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- Health-care reform roundup: The Senate Finance Committee moves closer to adopting state-based public plans; it truly is a mystery why non-white voters mistrust the GOP; and is the groundwork being laid for a single-payer system?
- Eric Kleefeld picks up on the pattern of congressional Republicans engaging in rogue foreign policy, and thereby undermining the diplomatic efforts of the Obama administration. This is without precedent and is a very dangerous and cynical game. One might take solace in the fact, however, that Republicans likely look even more absurd overseas than they do to Americans who have had to bear witness to these shenanigans for decades.
- Both Ezra Klein and Brendan Nyhan produce graphical evidence that despite the GOP's efforts to bring down Democrats for a rout in 2010, their party remains at levels of unpopularity unseen in the past four midterm elections. Ed Kilgore calls this "political murder-suicide" and I think he's right, but what does all this mean for the actual electoral results next year? Leaving aside the state of the economy a year from now, the biggest variable will be turnout and who turns out to vote.
- Politico reports on John McCain's efforts to "reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image," making the assumption that the failed presidential candidate has influence in the Republican Party. Sure, he can raise money for and network candidates, but those candidates are more likely than not to pander to the conservative base that is steadily eroding the relevance of the party in American politics. Unintentionally, the piece demonstrates the real constituency McCain holds the most sway with: inside-the-Beltway news organizations like Politico.
- Often you'll hear from conservatives and libertarians that the left is vastly overblowing the danger represented by the anti-Obama tea party movement, and to the extent that the movement remains an incoherent rage against the administration and its allies, there isn't much reason to fear them. But as Mike Tomasky alludes to in an essay for The New New York Review of Books, it's precisely the novelty of a tea party "street-protest movement" that produces uncertainty about its trajectory. I would posit that it will parallel the anti-abortion movement, which occasionally produces violence, has little legislative success, and is kept perpetually outraged by a well-financed conservative infrastructure willing to exploit it to increase their own power.
- Remainders: The Chamber of Commerce attempts a PR turnaround, fails; The Washington Post does not want you to be well informed about climate change; what is it about incarcerated terrorism suspects that makes members of Congress lose their minds; unsurprisingly, Barack Obama has been ratings gold for Fox News; and Tim Pawlenty, paper tiger.
--Mori Dinauer
