Harry Reid: “We’re Leaning Towards Talking About A Public Option”
There was an odd, somewhat amusing moment at a presser in the Capitol today after Senate Dems huddled to discuss the final Senate health care bill, with Senator Harry Reid refusing to say that negotiations were progressing towards a public option.
Though, in fairness, he wasn’t willing to say negotiations were progressing against them, either.
A reporter tried to pin Reid down by asking whether negotiations were moving towards, or against, the inclusion of the public plan.
“The negotiations are leaning about a public option,” Reid said.
Asked for clarification by puzzled reporters, Reid added: “We’re leaning towards talking about a public option.”
This less-than-deft formulation makes this sound worse than it is, and to be fair, one shouldn’t read too much into it. Reid’s office did recently say he’s busting his butt behind the scenes to make it happen. And perhaps sounding too bullish on the public option — particularly before talks are concluded — could scuttle delicate negotiations somehow.
But it is noteworthy that for whatever reason, Reid is just not willing to say things are looking up.
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“We’re leaning towards thinking about the possibility of something resembling an option that could be regarded as something favored by a number of Americans”.
ChuckinDenton — exactly.
“Reid’s office did recently say he’s busting his butt behind the scenes to make it happen.”
Greg…you are far more experienced than me and obvioiusly more wired in…Do YOU believe Reid is REALLY busting his butt or just appeasing the progressives?
BTW Anecdotally…I got my Organizing for America email requesting 100,000 calls today on HCR. I called all three of my guys…placed on hold on both Senator’s offices…getting through gave my zip code as requested after asking for HCR with a STRONG P.O.
Perhaps Greg you can tell us if OFA reached their 100,000 goal.
He doesn’t want to rush into anything. After all, hasn’t his careful, measured leadership style ensured just oodles of legislative victories for the Dems?
“Do YOU believe Reid is REALLY busting his butt or just appeasing the progressives?”
I don’t know. I change my mind hourly on the question.
rukidding-
TPM has a post about this: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/organizing-for-america-about-to-win-low-expectations-game.php
OT:
73% of Republicans don’t think or aren’t sure if the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES LOVES HIS COUNTRY.
PPP polled 766 registered voters nationwide. Of the GOP respondents, 27% agreed that Obama “loves America,” 48% disagreed and 25% said they weren’t sure.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/new-poll-48-of-republicans-say-obama-does-not-love-america—-27-say-he-does.php
GOP = Psychoville.
I heard folks opine that the seeming lack of overt ***-busting on the PO is a motivator for the grassroots. But, I don’t know how Congress can ignore the polling which seems to go way beyond liberal/grassroots support for this.
I’m mystified by what *appears* to be lukewarm support in the Senate.
OT:
Bernark Kerik (Giuliani’s NYC Chief of Police, nominated by Bush to be First Dir of Homeland Security) is Sent to Prison
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/bernard-kerik-is-sent-to-jail/
Ethan, considering in the last WaPo poll, 20% of Americans are self described Republicans, that means only 10% of the voters think he doesn’t love his country which is insignificant in my book.
But yeah, a large percentage of the self described remaining GOP are coo-coo bananas.
“MADDOW: To set the record straight, Rush Limbaugh apparently never said that Martin Luther King Jr.`s assassin should receive the Medal of Honor. And I was in error when we reported that we had. Mea culpa.”
Good for her – only took 4+ months…
@Chuck in Denton…thanks for the link…very interesting that OFA is going to surpass the 100,000 goal but it’s getting pooh poohed…in the TPM story Chuck linked…
“Sure, but it’s also a PR move and motivator to keep people involved and feel like they are making a difference.”
Duh! Ya think? And it works…at least for me personally…I felt GREAT after all three of my calls!!!
Nothing like venting…even into a telephone.
I hope that Kerik gives the guards a reason to use one of his own Tasers on him.
Since using electric shock on prisoners is ruled to be torture, and against the law, why are cops allowed to use electric shock guns on people who have not even being charged or convicted of anything.
I know that a lot of people got a big laugh out of the guy who said; don’t taser me, bro, but what had he done that made it OK for a couple of Barney Fife like guards, to use an electric shock torture gun on him?
Why are people so accepting of the growing practice of security people using electric shock torture on more and more people?
“Why are people so accepting of the growing practice of security people using electric shock torture on more and more people?”
From the man who sees no problem with the CIA using unmanned drones to kill innocent women and children…
Several dozen members of congress have signed a petition urging President Obama not to send any more troops to Afghanistan.
One of those who signed the petition is the most prominent Libertarian in the country, Ron Paul.
I’m fairly sure Ron Paul is a Republican. His son, apparently, is raising oodles of money.
SBJ
Wants to allow Electric Shock Torture of American Citizens,
But he wants the USA to stop striking the Al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan.
SBJ cares more about protecting the Al-Qaeda monsters that killed thousand of people on 9/11/01 and thousand of our troops, than he does about protecting Americans from being tortured with an electrical instrument.
edit:
thousands of our Troops.
Why does SBJ hate Americans, and Love Al-Qaeda?
Why is SBJ taking the death claims of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan at face value, and repeating them over and over. Is he their propaganda minister?
http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/revenge_drones
SBJ
Is on a mission to get the USA to stop striking at Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. He sure loves those who hit us on 9/11/01
For the love of mercy, will someone please throw liam a life-preserver!
Shooting Stars Show From One Am, until dawn tomorrow.
“The best time to watch will be between 1 a.m. and dawn local time Wednesday morning, regardless of your location. That’s when the patch of Earth you are standing on is barreling headlong into space on Earth’s orbital track, and meteors get scooped up like bugs on a windshield.
Peak activity, when Earth wades into the densest part of the debris, is expected around 6 a.m. ET (3 a.m. PT).
Some meteors could show up late tonight, too. Late-night viewing typically offers fewer meteors, however, because your patch of Earth is positioned akin to the back window of the speeding car.”
When polled about if the plan to watch it;
76% of Extreme Right Wingers said that they were going to take a pass on this Shooting Stars Show, and Wait until Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin came to town.
Another 4% percent of those addled Right Wingers said, that the only shooting star that they planned on going to see is Charlton Heston.
The pollster did not say if they then informed those people, or not, that the Musket has long since been removed from Mr. Heston’s “cold dead hands”.
# sbj | October 20th, 2009 at 04:09 pm
For the love of mercy, will someone please throw liam a life-preserver!
……………………..
Would that be one like the one you keep throwing to Bin Laden?
@ SBJ: Booo!! Now go run and hind.
Hey, I almost forgot. You still haven’t provided any proof that Democrats embraced the truthers like Republicans have the birthers. It’s been 3+ months and we’re still waiting. I’m sure it’s time for you to link to a cartoon or give us a movie quote since you can’t fathom any conversation that involves you owning up. Booo!!
If anyone would like to see a classic SBJ meltdown when it comes to political conversations, it’s been well documented. He might have good intentions and he’s rather fun, but his Fox News talking points can only get him so far.
Just what we need as Majority Leader at this crucial juncture in our history: Casper Milquetoast.
# Chris- The Fold | October 20th, 2009 at 04:35 pm
If anyone would like to see a classic SBJ meltdown when it comes to political conversations, it’s been well documented. He might have good intentions and he’s rather fun, but his Fox News talking points can only get him so far.
………………………
@Chris,
Did you notice where he recently revealed that he was not going to vote in the last election, if it were Hillary versus McCain, but since it was Obama on the ticket, he had to go vote to protect all white Americans from black racism?
He said that Obama played the race card, when he responded to Bill Clinton, but SBJ also said that when Hillary said: “hard working white Americans” in West Virginia, that she was not playing a race card, so if she were the nominee he would not have gone out to vote.
Of course he also admitted that he voted for George W. Bush even though the Bush team had played the race card against John McCain, and McCain’s little daughter.
SBJ claims he was not aware that had happened.
Don’t you love how Racists, such as SBJ, act out their racist impulses, and then tie their selves in knots trying to conceal the fact that their only reason for going out to vote was to make sure a black man did not win.
Liam only wants police officers to use deadly force.
Yes, Chris, how about it? Ready to libel me by calling me a racist? I await with bated breath…
sbj – Libel ? In a blog ? What a kidder.
# healthnut | October 20th, 2009 at 04:59 pm
Liam only wants police officers to use deadly force.
………………….
Liar.
I want them to use less force, and not use electric shock torture guns on people.
Police did just fine restraining people before those torture guns were invented and marketed to every Barney Fife wanabee in the country. There have been several cases of people dying from having been Tasered, so there goes your lethal force excuse, Fascist Moron!
The Robber Barons Have Ruined The American Working Class, For Ever.
No good paying domestic manufacturing jobs, adds up to a very large segment of the population left with no disposable income available to purchase big ticket items, or to pay for a kid’s college tuition. It is the greed of out-sourcers, that is killing the American Working Class, and cooking it, to nurture China, India, and their own stock portfolios.
It will not last. When the domestic working class are left with low wages or no jobs at all, then soon they will not be able to purchase anything except cheap imported ****. It is all a house of cards, and soon now, the retailers will reap the consequences.
We manufacture no consumer products any more, so we have nothing to sell to overseas consumers, and even if we did, the workers in those countries are not payed enough to purchase any of our products.
It is a death spiral for the American Working Class. You can lambaste the Unions all you want to, but when they were at their strongest , the middle class grew and grew, and their bright kids were sent to colleges. Not anymore.
When you do not pay your work force a good wage, all you are doing is killing industry and commerce. The slave states were a prime example of that. They paid their work force nothing, so nothing was purchased, so no manufacturing was needed. Only the Plantation owners could afford to buy goods ,so they imported them, because they were not enough of them to create a large enough demand that would create the need for domestic manufacturing.
That is the direction we are heading in now. The Oligarchs are growing richer and richer, while the bottom 95% are growing poorer and poorer.
The top one percent are now as wealthy as the bottom 95%, and it is getting worse all the time. That situation is destroying America.
Hey look! The troll successfully derailed the conversation, good job guys. I think I’ll just comment on the substance of the post tho:
It’s Harry Reid… of course his statement was lukewarm. To me the fact that Baucus called it “very much alive” means more than anything Reid says as he has not yet demonstrated that he is even capable of functioning as the leader of the Senate yet.
Harry is not in a position to make absolutist pronouncements at this stage of the game. He has to talk in vague terms, much like Alan Greenspan had to.
Harry has to serve many masters, especially 59 of them in his own caucus. They are all Independent Actors, and a Majority Leader is constantly trying to herd cats.
Let us see what the end product turns out to be. If it is not to our liking, there will be plenty of time to unload on those who did not deliver. On the other hand, if they do pass a very good bill, then all this current vituperative language, aimed at Harry, will look down right mean, and have served no useful purpose.
It is counter productive to start calling Senator Reid names. That is not going to make him more likely to support the position of the name callers. In fact it might make him want to stick it to them. That is just human nature, so just push for the PO, in a positive manner, and hold your fire until you know if you really need to pull the trigger or not.
@ Liam, I must have missed all that. SBJ’s health care debate is classic, however. I also love how he suggested Democrats embraced truthers comparable to the GOP embracing birthers. When asked to supply one single incumbent Democrat that gave credo to the truthers, he ran and hid, just like he always does.
I also recall SBJ numerous times telling everyone that he’s not a Republican. Yet he spends all his time defending Republicans and George Bush. He’s the epitome of modern Republicanism. Deny it when things are bad, bleed it when things are good.
For people like SBJ, the last 8 years were a wonderful time for America. Obama is the end of that wonderful time, therefore he must be stopped. All who support him, must be stopped. That’s why SBJ comes here.
@ SBJ, libel you? I didn’t call you anything. Here is my email, chris@thefoldblog.com
Send me a note and I’ll give you a mailing address and other contact info for you to mail your lawsuit to.
Hell, SBJ said that he only voted against Obama in the last election for racial reasons. He said if Obama was not on the ticket, he was not going to vote. so I have no problem calling SBJ a Racist, since he provided all the evidence that proved that he is.
When a creep like SBJ, claims that he was offended enough by how the Obama campaign responded to what Bill Clinton said, that he had to get off his lazy non-voting arse, just to stop Obama, but he defends Hillary Clinton saying “hard working white Americans”, even though she apologized for saying it, then of course SBJ is a racist pure and simple. He voted for George W. Bush after the Bush Campaign made a racial attack on John McCain’s little daughter. As politically engaged as SBJ is, no one could believe his lame excuse that he had never heard about Bush playing the race card. SBJ does not get offended when white politicians play racial politics, but by God, should there be a whiff of it from a black candidate, then SBJ picks up on it instantly, and much as he hates to get off his lazy arse to go vote, he absolutely will, when it comes to voting against the black guy!
He voted only because their was a black man on the Democratic ticket, and said he was not going to vote otherwise. That makes him an absolute Racist.
@chris: I didn’t say you libeled me. I said that if you called me a racist then you would be libeling me. Contrary to what some here apparently think, the blog owners/operators cannot be sued for libel – commentors, however, can.
It seems to me that all the negative vibes this blowhard (Rush Hudson Limbaugh A.KA. Jeff Christie) has been spewing over these many years has come back to blow back on his face (A classic “Blow Back”). He always tries to give off the airs that he can have anything he wants but as we all witness those with more money and more influence tossed him aside like sack of potatoes and the ultimate insult was that it was done in public (money don’t buy you everything butterball).
Now of course he blames everyone else (Michael J. Fox, Perez Hilton, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sonia Sotomayor, Hillary Clinton, Olympia Snowe, ESPN, NFL, the media, basically people of color, the handicapped, women and ****) when of course all you have to do is listen to his show and plainly hear his daily prejudices filled sermons. So NFL, I salute you decision, job well done. And to the whaling cry baby perched on his self made pedestal, quit your whining it was your own fault. You are reaping what he has sowed, KARMA, “Palin and simple” like his followers. Don’t we all feel better?
http://www.chasingevil.org/2009/10/rush-limbaugh-in-his-own-words.html
sbj – Oh, fvck it. I’m calling you as a dishonest racist. Now sue me.
Why the *****-footing around? Harry Reid is so weak. Get it together and LEAD.
Four interests at the table:
Reid, who says he is for the public option
Dodd, who says he is for a strong public option
Obama/Emanuel, one of whom supports the public option
Baucus, who has said a lot of ****.
3-1. What’s the problem, Harry?