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White House Deploys 5-Person Team To Hill; Rahm, Four Others Meet With Senators

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OMB Director Peter Orzsag; Director of the Office of Health Care Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle; Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel

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White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel won't be alone today when he huddles with senators about health care, as Brian noted earlier.

The White House says he's part of a 5-person team leading the charge for meetings expected to last from 2:30 to 4:15 p.m. The focus is merging the bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee yesterday with the one passed earlier in the year by the Senate Health Education and Labor Committee.

A White House official told TPMDC Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called for the meeting.

"As we've said throughout this process, the White House stands ready to assist Leader Reid and Chairmen Baucus and Dodd in moving the reform effort forward. White House and HHS staff have regularly been present for legislative action so far, and they'll continue to play a similar advisory role," the official said.

The group of visitors after the jump.

Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff

Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office for Health Reform

Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget

Phil Schiliro, Director of Legislative Affairs

Shawn Maher, White House Senate Liaison

Emanuel is a bit of a tough guy when it comes to his former colleagues on the Hill and his interactions with Reid haven't always been pleasant. But Orszag and Schiliro have a lot of fans among the Democratic senate staffers, and the White House wanted the whole team on hand so both political and policy questions can be addressed at once.

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October 14, 2009 12:15 PM   

I bet the others are there to prevent Rahm from giving away the farm (the public option).

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October 14, 2009 11:15 PM   

The opposite: Rahm is the to prevent the others from too strongly expressing White House support for the things that Dodd wants that Baucus (and soon to be Snowe) want.

Rahm has been clear on this: all he gives a shit about is a "win". The quality of the bill matters not to him. Policy matters not to him. Politics do, and he thinks a "win" is the only Politics that matter.

I think a lot of us tend to think that Bad Policy will turn out to be Bad Politics for the Dems. But Rahm thinks we're all talking out of our ass.

It's pretty sad that after 2006 and 2008 proved Howard Dean's thinking on the Dem party was correct rather than the old Triangulators who dominated the Clinton White House and the Dem Braintrust from the mid-90s through the mid-00s, we're not stuck with the Triangulators running things. And not having a clue that they've already blown a chance for even more seats in the Senate in 2010, and are risking sizable losses instead.

John

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