I think you may be one of them who say, no, the lesson of Senator is that he got what he could get, the perfect couldn’t be the enemy of the good.

KERRY: Well, Ted would put facts on the table and he would put the reality of life for a lot of Americans on the table. And the reality of life is that we have over 87 million Americans every year during some portion of the year who don’t have insurance. And almost 50 million who all of the time don’t have insurance.

It costs them and costs America an enormous amount of money. We are not managing an efficient health care system. And so we are delivering worse health care for more money than many other nations in the world.

Now Orrin knows that. We know we can do a better job of providing health care to Americans. And what Teddy would do is he would fight for that public option, because he believes -- believed that the public option, as I do, is an effective -- the best way possible to be able to reduce the...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But he could count votes as well...

KERRY: Now let me just finish...

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... and the votes don’t seem to be there.

KERRY: Let me just finish. Let me finish. He would fight for it, and he would do everything in his power to get it, just like he did for the minimum wage or like he did for children’s health care, et cetera. But if he didn’t see the ability to be able to get it done, he would not throw the baby out with the bathwater. He would not say no to anything because we have to reduce the cost. We have to make these changes. And he would find the best way forward.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So he wouldn’t agree with those like Howard Dean who say it’s not worth doing if you don’t have the public health insurance option?

KERRY: I think there is an enormous amount, George -- oh, here is what Teddy would do. He would say, I’m going to fight the fight, and if and when we get to the point that we can’t get there, we’ll see whether or not we can do enough to make good happen out of this.

And you can’t make that measurement today. We have to go down that road.

Here is my thing, if I could have my druthers then no Democrat would try to speak for Senator Edward M. "Teddy" Kennedy. They would respectfully decline to put words in his mouth and instead turn the conversation towards one of his life's ambitions of health care reform in general and then affirm their committment to making it happen.

However if a Democrat IS going to speak for the "Liberal Lion of the Senate" then at least they should come off sounding...well, liberal. I can tell you what I don't think Ted Kennedy ever would have done, and that's concede anything including whether or not he would compromise on a bill, to the press or in public. He made deals not in front of a camera or a microphone when he made them. He did it away from the prying eyes of the public.

Now even if Democrats see a need to compromise on a public option, which is not something I will support and in fact will motivate me to help insure this is Majority Leader Harry Reid's last term in the Senate, you don't concede that on a Sunday show so that it can now be used as a negotiating tool by ever Republican in the country. I will almost guarantee you that right now the RNC is working on talking points which will incorporate Kerry's stance that Teddy Kennedy wouldn't have "thrown the baby out with the bath water" so they can bash the left and claim if there is an obstacle to health care reform its us and not the wingnuts.

You gotta believe that Kerry knows this and yet so as to not look like a flaming liberal himself he just can't bring himself to actually stand strong on what is really already a major compromise for liberals and progressives. There is a reason that the 2004 election was close enough that it came down to one state even though Geroge Bush had already revealed himself to be close to a functioning moron by that time. And there is also a reason why Kerry never even attempted to fight for that state.

One thing is apparent, if there is to be another "Liberal Lion" in the Senate it won't be the new senior Senator from Massachusetts.

Someone Got Their Balls Back

Its about damn time Mr Majority Leader!


A spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tells me that the senator is filing cloture on Harold Koh, the president’s nominee for State Department Legal Adviser, “right now.”


Credit Dave Weigel for breaking the story but honestly why in the hell did it take this long? It is ridiculous that any and everything the Democrats want to do is predicated on whether or not we can file cloture. That has never happened in the history of the Congress and as far as I am concerned one person is responsible, Harry Reid. Its great he finally found his gonads this time but when in the hell will Dawn Johnsen get her day?!

Ross Douthat Really Needs A Woman

This guy is truly obsessed with trying to not only tell women what they feel, but why they feel what he says they feel.

I am beginning to think that "conservative intellectual" is an oxymoron.

Jonathan Turley Shilling For Diane Wood

I have no problem with Professor Turley having a preference of Diane Wood over Sonia Sotomayor for the nomination to the Supreme Court. But I do have a problem with Turley perpetrating the meme that Judge Sotomayor isn't an "intellectual heavyweight".



It won't be long before wingnuts start saying "Even librul socialist Johnathan Turley says..." in their arguments against Sotomayor's confirmation. Turley's whinefest over not having the person he preferred get chosen today was the opposite of helpful commentary. President Obama chose Judge Sotomayor so get over it already.


Oh and about his take on Thurgood Marshall, FUCK YOU Jonathan Turley. That is all.

Go Get Em Contessa!

I am not a big fan of MSNBC'S Contessa Brewer but she was ON FIRE today about the GOP's non budget proposal that they had been touting all week. So was Nora O'Donnell but I don't have that video yet.






Updated with Nora O'Donnell smacking around Congressman Mike Pence

More Senate Democratic Caucus WEAK SAUCE

I really don't know what to say anymore but this buddy buddy Senate civility crap has gone too far. Today we get a story from Bloomberg promoting Grade A union buster Republican Senator Bob Corker's efforts with respect to the auto bailout. Nevermind that he was working in bad faith. Never mind that Ron Gettelfinger came out after talks broke down and asserted that he felt the union was "being set up" by Corker. Nevermind the fact that Corker effectively killed any chance of coming to a negotiated agreement on the auto bailout. Nah none of that matters to our Democratic leadership in the Senate. What are we to make of comments like these?

Majority Leader Harry Reid seconded McConnell’s assessment. “I’ve been extremely impressed with Bob Corker,” says Reid, a Nevada Democrat. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, says Corker did a “magnificent job.”

That is NOT change I can believe in!