"The Senate never supported the public option," Pelosi said.
There was talk that there would be 51 votes for it, but it never passed on the floor of the Senate. It did pass in the House and, of course, I think it would be the way to go. But it isn't the way that the Senate went. And so I think that what you might see coming out of some reconciliation would be those areas of agreement that all three--the White House, the Senate and the House--had already agreed to...more than two weeks ago.
That echoes more or less the sense that Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) had about the prospects for reviving the public option. But it's unlikely to provide much comfort to the vast majority of House progressives who were hoping it might have a second shot.
Pelosi: No Hope For Public Option At This Time
I don't know what's more depressing about this news - the fact that the Democrats seem to be determined to commit political suicide on the way to completely screwing up health care in this country, or the endless parade of dimwits who just can't stop themselves from saying things like this, by David Kurtz, referring to the article I just quoted:
One of the sadder spectacles to watch since Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts has been House progressives suggesting that now is their chance to ram a public option through the Senate. Nancy Pelosi tried to give a reality check on that point today.
Snap Out of It!
This particular asshat finds it appalling that there are people in Congress who are actually trying to make legislation better, even though they might not succeed. And yes, Mr. Kurtz, you're an asshat if you think that this is a sad spectacle. You're an asshat, because the reality of the DFA poll that followed the Massachusetts Senate loss is that one of the things that bothered the people who either changed from voting for Obama to voting for the Republican Scott Brown or who didn't vote is that the health care bill had no public option, and it had an individual mandate. These polled overwhelmingly as unpopular. Now, your best advice is to pass a bill that has these unpopular features, because it's better than passing nothing. Anyone who seriously thinks this is a good idea in the face of such evidence is either delusional or a drooling cretin.
Naturally, the Democrats want to pass the bill that got them in trouble in the first place, because apparently what got them into trouble is not screwing the public enough. My guess is that they really want to be the minority party in the House next year. At this rate, they're well on their way. Even two months ago, I wouldn't have thought that possible, but there's clearly a lot more dead wood in the heads of many Democratic Representatives. At least a lot of that will be cleared out in November.
Which is all a long way of apologizing for not having the Carnival done yet. Seeing news like this, cheered on by an endless stream of condescending shitheads, has left me in no mood to write entertaining stories this evening.
So, my apologies. Maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, if you have something that you haven't submitted yet, please do.
That would make for some good news.
UPDATE: Speaking of depressing, here's some more, also courtesy of TPM:
The Obama administration and the FBI are making a big push tonight to rebut criticism of trying Abdulmutallab in American courts rather than submitting him to torture and a military tribunal by revealing that he has been cooperating with investigators for days. The claim, which is not that surprising, is that it has been precisely the use of traditional and legal investigative techniques that they've been able to gain his cooperation.
The Big Push Back
What's depressing here, of course, is that the Obama Administration should even have to make this case. It should be bloody obvious.
We should probably be grateful that they felt the need. I'm pretty sure their predecessors wouldn't have.
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