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

Sullivan's site posted a clip of a Cato Institute symposium which proves that British conservatives are more mature than ours. Please note how The Venerable Maggie Gallagher avoids every one of the Conservative MP's points.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/02/the-fate-of-gay-conservatism-ctd.html#more

worth reading:

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/the-coming-conservative-health-care-freakout

But the mustache-twirling bonhomie has started to give way to the realization that the legislative door to health care reform is wide open, and Democrats simply need to walk through it. By no means is it clear that they'll succeed. But I've been waiting for conservatives, filled with hubris at having swept liberalism into the dustbin of history, to wake up to the fact that health care reform is very far from dead, and start to freak out.

...

You can imagine how this feels to conservatives. They've already run off the field, sprayed themselves with champagne and taunted the losing team's fans. And now the other team is saying the game is still on and they have a good chance to win. There may be nothing wrong at all with the process, but it's certainly going to feel like some kind of crime to the right-wing. The Democrats may not win, but I'm pretty sure they're going to try. The conservative freakout is going to be something to behold.

Yeah, they have a problem with premature 'mission accomplished'.

to be fair, so does Obama (cf. the gloating emails OFA sent out regarding reform around New Year's).

Probably varying degrees of MI exist in the minds of all politicians.

why are both parties so afraid of changing the filibustering rules? i can understand the republicans' side as they usually manage to unite together, but what are democrats afraid of?

they know theyll be out of power soon/eventually

plus it means less power for the senate generally

how about palin/paul 2012? it's got a ring to it don't it

i mean there's your third party politics right there, morbs should be thrilled

paul is so far off the ideological reservation he seems nuts, but he's not ACTUALLY nuts. there's a funny serenity about him that looks like psychosis but i don't think he'd have anything to do with an actual psychotic.

i can't imagine any politician really wanting to play ball with her. what would you get for your trouble, a bunch of people who'd vote republican anyway? i bet all the staffs of every GOP pol look at what happened to steve schmidt and nicolle wallace and are like, no way.

not to credit her with any actual principles re: policy, but Paul's constant criticisms (which is like the only good thing about him imo) of US foreign policy and the military industrial complex certainly can't wit well with Yosemite Samantha

& goole otm

wit = sit

well the fantasy was good while it lasted

x-post

But the mustache-twirling bonhomie has started to give way to the realization that the legislative door to health care reform is wide open, and Democrats simply need to walk through it. By no means is it clear that they'll succeed -from the New Republic piece

Is there even a 50% chance of success with the running scared Senatorial Dems(and will it prevent insurers from continuing to raise rates by large numbers whenever they feel like it)

the launch of the administration's health-care bill seems like classic obama strategy. he lets everyone throw punch-after-punch at him and at each other, lets his opponents laugh, proclaim victory, look petty in the process . . . and then he begins counterpunching.

and will it prevent insurers from continuing to raise rates by large numbers whenever they feel like it)

rate hikes controls are part of the Obama bill

think this will pass tbh

yeah i hope this shit works tho.

the admin's overall reticence to do anything very risky at all gives me some hope at this point -- they wouldn't do it if they thought it wouldn't succeed now.

word is the house is more reluctant to me than the senate, since the senate's obstructionism means, wonderfully, that it's the senate bill that'll be closer to the final product. i'll have to call my rep i guess. let's get this bs over with, shall we?

"reluctant to me" should be "reluctant to move", i'm not that narcissistic am i?

house is going to be the sticking point here probably but i have faith in nancy

Pelosi's the only one who's delivered on her promises so far so yeah hoping yr faith is not misplaced

Nice to see president Scott Brown already casting a vote with democrats

At least two Republicans joined Democrats in a key cloture vote moments ago, allowing debate on a jobs package to move forward. After overcoming this hurdle, debate on the bill can begin.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) broke with his party and voted with the Democrats. So did Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) broke with his party and voted with the Democrats. So did Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

RINO OH NOES

he was going to get called a RINO anyway, he's from MA

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/22/cheney.hospitalized/index.html

Cheney to hospital w/ chest pains.

hahaha

hahah

i mean there's your third party politics right there, morbs should be thrilled

yah, eff you ;) I don't think Paul would get in the same room w/ Palin OR Bruno.

O Rly?

http://rlv.zcache.com/palin_paul_2012_tshirt-p235552561671167117oc6d_400.jpg

it's on a shirt, it must be troo

plz put what Obama believes in on a shirt asap

hmm paul was palling around with michele bachmann so he does have a high tolerance for crazy i guess

plz put what Obama believes in on a shirt asap

http://www.libertyshirtmarket.com/v/vspfiles/photos/1007-2T.jpg

no problem!

man I had a whole bunch of good answers for "put what obama believes on a t-shirt" but by "good" I mean "shit that would get me yelled at for bein a dick" so n/m

paul is so far off the ideological reservation he seems nuts, but he's not ACTUALLY nuts. there's a funny serenity about him that looks like psychosis but i don't think he'd have anything to do with an actual psychotic.

http://totallylookslike.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/ron-paul.jpg

no wonder he wants to go back to the gold standard, then he puts on magneto costume and then we get ron paul: world's first trillionaire

Updated Lakoff essay from Truthout, where he makes a point to show how Obama has changed in his communication style since the election and also made several mistakes in understanding conservative thought patterns.

It's a bit of a read, but it's worth it.

Just when I didn't think the Dems could appall me more, they do it again: now that they've threatened to use reconciliation, they STILL won't include the public option? It makes no sense.

i don't think the public option can be part of reconciliation? isn't that right?

like, technically?

Until this week Senate Dems bitched about needing sixty votes to include the public option; now that, presumably, they need only fifty, why can't they fight for its inclusion. The only conclusion is that they didn't want it in the first place.

Until this week Senate Dems bitched about needing sixty votes to include the public option; now that, presumably, they need only fifty, why can't they fight for its inclusion. The only conclusion is that they didn't want it in the first place.

^^^^^^^^^

well, duh

fwiw tho--if theres one (living) senator who can be said to have made health care reform his lifes work, its jay rockefeller. not to make the mistake of trusting a politician but if rockefeller says public option thru reconciliation will kill HCR... than i kind of believe him.

wtf? Jay Rockefeller also said last summer and fall that he believed in the public option absolutely. Now look at him waffling. Fuck him too.

I swear I posted before I read Greenwald a couple of minutes ago, but he's OTM:

Rockefeller was willing to be a righteous champion for the public option as long as it had no chance of passing (sadly, we just can't do it, because although it has 50 votes in favor, it doesn't have 60). But now that Democrats are strongly considering the reconciliation process -- which will allow passage with only 50 rather than 60 votes and thus enable them to enact a public option -- Rockefeller is suddenly "inclined to oppose it" because he doesn't "think the timing of it is very good" and it's "too partisan." What strange excuses for someone to make with regard to a provision that he claimed, a mere five months ago (when he knew it couldn't pass), was such a moral and policy imperative that he "would not relent" in ensuring its enactment.

according to rockefeller, doing the public option thru reconciliation could kill HCR in the senate. i tend to believe that his first priority is to get HCR passed, with or without the PO.

i would feel a lot more mad if they were talking about a 'strong' public option. the 'weak' public option that they could marshall 50 votes for wont make enough of a difference to be worth risking the bill as a whole.

greenwald's becoming almost as good at reading minds as keith olbermann!