The House of Representatives today took an hour to condemn rep. Joe Wilson for yelling “You lie!” at President Barack Obama during his address of the Joint Session last week on health care reform. Wilson’s apology was accepted by Obama’s chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel but he refused to apologize a second time to his House colleagues …
Democratic Party
Saving Elmendorf a Beating
Senator Kent Conrad today made an unusual request of the Congressional Budget Office: a 20-year cost estimate on the latest draft of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ bill reforming the nation’s health care system. “We’ve got to have somebody look at this objectively and try to tell us: do we bend the cost curve the …
The Afghanistan Paradox
This war has come to be inexorably linked to this President. He likes to say that he’s “taking the fight” to the terrorists because it’s “fundamental to the defense of our people.” His strong supporters include Karl Rove, John McCain and Sarah Palin. In Congress, Democratic leaders grate at the idea of granting him more …
Protests
From TIME’s Sophia Yan:
Ripples of protesters, thousands of them of all ages, lined Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the Capitol Saturday. Deafening chants could be heard, from “You lie, you lie!” echoing South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson’s outburst during President Obama’s Wednesday speech to plaintive
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Is Obama Only Reaching Out to Dems?
Here’s a story from me about the latest in the Senate on health care reform. I was surprised to hear that the White House hasn’t been wooing any other moderate Republicans aside from Maine’s Olympia Snowe:
During the summer of discontent the White House stopped reaching out to some key potential votes: the other senator from Maine,
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Teddy’s Letter
After the jump, the text of Teddy Kennedy’s letter that President Obama cited in the speech. Also, Obama will host a group of bipartisan Senate centrists tomorrow — including, Michael Scherer reports from the Hill, Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson — at the White House to talk about health care.
Obama’s Remarks
Read along after the jump. Members named: John Dingell, John McCain, Ted Kennedy, Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley.
Dodd Stays at Banking*
Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has decided to stay at the helm of the Banking Committee. Dodd was the next-most-senior senator on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee after Ted Kennedy – whose desk remains shrouded in black on the Senate floor and adourned with flowers as colleagues mourn his passing. Dodd could’ve …
Pelosi’s Box
Forget the Senate, here’s a story from me about what’s going on in the House on health care. House leaders have pulled back from their once-aggressive schedule. “I have no timetable” for passage of a bill, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters yesterday. While eschewing the idea that they would wait for the Senate to …
Re: Health Care: Hitting the Re-Set Button
Following up on Karen’s excellent post on President Obama forthcoming address to a joint session of Congress on health care reform. Obama has always fallen back on his rhetorical gifts – and, generally, it has worked, even when Rev. Wright looked to doom his campaign. Next Wednesday he will again give what will surely be an inspirational …
Bipartisan Health Care Talks Push On
Just when you thought the vultures had landed on a bipartisan health care deal, seems the three GOP senators haven’t totally walked away from the table. First, there was the news this morning on Olympia Snowe’s talks with the White House on a compromise and then Mike Enzi put out this statement:
“My position has been consistent from
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E-mail of the Day
Who says the Democrats don’t have a coherent message on health care reform? Why, look at the message press release that just landed in my emailbox from the Democratic National Committee. It purports to be the text of an email* sent from Organizing for America Director Mitch Stewart to the OFA list, and it says:
Friend —
Over
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Vicki Kennedy Won’t Run
Despite her husband’s former colleagues’ obvious admiration for her grace under fire this past week (former Senator John Breaux — a friend of Kennedy’s and of the Reggie’s who hail from the same hometown — went so far as to tell me that, “She knows the players very well and that goes a very long way with helping you be successful in …