Harry Reid the hero?

I'm not buying it. We've never been fiercely anti-Reid on this blog, but this health care bill has been a disaster. Reid ceded too much authority to the President, who then turned around and did nothing until the bill was gutted, then the White House suddenly woke up. It's been a comedy of errors all around. Yes, kudos for getting 60 votes. But the real trick is getting 60 votes for something good, or even something great. We'll find out more about the details of the final Senate deal in the coming days, but the bill looks nothing like the President promised, or we had hoped. You don't get politician of the year in my book for that unless it's one of those evil TIME magazine mirror-image person of the years they do from time to time.

I do agree with one point in the article. It is a titanic achievement. Read More......

ABC: President Obama heralds as 'Significant Progress' unpopular compromise health care bill, non-binding Climate Change accord

ABC's Jake Tapper:

President Obama came to the Diplomatic Reception Room Saturday afternoon to herald the unpopular compromise Senate health care reform bill and the watered-down non-binding international climate change accord as "significant progress" on resolving "the crushing cost of health care and our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels."

Responding to a deal hashed-out between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. -- the last hold-out among all 60 senators who caucus with Democrats -- the president said "it now appears that the American people will have the vote they deserve on genuine reform that offers security to those who have health insurance and affordable options to those for do not."

Read More......

The great Netroots snowball fight of 2009

Our good friend Jason Rosenbaum tweeted that there was going to be a snowball fight in Dupont Circle at 3pm. And there was. It was a good chunk of the liberal Netroots in DC, and a bunch of passerbys who either got socked with a snowball, or formed their own team. I love the snow. Here are a few photos, and several short videos I took. Enjoy. You can check out the rest of the photos here, and the rest of the videos here.





Read More......

Dem Rep Stupak secretly coordinating with GOP Senate Leader McConnell to kill bill

This is unusually scummy.

An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D. Mich.) coordinated opposition to a Senate compromise on the place of abortion in health care legislation this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, the Conference Catholic Bishops, and other anti-abortion groups, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO.

The emails show that Stupak -- who has so far remained silent on language accepted by Senator Ben Nelson (D. Neb.) and faces intense pressure from the White House to accept it -- is already working behind the scenes to oppose the compromise.

They also demonstrate a previously unseen degree of coordination between Stupak and the office of Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Read More......

"Joe Lieberman wants you dead"

He also won't let you push the elevator button first. Read More......

There is a Senate Health Care bill -- and Ben Nelson is on board

As Markos and Atrios have noted repeatedly, despite all the pressure to get people to support the Senate bill, there hasn't even been a Senate health care bill. We didn't even know what the White House wanted everyone to support, although many jumped right on the bandwagon anyway.

That changed this morning when Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled his "manager's amendment." PDF is here. This is basically the substitute bill.

The reason there's movement this morning is because Ben Nelson is apparently on board. MSNBC and other outlets are reporting that Nelson has signed off on the deal with new abortion language. Apparently, it's not the same language as Stupak.

Throughout the day, I'm sure we'll get various analyses of what's actually in this bill. Democratic Senators are holding a caucus now. Nelson is holding a press conference at 10:00 a.m.

When we get more info. on the actual substance of the legislation and the time frame for passage, we'll post it. The GOPers are, of course, in full obstruction mode. Right now, they're forcing the entire manager's amendment to be read.

As we've learned over the past few weeks, what's most important, of course, isn't the quality of health care this bill will make available to Americans. No, what's most important is satisfying the enormous and selfish egos on Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson.
________
UPDATE @ 10:00: It's official. At his presser, Nelson said he will vote for cloture and for the reform bill. On abortion, "I have fought hard to prevent tax dollars from being used to subsidize abortions...I believe we have accomplished that goal." Nelson also said there will be a "limited conference" between the House and Senate. If there are ""material changes" to the Senate bill in conference, he will vote against cloture. So, Ben Nelson now runs the House, too. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

In D.C., we're still under a Winter Storm Warning. It's going to be "record-breaking" snow for December, we've been told. Local news said to expect 12 to 20 inches in the city. There's a blizzard warning for Prince Georges County, which is on the eastern border of the city, and several other Maryland counties. UDPATED at 9:30 a.m.: DC has a blizzard warning now, too.

I did manage to get Petey out for a walk. He's averse to walking in the rain, but is okay with snow. I think we have around six inches already. Petey managed fine. And, to my great surprise, a plow had already gone done my street. I didn't expect to see a plow til Tuesday (and may not see another one til then.) Admittedly, I get a little excited about major winter storm events. It's the Mainer in me.

The Senate is in session today -- and voting on the Defense appropriation this morning, which Republicans had filibustered earlier this week. UPDATE @ 8:30 a.m.: The Senate just passed the Defense spending bill by a vote of 88 - 10.

For some Saturday morning humor, here are several of this week's haiku contributions from KarenMrsLloydRichards.

One for Obama:

Barack could try more.
Task-attention is just FAIR.
Overall grade: C.

One for Lieberman:

Joe's apology:
"How human that moment was."
Senators go "awwww . . . ."

And, one for Palin:

John McCain sportswear
Re-purposed by hockey moms?
Frugal moms adapt!

Much said with few words.

Thread the news... Read More......

Ricki Lee Jones

It's a busy day as we are preparing a fun dinner for a neighbor who just turned 85. She used to run a restaurant in Saint Germain and still can prepare classic brasserie food without missing a beat. Common friends from Halifax, Canada have organized a bunch of Canadian lobster for the party which turned out to be more complicated than expected. Funny how "complicated" and "expensive" turn up when there's a local industry that likes to charge outrageous sums for their own product even though they're in short supply. Either way, should be a fun evening with neighbors.

We had a late night after visiting our friend Jane in the hospital. After months of chemo, she had her surgery this week and is recovering well. We're really looking forward to having her and her family with us on Christmas along with other friends and family. I'm thinking of a few guinea fowl, chestnuts and some farm cheese. What else does anyone really need for Christmas besides being together?

Good luck preparing for the holidays this weekend. Read More......

Copenhagen Fail

Not that it's a great surprise, but still. Leading up to the Copenhagen meetings there had been considerable worry about the lack of progress and lack of seriousness. Obama's initial plans were to arrive early at the meetings as he skated through to collect his Nobel prize. Fortunately, he did change his plans and came later when other world leaders were there though apparently they weren't impressed. It could have been because many had been onsite for days, but there is surely much more behind that story.

So what next? If Obama was serious about moving this subject, it would be nice to see him truly be proactive instead of waiting for other countries to take the lead. Bringing China and India into the fold is not going to be easy but again, this is a matter of leadership. The US, India and China are the largest obstacles to real change so it only makes sense to see someone in that group to lead. If the US does lead - certainly a big "if" - will Europe and the developing world follow? If there's a sense from others that Obama is not serious, it could be an even more difficult process.

Outside of the Obama administration, is there honestly anyone who believes this is a "meaningful agreement" on climate change?

After eight draft texts and all-day talks between 115 world leaders, it was left to Barack Obama and Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, to broker a political agreement. The so-called Copenhagen accord "recognises" the scientific case for keeping temperature rises to no more than 2C but did not contain commitments to emissions reductions to achieve that goal.

American officials spun the deal as a "meaningful agreement", but even Obama said: "This progress is not enough."

"We have come a long way, but we have much further to go," he added.

The deal was brokered between China, South Africa, India, Brazil and the US, but late last night it was still unclear whether it would be adopted by all 192 countries in the full plenary session.

Read More......