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- It's difficult to believe that a political party that constantly struggles with Senators like Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman, and Blanche Lincoln could actually muster the discipline to get the entire Senate Democratic caucus to break a Republican filibuster on health care reform legislation. This is merely a reminder that the real problem with these "moderate" Democrats isn't whether or not they support reform, it's that we have no idea whether they do or not.
- David Broder (I will not sully TAPPED with a link) believes the problem with the last three Democratic presidents is that they cared too much about the details of policy, whereas they should have governed more like, apparently, President Bush: "Obama has made it even more explicit, regularly proclaiming his determination to rely on rational analysis, rather than narrow decisions, on everything from missile defense to Afghanistan -- and all the big issues at home." Seriously? Yeah, relying on "narrow decisions" worked out great in the last administration.
- Let there be no doubt: Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) does not respect your intelligence. Speaking on a conference call with Iowa reporters, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee who repeatedly negotiated in bad faith to craft a "bipartisan" health care reform bill, wants to form a new "gang of six" in order to "coalesce around something that could eventually become more bipartisan." Max Baucus knows better than this, candidly admitting what everyone already knows: there is no such thing as a Republican health care reform bill.
- Karl Rove's least proud moment during his time in the White House was not doing more to "oppose Democrats more fervently in 2003 when they said the president lied about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction." Rove then added that "We should have stood up and taken a two-by-four to them in a polite and respectful fashion." Demonization, branding Dems as traitors -- this wasn't Karl's A-game. If his heart had been in it, he would have also made sure Democrats suffered for daring to point out BS when they saw it.
- Remainders: Behold the elegance of the free market in the fossil fuels industry; marvel at the efficiency of the for-profit news business; working for Matt Drudge apparently induces a form of dementia upon you; and libertarians ponder why their nominative party fared so poorly in 2008, anticipate that electoral success is right around the corner.
--Mori Dinauer
