The Morning Plum
* Incoming: The Congressional Budget Office score of the reconciliation fix is due to land on D.C. today like a bomb. One lingering question: Are House Dems who are holding out for it doing so because they genuinely intend to make it a factor in their thinking, or merely to put off a tough decision?
* At least a dozen House Dems, mostly on the conservative side, are saying right now that they’re awaiting the score. So presumably they’re hoping it will give them cover to support the Senate bill by letting them argue that it’s more conservative than the House version and has stronger cost controls.
* Case in point: Rep Brian Baird of Washington, a former No vote. He bluntly told the President in a private meeting that he won’t make up his mind without the score. But will it genuinely be a factor in his decision?
* The GOP targets two new undecided House Dems: The NRCC is going up on the air with spots hitting Dina Titus of Nevada and Dennis Cardoza of California, both former Yes votes, a GOP official says. The spots asks whether their “careers on life support.”
Key takeaway: The GOP ad expenditures are worth tracking because they indicate who Republicans view as genuinely undecided or vulnerable in the event they vote Yes.
* Hey, whatever works: Mark Kirk is running for Obama’s Senate seat with a pledge to “lead the effort to repeal” Obama’s signature initiative.
* Tripling down: Perry Bacon reports that “dozens” of GOP candidates and lawmakers have pledged repeal.
* Nate Silver offers a persuasive explanation for why liberals are now overwhelmingly supportive of passing the Senate bill: Obama and other Dem leaders are conspicuously “fighting like hell” to get it done.
* Time is on their side? As of last night, House Dems still hadn’t seen the text of the reconciliation fix.
* Train wreck: General Stanley McChrystal is caught off guard by Eric Holder’s claim that he wants to read Miranda rights to Bin Laden’s “corpse,” says he still hopes to take the terror mastermind alive.
* Also: CIA director Leon Panetta shares new details on how badly hobbled the CIA’s drone strikes and other tactics has left Al Qaeda. What will the Cheneyites say?
* But: What about that pesky question of a legal rationale for those drone strikes? The Obama administration says they’ll get around to sharing that with us one of these days. The fierce urgency of whenever…
* Bart Stupak: Who cares what the nuns think?
* Special bonus Stupak: My effort to get my way on the health bill has made my life a “living hell.” Pass the tissues!
* And with the President set to sign a jobs bill today, the DSCC will release a new Web video ripping Republican Senate candidates for opposing job creation.
What else is happening?
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Can we begin the day with vaginas?
“An advertising campaign for tampons is rejected by US television networks for daring to include the word ******”
******-kotex-advertising" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/mar/16/tampon-******-kotex-advertising
oh my god!!!
V*A*G*I*N*A
Apparently they are more threatening in the singular.
“CIA director Leon Panetta shares new details on how badly hobbled the CIA’s drone strikes and other tactics has left Al Qaeda. What will the Cheneyites say?”
Didn’t they once complain that the Obama administration was killing too MANY Al Qaeda operatives? That it wasn’t leaving enough people around to interrogate? They’ll never, ever, ever give Obama any credit regardless of what he accomplishes.
and…Good Morning, Greg!
Bernie — apologies for our overly prudish filter. I hope it at least keeps things interesting…
Morning, All:
I know Holder is being treated like a pinata but he should cut out the John Wayne stuff. It does him no good.
Here’s the legal rationale: these people killed 3,000 American civilians.
Should watch this clip of last night’s Interruptathon. It’s pretty funny, Bret Baier is so incompetent and he has such bad hair that he could only work at Fox News. Fox calls little Bret a “journalist” and he fancies himself so, but it was really just a bareknuckle argument. That’s how they do business, all that interrupting whenever anyone is saying anything truthful. Enjoy!
Obama Fox News Interview: Bret Baier Interrupts Obama (VIDEO)
Well, Bernie, it’s not as if tampons have anything to do with vaginas. It was a prurient and titillating reference. Lord help us.
So is “train wreck” going to be the new Homeric epithet for Eric Holder? Sort of like “wine-dark sea”?
Why the petty sarcasm on the legal rationale for drone strikes? I think wbgonne gets to the heart of it.
@Greg – I actually find it (the censor) kind of fun and it is certainly of sociological interest (like the ad ban – this is one seriously insane culture).
Andrew Bacevich has a good piece up at Salon…
“It seems increasingly clear that a thoroughgoing reappraisal of the U. S.-Israeli strategic partnership is in the offing. Much of the credit (or, if you prefer, blame) for that prospect belongs to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of the famous (or infamous) tract “The Israel Lobby.”
Whatever that book’s shortcomings, its appearance in 2007 injected into discussions of U.S.-Israeli relations a candor that that had been previously absent. Convictions that had been out of bounds now became legitimate subjects for discussion. Prejudices were transformed into mere opinions.”
http://www.salon.com/news/israel/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/03/17/bacevich_on_petraeus_israel
But I’m not sure that’s right. Clearly the W and M paper and resulting storm has facilitated a far more objective and critical accounting of the influence of pro-Israel interest groups on American governance. But I think what has brought this to a head now has to do more with the simple realities of the costs (eventually, if not immediately, to corporate endeavors and profits) of war and instability. And there is the factor of a rational political leader with Obama. But W and M have certainly made honest talk easier.
Greg,
It is worth reminding readers that the CBO score is against the SENATE bill, NOT against current law. The yardstick changed for reconciliation.
Wait for the spin on the CBO scoring. Should be fun to see how Republicans misrepresent that number. Now Democrats are going to get caught flat footed because the GOP is going to go around claiming the additional savings in the reconciliation bill are the total health care savings and how the number is small compared to their plan. And of course Democrats will be totally unprepared for this.
It’s funny. Democrats are having problems with the CBO score and it’s out year deficit reductions because the current Seante Bill saves too much money already. But that fact will get lost in the GOP spin.
the score is for the fixed bill…I corrected the post
Anyone care to have the beejesus scared out of them this fine morning?… Toture Game Show TV beamed right into your living room… http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/
Sorry, specific link here… http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/03/17/torture/index.html
Looks like they might be giving out the full score afterall. Guess I should give more credit.
http://twitter.com/ezraklein/statuses/10670249772
“Meanwhile, over at the National Review, Seth Liebsohn was ecstatic, crowing that “Bret Baier just concluded the single best interview of President Obama in a year, by any reporter.” And no doubt, it was the best interview of any president since Bret Baier described George W. Bush as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln.” http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/bret-baier-compared-bush-to-lincoln
Clear-sightedness. It’s what FOX is known for.
How propaganda gets done on FOX… http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/oreilly-46-physicians-may-leave-medical-pr
A quick post then I’m out. If any of you guys out there want to know what the Stupak vs Senate bill, which is already a huge step back, feels like for women this is a really great diary. This was one of my original issues with the Senate bill but I have accepted that it is slightly less worse than Stupak.
“Women, who earn less, who are commonly responsible for the most time-consuming parts of the parenting saga, who are discriminated against by their employers for being parents, who are more likely to be abused, who bear all the health risks of pregnancy and childbirth, can never be fully equal in a society that doesn’t prioritize and normalize our access to all forms of reproductive health care. When our health care is stigmatized, we are stigmatized. When it seems normal that men we don’t know get to decide if we’ll be forced into a two decade commitment, it’s only natural that men we do know might think they have the right to decide that for us, too.”
http://openleft.com/diary/17882/he-took-my-lunch-money-why-women-need-full-health-care
If Stupak thinks his life is hell now, he just better pray that HCR passes. He positioned himself as the leader to defeat reform with those “12 names” he carries around in his pocket. I have no pity for the camera-grabbing tool.
What else is happening? The ICP is coming to Dallas and I didn’t think they were still together.
Who’s a jugaloo?
CBO Score is being reported:
- CUTS Deficit by $130 Billion in the first decade.
- CUTS Deficit by $1.2 TRILLION by 2030.
- Extends Medicare Solvency by 9 years
- Expands coverage to 32 million Americans
- Costs LESS than $100 Billion per year, only 2.6% of the Federal Budget
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/dem-source-cbo-says-health-bill-cuts-deficit-costs-940-billion.php?ref=fpbrk
CBO score is out!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35928063/ns/politics-health_care_reform/
So much good news, and so drunk last night… Hope everyone here is doing well, it really is looking much brighter for Dems this month compared to the gloomy winter months.
Can I also point out how insane it is for a candidate seeking to get President Obama’s former Senate seat to be campaigning against what would be the biggest accomplishment in half a century. Really crazy.
Re Greg’s link above to the TP piece on Stupak and the nuns (plus other Catholic groups) notes, Stupak finds authority on reproductive and moral issues as originating in male brains. Female brains are not relevant.
Here’s the CBO score, all:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/cbo-score-bill-costs-940-billion-cuts-deficit-by-130-billion/
Ya getcher algorithm all sharped up to get rid of the sickies and boy can ya rake in the money then… http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/SPECIAL-REPORT-Insurer-targeted-HIV-patients-to-drop-coverage-2010-03-17T133338Z
Bernie Latham | March 18th, 2010 at 08:28 am
Can we begin the day with vaginas?
“An advertising campaign for tampons is rejected by US television networks for daring to include the word V@gina.
…………………………
But they accept ads for erectile dysfunction pills. What do they think they are intended for?
It is OK to advertise about putting lead in pencils, but it is verboten to mention anything about who they will be writing to!
Liam – you assume they are taking Viagra cause they like Vee jay jays.
If they’re GOP, that’s not a safe assumption.
CBO Estimates TARP Overall Cost to Taxpayers:
$109B
So we might have spent several hundred billion and given the Treasury power to spend more… But the actual net cost of TARP was only about $100B. Not too bad. Certainly not the TRILLION in losses that we are sure to hear about from the Right and perhaps some populist Dems.
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=499
Republicans promising to repeals Health Care Reform, are really openly admitting that the bill will become law. Fantastic.
Even more fantastic is the great news, that guys like Mark Kirk are going to campaign on a promise to repeal health care reform. I could not have asked for a better political gift.
Just imagine the ads we can run about all the millions of people Kirk, and all The Republicans want to let die, at the hands of the Insurance Cabal’s Rescission Death Panels.
Now we will keep The House and Senate.
Bed Wetter Right Wingers Are Scared Of V@ginas,so when they call Democrats Pussies on National Security, that is actually a compliment.
Watching that interruptathon with Faux News, I almost wished the president had just stopped and said, “Bret, do you want an interview, or just another opportunity to repeat Fox News talking points? Because you’ve got all day every day to do that, and I’ve got plenty of work to do and there’s no reason for me to be here talking to you if that’s all you want to do.”
There was a particularly loathesome rightwing troll over at Eschaton back in the day when I bothered with it, who could be exorcised easily whenever I took on the persona of “Scary V@gina”. Sent him running, every time.
Twitter.
What real purpose does it serve. Isn’t it just a practical joke that millions of morons fell for.
All it does is dumb down communications even further. What next; a social site that will limit postings to a single grunt?
Twitter: The online service that feeds DUH Pellets to Bird Brains!
Bart Stupak’s “I’m Having Nun Of It” moment is going to haunt him.
He rejected nuns and embraced bishops instead (for no apparent reason… other than the bishops are dudes, or something), James Dobson, and the group that endorsed Fred Thompson for president in 2008. Throw his connections with The Family in the mix, and you have a clear case of a Dem Rep. Wingnuttin’ Out. Bucking the vast majority of the party (and reality) on women’s reproductive health is one thing. Literally writing an ad for a primary challenge that details your Far – Right Health Care Advisory Cabinet is something else entirely.
That’s like saying, “When I want to hear about economic policy, I talk to Grover Norquist, Steve Forbes, Dick Armey, and that scumbag Tim Phillips from AFP.”
Not. Going. To. Fly.
Not to mention, that if you’re actually interested in making abortions less necessary, the last thing you would do is try to sabotage a bill that would increase overall care for women.
There’s also the whole thing about Stupak being demonstrably wrong. He’s not “pro – life”, he’s pro – being reckless with people’s lives. This is just plain indefensible. Stupak is no David Bonior. Mehiks he’s going down.
In other words, Go Connie Saltonstall!
One more thing:
Has Stupak ever read the New Testament, especially recently?
Mentions of healing the sick: A ton.
Mentions of abortion: None.
There are also at least three representatives in the Massachusetts delegation who may vote no on HCR. Why aren’t they included in your tallies, Greg?
“Wait for the spin on the CBO scoring. Should be fun to see how Republicans misrepresent that number.”
Already got that for ya, right here. They’ll do it the same way they’ve misrepresented all the other CBO numbers. 1) Ignore the deficit reduction number entirely. 2) Take the amount that will be spent over ten years and arbitrarily add 300 billion to it. 3) Implicitly represent the cost over a decade + 300B number as the amount that will spent every year.