With support for the [excise] tax eroding, Congressional leaders are searching for alternative sources of revenue. [. . . L]abor leaders have backed away from the [exise tax compromise] in the wake of the special Senate election in Massachusetts. “I do not believe there will be an excise tax enacted,” said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America. [. . .]

[More...]

The letter:

Dear Leader Reid:

We respectfully ask that you bring for a vote before the full Senate a public health insurance option under budget reconciliation rules.

. . . . Although we strongly support the important reforms made by the Senate-passed health reform package, including a strong public option would improve both its substance and the public’s perception of it. The Senate has an obligation to reform our unworkable health insurance market -- both to reduce costs and to give consumers more choices. A strong public option is the best way to deliver on both of these goals, and we urge its consideration under reconciliation rules.

Respectfully,

Michael Bennet (D-CO), U.S. Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), U.S. Senator
Jeff Merkley (D-OR), U.S. Senator
Sherrod Brown (D-OH), U.S. Senator

On Saturday I wrote about Chris Bartkowicz, a medical marijuana grower who, believing he was in compliance with Colorado law, showed his grow to a local news station doing a story on marijuana cultivation in the Denver suburbs, and was promptly busted by the DEA.

The case has caused a big stir, mostly because of DEA Agent Jeffrey Sweetin's initial comments that contradict the Department of Justice memorandum (pdf)issued by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden in October, implementing a DOJ policy change that was widely heralded around the country. Sweetin on Friday night said:

Nothing in federal law has changed. Wanting federal law to be different is not a great strategy....We will continue to enforce federal law, that's what we're paid to do, until the federal law changes.The only exception to that is discretion and department guidance."

Scott Horton writes:

What prosecutor can look away when a perpetrator mocks the law itself and revels in his role in violating it? Such cases cry out for prosecution. Dick Cheney wants to be prosecuted. And prosecutors should give him what he wants.

No he doesn't. Glenn Greenwald gets it right:

In general, people who commit felonies avoid publicly confessing to having done so, and they especially avoid mocking the authorities who fail to act.[But Cheney has] gradually escalated his boasting about having done so throughout the year. Why? Because he knows that [. . .] he will never be prosecuted no matter how blatantly he admits to these serious crimes. [. . .] Does anyone doubt that Cheney's assessment is right? And isn't that, rather obviously, a monumental indictment of most everything?

Matt Yglesias writes:

[O]ne of the big problems we have in American government is that politicians vastly overrate the importance of “positioning” and basically meaningless gambits. What the truth about the close linkages between economic performance and political outcomes reveal is that smart politicians should try harder to govern effectively by enacting policies that lead to broadly shares prosperity. The belief that you can just kind of much around for years and then turn things around with a clever speech or single well-honed micro-initiative is what leads to a pernicious level of passivity.

Precisely

I've got lots to do at work after the long holiday weekend. For those of you online, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I have not even offered a comment on Evan Bayh today because I really don't care that he is retiring. I suppose you could make an argument that things will be a little worse in the Senate if a Republican wins his seat but honestly, how much worse can it really get? It's simply not that big a deal.

But I finally found something about the story that piqued my interest - Matt Yglesias points to this hilarious Charles Lane post. Lane writes:

Bayh [. . .] can now crawl away from the political wreckage for a couple of years, plausibly alleging that he tried to steer the party in a different direction — and then be perfectly positioned to mount a centrist primary challenge to Obama in 2012[.]

(Emphasis supplied.) That is damned funny. A centrist primary challenge. Who knew that Lane was such a kidder.

Speaking for me only

The Bachelor or the Olympics tonight? For me, it's the Bachelor. While everyone already knows who goes home and who Jake picks, the show is worth watching for St. Lucia alone. Between the scenery and the outstanding hotels (Cap Maison tonight, Jade Mountain for the finale on March 1), it will be fun to watch. And no, Ali's not coming back.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Spain, which already agreed to accept two Guantanamo detainees, has agreed to take another three who have been cleared for release.

There are 192 detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay. Approximately 110 have been cleared for resettlement in a third country or for repatriation.

So that leaves 82 detainees not cleared for release: 5 of them are the 9/11 defendants and 5 have been designated for military tribunals. 72 of them are unlikely to be charged at all. We just don't like the idea of letting them go.

For 82 detainees, we are going to spend $237 million to retrofit Thomson or $100 million a year to continue to operate Guantanamo? [More...]

Who put Linsday Graham in charge of the Justice Department? Now Graham's insisting on a law authorizing indefinite military detention as a pre-requisite to closing Guantanamo.

While Graham has long favored closing Guantanamo, he said Monday that his support for doing so is contingent on a new law to govern the detention of those the government wants to keep in custody outside the criminal justice system. He also said that, with such a statute in place, he could support Obama’s plan to convert a state prison in Illinois to a federal facility for former Guantanamo inmates.

“I think Thomson, Ill., in the hands of the military, could become a secure location,” he said. “My view is we can start to close Guantanamo only after we reform our laws.”

Marcy says Rahm Emanuel put him in charge.

Back in 2003, Lindsay Graham joined John McCain in asking then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to either try or free the detainees at Guantanamo. Per the New York Times back then: [More...]

I took it easy on myself in my Is That All There Is? post yesterday. Digby, recounting essentially the same story, is a little harder on herself:

I feel ridiculous for having written that. Not because it was a fairly correct analysis of the dynamic. Anyone could have seen that. What's embarrassing is the fact that I seemed so sure that the Democrats would change it. What a foolish miscalculation that was. Less than four years later, the "empty vessel of establishment bipartisan wishful thinking" is president. And my empty vessel of partisan wishful thinking -- the Democratic party --- is running for the hills.

The reality is Digby and I were more than a little hopey changey. Perhaps for different reasons than other folks, but just as naive in our own way. In related news, the 11 Dimensional Chess Brigade is back in full force. Good luck with that folks.

Speaking for me only

One would hope that this ends the ridiculous debate regarding whether the House should "Pass The Damn [Stand Alone Senate health] Bill" (They never could BTW.) Ezra Klein reports:

I spoke to the White House over the weekend and they indicated that the president's package will not be a new White House plan, but a compromise between the House and Senate bills. That is to say, the White House expects that the House and Senate will have a compromise plan by February 25th.

That ends the whole "Pass The Bill" thing. It's Sidecar Reconciliation now.

Speaking for me only