White House Pressures Reid To Cut A Deal With Lieberman

Lieberman isn't going to stick to a deal under any circumstances. This is just stupid.

When asked: "If a Democratic member of Congress votes against a public health insurance option, would you want a more progressive candidate to run against them in a Democratic primary?" 84 percent of respondents said "yes," 11 percent said "no," and 5 percent said they weren't sure.

Maybe Obama really does want to only be a one-term President and his party loses control of Congress.

This is the only thing I can think of by appeasing Lieberman who angers the base.

This whole thing is starting to get me feeling trollish.

Do we have to lose another couple of elections to teach so-called Democrats to stand up?

Do we need 4-8 years of Senate Majority Leader DeMint and President Palin to teach the party to stop f*in around?

Send Lieberman back to the GOP caucus and make them own HCR failure. Jeebus.

WHAT DID I WASTE MY MONEY AND EFFORT FOR IN THE LAST ELECTION!? FOR THIS?? NOOO!!!

Sorry for the vent. I feel slightly better now.

Evidently President Obama's seven years worth of Ivy League education didn't give him good political instincts. Dealing with Lieberman is simply going to drive this thing right over the cliff. Even if they can find something he agrees on and will stick by, it's going to be so far to the right that it won't be reconcilliable with the House bill, in which case this will die anyway.

Josh Marshall is right. It's time to cut bait with Lieberman and either go the reconciliation, nuclear option or Olympia Snowe routes. Dealing with Snowe presents its own problems, but at least she's been consistent.

We have a "key aide" confirming something (unnamed, of course), and then this:

Spokesman Dan Pfeiffer tells TPMDC, "The report is inaccurate. The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible."

But then Gibbs, according to TPM reporting, is "less responsive".

Sigh.

Bye.

Is the "keyed in aide" Politico's source or TPM's source? Because Politico has as much credibility as Glenn Beck.

If this is true, then 1) what's Reid got to offer that will keep Lieberman's vote for certain; 2) just how bad a bill will Obama tolerate to have the ability to claim that HCR is now "Mission Accomplished"?

123 die today!

note Pfeiffer calls it "inaccurate" and not false

Don't they get it - even now? LIEberman wants to KILL health care reform. THAT is his goal. THAT is the Republican goal. To act as if killing medicare expansion would satisfy him is so completely naive. He'll just find something else that has to be cut if that would pass. There's never been any logic to his opposition. The only logic at play here is that if he can finally make the bill completely unacceptable to progressives like Bernie Sanders, that's how he will kill it instead. And to see how he's completely hoodwinked Obama is just so telling. Though it's nothing that the banks haven't already done. Obama is so smart, but unfortunately, he's just so gullible.

Sounds to me like BO and JL are playing good cop/bad cop with us all.

You can tell by all the BO trolls telling us how wonderful incremental changes is going to be, especially since this is the best we could hope for with a 60-vote majority in the Senate, a majority in the House, and a Democrat in the White House.

It's become clear to me that the only way we're going to get univeral health care is through a dictatorship, since Democracy/Plutocracy is clearly unable to deliver it.

I am absolutely flabbergasted by the White House's approach to just about every political reform they have tepidly nudged along. I will continue to pull the lever year in, year out, but they will lose millions and millions of voters for years and years to come with such irresponsibly cynical action. The Virginia governer's race was a clear case of a grossly disproportionate mass of Obama's electorate staying home, as the democratic candidate slobbered after the archetypical white male voter. Obama engaged a new, a younger, more diverse, more representative slice of America in 2008. I think that it would be fair to say that he is turning those 18-24 year olds off politics for a decade at least. He capitulated the day he won the election. He decided that it was a high risk, high reward bet to endeavor to repeat the 2008 turnout on the left, and thus chose the road well traveled by veering far to the center, and following in Clinton's footsteps. Basically, you realize that in our plutocracy, the choice at the polls is for the status quo or radical right-wing reform... It is hard to get excited about that unless you are a zealous right wing bigot.
More frustration vented....

I never cut a deal with Lieberman, but I know that he was always hanging around wanting to cut a deal with me.

Wouldn't it be possible to get HCR passed with everything but the Medicare buy-in with 60 votes (59 Dems + Snowe) and then do the medicare buy-in through reconciliation? I understand the fear that measures passed through reconciliation last only 5 years. But what politician -- left, right, or center -- is going revoke a buy-in for people aged 55-64 in 5 year"s time when such a program is likely to be very popular? That would be lack raising the eligible age for Medicare up to 70. It ain't going to happen It would be political suicide.

Joe of course should be stripped of his chairmanship as soon as this is done.

This story has Rahm Emanuel written all over it. I mean, how much more can this white house compromise? The public option has been stripped and replaced with a bs medicare buy-in without a Medicaid expasion provision. I'm so pissed, I just feel like throwing a statue at Liberman, Obama and Rahm's mouths...oops!

I think Obama has done stupid things before, but I never before thought he was actually stupid until now. Lieberman is not actually interested in a deal, he is interested in fucking with the process. I guess it goes back to Obama kneeling before Joe in his first years in the Senate so he has blinders when it comes to his former mentor.

Time for the 'Berlusconi' solution to Mr. Lieberman's utterances.

At this point, I would have absolutely no problem with a fight breaking out on the Senate floor. At least it would show some fire. I'd PPV to see Lieberman stuck in the face.

Brian B. and TPM...can you please stop citing Politico as a sole source for any insider DC info? Politico has proven again and again that there slant is pro-republican and unreliable. Multiple sources, fine...Politico only, no.
As an aside, the health care reform debate is so fluid that quoting anonymous aides is especially unreliable and is not indicative of solid information.

Is Harry Reid openly wearing a Freemason lapel pin? Check out the pic on the main page.

This may not be as bad as it sounds. Scrap Medicare and the public option but pass the other 80% everyone agrees on - no more pre-existing conditions rescission, use 90% of revenue on health care, end the immunity from monopolistic practices (is that in there?), etc. Get these all passed and then use reconciliation to handle the Medicare buy-in or public option. Because you can't get all these other things in reconciliation. Right? Just thinking out loud.

This is Politico's description of their source for this story: "according to an official close to the negotiations." Which would cover even a secretary in Lieberman's office, I suppose.

I wish Beutler would explain precisely what he means by saying "As Politico first reported, . . . , a keyed in aide confirms." Aide? to whom? Confirms? to Politico or TPM?

This is a guaranteed-to-make-the-left-go-crazy story. And maybe it's true, in which case going crazy seems a pretty inevitable reaction. But remember from the campaign? really "hot" stories like "top Obama aide tells Canadian ambassador not to take Obama's statements re: NAFTA seriously"? .... when, once you probed and all the facts came it, it was nothing of the sort? So I'd like to know a bit more about the source (or were there sources - plural?) for this.

Apparently there are accepted and understood code words when it comes to sources: "WH official" means a certain level of person, and "someone close to the administration" means some other general category. So -- what does "official close to the negotiations" or "keyed-in aide" imply?

Well a few months ago, everyone was up in arms because the WH wanted to work with Snowe and compromsie on her trigger. With hindsight, that seems preferable to dealing with this snake in the grass liar. Go back to Snowe, or go with reconciliation. You can even spin off the PO as a seperate bill and just reconcile that.

Proof, once again (not that any was needed), that the White HOuse cares far more about claiming "victory" than seeing a decent bill pass.

Surprise, surprise Joe Lieberman is a problem.

The Bill could be put on one sheet of paper. Give the American People the same health care that Congress has. Do away with the part of being fined and jailed for not being able to afford Health Care.

Strip Old Joe of his chairmanships. Let the public know that he is in the back pocket of big insurance and he's a bought and paid for guy and not in least in it for his constituencies, it's all about Old Joe.

Have no pork in the bill at all and I mean no pork period.

If this can't be done, then walk away and don't look back. Do this and Old Joe won't be around after his next election run.

Cutting a deal with LIEberman is WORSE than cutting a deal with the devil. Because you not only lose the soul of real health care reform - Democrats will also loose the Congress after they foist this costly insurance company bailout on the public.

"The White House denies the charge. Spokesman Dan Pfeiffer tells TPMDC, "The report is inaccurate. The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible."

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was less responsive. "The President is anxious to see progress and will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans"

What about those above statements don't anyone of you understand? Politico has an agenda and apparently so does TPM. The internet is getting as bad as the MSM with the bullshit stories.

I'm bitterly disappointed that a deal has to be cut, but that's the reality. I think it would be wiser to cut a deal with Snowe than Lieberman. Lieberman is a snake in the grass. He needs to be made as irrelevant as possible.

What happened to Chicago style politics? We have some really creepy Senators that need to be arm twisted.