Promises, Promises

by digby

Who is this guy and what has he done with Howard Fineman?

Obama’s pointless bipartisanship.

[T]he pursuit of Snowe is pretty close to obsessive, which is not a good thing either for Democrats or for the prospects of health-care reform worthy of the name. First, Snowe’s exaggerated prominence is both the result and symbol of Obama’s quixotic and ultimately time–wasting pursuit of “bipartisanship.” In case the White House hasn’t noticed, Republicans in Congress are engaged in what amounts to a sitdown strike. They don’t like anything about Obama or his policies; they have no interest in seeing him succeed. Despite the occasional protestation to the contrary, the GOP has no intention of helping him pass any legislation. Snowe may very well end up voting for whatever she and Democrats craft, but that won’t make the outcome bipartisan any more than dancing shoes made Tom DeLay Fred Astaire.

I keep imagining conversations in the White House right now, where Obama turns to Rahm and says, “You promised that if made these deals with the industry we’d get at least 15 Republicans on board. Now our whole bipartisan argument depends on Olympia Snowe?”

Rahm replies, “I know Mr President. But no matter how much money the industry gave them, the Republicans refused to go along. They won’t give us any cover for this no matter how much it costs them.

Obama: So maybe we should just pass the bill with the public option and get it over with …

Rahm: But, sir. That would mean breaking our word to the industry.

Obama: What about our supporters?

Rahm: You never promised them a public option, remember?

Obama: Right, right. Thank God for that, eh?

Rahm: Damn straight. Nothing makes a president of either party look more bipartisan than sticking it to the Democratic base. Independents will reward us next November.

Obama: And if they don’t?

Rahm: We’ll blame it on the bloggers…

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