Up Or Down Vote
by digby
Adam Green writes:
From The Hill, “Sens: Snowe may be risking a high perch on healthcare reform vote”:
Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) is risking a shot at becoming the top Republican on an influential Senate committee by backing Democratic healthcare legislation, according to senators on the panel. …”A vote for healthcare would be something that would weigh on our minds when it came time to vote,” said a Republican on Commerce, who said Snowe would otherwise be assured of the ranking member post if not for the healthcare debate.
From Politico, “Dem leaders brush off the left”: Now, more than 79,000 people have signed a Progressive Change Campaign Committee petition urging Reid to strip the chairmanship of any Democratic senator who votes to filibuster health care reform. The response from Reid’s No. 2, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.): “We’ve never done that. We’re not going to do that.” Durbin said the petitioners needed to “count to 60 and understand we need to be together, and there are times when we need to work out our differences.” “This is a silly and unnecessary distraction that is not going to happen — period,” added a Senate Democratic leadership aide. “Given how important this is to the rest of his agenda, it is up to President Obama to help the leadership to hold the caucus together.”
Read on to see what the other perfumed corporate princelings of the Democratic Party have to say. You’ll especially enjoy reading Joe Lieberman’s comments. Who would have thought he, of all people, would possibly join Republicans in a filibuster? After all, “he’s with us on everything but the war.”
Anyway, those last comments probably tell us where the filibuster issue is, in my opinion. The leadership aide says that Obama needs to step up to twist those arms, which one assumes from the comment, he is not doing. And Dick Durbin, who is Obama’s staunchest supporter in the Senate, is basically saying that nobody’s going to play hardball. So, there you have it. At least for today.
As I’ve been writing for a while, it’s all about cloture. There’s no need for them to vote for the final bill, they just need to allow their president and the people of the United States to have a simple up or down vote on health care reform. And there is a cluster of egos in the centrist caucus (not the least of whom is Holy Joe) that is getting ready to stamp their little feet and hold their breath until they turn blue unless someone, goddamn it, finally understands that they are the most important people in the world.
If only the Nobel Committee had thought to give the prize to the truly deserving Evan Bayh and Mary Landrieu, sick and broke Americans wouldn’t have to be held hostage to their puerile need for attention.
Irritate the corporate clones. Demand an up or down vote. Sign the petition.
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