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- The Senate parliamentarian has reportedly told the Senate GOP leadership that in order for reconciliation to be applied to the health-care reform bill, the original bill must first be passed by the House and signed by the president. Will House Democrats go through with accepting legislation that might never be fixed? Recall that earlier in the day it was reported that Harry Reid wrote a stern letter to Mitch McConnell, condemning the GOP's deliberate efforts to derail health-care reform, their tireless obstructionism and abuse of Senate procedure, and their shameless resort to lies to scare the public. That letter also promised that Democrats will move forward with reconciliation, hypocritical Republican whining on the issue aside.
- In other reconciliation news, former Senate parliamentarian Robert Dove has told Greg Sargent that during reconciliation Republicans can and will subject every amendment to the Byrd Rule, so Democrats had better have a "bulletproof" bill. And even though the vice president can overrule the parliamentarian, such a step would be "unprecedented" in Dove's opinion. The good news is that the public option will make an 11th-hour appearance courtesy of Bernie Sanders, subject to a majority vote (provided reconciliation still happens).
- Reading a Washington Post profile of Hillary Clinton's State Department one year in, Michael Cohen is disappointed that the Obama administration has staffed its foreign-policy ranks with competent, capable people ... who fail to espouse a strategic vision. Indeed, that lack of vision is what is so puzzling about the claims that Obama is taking American foreign policy in some sort of unprecedented or radical direction. The real criticism is that he hasn't done enough to change the basic foreign-policy pattern established by all of his postwar predecessors. Roger Cohen might worry himself that Obama lacks emotional attachment to the Allied invasion of Europe, but this hasn't dissuaded him to watch yet another Hollywood tribute to WWII with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg in the White House theater.
- Speaking of media failure, I too am speechless at Massa coverage. The resulting freak show has enabled House Republicans to force a vote on investigating the matter, allowing them to downplay the significance of their own massive ethical problems that ultimately consumed them in the lead-up to the 2006 midterm elections.
- Remainders: Full credit to the two Republican lawmakers who successfully pushed to ban misleading "census" mailers being used by their own party; credit too to VA Gov. Bob McDonnell for reversing a reinstatement of discriminatory state hiring practices; why is it so hard for people to understand that issuing decisions bound to piss people off is essentially why the Supreme Court exists; global warming is "generally exaggerated" according to an increasing number of Americans; I have no idea why National Review is highlighting a 30-year-old issue of their magazine featuring a cover story on detente; Reason magazine thinks the "ideas" in John "centrists save America" Avlon's book are worth a 10-minute interview; and irrespective of the quality (poor) of the other Democratic candidates, I agree that John Kerry was a terrible candidate for a job he would have filled well.
--Mori Dinauer
