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

I have a theory about this summit -

your theory is correct imho. this is all theater, and O's really good at it

he enjoys it too. i think he wishes he could govern by debate club. "ok, we won on points. so you guys have to vote for our health care bill." if only.

^^^would totally be okay with this, can we rewrite the Constitution now plz

seconded.

this is all theater

it sounds more like "Shoot the Freak" at Coney Island to me

it sounds more like "Shoot the Freak" at Coney Island to me

I lol'd really hard at this & I thank u for it <3 <3

What's the man with the green tie's name?

Bozo

perfect, thanks

And now: King of the Clowns.

holy christ has Boehner gotten this far as a public speaker?

Boehner looks like dudes who used to hang around Cyndi's Adult Books in PDX

good times

say "scrap the bill" one more time, guys...

Through the looking-glass:

an important part of the Democrats’ problem is that Obama himself is their only star, and this format is not working for him. He certainly seems engaged and well informed (even given a few misstatements of fact, at least one of which John Kyl made very clear.) But he doesn’t seem like the President of the United States—more like a slightly cranky committee chairman or a patronizing professor who thinks that saying something is “a legitimate argument” is a way to avoid having an argument. He is diminished by the circumstances, he’s cranky and prickly when challenged, and he’s got no one to help him. The other Democrats around the table have been worse than unimpressive. The Republicans seem genuinely well-prepared, seem to have thought through the question of who should speak about what rather carefully, and several of them have done quite a good job making their case against the Democrats’ approach. If we were to judge by debating points, Republicans certainly won the morning handily.

is that KJL

they are just so beastly!! luckily our boys have carried the day!!

re: med mal reform ad nauseum

hasn't the CBO determined that it might save about 0.5% ?? I guess that's something, but come on guys...

had to stop watching this

Dick Durbin just told the awful story about a woman who had a mole removed from her face that turned into John Boehner.

can we just call him John Boner and be done with it

"would you feel the same way if you made 40,000?" damn O you talk an awesome line sometimes

if only it were Boehner that were missing and presumed dead, and not Boner

finally figured it out. that rep. i mentioned before is ryan, the GOP's budget guru who recently advocated replacing medicare with vouchers, right? so if he's also the GOP's budget guru on HCR, why are the GOP panelists all whining about stopping HCR to save medicare?

BECAUSE THEY DON'T GIVE A FUCK

the GOP is under absolutely no pressure at this point to provide a coherent ideological or political position. they just have to show up, whine, and not be democrats, and have faith that when voters are mad that nothings happening theyll blame democrats (which they do, and will)

IIIIIIIIIN-surance.

gop panelists are saying that to scare seniors into being even more against the bill, basically, and the seniors will def vote in the midterms this fall.. no matter that the gop themselves tried to gut medicare just a few years ago, iirc. everyone has short memories.

especially seniors, am i right??? alzheimers??

hah. nothing against seniors and their medicare (i am not a gop member of congress after all)

i can't believe these idiots let themselves get into a televised debate with obama for the second time this month

lol yeah!

yes, IN-surance and UM-brella so what

props to sunlight foundation for streaming this thing. cnn has the same boring talking heads as ever. i watched some coverage on fox earlier which was kelly pushing the gop issue of tort reform, as if it was the most important thing in the world, and highlighting the polls that say the public doesn't want this bill, followed by shep who appears to be losing his damn mind over the pointlessness of it all

mcconnell with the latest talking point: "let's start over and go point by point"
oh, bullshit. "start over" is code for "let's do nothing" because delaying it much closer to the midterms = nothing will get done. am i crazy?

Nope, and it pains me that no one on the Dem side wanted to throw this in their faces (unless I missed it).

it's like sure, the public wants a bipartisan bill, that always polls well, but if one side DOES NOT WANT A BILL at all, it is impossible to get a bipartisan bill. it sounds like reconciliation is on the table if interview w/ben cardin was any indication.

megyn kelly has been irritating the fucc out of me l8ly

somehow the democrats have produced a bipartisan bill with only one party working on it

it is deeply sad to me that i now essentially support a moderate republican health-care reform plan

ok is the level of angry reaction you have to this, directly proportionate to the amount of time in your professional life that you've had to sit through pointless, lengthy meetings in which everyone just HAS to say their piece no matter how boring/irrelevant/waste of time

this is going to go through reconciliation for sure, which was mostly a foregone conclusion as early as tuesday of this week (when Bayh and Landrieu voiced support)

somehow the democrats have produced a bipartisan bill with only one party working on it

this is true tho, and REALLY irritating. like, there are all these things in the bill that were inserted deliberately to get some votes from wavering "moderate" Dems and Republicans, and now that their votes are no longer required and they won't be voting for it anyway, that crap is STILL IN THERE

it is deeply sad to me that i now essentially support a moderate republican health-care reform plan

X1000

rooting for rangel to close his columbo impression with now there's just one last thing i don't understand

amount of time in your professional life that you've had to sit through pointless, lengthy meetings in which everyone just HAS to say their piece

Those weren't goddamn dog & pony shows on national TV, though.

Doesn't sound like there was any fucking point to this charade unless millions of GOP faithful miraculously had the scales fall from their eyes. (I doubt it, as it hasn't happened to the hardcore Dem faithful in 13 months.)

it's not for them.

i could never work for congress, i would develop meeting tourette's within about 5 days

it is a dog and pony show obvs, my question is - what for - because the dem leadership/obama admin had to know in advance what would happen. nobody from the gop is coming to this thing with the goal of holding a good faith discussion.

as J0hn D points out, Dems were playing to their base and attempting to shore up support in their caucus by letting the GOP publicly display their assholishness. GOP was similarly playing to their base, who tend to be energized by public displays of assholishness.

Maybe the Dems thought sheer boredom would get Boehner, McConnell, et al to cave.

dingell now talking about a 51-vote simple majority being the solution here

was this the goal of this whole thing, or what? i have def noticed that conservative think tanks and "journalists" have been digging up video tapes of obama/biden arguing against use of reconciliation. (or so they say, i don't trust their use of clips taken out of context, also it wasn't my impression that dems' goal in the 04-05 congress was to just block absolutely everything)

reconciliation is a last resort and was always discussed this way - as not being preferable. the idea that there is something inherently wrong with reconciliation is totally incorrect and hypocritical, coming from republicans