The Morning Plum
* WaPo labels Dede Scozzafava’s ouster a “Grand Old Purging.”
* Rereading Jake Tapper’s interview with Obama, it’s very clear that the president is vowing that Stupak will be seriously revised in the final bill.
* Bill Clinton heads to Capitol Hill today to stiffen the spines of wavering Dem Senators. Key point: He’s a walking reminder that the last time Dems punted on health care, they took a major shellacking in the midterm elections.
* John Conyers: Time for Obama to find his inner Lyndon Johnson.
* Gallup: The number who would tell their member of Congress to oppose reform proposal has crept up. Caveat: Most questioning occured before the historic House bill passed.
* With moderate House Dems nervously eyeing a difficult vote on the final bill, Americans United for Change and labor launches a $1 million ad buy thanking a dozen Dems who voted Yes on Saturday, signaling they’ll have major backing if they hold firm in the end:
* When Nancy Pelosi vowed months ago that the bill would have a public option, it turns out she meant what she said. Worth recalling how skeptical some were of her vow, and how wrong they turned out to be (though we still don’t know what the final bill will look like).
* An interesting look at how Obama’s strategy of marginalizing powerful interests who stand in his way has reshuffled the power deck in D.C.
* Aravosis launches a donor boycott of the DNC.
* And here’s the shocker of the day: Senator Susan Collins is still unsatisfied with the reform proposal, says we “should rewrite the whole bill.” Better get right on that!
What else is happening?
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Bon AM. Alex Koppelman this morning links to a really excellent post he wrote two years ago on “Fox News Democrats” and it’s well worth reading in its entirety. But this one excerpt (note the statistic at the tail end) is one of the many notable bits…
“But if one actually watches a lot of Fox News, the in-house Democrats don’t come off as effective evangelists for their party or for liberal politics in general. It sounds harsh, but think of most of the Fox Democrats, at least those who appear on the opinion shows, which take up half the network’s airtime, as one of three types. They are either scary liberals, losers or enablers. Representatives of each type may score some points for Democrats when they appear on-air, but ultimately they help further Fox’s larger narrative about Democrats and liberals and what they stand for.
Take, for example, the scary Democrats. Think about frequent guests like the Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., both big-city liberals, or Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Vegan Peacenik. Then consider Fox’s audience. Besides being rather elderly — the median age of a Fox viewer tops 60 — it is disproportionately conservative and Republican. In the 2004 election, according to Mark Mellman, Fox viewers preferred President Bush over John Kerry by an astonishing 88 percent to 7 percent. Bush’s backing among Fox viewers was more solid than his support among white evangelicals, gun owners or supporters of the Iraq war….”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/04/03/fox_news_democrats/index.html
Actually Susan Collins make some good points that NEITHER bill goes far enough to do cost control and she has some good suggestions. Instead of re-writing the entire bill, she should just add amendments.
Greenwald notes the highly unusual event where two high-profile columnists advance the proposition that we ought to use the threat (and reality) of decreased or ceased funding to Israel as a means of leveraging their settlement and ‘peace’ policies. In the piece, Greenwald quotes two seemingly unlikely supporters of such a policy shift…James Baker and George Washington.
“When is the last time there were serious discussions like this in the establishment media about cutting off aid to Israel if they refused to cease taking actions that harmed American interests? That was probably 1992, when then-Secretary of State Jim Baker repeatedly tried to link continued American aid and loan guarantees to Israeli cessation of settlement expansions and increased good faith in negotiating a peace agreement with the Palestinians — which caused a major political backlash in the U.S., fueled by what then-NYT-reporter Tom Friedman described as “a number of pro-Israeli Senators.” It’s amazing how little has changed vis-a-vis American debates over Israel in the 17 years since then.
In countless ways, our foreign policy has long and directly violated George Washington’s 1796 warning that “nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded”; that “the nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave”; and that “a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.” The typical justification for violating those warnings is that our interests are served by maintaining and steadfastly supporting permanent alliances of this sort…” http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/
Bernie
Remember the guy at one of the President’s town hall this summer who said he only watched Fox because all the other stations were too biased, or something to that affect. Also, an awful lot of the signs at the Tea Party protests mention Fox in a positive way. I’d day Murdoch and company is having a great deal of success with their viewers, luckily it’s still a small segment of the population.
Greg
After reading more last night I realized the ambiguity in the President’s words regarding the ammendment, were not so ambiguous after all. Hopefully, he’ll be able to get women back to status quo at least.
Good news about Clinton (Bill). He should have some influence on both the Senate and the House. I’m sure by the time HCR gets to its final stages all the stops will be pulled out.
The more people understand about the Stupak Sepsis Ammendment the less they like it.
“After indicating that she could live with the Stupak amendment in an interview Monday morning, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said tonight that she opposes the measure because it overreaches in restricting access to abortions.
Her words mark a slight change of attitude from this morning, when she suggested on MSNBC that the amendment offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) to the House’s healthcare bill was the price supporters of Democratic healthcare reform would have to pay in order for a bill to pass Congress.”
http://firedoglake.com/2009/11/10/early-morning-swim-chris-hayes-discusses-stupak-amendment-on-countdown/
I can tell you what else is happening, or at least what conservatives opposed to Obama wish were happening. I was watching Hannity last night and he seems to be trying to make Ft. Hood out to be a terrorist attack. As Greenwald at Salon noted that even NRO came out and said, terrorist attacks usually occur with civilian targets. This was purely a military target. (Although there really is no definition of terrorist attack)
Anyways, I imagine what Hannity and others will say shortly is Obama has failed to keep America safe and start to hammer that. He tried to make the link indirectly last night planting seeds here and there but nobody picked up on it or they were just ignoring it. I expect this to right wing attack to pick up steam.
“Rereading Jake Tapper’s interview with Obama, it’s very clear that the president is vowing that Stupak will be seriously revised in the final bill.”
I seriously doubt it. I don’t know where people got the idea you can “seriously” fix a bill in conference. You don’t go into conference with a flawed bill; you go into conference with the best bill you can, knowing what you’re willing to give away in order to reach agreement.
You know how this bill will be “seriously revised”? No Stupak Amendment, no public option.
@Imsinca…re FOX and teabaggery…I think it is safe to say that this movement would not exist were it not for FOX – it wouldn’t have a name or a coherent sense of self outside of FOX promotion. Other entities like FreedomWorks are deep in the mix but FOX is the communication center for the project. That FOX viewers supported Bush over Kerry at higher percentages than evangelicals or gun owners tells us something quite important.
@Mike…yes I believe you are on to the conservative strategy. Rush Limbaugh went as far as saying he could “almost” blame Fort Hood on Obama.
The cruel irony in all of this that the righties who watch Faux News can’t seem to understand is that this is the complete opposite of being patriotic or loving your country. Using the Fort Hood tragedy for political gain or in Limbaugh’s case PERSONAL gain in the way or ratings…is so far beyond cynical..it’s simply despicable. These people are the true losers of the world!!! They have nothing to offer intellectually and emotionally all they can peddle is hate…As Mr T. used to famously say..pity the fool who watches or listens to this hate fest..imagine what their lives must be like.
“hat else is happening?”
Kareem Abdul Jabar has acute myeloid leukemia and the only reason I bring it up is because it used to be very rare and it’s not anymore. It killed my father and it’s my understanding that it’s an environmental cancer. Something is wrong somewhere in this country – besides politics.
I heard Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) this morning on a Boston area all-news radio station when I was waking up. To no one’s surprise he finds the whole health care reform effort as it has proceeded “outrageous”.
And Scozzafava has a warning.
“There is a lot of us who consider ourselves Republicans, of the Party of Lincoln,” she said, her face now flush. “If they don’t want us with them, we’re going to work against them.”
““There is a lot of us who consider ourselves Republicans, of the Party of Lincoln,” she said, her face now flush. “If they don’t want us with them, we’re going to work against them.””
{{{{SWOON}}}}
Tena, sad news about Jabar.
Bernie, we can mostly hope they are overplaying their hand, I believe they are. I do wish we had other reporters besides Maddow following the Freedom Works angle.
Mike from A
Haven’t we all been waiting for Fox and friends to jump on that band wagon? So predictable.
Imsinca – It’s OT to the max – I get that. But I read it first thing and when I see “myeloid leukemia” sirens go off.
Ryan O’Neal has it. It used to be so rare half the doctors I talked to didn’t know what it is. It’s not rare anymore. And I don’t hear any alarm from the AMA or the EPA, and there should be.
A quick word on HCR. There are quite a few complaints, besides Collins, regarding the lack of cost containment in the bills. I believe they will begin to address this more in the Senate bill in order to be more in line with Obama’s requirements for HCR. Orzag is also looking at this, it’s a start on bending the curve but doesn’t go quite far enough. I agree and hope they will make it stronger.
A good piece on Fairness Doctrine, talk radio shockjocks and the corporate msm.
“Barack Obama arrived in Washington determined to lift our civic discourse above the din of the echo chamber. But he appears determined to ignore the very tool created to serve this end. Forget about bickering with Fox News, Mr. President. If you want “fair and balanced’’ voices on the public airwaves, convince Congress, or the FCC, to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
If Obama and his congressional counterparts don’t have the guts for that fight, Americans of all political persuasions will continue to seek out “news’’ and opinions that merely reinforce their biases, rather than forcing them to question those biases. America will continue to limp along as a nation of enraged dittoheads, rather than free-thinking citizens who may differ in our politics, but share an honest desire to solve our common plights.”
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/11/09/whos_afraid_of_the_big_bad_fairness_doctrine/
Tena, I don’t think anything’s really off topic here, Greg and other commenters are quite patient regarding all of our pet peeves and projects so to speak.
“o reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.”
I can tell you why that isn’t gone to happen. Number 1, Obama has said, and I agree – it’s a prior restraint on speech which is unconstitutional.
It’s also impossible now to enforce. We couldn’t enforce it against 500 broadcasters, a large number of whom are foreign.
Back when we had the Fairness Doctrine = think about it – there were 3 networks, no cable. How do you enforce this against 500+ broadcasters?
Imsinca – thanks.
It’s a puzzle and most people don’t pay any attention because it doesn’t affect most people, but it’s starting to.
What the hell? It’s really an ugly death, let me tell you, and it’s increasing in incidence. I’d like to know why.
What else is news?
I’m in an all out war at Fluffington Post now. They’ve turned into sbj. Every day, dozens of posts are created to try and create a rift within the Democratic party.
At this pace, we’ll wake up in four years and wonder how the heck we ended up with Sarah Palin as President.
“I’m in an all out war at Fluffington Post now. They’ve turned into sbj. Every day, dozens of posts are created to try and create a rift within the Democratic party.”
Been jumping up and down and screaming about it since January. Told Arianna flat=out in a comment that she’s officially the Drudge of the left.
I’m with you – give me my marching orders.
Back when we had the Fairness Doctrine = think about it – there were 3 networks, no cable. How do you enforce this against 500+ broadcasters?
That’s a really strong point. Back when the Fairness Doctrine was in force the airwaves were regarded as a public resource, but the technology was such that only a very few broadcasters existed (or could exist).
That was then, and the present environment truly is extremely different.
Heh. I’m sure I’ll be thrown off of Fluffington Post in short order. Every time I mention what I’m seeing and it gets through moderation, there’s more and more that agree with me each time.
Sooner or later, someone there is going to check my comment history and see I’ve been going after them. It’s only a matter of time now.
oddjob – Also, there is the matter of trying to enforce our legislation against say, the BBC, Al Jazeera, news broadcasts on the Spanish language stations, the stations out of Hong Kong, in Chinese, etc. etc. etc.
“Heh. I’m sure I’ll be thrown off of Fluffington Post in short order.”
Heh. My fan numbers over there go up and down by about 3 people depending on whether I’ve been harshing on Ariana.
Another big story that I think is brewing that is THIS ONE where Dems are finally planning to go on the offensive.
They’ve allowed themselves to be painted as vulnerable. Now they are going to start targeting Republicans in districts that went for Barack Obama. They are going to have to be extremely loud though and united. Lets see if they have the courage.
I’d like to see MoveOn and the rest of the organizations change from attacking Dems to going after Republicans that will be targets in 2010 and beyond. The idea is to increase the majority, not deminish it.
I’ve been wondering regarding this recent House vote. I’m assuming Speaker Pelosi knows exactly how many votes she has prior to going to the floor. I’d assume she’s negotiated with House members that may be in difficult districts and allow them to vote against it since she knows she already has the votes. Sure, there are probably a few people that don’t listen to her but I’m sure there are a majority that do have party loyalty.
Anyways, I’ve really gotta do some work..cheers.
From The Democratic Strategist. I don’t think the GOP plan of recruiting more women is working out too well for them. After watching Price shout down women on Sat. night who were supporting the rights of women, not just pro-choice, but women’s health care in general, I’d say they have cooked that goose. Being on the receiving end of similar attitudes here a few times, I’m sure you’ve all witnessed it, I think they just can’t help themselves. Those attitudes just show through whether they want them to or not.
“Now POLITICO has a story on the GOP’s struggles in persuading women to run for office:
House Republican leaders have spent years trying to bolster female recruitment, often with frustrating results. While the number of Democratic women willing to challenge sitting Republicans keeps rising, recruiting GOP women to challenge Democratic incumbents is becoming harder.
From 1994 to 2004, the NRCC recruited an average of 20 women a cycle to challenge incumbents, and even they won only three of those seats during the entire decade.
In 2006 and 2008, the number of female challengers dropped to 13 and 18, respectively, with only one winner, Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas.
But this isn’t a story that’s limited to Congress, which makes things all the more difficult for the GOP.
The trend is even more pronounced in the states, where Democrats control an overwhelming advantage in the legislatures that count women as a significant percentage of their members. There are 11 states where women represent at least 30 percent of the legislative districts, and we control both legislative chambers in 10 of them.
If the GOP really were serious about recruiting more women to office, perhaps that’s the place where they should start. But the example of Dede Scozzafava — who was a member of the New York Assembly before being chosen to run in last week’s special election — should raise a red flag for many.”
“After watching Price shout down women on Sat. night who were supporting the rights of women, not just pro-choice, but women’s health care in general, I’d say they have cooked that goos”
O yeah and if ads are not made out of that incident, the Democrats are fools. Make ads out of the GOP shouting down women reps over and over – I want to get rid of Pete Sessions. I frakking despise him.
Conyers, the committee head whose own leadership slackness has diminished congressional subpoenas to joke status, has advice for Obama on how to be tough.
The problem with Fox isn’t the bias – there’s nothing wrong with that. Except when it comes to reporting factual matters. They don’t and claim they do – that’s where the problem is. You can be an opinion maker, you just have to be upfront about it. You can’t pretend that isn’t what you’re doing.
You can’t claim you’re “fair and balanced.”
The Commonwealth is fixin’ to execute John Lee Muhammad,(The Beltway Sniper), tonight at 9pm Eastern.
It’ll make for some sweet dreams to know he has been snuffed out of this world for his crimes.
Only wish that another state would get on the ball so that we could send his “Killer B!tch”, Lee Boyd Malvo along with him.
It was very gratifying to me,as a conservative, the almost unseemly haste with which Maryland extradited these two south of the Potomac River so that they would face Virginia justice.
Almost like they couldn’t wait to have us execute him, but were too chickensh!t to do it themselves.
am so very disappointed to see AFSCME sponsor an attaboy to the likes of Carney, Ellsworth, and others who voted for the Stupak Amendment
it’s not surprising to see Stern and other WH streetwalkers take the position, but a lifelong fighter like McEntee ?
et tu Gerald ?
and oh please, I am well aware Carney and others voted for a bill that included a PO with no taxes on middle class worker benefits – Labor’s goal(and mine) in this battle, but surely there was another way – do I really want to google and find they gave props to Stupak for same ?
A TNR column worth reading.
Hat tip, Sully.
“arguably, by as much as any single piece of domestic legislation since the Great Society. Surely that qualifies as something more than “a few improvements around the edges.”"
From oddjob’s link to the TNR via Sully.
This is the thing that really has taken my breath away. So far, this administration has all but re-animated the dead and still gets no props, just brickbats for not getting it perfectly perfect.
This is nuts, folks. Nuts. We are doing things we’ve talked about doing, obsessively, for years and years. Just because it didn’t happen overnight, just because there is still stuff to do, just because Obama’s style is not FDR’s or LBJ’s but Obama’s, nobody acknowledges his accomplishments. Everyone nit picks what they consider his failings.
I’ve not seen a president treated like this before.
Tena and anyone else interested in environmental health, I strongly recommend you research the growing field of Environmental Toxicology if you haven’t already. A great website is http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/
I don’t have the exact number but something like 10,000-30,000 people die prematurely each year from particulate matter and other heavy metals that are in the exhaust from coal-fired power plants. That is why New Source Review is so critical.
Also, here is a shocking but important document (http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/epi/disparities-2004.pdf) that describes the health disparities among races and income levels in NYC. It is an important document in realizing why environmental issues, energy issues, and food and education issues are, collectively, a civil rights issue in our dense urban areas: environmental justice.
Environmental toxicology, environmental justice… two key, growing fields that combine old-school environmentalism with new-school sustainable development. Really important stuff. I just wish Obama was able to really explain why these “green” issues are so important. It really is about quality of life and developing a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren, less about what we think of as traditional environmental issues (save the whales, etc) which are really more conservation and preservation. But the main thrust is that environmentalism is dead and in its place is a critical combination of issues that together form the basis for the global sustainability movement. Really awesome stuff that I’ve been involved with and advocating for over a decade…
The conservatives who call themselves Democrats don’t give a flip who controls the Congress or the WH. They are essentially republicans and a republican majority would be likely to introduce bills more to their liking anyway and would not put them in a spot.
Thanks Ethan
We are pretty involved here in environmental health issues, as our daughter is a scientist in the field. She worked on emmissions for 3 years (chemistry background) and then went back to school and is now working in groundwater issues and contamination. Heading off to Grad School in August, probably Montana to continue Hydro.
We’re always looking for more info, thanks.
Ethan – I get environmental justice – south Dallas is predominantly ethnic and that’s where the lead smelters used to be and the ground is contaminated.
My dad built ships under contract to the navy during WWII. It has to have been something he was exposed to then, I think. But you know, when Warron Zevon died of lung cancer, I figured it was straight lung cancer because he smoked, among other things. It wasn’t. It was asbestosis. I think he must gotten the exposure in recording studios.
Or grade school, like the rest of us.
I’m afraid to read your link.
I figured ya’ll were up to speed, just thought I’d throw that info out there for anyone who hasn’t spent some time on the subject
Tena:
“My dad built ships under contract to the navy during WWII. It has to have been something he was exposed to then, I think. But you know, when Warron Zevon died of lung cancer, I figured it was straight lung cancer because he smoked, among other things. It wasn’t. It was asbestosis. I think he must gotten the exposure in recording studios.”
Asbestosis is very likely the cause, but don’t rule out other exposures. Red Lead, Carbon Tetrac
oops;
Carbon Tetrachloride, lampblack…all manner of things they used and no-one knew what the long-term exposures would be.
If you did a lot of automotive brake work back in the day, you got a good huff of asbestos dust.
An essential difference in modern left-wing / right-wing philosophies is that the left-wing has been trying to outlaw toxic substances.
The right-wing takes the philosophical position that outlawing toxic substances interferes with their ability to make a profit.
Right wingers choose profit over human lives and human health.
Left wingers choose human lives and human health over profit.
The divisions between right and left really is that simple.
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