The First Draft: Democrats turn to Clinton in Senate healthcare push
Former President Bill Clinton is due to visit Capitol Hill today to talk healthcare reform with Senate Democrats and their independent allies.
The meeting’s important because Democrats have yet to find the 60 votes they need to stop Senate Republicans from blocking President Barack Obama’s signature domestic issue. House Democrats got their end of the job done over the weekend by passing landmark legislation.
Clinton’s presidency was overshadowed by his own failed bid to reform the healthcare system in the 1990s. But NBC said he could help sway Democrats wavering in the current debate, including Sen. Blanche Lincoln of his home state, Arkansas.
A big obstacle that Clinton, Obama and Senate Democrats face seems as old as human nature: people who will cooperate — if they get their own way.
This time, a small clutch of moderates want their own way on the so-called public option, a proposal to offer government supported low-cost health coverage that is anathema to Republicans and the insurance industry.
Some senators are categorical about what they want.
For independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut — a state long associated with insurance interests — opposition to the public option is a moral issue. “If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,” he said at the weekend on Fox News. But his independent neighbor to the north, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, sounds like Lieberman’s polar opposite: “It would be outrageous to me, that when you have an overwhelming majority of Americans wanting a strong public option, that we do not deliver that.”
No Foxtrot on Obama’s dance card for healthcare speech
Bad things come in threes… three strikes and you’re out… the third time’s a charm…
Which one of those applies to Fox refusing for the third time to change its primetime programming to carry a speech by President Barack Obama?
It could be three strikes, but it’s unclear who’s out.
Obama’s 8 p.m. speech to Congress on Wednesday will be carried live by the other networks — ABC, NBC and CBS.
Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch and the channel of choice for the former Bush administration, says it won’t be dancing to Obama’s tune. Turns out that’s the evening for the season premiere of “So You Think You Can Dance.”
Fox has directed viewers who want to watch Obama instead of “Dance” to its Fox News cable outlet.
THIS JUST IN: We asked Mark Knoller of CBS, the White House press corp’s trusted keeper of all statistics that matter, for stats on Obama TV interviews.
The political satire site, National Inquisition speculates that President Obama may have strategically timed his speech to force Americans to choose between healthcare and dance. http://www.natinq.com
Obama and Hannity – beer-drinking buddies?
ELKHART, Ind. – President Barack Obama and conservative commentator Sean Hannity are hardly political allies, but Obama on Monday briefly entertained the thought they could at least share a beer.
At least, Obama seemed to like the beer part.
Hannity, a talk show host who is one of Obama’s harshest critics, offered recently to buy the president a beer after Obama said “hardcore” Hannity fans would not want to share a brew with him.
At a town hall meeting in Indiana where Obama was selling his stimulus package, a woman who identified herself as Tara questioned why some of Obama’s cabinet appointments could not handle their own taxes.
”I’m one of those that thinks you need to have a beer with Sean Hannity,” she said, drawing boos from the pro-Obama crowd.
But Obama called it “a perfectly legitimate question” and took responsibility again for mistakes in the nominating process for some of his Cabinet members.
the plan is tc when bush is out of range the fault will be rush and hannity for spreading false information,that is why the proposer of the fairness document could not get a democratic seconder, they know they are going to be desperate for some one to blame down the road.i can not even get a response on this even from a neophyte like eric but that can be expected.
“why does’t the conservitives bring up all the bills that was rejected by a liberal congress. bills like haveing bank of america investigated fannie may investigated and of course acorn. the automob le industry all these things made democrats money so bring it up”
Why don’t the conservatives mention all of the bills that were rejected by a liberal congress; such as bills to have Bank of America and Fannie Mae investigated, along with Acorn and the automobile industry. These things should be revealed because they all made money for the Democrats.
Hope this helps!