Month: December 2009

Christmas Miracle?

by digby

The White House denies that Emmanuel told Reid to capitulate to Lieberman. But all the fatuous gasbags are saying they’ve “heard” that the White House doesn’t give a damn about the Medicare buy-in and that basically — they want Reid to capitulate to Lieberman. Whether they “heard” this the same place we did is unknown.(Update: Ryan Grim reports that his sources say it’s true.)

But Gloria Borger also reported on CNN that Emmanuel also talked to Reid about using reconciliation. This leads me to believe that Rahm is floating trial balloons to see what the reaction on the hill and in the press will be to the two paths to a vote: a Lieberman bill or reconciliation. In my view, both of those are unlikely.

Since a Lieberman bill is unlikely to stop at the gutting of the Public Option, Medicare buy-in and the CLASS Act (he will in all likelihood insist on cuts to the subsidies and Medicaid expansion as well) it’s finally possible for me to see a bunch of Democrats voting against health care reform. After all, it would no longer be a Democratic bill and it’s no longer an Obama bill. They will be asked to vote for a Lieberman Republican bill and that isn’t so difficult. And since no Republicans will vote even for a Lieberman bill, the bill dies. That leaves reconciliation which I’m sorry to say probably requires more guts than the Democrats and the White House have.

I can’t see the way out barring a Christmas miracle. Does George Voinovich believe in ghosts by any chance?

.

Lil’ Luke, Cub Reporter

by digby

Today’s Hardball:

Ann Kornbluth: I have two colleagues at the Post, Ezra Klein and Alec McGillis, who have been covering this really closely and they both earlier today made the point that it was hard to find the policy reasoning here behind this. You know he says it’s going to make this more expensive…

Matthews: Especially since he came out for this very proposal three months ago. Luke Russert, Tim’s son who works with NBC news now, went out and dug this story up that three months ago he came out for exactly the same thing he’s now saying is unacceptable.

Really? I’m pretty sure TPM broke that story. And Greg Sargent “dug up” that video.

So where might Matthews get the idea that Luke “dug this up himself?” Hmmm

Lieberman, caught red-handed?
Posted: Monday, December 14, 2009 5:06 PM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC’s Luke Russert
Here’s a clip from an interview Joe Lieberman (I-CT) did with “The Connecticut Post” newspaper in September of 2009. He flat out says that he supports a Medicare buy-in for those in their 50’s and strengthening public options that already work.

Now, Lieberman is 100% against the Medicare buy-in for those 55 and older. This would seem to suggest that Liberman has flip-flopped on the issue outright. His support comes at about 1:04 into the video. (Hat tip: Greg Sargeant at the Plum Line).

I’m guessing that either the hat tip wasn’t there when Matthews read this or he doesn’t know what a hat tip means. (And the “hat tip” is misused here in any case. Luke should have credited the “digging up” to Sargent, the reporter who actually — dug it up.) Either way, building his reputation among his colleagues by taking credit for scoops that aren’t his is a very low thing to do. He should make it clear that this wasn’t his scoop.

.

Young Populists

by digby

In this awful economy, frustrations are mounting. Everyone’s been wondering if there would be a show of torches and pitchforks. It looks like it’s started:

Eight people were under arrest today after several dozen protesters shouting “no justice, no peace” attacked Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s home on the UC Berkeley campus, smashing windows, lights and planters as well as throwing torches at the home and police vehicles, authorities said.

The attack, shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, followed a four-day occupation of Wheeler Hall and the arrest of 66 people who were protesting state funding cutbacks and a steep increase in student fees throughout the University of California system. They were later released.

No injuries or fires were reported in the latest attack. Those arrested were booked on suspicion of rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson, felony vandalism and assault. They were being held Saturday in the Alameda County jail on $132,000 bail each.

No pitchforks, but they did have the torches.

Perhaps this is nothing more than the usual campus unrest. But what if it isn’t? And where does the right come down on this?

.

Putz On Tape

by digby

Big props to Greg Sargent for finding this video of Joe Lieberman from just three months ago making a very convincing argument for the Medicare buy-in.

People need to send the link to this to all the press and the villagers they can think of to show just how perfidious their favorite “man of integrity” is being on this. Thy won’t care about the substance, but this helps expose Lieberman’s pettiness which villagers always find uncomfortable. (The exposure, not the pettiness.)

Something like this can really destroy a sanctimonious jackass:

Update: This is gobbledygook. He didn’t know then and he doesn’t know now how the buy-in would score. And the 55+ crowd is actually pretty fucked in the finance committee legislation unless they are employed (and can hang on to their jobs by their fingernails until they are 65)or are quite poor. He’s just making stuff up.

.

In The Long Run We’ll All Be Dead

by digby

I suspect that one of the things that allows the mendacious global warming deniers (as opposed to the delusional global warming deniers) think they have in their favor is the relatively long time horizon. If temperatures rise by 10 degrees by the 21st century, well, that’s their problem, right?

But this article in the NY Times today brings home the fact that there are very likely to be serious consequences quite soon, not the least of which is probable mass migration:

The glaciers that have long provided water and electricity to this part of Bolivia are melting and disappearing, victims of global warming, most scientists say. If the water problems are not solved, El Alto, a poor sister city of La Paz, could perhaps be the first large urban casualty of climate change. A World Bank report concluded last year that climate change would eliminate many glaciers in the Andes within 20 years, threatening the existence of nearly 100 million people.

It’s not about the planet, which is quite able to deal with climate change. It’s about the humans that live on the planet. The problems caused by climate change will cause huge dislocations of populations.

If they’ve ever thought about it, which is doubtful, Palin and her buddies would probably find that stimulating. She and her bloodthirsty brethren would love to have an excuse to “protect what’s theirs” in the event of massive shifts in population. (After all, Palin couldn’t even stand to live in Hawaii because of all those icky minorities.) But regardless of GI Joe and Jane seige fantasies, the fact is that climate change is going to affect large numbers of people in a fairly short period of time. And those people are going to move somewhere and cause dislocations and wrenching social change all across the planet. It’s not just about driving a Chevy Tahoe or the price of gasoline. It’s about starvation, migration and war.

.

Anything

by digby

Last Friday I wrote a post featuring this exchange:

Republican strategist John Feehery: He’ll sign anything that the congress comes up with on health care. Anything. He’s never used the veto word.

Matthews: Anything?

Feehery: Anything.

Matthews: Why would he do that?

Feehery: Because he wants any kind of accomplishment on health care. On that he has absolutely no ideological bearing whatsoever. He’ll sign anything.

The problem is the Democratic Congress can’t get anything done because they’re incompetent.

Well …

The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and eliminate the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations. But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week. “There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others,” the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.” Lieberman threw health care reform into doubt Sunday when he told Reid that he would filibuster the bill if it allowed Americans ages 55 to 64 to purchase coverage in Medicare. His comments on CBS’s “Face the Nation” set off a series of private meetings Sunday between the Senate leadership and top White House aides, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who encouraged Reid to cut the deal with Lieberman, the official said. The White House declined to comment.

Sign anything? Check.
Incompetent Democrats? Check.

If this happens, we’ll have a Republican bill that won’t work, which no Republicans will vote for and which they will run against for the next decade at least.

It’s Newtie’s wet dream.

.

Alternative, Bizarro Universe

by digby

Krugman offers up a nice simple historical reminder of what really caused the financial crisis. (Hint: it wasn’t poor people.) And then writes this:

Talk to conservatives about the financial crisis and you enter an alternative, bizarro universe in which government bureaucrats, not greedy bankers, caused the meltdown. It’s a universe in which government-sponsored lending agencies triggered the crisis, even though private lenders actually made the vast majority of subprime loans. It’s a universe in which regulators coerced bankers into making loans to unqualified borrowers, even though only one of the top 25 subprime lenders was subject to the regulations in question. Oh, and conservatives simply ignore the catastrophe in commercial real estate: in their universe the only bad loans were those made to poor people and members of minority groups, because bad loans to developers of shopping malls and office towers don’t fit the narrative. In part, the prevalence of this narrative reflects the principle enunciated by Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” As Democrats have pointed out, three days before the House vote on banking reform Republican leaders met with more than 100 financial-industry lobbyists to coordinate strategies. But it also reflects the extent to which the modern Republican Party is committed to a bankrupt ideology, one that won’t let it face up to the reality of what happened to the U.S. economy. So it’s up to the Democrats — and more specifically, since the House has passed its bill, it’s up to “centrist” Democrats in the Senate. Are they willing to learn something from the disaster that has overtaken the U.S. economy, and get behind financial reform?

As long as Holy Joe is there to protect us from ourselves, I doubt it.
I suppose if they were to give up their faith based belief that “free markets” are magic and beautiful and make all good people wealthy, their whole worldview would fall apart. So it must be that the poor black people caused the problem. They always do, don’t you know. It’s worth bookmarking the column for your upcoming holiday get togethers when your Auntie Hermoine starts going on about government spending causing the meltdown. .

“We Were There For Them”

by digby

Understatement of the century:

When I asked top White House economic advisor Larry Summers if the President needs to encourage banks to do more lending, he told me that bankers “need to recognize that they’ve got obligations to the country after all that’s been done for them, and there is a lot more they can do.” Tomorrow, the President will meet with heads of the country’s biggest banks and Summers told me the White House has a blunt message: “President Obama is going to be talking with them about what they can do to support enhanced lending to customers across the country. “We were there for them. And the banks need to do everything they can to be sure they’re there for customers across this country.”

They sure were.

But I’m afraid that Summers is willfully misrepresenting his banker pals’ moral philosophy which says that they are “fulfilling their obligations” by making huge profits and giving themselves enormous bonuses. They are the productive members of society who are supporting all of us parasites with their superior talents and stronger work ethic. “We have to tolerate the inequality” of giving bankers huge paychecks in order “to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all.” In fact, they are doing God’s work. Profits, after all, are not satanic.

It’s nice that the president is going to scold these people about not being greedy bastards, but I’m fairly sure that after everything that’s already happened, the bankers will be trying hard to keep from smirking and the rest of the country will roll its collective eyes at the absurdity of appealing to their sense of gratitude and fair play. It’s just a little bit late for anyone to take finger wagging seriously, I’m afraid.

.

They’re Really Surprised

by digby

… thus proving that they’re really morons:

Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in a face-to-face meeting on Sunday that he will vote against a health care bill that includes a public option or a provision that would expand Medicare, a Democrat Senate aide tells the Huffington Post.

The two Senators had a discussion in Reid’s office shortly after Lieberman appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday morning. The Connecticut Independent discussed with Reid some of his concerns about the legislation, elaborating on issues he had raised during the show. According to the source, who was briefed on the exchange, Lieberman punctuated the discussion by telling the majority leader directly that he would vote against the bill if the Medicare buy-in and public option provisions remained in it.

“Leadership was definitely a bit surprised with the lines being drawn in the sand the way they were,” said the source. “We expected that he would say critical things about [the bill]. But he is not even giving us a chance to get it scored.

When Reid said “Joe Lieberman is the least of my problems” he was waving a red flag in his face. It’s all about him. And he will not be ignored. And he will not vote for anything that liberals want, period. I don’t know why they thought it would be any different. He’s a sanctimonious, petty, vindictive egomaniac. But then, he always has been.

They might not get a bill at all at this point. If they go along with what Lieberman is demanding, the liberals can’t vote for it. And President Snowe is pretty much with him, so there’s not much help there.

If Obama and Reid actually formed their strategy around the idea that “Lieberman will come around,” if the bill fails it’s their fault. After what that man did during the presidential campaign there was no doubt that he had become a member of the opposition. He has been a trojan horse for the past year — and everyone in the country but the head of the party could see it, apparently.

There’s still reconciliation, but that’s a very unlikely path. We’ll see.

Update: Ezra’s got this exactly right. And since he writes at the Washington Post some of Holy Joe’s Villager peers might read it and recoil just a little bit when they find themselves in the toxic Senator’s presence.

.

There’s One Born Every Minute

by digby

I don’t know if you’ve seen this one but it’s a doozy:

The people cast in the commercial were average, every day citizens who want their voices heard about health care. We are asking you to stand up and voice your opinion too. If opposing the Obama Administration’s big government policies is the new definition of racism, then BE A RACIST! Call your senator and SAY NO to government-run health care. We also ask you to show your support and make a donation to help pay for more airtime for this commercial to run across the country. Let your voice be heard!!

That’s some brilliant messaging right there.

Evidently, this commercial is the brainchild of some young wingnut “Hollywood Rebel” who is collecting money for it at a site called “Iwantyourmoney.net”.

Which is just perfect.

.