Blessedly free of sports analogies: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also want to thank Senators Schumer and Gillibrand for that kind introduction. In recent weeks, I have had the privilege and pleasure of meeting eighty-nine gracious Senators, including all the members of this Committee. I thank you for the time you have spent with me. [...]
Last week, I wrote a story about how the question of abortion coverage is complicating the House’s efforts to write a health reform bill. It has also arisen in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. If you watch this clip, which our friends at the C-SPAN Video Library provided me, you can see [...]
Bill Kristol has, for the past twenty years, played neoconservative wise man with gradually diminishing effect. His major claim to fame was coming up with the recalcitrant strategy–vote no!–that turned Republicans like Bob Dole away from reforming health care in 1994. This was considered brilliant at the time. Ever since, he has been known for [...]
Newsweek editor Jon Meacham has issued a plea for the release of Newsweek journalist and documentarian Maziar Bahari. I’ve met Maziar several times, I attended rallies and press conferences with him in the runup to the June 12 election, and the idea that he is any sort of spy is blatant nonsense. The Iranian authorities [...]
Opening statements have begun in the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Today is bound to be bland: 19 opening statements from committee members followed by the highlight, Sotomayor’s opening remarks. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be the crucial days with senators taking turns questioning President Obama’s nominee. Here’s a webstory from me [...]
Jay Newton-Small may not be posting any more about Sarah Palin, but Paul Slansky is. As we like to do on Friday afternoons, we invite our Swampland commenters to tell us what struck them most this week–extra credit if you can do it as an index item.
Whenever I talk to anyone at the White House about the difficulties they are having on Capitol Hill figuring out a way to pay for health reform, they remind me that the President Obama still has an idea on the table–one that has never been taken very seriously at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
