{"id":4876,"date":"2009-10-26T18:50:40","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T01:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/?p=4876"},"modified":"2009-10-26T18:50:40","modified_gmt":"2009-10-27T01:50:40","slug":"stroking-senator-61s-deep-desires-and-failing-that-heading-back-to-senator-60s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/2009\/10\/26\/stroking-senator-61s-deep-desires-and-failing-that-heading-back-to-senator-60s\/","title":{"rendered":"Stroking Senator #61’s deep desires, and failing that heading back to Senator #60’s."},"content":{"rendered":"

After a while, these things appear to be a “moving through the motions” situation.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s something of a game for some of the 60 Democrats — jumping the hoops of the Insurance Companies, certainly, but also putting on a massive Ego Show for media attention.\u00c2\u00a0 So Harry Reid announces he has 58 Democrats down for the “public option” with state opt-out, all well and good but for the two hold-outs who are Ben Nelson and … quick who’s the other one?
\n… To answer this guy’s question, we don’t float all that much attention to Evan Bayh because there’s a lot of him, and he has to wait behind the others.\u00c2\u00a0 He had his day in the sun, and will again.\u00c2\u00a0 To quote Harry S Truman, “There are too many Byrds in the Congress<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Barack Obama called for the Trigger.\u00c2\u00a0 His theory is this will get him on over to Olympia Snowe’s magical Senator #61 Republican vote.\u00c2\u00a0 This will give vulnerable Democrats cover.\u00c2\u00a0 In theory, his campaign and whatever degree he’s spelled anything out for his Health Care fight would tend to have him personally favoring the Public Option with state opt out provision over this trigger mechanism.\u00c2\u00a0 In the end, we’ve had Harry Reid pull back from Senator #61 and back to Senator #60 — from Snowe over to Ben Nelson.\u00c2\u00a0 And I think what’s coming down the path this week is this “state opt in” — apparently the “opt out” is for the Senator #58.\u00c2\u00a0 And so the Republicans have left the building.\u00c2\u00a0 And Blanche Lincoln is laid bare.<\/p>\n

This is a love for a weird process oriented effect, process trumping content for Obama.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve had a devil of the time understanding why such a thing matters for the President.\u00c2\u00a0 Is he looking ahead to fewer than 60 Democrats after November?\u00c2\u00a0 Leave aside the “shouldn’t it take 50 Senators and Biden to pass something? question, and I guess that question falls by the wayside because it’s what gives Ben Nelson his power.\u00c2\u00a0 How is a vote from Olympia Snowe supposed to give Blanche Lincoln cover?<\/p>\n

So the Republican Party of Arkansas is giddy as they stare at Lincoln’s low ratings.\u00c2\u00a0 They clap and rub their hands together in glee, as they watch their masterwork campaign attack commercial.<\/p>\n

“Blanche Lincoln voted for Commie Socialist Government Health Care.”<\/p>\n

And so Blanche Lincoln has two possible courses, depending on the vote of Olympia Snowe.\u00c2\u00a0 The favored course would have a Snowe vote.<\/p>\n

“Blanche Lincoln teamed up with Republican\u00c2\u00a0 Olympia Snowe for common sense Health Care Reform.\u00c2\u00a0 Blanche Lincoln: Bi-Partisan Common Sense.”<\/p>\n

Is that message supposed to mean something?\u00c2\u00a0 Or are we fearing this alternative.\u00c2\u00a0 Go to Blanche Lincoln headquarters.\u00c2\u00a0 They look at the “Commie Socialist Government” ad.\u00c2\u00a0 They look at each other around the room for a response ad idea.\u00c2\u00a0 And they all go blank.<\/p>\n

“Drat.”\u00c2\u00a0 They tell Blanche Lincoln.\u00c2\u00a0 “We’ve got nothing.”<\/p>\n

Is how this game is supposed to be playing out?\u00c2\u00a0 If you say so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a while, these things appear to be a “moving through the motions” situation.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s something of a game for some of the 60 Democrats — jumping the hoops of the Insurance Companies, certainly, but also putting on a massive Ego Show for media attention.\u00c2\u00a0 So Harry Reid announces he has 58 Democrats down for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4877,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4876\/revisions\/4877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}