I was on a call with Senator Arlen Specter today and I asked him if the Senate did not invoke cloture for a health care reform bill with a public option, would he support the use of reconciliation for passage of budget germane items while leaving non-budget germane items for passage through regular order.

Senator Specter stated that while he did not think it would come to that he would, "as a last, last, last resort," support the use of reconciliation for passage of health care reform with a public option.

Other matters were covered, in particular regarding the Supreme Court. I will write a detailed post on that later.

Via Greg Sargent, Sherrod Brown puts it on Obama:

I hope the president speaks out strongly for the public option — this health care bill really becomes his at this point,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of about 30 Democrats who have pressured Reid to back the controversial option.

Wonder if the White House gets that the Bystander strategy no longer will work.

Speaking for me only

In a way, this is good news:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill. [. . .] "I've told Sen. Reid that if the bill stays as it is now I will vote against cloture,” he said.[. . .] “I feel this way about a national, government-created health insurance company – whether it’s a trigger or not,” he said.“

(Emphasis supplied.) Since Lieberman is there, then Lincoln, Landreiu and Ben Nelson will go there too. No health care reform through normal procedure. Notice especially Lieberman says he will filibuster even Snowe's Trigger (so much for Rahmbo's grand deal with the Princess from Maine.) Reconciliation it is.

Oh by the way, that means we go back to the ROBUST public option with NO opt out. That's the good news.

Update, as mcjoan notes, time to return to the Schumer Plan.

Speaking for me only

Digby speculates about the Opt In:

Howie Klein and I both speculated yesterday about whether Reid would end up substituting Opt-in for Opt-out if push came to shove. It's sounds silly, but I could see it happening. Cloture vote fails, Reid comes right back with Opt-in as the substitute and gets Nelson and Lincoln --- maybe even Snowe as a late conversion. The problem being that Opt-In is unworkable and basically kills the public option.

I think Reid can not do that politically. It would basically end his chances for reelection (the unions are critical for Reid.) But more than that, the words "opt in" sound like "opt out," but unlike the Federalist Public Option, which actually creates a national plan that states can later opt out of, an opt in national plan is uncreatable. A national plan must first exist to opt in to. "Opt In Public Option" makes for a nice sounding phrase, but you simply can not create legislation to bring it into existence - no person in the program means no program. Opt In is simply a trigger proposal with a new name. It is a non-starter and makes no sense. Indeed, I would like to see the proposed legislation for "creating" an opt in national plan. Can't be done. A trigger by any other name is still a trigger. And that ship needs to be burned now.

Speaking for me only

Good news for Ben Kuehne and the defense bar today. The 11th Circuit has upheld the trial court's dismissal of a money laundering charge against prominent defense attorney Ben Kuehne. (Background here.) The opinion is here. The SDFla Blog has more here.

The issue was the the meaning of the exemption in § 1957(f)(1), whose plain language excludes from the statute’s scope “any transaction necessary to preserve a person’s right to representation as guaranteed by the sixth amendment to the Constitution.” Both sides agreed the funds in question were used to pay attorneys' fees. [More...]

The once No Drama Obama team is in tatters. The lack of message discipline is appalling. HuffPo watches Chuck Todd so we do not have to:

The administration told Reid, "You're the vote counter. But don't come crying to us when you need that last vote," according to NBC News' Chuck Todd.

People who did not pay attention during the 2008 primaries may not know that Chuck Todd, one of NBC White House correspondents, was then practically a member of the Obama campaign team. I have no doubt that someone (Rahmbo! (Cough!) Messina! (Cough!)) in the White House said that to Todd. What is interesting to me is do these people REALLY think the President can just sit on the sidelines on this one? And not face a progressive backlash? More . . .

After months of travel the eleven ships landed in Veracruz. Cortes had the men unload everything from all eleven ships. As they headed into their new adventure the men turned back and saw all eleven ships burning! Cortes had ordered the ships to all be burned. Cortes did not know what he and his men would encounter in their expeditions. What he did know was that by "Burning the Ships" he had completely eliminated their option of going back. At the same time creating an intensely powerful motivation to succeed.

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama need to concentrate on persuauding/pressuring the uncommitted on cloture Dem Senators, in my view the progressive health care reform movement needs to shut the door on triggers. More . . .

Via Atrios, Bloomberg reports:

[The] chief financial officer for the AIG division that oversaw AIG Financial Products, the unit that had sold the swaps to the banks [wanted] to persuade the banks to accept discounts of as much as 40 cents on the dollar [. . .] Beginning late in the week of Nov. 3, the New York Fed, led by President Timothy Geithner, took over negotiations with the banks from AIG. [. . .] After less than a week of private negotiations with the banks, the New York Fed instructed AIG to pay them par, or 100 cents on the dollar. The New York Fed’s decision to pay the banks in full cost AIG -- and thus American taxpayers -- at least $13 billion. [. . .] The deal contributed to the more than $14 billion that over 18 months was handed to Goldman Sachs.

(Emphais supplied.) Months later, Goldman Sachs gave $200 million to charity. Gee, thanks.

Speaking for me only

Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

They sit in shock today, unable to comprehend how their announced wisdoms did not rule the day. They can not believe the DFHs prevailed upon Senate Majority Leader Reid to put in the public option (with the President's Men, Villagers All, none too pleased either.)

Their disdain is now aimed at Reid for, disgustingly, listening to the people and being concerned about what they think instead of taking his cues from the would be Broders. Their concern for Olympia Snowe's dignitas (where their own are housed) knows no bounds.

They will fight hard against this revolt of the peasants. They will do the insurance industry's bidding and fight, leak, slant and attack to the bitter end. And the fight is still in doubt. But there is no doubt that shock and anger is their reaction today.

The Progressive base has won a hard fought battle, but the war is not won. Trumka and Stern, the union leaders, HCAN, and the other progressive health care activists and bloggers have fought hard and shrewdly.

They have done the impossible, and that makes them mighty. But the war is not won yet. In many ways, it gets harder from here, because they will face the full wrath of the Village, who feels its grip on power slipping. The Village will not go down quietly.

Speaking for me only

Last week I mentioned I was reading the new novel, The Help, about the relationships between Afrian-American maids and their female employers in Jackson, MS in the early sixties.

Jesse Kornbluth at Huffington Post has a good summary of the book. Three women at the health spa I was at last week were reading it. One didn't like it, one was mesmerized by it, and one thought it was funny. Back home, a very Republican woman where I get my nails done said she had started to read it, but she found it just preposterous. She adamantly did not believe that the white employers would build a bathroom for the maids in the garage because they didn't want to be contaminated by diseases black people got.

I'm in the middle of it now, and it keeps me awake at night. It's pretty horrific to think this was only 50 years ago. And it's no surprise these women spawned another generation just like them.

Kornbluth says "The Help" could be the "To Kill a Mockingbird" of our time. I just hope I finish it soon because this is the third night that I find myself up at 3 a.m, still reading.

CNN in primetime is tanking. The latest numbers show it behind Fox News, MSNBC and even CNN Headline News.

CNN says it's because they provide less commentary and more news, and viewers want commentary.

I disagree. CNN has as many pundits as the other networks. And, I think its pundits are the network's chief problem. They are boring, their comments are completely predictable and rarely informative. As soon I see any one of them, almost all holdovers from the 90's, way past their broadcasting prime, I change the channel. CNN is losing the ratings game because it has become your father's Oldsmobile of news.[More...]