Durbin: Obama Will Have To Take Lead During August
Democratic Senate Whip Dick Durbin says Obama will have to take the lead to keep support for health care reform afloat during August.
"The president is in the driver's seat in August," Durbin told reporters today. "Congress is gone and scattered to the winds with personal family and constituent service. And the White House is still there, generating a message and activity. So I think the president will have a chance to tell the American people a little bit more about why this process is so important."
For its part, Obama's political arm, Organizing for America, is raising money from its supporters to sustain its campaign for health care reform through a fraught recess. That'll surely help local organizing events and message distribution, but it still leaves a major role for Obama himself.
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Matt
Eric
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OT (kinda) Repug Mike Enzi just issued a statement demanding that whatever comes out of the Senate Finance committee remain in the conference bill and the bill Obama signs.
In other words, give a few republican assholes veto power over Congress and the President.
July 29, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds to me like they are concerned that Reid and Pelosi won't appoint any Blue Dogs to the reconciliation committee. Then the committee could ignore any Republicans in the room, pick up the public option for the reconciled bill, and get that passed and signed.
I hope. That's not a strategy that Obama, Reid or Pelosi would ever telegraph before it was accomplished.
July 29, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a fan of Dick Durbin, but right now, my reaction to this is a big FU. Democrats in the Senate (Harr Reid comes immediately to mind) lectured us from 2006 - 2008 that their hands were tied because they had such a slim majority.
Now that there are 60 of them, Harry Reid tells us his hands are tied because he doesn't really have 60 votes. He also told us famously that "I don't work for President Obama", and yet when the Democrats slapped down the budget for closing Guatanamo that a Democratic president proposed, Reid blamed Obama for not providing enough leadership.
These comments sound like Durbin's laying the groundwork for excuses, should health-care reform fail: Obama didn't do enough, rather than "We royally fucked this up by delaying it and kowtowing to Republicans".
Durbin's a good guy, but these comments are offensive. And the Democrats need to start accomplishing things, rather than blaming the Republicans and the President when they can't get a goddamn thing done properly.
July 29, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did you read the entire story? It's not offensive at all. Durbin was basically saying that the president will have the stage to himself in August and he can drive the message.
July 29, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
The link is broken.
I don't have a problemm with the simple observation that Obama is going to be the only game in town.
My problem is the possibility that if health reform goes nowhere, Dems will blame it on Obama and this upcoming month, when, in reality, it's the Dems in the Senate (and House, to a lesser extent) who have done the most damage to the cause.
Obama's approval ratings are dropping, fast, and he's eventually going to run out of political capital. It's too bad he's going to have to expend so much because of the feckless Democrats in the Senate.
July 29, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
CTV -- Unfortunately, Obama is not going to be in town, as the single voice. The Obamas have rented a place on the Vineyard for some unspecified part of August. So what does this statement mean from Durbin, who surely knows that? It sounds as though he is already setting up Obama to take, rather than share the blame, or at least issuing a thinly-veiled warning, effectively putting Obama on notice that: "All of us can take vacation for a month, but this serious issue is in your hands so I guess you better stay in town, (even though we won't do it)."
July 29, 2009 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's only going for a week--the last week in August. Unlike our previous president.
So it may not be too bad, but I tend to agree with you: the Dems are getting ready to foist this off on Obama.
July 30, 2009 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or is it really Durbin's politic way of saying, "Obama can use August to get over the 'bipartisanship' load of crap"?
July 29, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama: Durbin Needs to Grow Balls During August.
July 29, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Durbin's just stating the obvious. Congress is gone so Obama has the microphone. Obama is a great speech-ifier so having him the sole national mouthpiece strikes me as a great plan.
July 29, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeppers!
July 29, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd actually rather like to see this advice followed. Nate Silver has an interesting post arguing that the Democrats have not done a very good job explaining or advocating their plan to the public. It seems like now that there is no longer the worry of stepping on internal Senate negotiations, now is the time for Obama and the grassroots to step forward and make it clear, this is what the plan is, this is why it's a good thing (in some ways the monthlong time-out is actually a good thing, because it's the perfect time to campaign). And if this happens in a clear public way, and the public does decide over the next month that the Democratic plan is what they want, it will make it a lot harder for the broken Finance bill to get a foothold...
July 29, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Those are mighty big ifs.
July 29, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Democracy Corps article is a good read and spot on.
http://www.democracycorps.com/strategy/2009/06/creating-a-sustainable-majority-for-health-care-reform/?section=Analysis
Now is the time for Obama to take to the airwaves and clearly sell his plan.
July 29, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we underestimate the tactical difficulties Obama faces, because he can't defend or advocate for a "plan" that doesn't yet exist. At the moment, there are, what, 3 or 4 House plans and at least 2 Senate plans, one of which (Finance) isn't even public yet? Each of them says something else.
How can Obama make a coherent statement about a "plan"?
Realistically, what the Dems are probably planning is what Richardxx said earlier: the Dems in the House and Senate will pass two bills, no matter what they look like, and will create the health care bill in Conference. Then, if necessary, they'll invoke reconciliation and pass it by 51 votes in the Senate. If that's the plan, the decision by the Blue Dogs to let the bill out of Energy and Finance in September is good news.
The process is really painful to watch, and it allows the Repubs to nibble away at confidence by 1) attacking portions of a bill that are not likely to be in the final anyway, and 2) when that fails, make it up.
July 30, 2009 8:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's hope they have left Obama a real plan to sell in August. He shouldn't be out there selling it if it's not real reform. BTW, fuck the repukes and blue dogs demands!
July 29, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't leave Baucus out of the list of who needs to be fucked.
July 29, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Fucked" is such an ugly-sounding and ill-defined term. How about "sodomized with the unlubricated barrel-end of a Louisville Slugger"? It makes one sound much more civil in conversation, and has the added benefit of being far less ambiguous in its meaning. ;-)
July 29, 2009 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds good!
July 29, 2009 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is not going to have the stage alone.
The insurance industry wanted this thing hanging fire over August precisely so they could have that time to unleash their astroturf fearmongering campaigns and blast scary commercials (look for lots of black backgrounds, scary sentence fragments over vaguely disturbing images and melodramatic, anxiety producing music) into cable markets where there are vulnerable Democrats.
They have their shit together. Their campaign is coordinated, focus-grouped and managed by the finest sociopathic P.R. people money can buy. Fox will be instantly repeating whatever outrageous insane lies get traction, thereby giving them legitimacy and, as soon as a lie gets traction in the polls, CNN and MSNBC will be along to report the "controversy." ("Will healthcare reform really require white women to have forced late term abortions? Here to discuss the growing controversy is an unknown, untelegenic Democrat with a speech impediment, Senators Jim DeMint and John Kyle and a blow-dried flack from The Campaign to Preserve All That is Good and Decent.")
Meanwhile, our side is thinking Obama can save us from the coming shitstorm by his lonesome.
Christ, people, I know times are tough, but pick a group--Organizing for America, SIEU, AARP, Move On, whoever--and give them some money. If your congressman isn't either a completely safe vote or a complete lost cause like mine is, write them and email them. If you're so inclined, write letters to the editor of your local paper--which is, of course, where old people get their news--to counter the ones that the insurance company astroturf shills are writing.
If we don't fight like crazy thorughout August, we're going to end up with Baucuscare or, worse, nothing at all.
July 29, 2009 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scrap the whole thing. If this is not going to address the the original problem don't fix it.
Kit Bond says everybody will have to endure some pain with this bill. Why cause everybody pain and not bring about a solution to the problem(s) needed to be solved? A bunch of clever little feelgood band aids are not a cure for arterial hemorrhage.
All of Washington needs to go home and grow some
cojones and learn som problem solving skills. Then maybe they return and enact some meaningful legislation.
July 30, 2009 9:49 AM | Reply | Permalink