Patterico's Pontifications

2/26/2010

The Reconciliation Process

Filed under: Health Care,Politics — DRJ @ 7:52 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

WHODemocrats only:

“Obama To GOP: It’s Over. Obama listened politely for six hours, with occasional flashes of temper, but in the end, the message was clear: It’s over. We’re moving forward without Republicans.”

WHATA health care plan with the one issue President Obama apparently won’t compromise … abortion:

“The President’s proposal was a pro-abortion health care plan before today’s meeting and after six hours of political posturing, it’s still a pro-abortion health care plan.”

WHEN By Easter? We may know more next week:

“In Friday’s White House briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs skirted a question about whether the White House wants to use reconciliation in the Senate to advance a health care bill.

“Those questions are better left for when we have an announcement from the president on the way forward,” he said, referring to an announcement to come next week.”

Dick Durbin and Politico [below] say it will probably happen by Easter.

HOWThe Democratic Three-Step:

“Democrats will likely need to embark on three-step process, with a target to finish it before the Easter recess.

Step one, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Congress must first pass a reconciliation bill with major, but limited, fixes to the original Senate bill.

Step two, the House would then agree to pass the Senate bill.

Step three, both chambers would have to pass a third bill with policy changes that would not pass muster under reconciliation, which requires every element to have a direct impact on the federal budget. For example, the third bill would be needed to make any changes to abortion and immigration provisions in the Senate bill. … House Democrats may well withhold their votes on the first two bills until they are assured their concerns will be addressed in a third bill.”

The hard part is “How.”

— DRJ

The World Needs You

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 7:30 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

I’m a bookmark packrat. I have dozens of bookmark files saved on my computer and hundreds of links deposited in each file. There are so many I only look at some of them once a year. But there is one bookmark named “Very Best Stuff” that only has a few links and I read them often. This Doctor Zero post is one of those links.

— DRJ

Desirée Rogers Resigns (Updated)

Filed under: Obama — DRJ @ 1:38 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The White House announced today that Social Secretary Desirée Rogers is leaving her post:

“White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, a friend of President Obama’s from Chicago, is leaving her job to return to the private sector, the White House said Friday.

Rogers’s tenure as the top party and events planner for the administration was marred by the Salahi gate-crashing incident, in which a Virginia couple managed to enter the White House grounds during Obama’s first state dinner in November.”

The link notes conflicting statements regarding whether Rogers’ departure was voluntary or requested, but the White House had been criticized for refusing to allow Rogers to testify into Congressional hearings on the Salahi incident.

— DRJ

UPDATE: Andrew Malcolm at the LA Times’ Top of the Ticket looks at “what’s really behind the departure of Desirée Rogers from Obama’s White House.”

Paterson Bows Out

Filed under: Politics — DRJ @ 10:18 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

The AP reports New York Governor David Paterson has informed Washington he is abandoning his re-election campaign:

“Gov. David Paterson, struggling to get traction on his agenda and shadowed by a popular and well-financed potential foe, abruptly ended his nascent election bid Friday amid criticism of his handling of an aide’s domestic abuse case.

Democratic officials in Washington were informed of Paterson’s plans early Friday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because Paterson had not publicly disclosed his plans.”

That’s cheery news for Democrats since it clears the way for Andrew Cuomo:

“It has been widely expected – and among some Democrats, eagerly awaited – that the more popular Cuomo would run for governor and help prop up a reeling Democratic party in the state. Cuomo, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, has already built a campaign fund five times larger than Paterson and consistently outpolls Paterson among New York Democrats, who hold a 2-to-1 edge over Republicans statewide.

“This was a campaign that was going nowhere very quickly and the numbers couldn’t have been any more bleak for him before this,” said Lee Miringoff of the Marist College poll. “Regardless of the legalities involved and this specific controversy, the odds of him taking the oath of office next January were very remote.”

Paterson’s decision lets Cuomo avoid an expensive and divisive primary, he said.

For Republican candidate Rick Lazio, it means he can no longer try to split the Democrats and now must confront the far better funded and more popular Cuomo.”

President Obama had asked Paterson not to run as early as last September.

— DRJ

Eric Boehlert’s Response to the $100 Challenge: More Lies

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:56 am



My Eric Boehlert $100 challenge has been posted at Big Journalism. As a reminder, this is the challenge:

I am offering Eric Boehlert of Media Matters the easiest $100 he ever made.

All he has to do to earn the $100: unequivocally state whether James O’Keefe pretended to be a pimp at ACORN offices. If Boehlert makes the statement publicly — with no weasel-words, no two-stepping, and no qualifications — I will PayPal him $100.

I don’t think Boehlert will answer. The question shows that his manufactured controversy over O’Keefe’s clothing is a distraction, because no matter how O’Keefe was dressed, he pretended to be a pimp at ACORN. He repeatedly said that he was setting up a house where Giles and several underage girls from El Salvador would turn tricks and give him the proceeds, which he would eventually use for his Congressional campaign.

Boehlert yesterday characterized my challenge in this way:

@patterico is now trying to pay me to read his site. Dude, stop digging!

English, motherfucker! DO YOU SPEAK IT?!

I’m not trying to pay Boehlert to read my site. I’m proposing to pay him for a straight answer to a question he would rather ignore. Apparently my proposal carries little financial risk — because he’s ducking the question, as I suspected he would.

But he’s dipping his toe in the water:

Note to @patterico, O’Keefe pretended to be an aspiring pol, not pimp, in first ACORN vid. Pls. try to keep up.

Oh, really?! The first ACORN video was from Baltimore. James O’Keefe didn’t pretend to be a pimp in Baltimore?

Note well the first few seconds of the above video: O’Keefe showing himself walking into ACORN in a button-down shirt and slacks. Making NO EFFORT WHATSOEVER TO HIDE THAT FACT, in the FIRST FEW SECONDS OF VIDEO EVER SHOWN TO AMERICA.

Complete unedited audio here.

Transcript here.

English, motherfucker. DO YOU SPEAK IT?!


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