US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

Symmetry...

we need 51 scott browns - one for prez and the rest can be govs

truly stunning to see the relative unknown scott brown defeat the incumbent president olympia snowe. i'm still coming to terms with it

Vice President Bachmann was hilarious at her swearing-in.

don't mess with president brown! massachusetts uber alles

why hasn't Scott Brown fixed the economy yet?

These are distressing scenarios. Maybe Pres. Obama should step aside now, for the good of the party, so we can nominate someone else and have a chance to keep the White House in 2012. Rep. Kucinich, perhaps.

Swept to office on a wave of Brownshirts.

lol daria

so disappointed that President Brown hasn't delivered on his promise of free ponies for all American little girls. more business as usual from those jokers in the capital.

What Do I Know?
Josh Marshall | January 20, 2010, 5:29PM

It was clear for about a week that Martha Coakley was probably going to lose last night's senate election. And anticipating that defeat we started talking about the 'X Factor', whether the shock or demoralization of a Massachusetts defeat would change the vote calculus in the House. But I really thought the problem was going to be on the right of the Democratic caucus -- various Blue Dogs, Freshmen/Sophomores, Red State Dems, etc. But that does not seem to be what's happening. According to Greg Sargent, a group of House liberals just met with Speaker Pelosi and told her categorically that they won't vote for the Senate bill.

On the one hand, as David notes, I'm not sure how much weight we should put in that 'categoricalness' of the claim since the House progressives have crossed a bunch of lines they drew in the sand this year. But it shows you where they are.

And along the lines of the sort of denial these folks seem to be in, there's this graf from Greg's piece ...

Tellingly, House liberals also urged Pelosi to consider passing individual pieces of reform through the House as individual bills, and sending them to the Senate to challenge the upper chamber to reject them, Grijalva tells me. Liberals said this approach would be preferable to passing the Senate bill.

They really do think they're going to get another bite at the apple.

facepalm.jpg

yknow i remember in 2006 watching the returns come in and a couple races (webb, tester) were reallllllly close, and schumer announced that it looked like we'd take back the senate, and everyone was just elated beyond belief! 51-49! so much could get done! now we're at 59-41 with a democratic president and suddenly we can't pass any legislation at all right?

In fact, when Brown talked about scrapping the health reform effort and starting over because "we can do better," the Republican crowd started a chant that had to send a tiny shiver down the spine of even the most confident White House staffer.

"Yes we can!" Brown's supporters shouted. "Yes we can!"

lol

i know -- we have more power than some realize IF WE USE IT. but some folks w/n the party just want to give up w/t a fight. that is what is so frustrating here.

i mean, LET THE GOP filibuster everything. enough w/ this fake-ass bipartisan horseshit.

51-49! so much could get done! now we're at 59-41 with a democratic president and suddenly we can't pass any legislation at all right?

yeah, kinda amazing that they've all swallowed McConnell's line about the supermajority being necessary. I see zero discussion of calling Republicans' bluff on a filibuster, which is pathetic.

"Yes we can!" Brown's supporters shouted. "Yes we can!"

YEEEEESSSSS WWWEEEEEE CCCAAAAANNNNNN !!!!!

There is no leadership. It doesn't matter what the numbers are if none of them hold the party line.

at 59-41 we're exactly at the point we were after election day. it took a while for specter to change his stripes, remember?

jesus, i'd give anything right now to be in front of tonight's caucus meetings. jesus christ, my GRANDMA has more cojones that you lot! what the fuck.

i'd subtract lieberman from that 59 (what exactly is the point of "letting" him caucus w/ the Democrats now that the supermajority is out of the question?) and still the Dems would have 58 ... and still acting like pussies.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/fred-barnes-right

Credit where credit is due:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is the new king of Capitol Hill. His skill in keeping 40 Republicans united against Democratic health care reform was masterful, and it wasn’t easy. A number of Republican senators are drawn to co-sponsoring or at least voting for Democratic bills. Not this time.

By keeping his minority together, McConnell put enormous pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who had to keep every Democrat in line to gain the 60 votes need to halt a Republican filibuster. On health care, it meant he had to make unseemly deals with a host of senators, most egregiously in the Medicaid payoff to Nebraska to appease Senator Ben Nelson. Reid got the votes, but the deals were political poison.

Persuading the entire GOP caucus to withdraw from negotiations, many of whom seemed to support the basic goals of the legislation, put incredible pressure on the Democrats. Every last Democratic Senator became a kingmaker, and the result both forced some ugly (though very small bore) compromises, and stretched out the negotiations long enough for lightning to strike.

What's amazing is that some Democrats think their best play now is to go back to the GOP, negotiate a small bore compromise, get it done quickly, and start bashing the Republicans on the bank tax. Don't they realize McConnell will just run the same play on them again?

so depressing. here i go again asking a really naive question, but why is mcconnell serving in elected office? i mean uh, does no one have an interest in governing the country?

xpost

"This time, Charlie Brown, I'll let you hit it!"

i think he has an interest in ruling it. "governance," lol, sounds like SOMEbody went to college!!

but anyway, now that we got ol' scotty brown into the Washington House, medicare is gonna run itself forever and all those uninsured will simply not be a problem! i just checked the cost trendlines and they are already going down. i seriously just checked.

The important verb, goole, is "trending" down.

man don't you get it, we're not even gonna talk about "trending" anymore!

By keeping his minority together, McConnell put enormous pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who had to keep every Democrat in line to gain the 60 votes need to halt a Republican filibuster.

if only Dems had been so united during Dubya's tenure... but presenting a united front isn't what Dems are about now is it

http://shellysindland.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/lieberman2.jpg

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D, United Front)

Man, you can't post that portrait often enough.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/01/scott-brown-is-more-liberal-than.html

Which might explain this.

silver, previous post:

Back in 2008, the smart liberal spin on "post-partisanship" -- one which I frankly bought into -- is that it was in part an effort to put a popular, centrist sheen on a relatively liberal agenda. Instead, as Leonhardt points out, what Obama has wound up with is an unpopular, liberal sheen on a relatively centrist agenda.

*facepalm*
i was wondering last year if the messaging about bringing so much change didn't.. make it easier to attack anything obama did as radical change, even if that was not at all the case

I blame Obama, the most popular man in the country, for leaving stewardship of healthcare legislation in the hands of the least popular folks in the country, the Congress.

"This time, Charlie Brown, I'll let you hit it!"

http://i46.tinypic.com/2drulj6.jpg
(left: Democrats, right: Republicans)

i was wondering last year if the messaging about bringing so much change didn't.. make it easier to attack anything obama did as radical change, even if that was not at all the case

Which is why you ignore "messaging."

I blame Obama, the most popular man in the country, for leaving stewardship of healthcare legislation in the hands of the least popular folks in the country, the Congress.

― mayor jingleberries, Wednesday, January 20, 2010 6:13 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

unfortunately that part of our constitution remains intact

Well the fact that he was so piss scared of what happened with Clintons involvement in the 90s that he went the opposite way and kinda stayed out of the whole drafting process.. Thats my beef.

kinda stayed out of the whole drafting process.

this isn't true either! numerous accounts show that in all the meetings to hash out language, WH bods like nancy ann deparle were there. what they gave up control on was the timing, which was left to all the committee chairs.

i think they wanted to give the public the impression they were being hands off and letting congress do its thing, and to do so they really did have to be more hands off than clinton was. but it's not a black and white kind of a thing

but how could it possibly have been otherwise? WH can't set congressional committee agendas

Im sure President Scott Brown will do a better job tho so Im not worried.

most of the millions of people mao killed were committee chairs. something to think about.

Think of the potential millions killed by death panels.

President Brown definitely has the finest cosmo body of any post-Kennedy president except for Obama imo

krugman weighs in

some douchebag at Brown's press conf today actually did ask if he was prez material

that's an odd interpretation of obama's statement tbh

xpost

I don't know. I think the point that Krugman is making, and others have been making, is that in the absence of anyone with a spine in the democratic party, Obama needed to come out and make a STRONG argument for moving forward and passing this damn thing. Obama didn't throw in the towel, no, but he also didn't come close to making the sort of statement that could have rallied the troops.

"One large health care with the works, please, handtossed."

O_O

they're going to wait until there's one second left and then vote simultaneously just to fuck with us

5 of 11!

2!

YEAHHHHH

WHO WILL CAST THE DECIDING VOTE . . .?

TWO SIXTEEN

hurrah

well ok now let's move on to deporting immigrants, good work guys

one lucky representative just received a generous door prize

awesome

Hoyer's already passing around a tray of Goldschlager shots.

Dana Bash is such a muppett

whens all this motherfucker get signed into law

219

when do I get my single-payer card?

2014

Hmm, which two Republicans did not vote?

try not to die before then

Way to go, comrades!

kick ass

no, just ass

finally, a socialist utopia. never thought i'd see the day.

Your own personal sutopia

Resolved: start new thread now "US Politics: YOUR TWEETS ONSCREEN" y/n

congrats america!

yea

Blue Cross did

xxxp

http://www.macgregorishistory.com/english/school/ibclass/ib3hl/Lenin%20speaking.jpg

DO YOU HAVE YOUR MANDATE FORMS FILLED OUT CORRECTLY... YOU THERE IN THE BACK, SERIOUSLY

i vote yea

im glad i stayed up to watch it.

SOCIALISM -- WHOOP DE DOO!

hey foreigners, congrats on what? we still got shit.

move over here then!

Resolved, motion carries:

US POLITICS: YOUR TWEETS ONSCREEN

can ppl try not to say the "move out of the country to the one you like!" thing like ignorant republicans do? thanks.

who is this babbling womb-goon?!?

lol!

lock thread