When a GOP Senator says there would be a "minor revolution in this country" if Senate Democrats go it alone and pass health care reform using the reconciliation process you know they're nervous. That's what Lamar Alexander said today. The only way to avoid said revolution, according to Alexander, is to work in a bipartisan fashion. Of course that is just code for "we want to kill health care reform." (Aside: Remember when LAMAR! ran for President? Talk about your minor revolutions.)
Alexander is not alone in his desperation. GOP Senator Judd Gregg says "Republicans will wage a vicious fight" if the Democrats use the parlimentary maneuver which would undermine Republican filibuster plans. Ooooh. I really want to see a vicious fight in the Senate. Unfortunately Gregg is just talking about his own parlimentary trick. Basically he plans to object. Repeatedly. Now that's vicious!
Personally I take these dire warnings as good news. We're getting closer.
This week, the healthcare reform debate churned on behind the scenes as the economic crisis and treasury secretary Geithner's latest bank rescue plan dominated the news cycle. Meanwhile Democrats weighed various strategies to advance healthcare reform even without a filibuster-proof majority in the senate. Drug policy made headlines this week. Attorney General Eric Holder expanded upon the administration's new found tolerance towards states that permit medical marijuana. The morning after pill will soon be available over-the-counter to 17-year-olds nationwide, thanks to a ruling by a New York federal judge.
The fight for 2012 is here. Beltway media insiders rejoice!
Who's it going to be? Spunky Sarah? Moneyed Mitt? Holy Huckabee? Some dark-horse candidate flying under the radar? One thing is for sure: While the media clamors for every tiny detail in the looming battle for the Republican presidential nomination, the real fight for 2012 is taking place right before their very eyes.
You know, I have never seen so many Democratic activists so happy about what is apparently a major defeat for Democrats. Every blog post, and virtually every comment I read, is ecstatic. It kind of reminds me about how, after the 2006 elections, we were told that conservatives had actually won, so liberals should be upset.
Yes, it is truly awful that one less Republican will be in President Obama's cabinet. It is also "a blow" to President Obama and Democrats that Judd Gregg is so humiliated by this episode that he won't even seek re-election in 2010. And it is a terrible blow to progressives that the specific policy concerns of the three Congressional minority caucuses have more influence over White House policy than does the press corps' fascination with bipartisanship.
I'm devastated. What a huge blow. How will we ever recover from this terrible setback?
Again, this is fantastic news. Now, can we please get someone at least moderately progressive as a Commerce Secretary nominee?
Update (Chris): President Obama's statement is pretty great:
For Immediate Release February 12, 2009
STATEMENT FROM PRESS SECRETARY
ROBERT GIBBS
"Senator Gregg reached out to the President and offered his name for Secretary of Commerce. He was very clear throughout the interviewing process that despite past disagreements about policies, he would support, embrace, and move forward with the President's agenda. Once it became clear after his nomination that Senator Gregg was not going to be supporting some of President Obama's key economic priorities, it became necessary for Senator Gregg and the Obama administration to part ways. We regret that he has had a change of heart."
Update 2 (Chris): The timing of Gregg's withdrawal indicates it is part of the broader Republican attempts to oppose President Obama and the Democratic trifecta at all costs. TPM quotes a Democratic congressional staffer:
It's hard not to think that Gregg's withdrawal, with the grumbling about the census and the stimulus, was not timed to cause the most damage possible to the Obama administration. Releasing the statement just as Obama took the stage in Peoria was clearly designed to undermine the President's event. The fact he scheduled a presser only seems to confirm it. The classy exit would have been to wait til tomorrow afternoon to quietly bow out. Basically Gregg decided not just to politely decline, but rather to blow shit up and burn the bridge behind him. Do not think this portends good things for the wider political climate.
If the larger GOP strategy can be describe as putting all of their chips on "FAIL", this has to be seen as a significant addition to that pile, no?
Although a former top aide to Sen. Judd Gregg (R) allegedly accepted more than $10,000 in gifts from disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and associates, the New Hampshire Senator said Wednesday that he is not a target in the Justice Department's ongoing probe.
The Associated Press identified Kevin Koonce as the anonymous "Staffer F" described in a plea agreement entered last week by former Abramoff deputy Todd Boulanger.
Koonce, who worked as Gregg's legislative director from 2002 to 2004 before leaving Capitol Hill, allegedly accepted tickets to baseball and hockey games, as well as meals and drinks at the now-defunct Signature's restaurant.
Anyone want to place an anonymous hold on Judd Gregg?
So, Judd Gregg will become Commerce Secretary, and a Republican will keep Gregg's seat in the Senate. Gregg's lifetime Progressive Punch rating of 10.08 out of 100.00, and 6.91 "when the chips are down," should make him a much needed right-wing champion for the Commerce Department. Gregg should also be a useful voice during cabinet meetings, making sure that President Obama and the other radical liberals there don't over-reach.
Now, even though Gregg is a conservative Republican and I am a progressive Democrat, I generally agree with the argument that there are no progressives qualified to run the government. We are incompetent managers after all, just like Republicans have always said. This is why I did not apply for a job in the Obama administration. Better to leave it to the serious, non-ideological people.
Further, bipartisan gestures like this are likely to pay big dividends when President Obama and congressional Democrats need Republican support. Results speak for themselves, and Republicans have been voting with Democrats at a record pace so far during 2009.
Yet further, I agree with the arguments that the Commerce Department isn't very important. For one thing, it only has a budget of $8.2 billion. Even beyond its meager finances, as I explain in the extended entry, it also touches on a number of entirely unimportant areas.
So, for some reason, in the wake of total Republican intransigence on the stimulus bill, the Obama administration will respond by putting a Republican in charge of one the federal departments overseeing the economy. Judd Gregg himself has said he will oppose the stimulus package. That is certainly an, um, interesting way for the Obama administration to incentivize Republican opposition. Oppose President Obama, and he will reward you by giving you a cabinet position.
Quick update on the possibility of Democrats reaching sixty seats in the Senate, and thus theoretically having enough Senators to render Republican filibusters impossible.
Anonymous Democratic sources indicate that New Hampshire Republican Senator, Judd Gregg, is now the leading choice for Commerce Secretary.
However, anonymous Republican sources indicate that Gregg would never accept the position unless he was replaced by a Republican in the Senate.
STATE BLOGS
