September 17, 2009

9/17: Heckuva Job, Baucus

The liberal assault on Senate Finance Cmte Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) continues today. Not only are lefty bloggers slamming his proposed health care bill, but they're questioning his entire legislative strategy and his motives. Markos Moulitsas unloads on the senator: "Seeing him announce his stupid plan today all by his lonesome self, without a single other member for support, just highlighted how out-of-touch Baucus is with the rest of the Senate. In fact, after today, I'm convinced that Baucus is the biggest idiot in the entire Senate." Other lefty bloggers are accusing Baucus of significantly weakening the prospects for meaningful health care reform by allowing the GOP to delay the process for months. Steve Benen complains: "Baucus not only isn't being rewarded for his attempts at bipartisan outreach, his efforts have led to a landscape that's fundamentally worse for reform."

The silver lining for liberals? Some are speculating that Baucus's failure to win a single GOP vote -- in spite of his many concessions -- could ironically result in a more progressive bill. As digby explains: "If there is zero GOP support and reconciliation really is the only way to get a bill (assuming the Democrats still want one) the conservadems may have to face the fact that only the government can ensure the savings that everyone has been insisting upon."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• RedState editor Erick Erickson is accusing Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) of trying to "screw America" by meeting with Pres. Obama to pitch the alternative health care proposal he is co-sponsoring with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).
• Conservative bloggers (Goldfarb, Malkin, Allahpundit, Reynolds) are furious that Obama "will scrap former President George W. Bush's planned missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic and instead deploy a reconfigured system aimed more at intercepting shorter-range Iranian missiles." Liberal bloggers (Farley, Cole, Attaturk, Black) are defending Obama's decision and are mocking conservatives for making a fuss about it.
• As conservatives continue to hammer away on the antipoverty group ACORN, some righty bloggers (Erickson, Lewis) are criticizing Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) for not showing up when the Senate voted to cut off ACORN's federal housing grants. Meanwhile, liberal bloggers (Benen, Lewison) are mocking Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) for also not showing up to the ACORN vote, albeit for different reasons.
• Liberal bloggers (Cole, Kleiman, Aravosis, Benen) think GOPers are hypocrites for complaining about Obama's "czars," since "previous administrations, including George W. Bush's, also made heavy use of czars."

BAUCUS: Epic Fail.

Liberal bloggers are blasting Baucus:

• Oliver Willis: "Heck of a job on the waste of time and money, Max."
• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "The Baucus debacle: as bad as we thought it would be."
• Daily Kos' Moulitsas: "Baucus allowed the GOP to delay health care reform in a bullshit effort to find 'common ground'. Baucus was played, yet he ended up conceding much in exchange for zero. Seeing him announce his stupid plan today all by his lonesome self, without a single other member for support, just highlighted how out-of-touch Baucus is with the rest of the Senate. In fact, after today, I'm convinced that Baucus is the biggest idiot in the entire Senate. Stupider than even [OK Sen.] James Inhofe. Inhofe, at the very least, wouldn't let Democrats play him the way Baucus got played by the Republicans."
• Balloon Juice's John Cole: "Everyone hates the Baucus plan, which appears to be little more than an opportunity to revitalize the Republican party in the eyes of younger voters and the middle class. Basically, your options in American politics right now are evil and stupid (R) or spineless and stupid (D). You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie Baucus. On the upside, Humana, Wellpoint, and United Health group are getting a nice little boost in their stock price today. No one could have predicted..."
• The Washington Monthly's Benen: "[T]he level of support (or lack thereof) puts into doubt the utility of Baucus' entire strategy. The chairman expected his committee to approve a bill in June. Here we are in mid-September, and Baucus has very little to show for his efforts, except a framework he could have presented months ago. [...] What's more, Baucus accepted Republican delaying tactics, which led to the August recess, which gave the right the opportunity to trash the bill just as they'd planned. The plan, the president, and the party are all in a weaker position now. Baucus not only isn't being rewarded for his attempts at bipartisan outreach, his efforts have led to a landscape that's fundamentally worse for reform."
• Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias: "Heck of a job. [...] In addition to the substantive concessions Baucus made in order to get nothing, it's worth noting that Baucus made huge procedural concessions in order to get nothing. If he'd just stuck to the schedule, we would have been at this point in the process at a time when Barack Obama's approval rating was considerably higher."
• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "Considering the amount of money the insurance industry has given Baucus, it's rather obscene that he even has a role in this debate -- especially since President Obama promised us during the campaign that he was not going to let special interests and lobbyists craft his policies and legislation. Suddenly, a man bought off by the very industry we're trying to regulate has been appointed by the president as chief regulator."

Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan makes a point that liberal bloggers have been making for months: "Is there not a good argument to be made now that Obama, having failed to win any serious Republican support, should give his party what it wants: a public option or, at the very least, more generous subsidies for the middle classes this bill is designed to help? The worst outcome would be a bill that is largely unsupported on the left, reviled by the Beck right and yet too cheap to help the people it is trying to help. If the GOP insists on total opposition -- and it is -- Obama could consider responding by adjusting the bill to please its actual supporters. There is more to come on this long and winding road."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Get Your Weight Up, Not Your Hate Up

The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates explains why isn't rushing to defend ACORN in light of the recent revelations about the organization:

"In one of the recent open threads, someone was noting the difficulty of getting good help for community activism, in defense of ACORN. I think if we can't request that our allies not employ people who would aid and abet a prostitution scheme, if that's too onerous, than we are in trouble. I think it's very hard to defend, not simply the criminality of the ACORN workers in Baltimore (le sigh) and Washington, but their rank stupidity.

Conservative activists have been after ACORN for over a year now. [ACORN CEO] Bertha Lewis notes that activists tried the same stunt several times before they got a bite. In some people's eyes this is exonerating. In my eyes it's more damning. Lewis admits ACORN was aware of the setup, and yet her people still got caught. Twice.

I am willing to be wrong on this one, but it's very hard to see how that sort of sloppiness aids poor people or progressives. It's equally hard for me to be mad at [conservative activist] James O'Keefe. Dude is doing his job. We must do ours. Pointing out the dastardly tactics employed by our adversaries doesn't alter that reality."

LEST WE FORGET: Because I Broke A Pencil And Doubled My Output

From Overheard in the Office:

Analyst: Look, you said you broke two bones in your e-mail, but you actually just broke your arm.
Boss: Yes, I broke my bone... now I have two bones!
Analyst: No! You have two pieces of one bone now. Bones are treated as a whole. You're trying to get extra sympathy. If I break a pen in half, how many pens do I have?
Boss: Two!
Analyst: How are you my boss?

Posted by Ian Faerstein at September 17, 2009 12:57 PM