Couldn't she have just said:

I'm doing my best to squirm out of any commitment my constituents may want me to make. In other words, I don't really give a shit what you think. In short, FO&D!

Like I've said, Feinstein was a much better representative of the people before she was a member of the SF Board of Supervisors.

1. Public health insurance at a reasonable price.
2. No mandates.
3. No means testing.

Pass it on.

I usually make an effort to be more eloquent, but honestly, Feinstein doesn't deserve it.

This is more of DiFi's typical middle-of-the-road, no commitment blather. What about the public option, Diane? What about single-payer? More, what about representing your constituents, lady? It would make for a nice change of pace.

Can we please be rid of her now?

Could we also pin her down on what she means by "financial survival" of Medicare. Does that mean sticking a needle in your grandmother if it saves money or what?

Seriously, Fuck you, DiFi!

I was wondering..if there is a public option, why are we allowing Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare (maybe the VA Med system needs to stay alive?), etc to continue to exist? The abolition of Medicaid alone would save the states a ton, not to mention the savings from the elimination of service duplication.

If we have a public option, move everyone on state and federal healthcare to that. If its already free for you, it continues to be.

I don't understand whats so fucking hard about this?

Or is this a stupid idea?

Single payer does all that. Is DiFi for a single payer plan then?

She's not exactly leading the way for Americans. And this is a time when we need our Senators to act like leaders.

Lead or get out of the way, Senator Feinstein.

Her statement just barely meets the definition of due diligence. Maybe for an issue that wasn't as much of a crisis, like opening or closing a post office, or naming a library, this kind of generic carefully moderated statement would suffice.

But this issue is a crisis. Americans are dying every day or going bankrupt at an alarming rate.

And the best she can come up with is "I support reducing costs and expanding coverage"?

To be fair, she was definitive about moving to prohibit the denial of health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

But how can she not say anything about rescission?

Personally, I'm insulted by her statement. Maybe because I've learned so much about the issue that I feel she's either just not up to speed or just not up to the task of participating in an honest debate.

Feinstein will support any health care plan which is acceptable to her health insurance and pharmaceutical company donors.

every person i know can give you a horror story when it comes to their health insurance company,

this statement of hers is total BS.

she will never support a true public option because anyone who says a co-op is a good deal is signaling their corruption.

Also, ANY mandate will not work. How is anyone going to force the schizophrenic living on the street to buy insurance? Or the unemployed carpenter? Or the single mom working two jobs to support 3 kids? It's a stupid idea and it's hard to believe anyone could be so stupid as to think it would work. It's because they have never had to decide whether or not to buy good wheat bread instead of the cheapo white bread because you only have ten bucks to last until Friday. They never had to put $3 in the tank and save the other $2 for a quart of milk for the kids. They never had to choose between paying the car insurance and paying the gas bill to keep the heat on for another month in the middle of winter. They never had to roll pennies to buy groceries. I am not a hater but if I was I would have to say I hate them all, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. It's a damn disgrace that we can't get good health care for everyone in the richest nation in the history of civilization.

She is responsable, with the help of her little friend Boxer for the failure of Californis. Billions in Ethynol that cost more to produce ( 2 unit of oil for 1 unit of eythnol ) and it did not run well in combustion engines. Now tax on Diesel has has distroyed Cali.

Some "Centrist" Senate Democrats, unfortunately, do appear to be playing games with the language, hoping supporters of real reform will somehow be fooled. These Democrats forget that we just went nine rounds with the Bush administration in America. Due to the dense network of smoke and mirrors games that were afoot from 2000 to 2008, people who came of political age during the era are going to be harder to fool. Frank Luntz's "pick the right buzz word" strategy may not be as likely to hit the mark. The political brain circuitry changed at some point, and people have possibly learned to look behind the words.

Feinstein's comments on Sunday were strange. What was it she said again? Something like, "I don't think he has the votes right now." The votes for what? The plans are being kicked around and it's not time to vote yet, not even close. It has been made clear that "the vote" probably won't happen until fall. That means Senators Feinstein and Conrad have plenty of time this summer to actually get to work and come up with a plan that serves all Americans, not just those who have the money to show up at fundraisers with high-rolling Washington politicians. No, Feinstein seems to have gone on TV to throw ice water on this thing. It was apparently fun going on TV during the campaign and talking about reforming the system, and all, but now that Obama actually intends to follow up on it, all of a sudden we need about a hundred more years for "research."

Finally, in this thread, the Senator mentioned "expanding coverage." Sorry, but this is nowhere near specific enough.

As I've said to both the Cantwell campaign and the local media, the lack of commitment on this issue speaks volumes more than the commitment to the wrong plan.

I would love to see people take a hard stance on an alternative, much like how Obama chided the GOP to do earlier this year on the stimulus bill. Within the Democratic party, there seems to be a vacuum of both unified vision and varied viewpoints. What we have, sadly, is a party plan with a minority dissent. The public debate, which I'm sure the elected officials are trying to delay at all costs, would definitively benefit from a rollcall on various options. With only one solution in the chute, there's a community of supporters with a single view, but the community of dissenters fraying in several different directions.

The way to attack the issue is to stem the waffling at the top of the pyramids. Start with Reid and committee members, and follow the threads down to the junior senators.

Phone calls, people! Phone calls to senators and phone calls to local media to have senators on TV. Eventually, local media will note that the refusal of invitations to senators is a news story by itself.

In Praise of Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA)

Perhaps it's time we all take a deep breath, step back, and remember all of the great things Diane Feinstein has done for the nation, in general, and California, in particular, during her 24 illustrious years in the U.S. Senate, especially now that she's truly wise, august and powerful.

Here's my list:
1. (note to self: fill in after her death when history is rewritten by the MSM ala Reagan.)

OK, so I got crickets.

Still, it's just cruel for anyone (jzap) to suggest that she become governor of California at this point in time. In addition to a shortage of jobs, water, the endless-list, California could suffer an acute shortage of extra-hold, all-weather, helmet-in-a-can hairspray, potentially crippling Hollywood. Should Lady DiFi actually visit the state for more than 10 days running, rationing would no doubt ensue. The errant vapors released from her cases of Spray O' Wonder® alone could, conceivably, asphyxiate the entire state. (Thankfully, her taking office as governor would be delayed upon completion of a coiffure-related EPA Impact Report, which would take a few years. It's likely, however, that the FCC would fast-track a dispensation for her hair; DiFi's 'do does WiFi, you know. I understand it has to do with collection, analysis, transcription, routing to appropriate agencies, and such. In a nutshell, her 'do screws it up, slows it down, frustrates the user. It's DiFi.) Combined with her unnaturally innate ability to suck ... my gawd, what am I gonna do? Quit smoking? Move to Missouri? Go back to wearing my rubber Devo JFK Hair? It's too damn hot!!! ... God, I can't breathe! "Cool moss, cool moss." Oh damn, that's for firewalking. C-c-can't breathe.

Feinstein's statement deserves to get deconstructed up the ying-yang. Mostly, it's deceptive, shallow mush.

Except for the following, which is the worse kind of corporate whoredom:

Clearly, the individual mandate - and how it is funded - is the critical, and as yet unanswered, question.

Without a strong public option that any American can choose, a mandate to buy insurance is a pure increase for the demand for health care without any commensurate increase in supply: in effect the price of insurance rises, and the insurance rackets will simply pocket the profits. It turns what is currently a protected oligopoly in to an even better protected, even more profitable oligopoly. It's why the "reform" in Massachusetts has turned out to be such a clusterfuck.

The only way to prevent the insurance companies from doing exactly the same paper-pushing, health care denying shenanigans they currently do now is to build real competition into the system, where the competitor competes by giving better care, rather than competing on how effectively you can fuck the public. That doesn't mean warmed-over HMOs, which is what Conrad's "health care co-ops" really are. It means a plan that anyone can choose over a private plan, that will actually pay for health care people need, when they need it.

A private plan can compete, by actually giving real health care coverage, and by actually reimbursing doctors for needed care, rather than forcing doctors to hire two or three clerical people to try to ungame what the insurance companies currently game on physicians. It won't be as profitable as the current racket. But that's exactly the reason real competition is essential: competitive markets are just profitable enough to cover costs and a reasonable return. Any "health care" insurer that needs more than reasonable market returns should be forced out of the business, for the good of the public and for the good of health providers like doctors and hospitals.

The sad truth is that DiFi, like so many of her colleagues, is simply ill-suited to leadership. Her "response" is clear evidence that she lacks the personal courage to fight for those that she in theory represents.

More and BETTER Democrats.

Dianne Feinstein should divorce her husband and marry Ben Nelson.