Lunch break

Great Speech.

However, the reality is much tougher for liberal Democrats. Why?

It's the message
It's the message

Greg Sargent's new interview with "AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel" is sure coming at the worst possible time. Now all the usual suspects are blaring "Labor Will Not Support House Passing Senate Bill". WTF? Does Labor WANT HCR to happen? Will someone please tell Mr. Samuel to STFU for now?

Confidence! lol

look at Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld. Confidence my eye.

intelligence is much better and testicles to do what's right.

congress has been doing a Confidence scam for years. lol

wait till they go after Social Security. i have confidence that will succeed too

If the Dem caucus wanted to start turning things around, here's what they would do:

1) boot Lieberman off the HS commitee. He's no longer the crucial 60th vote, and he's not helping things anyway. He just continues to make the rest of the dems look weak.

2) Pass the Senate HCR bill. Forget liberal concessions, changes, reconcilliation, etc. Just pass the damn bill now and move on. Public perception of wavering/hand wringing is simply nauseating.

3) enact a Financial System Responsibility Act. Impose a transaction tax on derivative trading, and a hefty excise tax on the largest banks. Impose a limitation on banks preventing them from buying up smaller banks/credit unions.

4) put in place a jobs bill using employer tax credits to encourage hiring and also a public construction bill to allow public buildings projects to move forward, stimulating the construction industry.

5) Either utilize reconciliation without end or bring beck the 'nuclear option'. If the nuclear option fails, then it should ber intact for all time. If it kills the filibuster, then the dems can actually move forward legislation and at the same time, force the R party to come up with a modifies filibuster that can change the filibuster rule.

Unfortunately, they will do none of these things, and so they will go back to being the ignored party after november.

Here's another one for Congressional Dems to watch http://alturl.com/9csq

What I don't understand - and what I've failed to understand since the Massachusetts results rolled in - is how the House Democrats could be so wearingly ignorant about what their actual options are.

Defeat of health care reform, a process that they seem to be contemplating, is political suicide. An elected supermajority that gets rolled by a minority party, can't pass the single largest item on their legistative agenda, and then contrives to cede seats in one of the most liberal states in the country within the span of a year will get crushed in the midterm elections. And rightly so.

But as it's been often pointed out, they are one House vote away from passing health care. And that means they're one House vote away from changing the entire headline cycle, the entire state of political discourse regarding the loss of the MA seat. In one vote, the headlines change from, "Democrats Lose Massachusetts" to "Democrats Pass Health Care Reform." And then you have eleven months to battle it out at the polls.

It's not even a difficult choice. It boggles the mind that it's one they seem incapable of making.

Unfortunately I fear the line liberal members would heed would be "This situation absolutely requires a really stupid and futile gesture be done on somebody's part." And they are just the guys to do it.