Via Greg Sargent, following the news that the Democrats are going to start playing hardball, Sen. Chuck Grassley is telling the president how to do bipartisanship:
In recent days, however, some Democrats have accused Grassley of trying to undermine the reform effort, for example by refusing to debunk rumors that the Democratic health bills would create “death panels” empowered to decide whether the infirm live or die.
On Wednesday, he denied those claims and fired back at Obama, saying the president should publicly state his willingness to sign a bill without a controversial government-run insurance plan. Such a statement, he said, is “pretty important … if you're really interested in a bipartisan bill.”
I've already expressed my feeling that there's enough important changes in the bill that it shouldn't be scuttled over the public option. But when the feeling was that the White House was ready to drop the public option and pick up on the transparently useless idea of co-ops, Republicans responded by doubling down on the apocalyptic rhetoric about government takeovers and euthanasia.
Then there's Grassley himself, who here resembles no one more than Lucy holding the football. Aside from consciously hyping the death panels, he's already said he wouldn't vote for a good bill if it didn't have enough Republican support. Frankly, it's useless to make concessions to someone whose already admitted they're not going to vote for the bill unless the sky turns pink. The White House called the Republican's bluff over the past few days when they indicated a willingness to drop the public plan -- and the GOP showed they're only interested in inflicting a humiliating political defeat on the president.
Like I said, the GOP is trying to kill the bill. If at some point in the process, the reform effort itself hinges on whether or not we keep the public option, it should be let go. But at this point in time, the GOP in general, and Grassley in particular, have shown they're not interested in letting anything pass.
-- A. Serwer
