My favorite cause seems to have picked up a new spokesman: Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.
We’ll see if the Little Girls of the United States Senate pay him any more attention than they have me. (In addition to the two links above, you can read more of my earlier arguments on this subject here, and here.)
Okay, I think I’m done with the Revolutionary War allusions, but for Dems Mass AG Martha Coakley’s close race is a real scare. And even scarier: that the DSCC has been forced to spend money on her (we’ll soon see how much). Precious money that could have been used to defend Harry Reid — as if his week could get worse, Blanche Lincoln, …
Kristen Gillibrand may not have been their first choice to fill Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate seat (ahem, Caroline Kennedy) but the White House is sticking by her after former five-term Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford told the New York Post exclusively (note the interesting choice of Gotham publications for a Democrat):
It’s true: I am
…
Trouble for Democrats seems to be brewing in Massachusetts where a special election to fill Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat is due to be held a week from Tuesday — on January 19. It’s hard to imagine a Republican winning in solidly blue Massachusetts but GOP State Senator Scott Brown has been steadily gaining on the Democratic candidate, …
Here’s a slightly belated posting of a story that came out this morning on time.com on what Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan’s retirements could mean for Dems in 2010 and beyond. There’s the obvious silver lining for Democrats to Dodd stepping down: Richard Blumenthal has a much better shot at the seat. I’d say that Blumenthal’s …
As Karen noted earlier today, she and I have a story in this week’s magazine about how much states will be on the hook if and when federal health reform passes.
The impetus for the story was, in part, the growing number of governors across the country publicly slamming the idea of expanding insurance coverage to millions of …
Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, made the surprise announcement today that he would not seek reelection. His retirement moves North Dakota into the “toss up” category — a blow for Democrats in a state that will be tough defend (McCain won it with 53% of the vote). Dorgan had long been worried that North Dakota Governor …
Remember this promise by candidate Barack Obama during the presidential campaign?:
But the last point I want to make has to do with how we’re going to actually get this plan done. You know, Ted Kennedy said that he is confident that we will get universal health care with me as president, and he’s been working on it longer than I
…
There was only one Senator missing for this morning’s historic vote in the Senate Chamber. And where was Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning? His spokesman Mike Reynard tells me by e-mail:
The Senator has family commitments.
Oh.
I’m up early this morning to watch the coverage of the Senate vote on health reform. Capitol Hill looks so festive that I am a little sorry that I didn’t make it up there to see it in person.
Vice President Biden just arrived to preside in his capacity as president of the Senate, though it doesn’t look like he will be needed to break …
As Republicans have become less and less inclined to reach out to the Democrats and the Obama Administration – those even willing to listen are becoming noteworthy. Lindsey Graham is one of those who’ll listen, though it remains to be seen if any major legislation will be produced from his talks. In researching this story, I was …
Wonk alert! Incoming!
Close readers of this blog will know that I’ve been interested in the mood swings of a group of prominent economists with regard to this Senate health care bill. Brad DeLong tells us they now have sent yet another letter–this one congratulating Harry Reid on putting some additional cost containment in the bill. …
Over at Kaiser Health News, Jonathan Cohn (with an assist from MIT’s Jonathan Gruber) does the numbers for those who buy on the non-group market (that is, people who don’t get their coverage from their employer):
