Centrist Dem Senators: Threatening No On Procedural Votes Gives Us Leverage!
It’s worth noting that “centrist” Dem Senators are being surprisingly candid about why they’re remaining undecided — publicly, at least — on the simple procedural vote to bring the health care bill to a debate.
It’s the leverage, stupid.
Here, for instance, is Mary Landrieu, explaining why she has yet to agree to vote Yes:
“I have leverage now, I’m using it to the best of my ability, I’m going to use it on the Senate floor,” Landrieu said.
Landrieu’s “leverage” is paying off: She can now tell her constituents that she has secured in the bill some $100 million in additional Federal aid for low-income residents in her state.
Senator Ben Nelson, meanwhile, is being no lessforthcoming. In remarks to reporters, Nelson said he is not happy with the current abortion language in the Senate bill. But then he turned around and said that if the public option is further weakened or jettisoned, in accordance with his wishes, it could help mollify him on the abortion question.
“If there’s no public option, perhaps some of the problem goes away,” Nelson said, subtly.
It’s always seemed like a foregone conclusion that the bill would be brought to a debate; the only question has been what each moderate Senator’s price would prove to be. And to be clear, Senators are supposed to milk the process on behalf of their constituents, as Landrieu seems to be doing.
But it’s interesting to note how comfortable these Senators are in revealing that they’re mainly holding out on a simple vote to debate the bill in order to increase their leverage. It’s a measure of both their power and of how casually we’ve come to accept Senatorial self-aggrandizement and the perversions of the process that attend it.
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Update: I forgot to mention that a couple of days ago, the news broke that Reid had killed a provision to strip insurance companies of their anti-trust exemption for Nelson’s sake, further indicating why he’s been holding out.
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Makes me wonder exactly what Lieberman wants.
Well said, Greg. The arrogance of senators and the trading that takes place has made the Senate the object of derision in my circle. Some mebers are too old to get around easily but they cling to office. There should be a mandatory age of retirement.
Reid also unequivocally ruled out reconciliation – meaning that any robust public option would seem to be dead.
“Senators are supposed to milk the process on behalf of their constituents.”
What a shame for those of us who aren’t well-represented.
Sorry OT, I need to get busy, but here’s Jon Stewart last night taking down the fear mongerers.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/stewart-takes-down-ksm-trial-fearmongerers.php?ref=fpb
It’s the leverage, stupid.
Nothing new about this. It’s as old as politics.
I thought Dobbs on Stewart the other night was hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing at all the jabs the guy was throwing. I’m surprised some of these people think they are going to go onto his show and out wit the guy.
It’s a real shame that the progressives in the Senate are such giant f***ing wimps that they aren’t willing to do the same thing.
Get 10 public option supporters to threaten to filibuster the bill if they water down the public option any more than it already is, and they’ll have MORE leverage.
There’s a point at which their weakness starts to overtake the jack***ness of those who are willing to let Americans die to score political points.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing…” and all that.
But yeah, that Daily Show clip is hilarious. The part with him snacking cracks me up.
OT – The three amigos hit a bump in the road:
“Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have been working overtime to craft a climate bill that can attract significant GOP support. But they aren’t exactly scoring points with their mutual best friend in the Senate, John McCain.
“Their start has been horrendous,” McCain said Thursday. “Obviously, they’re going nowhere.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29747.html
The left needs to understand that there are only 58 Democratic Senators and many of them are the equivalent to 1950’s conservative Republicans.
Ideally the left would be pulling to primary some of the more egregious right wing Democratic Senators and to outright replace every Republican Senator possible.
By 1950’s standards, Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu are conservative Republicans.
http://voteview.ucsd.edu/sen111.htm
Big tents have BIG problems reaching consensus.
The key to gaining influence is being a self-serving sociopath. You could also be a passionate and effective yet pragmatic legislator like Ted Kennedy but, as Claire McCaskill would say, “that’s really, really hard” and it makes people mad.
corrected:
“The key to gaining influence” as a right winger “is being a self-serving sociopath.”
Thank God for the 2 senators that helped to put healthcare to vote, Laudrieu of LA and Lincoln of ARK. Thank you so much, we need more Senators like you to care about the American people. I know the Senate has there own SS and Healthcare, so it is time to take care of us voters. Thank you so very much.