The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Prez to Joe and Ben: They call me "No Drama", but I wrote this little comedy just for you..."

    By jollyroger on Fri, 12/18/2009 - 6:18pm |

    Secure in the knowledge that dogs cannot get the internet from their mangers (pace Jacob Hacker), consider the following scenario:

    If Prez intended all along to use reconciliation for this bill, (knowing that the search for 60 senate votes is a the pursuit of mirage dooming him to the serial humiliations we are seeing) would he not have behaved in just such a feckless fashion as is currently giving the left the worse case of agita since Caligula tried to “ride” that reluctant horse.?..

    Bear in mind that the “reconciliation” referenced in the strongarm process, is the reconciliation of house and senate budgetary provisions and that the “reconciliation fix” does not go in until the conference committees are appointed; seeing the fiscal catastrophe that this bill is on its face ,may we not, without being accused of irredeemable pony-chasing, think through the “public face” of the process thusly?

    Were one contemplating a coup de legislation;, as it were, in conference, coupled with use of the already in place reconciliation instructions to carry the coup forward, the last thing you would do is tell your herd-o-cat senators about it. All you want is any crappy bill that can go to conference.

    The Conference Committee could, after all, report back single payer with a $500.00 bonus for each woman choosing an insurance plan covering abortions and a provision that insurance company executives would have to flog Joe Lieberman’s flabby naked ass at the Folsom Street Fair to keep their jobs.

    In other words, anything goes.

    Nancy P. can easily make the case that her caucus demands blah blah blah—she’s safe (even I am not gonna vote for Cindy Sheehan next time.)

    The “tell” will be in the designaion of Senate and House Democrats who go to the conference.

    If Nelson and Lieberman and Baucus are not conferees but Feiingold is; if Stupak is not but Waters, Grijalvo and Stark are, then it may turn out that Prez ain’t such a hopeless punk after all..

    Comments

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    Good take, my dear; I've been thinking they couldn't signal any...moves, tipping their/her hats. But there might not be the sixty, anyway. I just saw the Repubs are demanding the entire bill be read aloud, a veritable Night Before Christmas saga.
    Love to ya, jolly. And about that depilatory cream...
    Posted by wendy davis
    December 18, 2009 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink


    they couldn't signal any...moves,

    arguasbly (here comes the pony...) the likelihood of a sudden reversal of tactics from cloture to reconciliation rules is proportional to the crappiness of the bill Prez pretends to present his willingness to have inserted (appropriately) sans k-y.
    Posted by jollyroger in reply to a comment from wendy davis
    December 18, 2009 10:18 PM | Reply | Permalink


    I love your idea, but with Rahm there, I doubt that is the strategy.

    I suggested elsewhere that they could pass this bill as is, and later on, through Reconciliation, add the Medicaire Buy-In. According to Dean it is something that would fall under the reconciliation umbrella. That is another possibility.
    Posted by CVille Dem in reply to a comment from jollyroger
    December 19, 2009 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink


    another possibility

    I welcome any framing that can explain what otherwise (if we are to take the situation at face value) suggests these guys would fuck up a student council election--and that is not Prez and Rahm, so what to think?
    Posted by jollyroger in reply to a comment from CVille Dem
    December 19, 2009 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink


    depilatory cream...

    Baby says "no".

    Love back at ya--I just can't square the 10.5 on a 10 point doofus scale that you would have to score to have come at it the way it is ostensibly. And neither Prez nor Rahm is a doofus.

    Indeed, one might be forgiven for hypothesizing that whatever the public face, it of necessity must be a facade.
    Posted by jollyroger
    December 18, 2009 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink


    depilatory cream...

    Waxing is a whole lot more fun and it doesn't hurt one single bit!

    [Fingers crossed behind back]
    Posted by CVille Dem in reply to a comment from jollyroger
    December 19, 2009 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink


    yes she can and I am banking on grandma Pelosi, my heroine. She is the best chance for something I would like.

    If you think about it, Pelosi is a dem WHO KNOWS WHAT THE FRICK SHE IS DOING.

    Strange in this day and age.

    LET US PRAY.
    Posted by dickday
    December 19, 2009 12:33 AM | Reply | Permalink


    my heroine

    Well, I did vote for Cindy, and Nancy would be more heroic if she cut off war funds except to fund the outbound plane, but, she's ok for what we usually get, and San Francisco says, you are welcome.
    Posted by jollyroger in reply to a comment from dickday
    December 19, 2009 2:18 AM | Reply | Permalink


    So Jols, are you saying we may see some college football instead of all this Olympic wrestling?

    I hope so.
    Posted by erica
    December 19, 2009 1:24 AM | Reply | Permalink


    Olympic wrestling

    Maybe more like WWE--ask Destor, our resident expert, who the "bad cop" persona is so we can get a mask for Dean...
    Posted by jollyroger in reply to a comment from erica
    December 19, 2009 2:12 AM | Reply | Permalink


    They got the 60 now; Cornshucker Ben just signaled he got what he wanted. Zero abortions and FEWER people covered??
    Let's hope conference can jettison the mandate, expand the public option (Pubic, as many of the Tea Party signs say) and expand SCHIP, not eradicate it.
    And then we'll getcha some new stripper threads.
    Posted by wendy davis
    December 19, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink


    as many of the Tea Party signs say

    And here, all along, I thought I was the pubic option...
    Posted by jollyroger in reply to a comment from wendy davis
    December 19, 2009 8:17 PM | Reply | Permalink


    McCain just announced once again that he was halting his bid for president to come over to the Senate Floor to straighten this mess out...Whew!
    Posted by Jeronimo Dan
    December 19, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink


    Well, we can all breathe easier now. Just one question; is he going to straighten out Health Care like he straightened out the Economy?

    Just askin'
    Posted by CVille Dem in reply to a comment from Jeronimo Dan
    December 19, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink



    He was likely confused by Dean attacking Prez, and figured we must be back before the primaries...
    Posted by jollyroger in reply to a comment from CVille Dem


    by jollyroger on Sat, 02/11/2012 - 4:04am

    Ah Good people, and good times. When hope was still alive, even if growing tarnished by the hour.

    Now look at us.  Refugees from our own cafe, surrounded by a scorched earth where hope is but a dream.  The world still a playground of the unaccountable, whether Torture, War, Mortgage Fraud, Bank Bonuses, etc.  The numerical gap between the interest rates the top earn and the ones everybody else pays growing ever faster.  

    So my friend, the campaign has started in earnest today. 3-D chess? The beginning a populist anti-rich revolt that returns our speaker, the only Dem with balls along with a team to fight with?

    Are we witnessing a four year rope-a-dope?

    Or more of the same?

    Gitmo bodes ill. Patriot act has been solidified. But who cares about the exotic brown folks anyway, they are used to getting screwed. Besides we are moving out, slowly but moving.  But I still want my public option. And get rid of that SS cap. 

    What say you? 


    by Saladin on Sat, 02/11/2012 - 5:54am

    Well, on the positive side, I understand that Josh is adding, like two people a week to the payroll.

     

    We certainly do not appear to be reaping the geopolitical improvements to be expected from an utter collapse of capitalism followed shortly by the election of one who in his youth ate the bitter fruit of the stamped food...


    by jollyroger on Sat, 02/11/2012 - 11:33pm