West Virginia Blue
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Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos. We'll be here all weekend.
Some of the Hill news that's fit to blog is over the fold...
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Bill Clinton hospitalized with chest pains.
Clinton, 63, was transported to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan for a condition related to his heart.
ABC News' chief political correspondent George Stephanopoulos reported that sources said he was taken to the hospital "likely for a stent procedure."
Sources on Capital Hill tell ABC News that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was seen leaving the Oval Office a short time ago and did not seem "too concerned" or "in a rush."
It took about 12 hours for the right to diss Rep. Murtha after his death on twitter so the count down for it to begin against Pres. Clinton is over.
Don't worry about Rockefeller getting shafted for the purpose of "cutting the federal budget", fellow citizens. When Harry X-Mas gets to passing out the porkponies under the upcoming Cap and Trade bill, Senator Rockefeller (Coalocrat-WV) will have learned to dig in his heels and "bargain" us all a lump of coal in the form of even more subsidies for coal operators and call it his "Green Jobs Initiative". Ignoring the fact that mining more coal means poisoning more of his constituents.
Isn't it time we officially outlaw the nickname "Mountain State" (due to the love of flattening our mountains by coal operators who run things here) and revert to the age old "Panhandle State" tag to accurately reflect how our politicians let the coal companies panhandle ALL of the federal subsidies? Not to mention how our politicians in turn panhandle from the operators.
But you don't have to take my word for it. It isn't any wonder since Manchin's Stimulus Package website fails to take advantage of, or even mentions the "Green Jobs Act" portion of the Stim package. In contrast our neighboring state of Virginia publicly notes outright that the stimulus package included $3.95 billion for training and employment services-including $750 million for research and job training projects in "green jobs," health care, and other high-demand and emerging occupations.
I say we rename our WVU sports teams "The Mighty Panhandlers".
Mountaineer fans should venture below the fold to see why I'm suggesting that they substitute sooty black in place of the traditional blue and instead of the rich gold that adorns their arena heroes, why blood red would be more fitting tribute to the people who live here.
If you get all of your news from traditional media, you'll hear all sorts of stories that say the public option is dead. Fear not, the public option is still very much alive.
There's different ways of looking at it, but I side with Sen. Rockefeller in his views that President Obama is the key player who will decide the fate of the public option.
That's not the big story today though, Rockefeller said. "Actually, the big story coming out of today is that I got eight votes and Chuck got 10 votes -- and in effect that's like getting all the Democrats to vote for it."
Well, "most of the Democrats," Rockefeller corrected himself.
Rockefeller also said that he's "a little bit" disappointed in President Obama for not pushing harder for the public option.
"The crunch is really beginning to count now," Rockefeller said, adding a moment later that, "I think it's important that he come in at this point, strongly."
"This was really good news for us," he said. "We're clearly not there, but not a single Democrat has said, 'I'm absolutely against the public option.' Chairman Baucus said he likes it but wants to see if it can get 60 votes, and we're feeling that we might get there."
Schumer emphasized that Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are more conservative than Democrats in the Senate, who are in turn more conservative than House Democrats.
[snip]
The Senator also said health care reform that includes a public option would not be bipartisan.
"We're not going to get Republican votes, that's for sure. But more and more Democrats are open to it."
[snip]
"We lost today," he said. "We said we were gonna lose before the day began. We didn't expect it would be this close."
The bad news is we learned today the Senate Finance Committee will not report a public option in its version of health care reform. The good news is we also learned today there are at least 51 Senate votes in favor of Schumer's public option.
He then goes on to provide an even more detailed explanation why it is up to President Obama as to what kind of public option (if any) we end up with in the final bill.
Because Democrats are not going to pursue reconciliation for the public option (see why here), the next step in the process does not actually involve Kent Conrad's Budget Committee, as I had previously reported (the Budget Commitee only comes into play with reconciliation). Instead, a source on the Hill confirms to me the Senate HELP and Senate Finance committees will be merged by an informal, behind the scenes process involving the four major players in the Senate: Tom Harkin (Chair of HELP), Max Baucus (Chair of Finance), Harry Reid (Majority Leader), and the White House. Together, these four will meet and decide what sort of bill to send to the Senate floor for debate and amendments.
During this process, we can guarantee that Harkin will push for a HELP or Schumer-like public option to be sent the floor, while Baucus will push for no public option to be in the bill at all. Given his recent statements, the best bet is that Reid will probably push against a public option too, and instead favor either triggers (which he has called a good idea) or co-ops (which seems to be the sort of public option he likes best). With two against and one in favor, this means that the only way a public option ends up in the bill that is sent to the Senate floor will be if the fourth major player, the White House, demands it.
It is all up to the White House now. If it pushes for a public option to be included in the health care bill sent to the Senate floor, then a public option will pass as part of health care reform (at that point, all we would need are 60 votes for cloture, and from what I hear we have 57 already). However, if it allows a health care bill to go to the floor without a public option, it is pretty unlikely that a public option will pass as part of health care reform.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said that the Senate "comfortably" has a majority of votes to pass the public plan, and that he believes Democrats can muster 60 votes to break a filibuster.
"I have polled senators, and the vast majority of Democrats - maybe approaching 50 - support a public option," Harkin said told the liberal "Bill Press Radio Show." "So why shouldn't we have a public option? We have the votes.
"I believe we'll have the 60 votes, now that we have the new senator from Massachusetts, to at least get it on the Senate floor," Harkin later added. "But once we cross that hurdle, we only need 51 votes for the public option. And I believe there are, comfortably, 51 votes for a public option."
The Iowa lawmaker's statements mark a bold claim that Democrats have the votes to pass a health bill in the Senate including the prized public (or "government-run") plan after signs for weeks now that centrist Democrats and virtually all Republicans would not support a bill including the provision.
Congressional authority to enact such a law is twofold: Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the United States Constitution and Section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution. Guess who comes after Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.?
UPDATE: [h/t] John Cole at Balloon Juice reminds us It's a gentleman's sport, you know
[I]f you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.
This was in a piece on how having Mr. and Mrs. Bush come "home" would affect lives in Dallas. Mr. Feherty also lives in Preston Hallow, that suburban development that had the exclusions of blacks in its covenants until 2000.
This came after claiming his politics were in the middle. He claims to know the Middle East. He claims to know how the troops feel. Needless to say, one veteran's group is not impressed.
According to a recent dKos/R2000 poll, Sen. Harry Reid "enjoys" a nationwide approve/disapprove/don't know rating of 33 / 41 / 26 (that's a net -8). By comparison, in the same survey Obama is +38, Pelosi +2, and the Republican congressional leadership much worse even than Reid.
Count West Virginian HH among those disapproving of Reid's leadership of the Senate.
I was watching Brave New Films live webcast of The Young Turks as Harry Reid backed down on the planned vote on the FISA Bill giving immunity to the Telecoms. Wow! A victory for our side, but the fight is not over they will bring a Bill back further down the road. Major KUDOS to a real Democrat Chris Dodd of Connecticut. Hes got my support... Big Time!! Details as soon as they are available.
The webcast is being rebroadcast right now... check it out at Brave New Films.
Is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid setting us up on telecom immunity?
The Democrats in Congress seem intent on doing everything possible to alienate their base and independents by repeated capitulations to Bush and by making dumb ass mistakes. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-AT&T) may have enough goodwill built up from the past that he thinks he can piss on our legs and tell us it's raining and we'll still come out and vote for him. Or he may be relying on West Virginia voters being low information voters due to the terrible "news"papers owned by Ogden across the state so voters won't know his role regarding torture and warrantless wiretapping.
But I'm not going to forget and I'm not going to let others forget either.
Sorry for another copy and paste post from me. I want to be first with this breaking news.
The Times (link not available yet)
WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee named Lord Voldemort as chairman Friday evening to replace Sen. Mel Martinez.
"I am deeply honored to be able to lead my followers," said Voldemort. "With Democrats acting as effective as the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, I feel it is safe for me to operate in the open."
Republican insiders hailed the announcement as a positive step to help turn around the fortunes of the GOP.
"He is the perfect choice to lead the Republican Party in these times," said Republican consultant and former presidential advisor Karl Rove. "He embodies the Republican Party's views on war, power, torture and the health of children."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said he would work in a bipartisan fashion with the new GOP chairman.
"Together we can stop any Democratic efforts to safeguard liberties," Reid said.
Voldemort said he was going to do his best to make sure Republicans remain in control in 2008 - no matter if Democrats or Republicans control Congress or the White House.
"So in that sense I believe in bipartisan solutions," he hissed.
International human rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union said Voldemort's record in Britain was one of the darkest in history.
"This is a new land," Voldemort said in response to his critics. "It is amusing that in my native country I was called He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named while here Republican presidential candidates treat President Bush as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
So far my record on breaking scoops is impeccable. See here and here.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid writes our Senator Jay Rockefeller and Senator Patrick Leahy.
Dear Jay and Pat:
On August 3rd the Senate passed and on August 5th President Bush signed legislation (Public Law 110-55) providing temporary six-month changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in light of the Director of National Intelligence's expressed concerns about a recently-emerged gap in foreign counterterrorism intelligence collection. This issue was given even greater urgency because of the recently-published National Intelligence Estimate on the terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland, which indicates that, after six years of Bush Administration counterterrorism efforts, the threat to the homeland today from Al Qaeda is nearly as great as it was before 9/11.
I know both of you share my disappointment at the process that led to passage of the recent law, and at the flawed outcome itself, which you and I and many others strongly opposed. The temporary authorities in the new law will sunset in six months. While these temporary authorities are in effect, I support all efforts by your two committees to conduct vigorous and comprehensive oversight of their implementation.
I also know that your committees have been working exhaustively on sound options for a longer-term change to FISA, even though your work has been hindered by lack of cooperation from the Administration in providing relevant information. When the Senate reconvenes in September, I fully support your committees working expeditiously together and in a bipartisan manner to develop a longer-term statutory change that better serves American national security interests and comports with the Constitution and proper judicial and congressional oversight. I would like to see the full Senate consider as soon as possible a bill reported by your committees that addresses the deficiencies in the recently-enacted law and any other matter you believe must be addressed.
Thank you for your leadership on these matters.
Sincerely,
HARRY REID
Four out of five of our Congressional delegation voted against the warrentless warrantless wiretap law. Only Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito voted for the despicable measure.
With a solid majority of the country crying out for change, the Republican power elite are holding on tight to their reins of power. With each step that the Democrats take to provide meaningful oversight (see: Walt starr, "Conyers raises possibility of inherent contempt"), President Bush invents new ways to defy Congress (TPM, "Rogue Presidency")--practically begging for impeachment.
Unfortunately, we're still losing the bigger battle for reality-based political coverage. In a rare moment of candor, a political report admits that, yes, the press dislikes John Edwards and is trying to knock him out of contention with a bogus story (dday, "The Media Tips Its Hand re: John Edwards UPDATED"). It's no wonder our West Virginia Press is stuck in a middle school mentality of political coverage--they're just taking cues from national coverage.
Finally, there are small--yet quite encouraging--steps towards ending our occupation of Iraq. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid did us proud this week (Phoenix Woman, Harry Reid Cuts Off The GOP's Escape Routes"). Who knows if Reid had the interrogation technique of sleep-deprivation in mind when he scheduled an all-night debate. Late Tuesday night one Senator confessed what many of us have long suspected: we are in Iraq because that's where the oil is (mcjoan, "ID-Sen: Craig says it's all about the oil").
As the "September deadline" approaches to judge the failure of the January troop surge we find the White House is not just working the refs, but trying also trying to rewrite the rule book (BarbinMD, "White House Moves the September Report Goalposts"). Our country would be in far better shape if this Republican administration paid more attention to effective governance instead of putting their energy into political smears (mcjoan, Pentagon Attacks Sen. Clinton).
If you watched the highlight video of the overnight Senate debate you caught a question about what level of support "the troops" have for Iraq war policy. Here's one measure: do they support presidential candidates who want to continue the occupation of Iraq or presidential candidates who say its time to get out? No surprise... jfern has the answer, 70.6% of money from the troops was to anti-war candidates.
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