Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

In the ongoing battle for meaningful health care reform, President Olympia Snowe made a powerful move yesterday, supporting her puppet Max Baucus in the Senate Finance Committee vote. But progressives in the House and Senate have more cards they can still play to trump President Snowe.

From a political bargaining basis, being willing to walk away from a bill is an extremely powerful weapon. Just ask President Snowe. And if the Progressive Block continues to hold that attitude, then it will be in the game at the end. But Senate progressives have a card to play too - reconciliation.

When the pressure to "just pass a bill" comes weighing down on them, they have a great response - "Ok, let's pass what we can through reconciliation." Watch the bluster then. For example, Max Baucus:

[Reid can] invoke[] reconciliation, which allows the Senate to pass a bill with 51 votes rather than 60 votes. From a policy standpoint, this scenario gives the Democrats and the president more of what they want out of health care reform. It would include a public option, as well as more-generous subsidies to make insurance affordable.

But reconciliation can also be a minefield, Baucus warned in a phone interview with POLITICO. It’s “fraught with so many perils,” he said. “More perils than trying to get 60 votes.”

(Emphasis supplied.) Perils for who one might ask Baucus? Certainly not for the Democrats' alleged policy agenda. Is it peril for President Snowe's veto power? Is it peril for Baucus' insurance industry bosses? Peril for who Max?

Speaking for me only

Bill Nelson votes Snowe:

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said [. . .] he expects "some version of the public option" to be in the final bill, though he said it may hinge on Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME). "Olympia Snowe of Maine is quite key here," Nelson said. "And if her vote is critical in the future, then she may insist what is a kind of public option."

So the buck stops with President Snowe, according to Bill Nelson.

Speaking for me only

"The Buck Stops Here" -sign on President Harry Truman's desk

Chuck Schumer always has a plan. So what to make of this statement from him?

Leader Reid has the option of putting [the public option] in the final bill[.] If he puts it in the final bill, in the combined bill, then you would need 60 votes to remove it. And there clearly are not 60 votes against the public option. And so we're urging him to do that, and he's seriously considering it. [. . .] It's very important to see if a public option is in the bill that Leader Reid puts together. He hasn't yet made up his mind, but many of us who believe in the public option are urging him to do so, and so far we're getting heard.

Is Schumer putting the onus on Reid, hoping to make Reid act? And act in what way? Which public option? Schumer's level playing field compromise? The Federalist Opt Out Public Option? The horrible Snowe Trigger?

Or is Schumer expecting Reid to kick the decision upstairs to the President? If I was Reid, that is precisely what I would do. I would say, "the final bill will reflect the President's wishes." Pass the buck. After all, Truman said the buck stopped there.

Speaking for me only

Economy got you down? Don't worry. Someone's making a lot of money. One of those someone's is JPMorgan Chase:

JPMorgan Chase said Wednesday that its profit surged to $3.6 billion in the third-quarter from strong trading results and a flurry of new deals, strengthening its position as one of the dominant banks to emerge from the financial crisis. [. . .] Although the recession weighed heavily on its businesses [Really???], JPMorgan appears to be taking advantage of the financial crisis to leapfrog over rivals in the investment banking rankings and expand its consumer lending franchise.

(Emphasis supplied.) It turns out when the government makes money free for banks who then turn around and charge exorbitant fees to their customers, the banks make a lot of money. TARP worked!! For the banks at least.

Speaking for me only

Pretty funny:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling out his wife, Maria Shriver, for apparently violating a state law he signed — holding her cell phone while driving. The celebrity Web site TMZ.com posted two photographs Tuesday showing Shriver holding a phone to her ear while she's behind the wheel. It says one was snapped Sunday and the other in July.

[. . .] On his Twitter feed, Schwarzenegger wrote to TMZ.com founder Harvey Levin: "Thanks for bringing her violations to my attention. There's going to be swift action."

Heh. "Swift action," BTW, means "he'll ask his wife not to hold the phone while driving."

Full disclosure - I once pleaded down a speeding ticket to a cell phone violation and have, on occasion, violated similar laws regarding cell phone use in a moving automobile.

The National Republican Congressional Committee highlighted a parody video of Hitler praising Speaker Pelosi:

On Tuesday morning [. . .] someone at the NRCC posted a bizarre Tweet linking to an altered three-minute section of the 2004 Hitler biopic "Der Untergang" from the conservative site Moonbattery -- with a voice-over of the The Fuhrer ranting about how only Nancy Pelosi shares his vision of health care reform. The Tweet: "Funny Video: Moonbattery: Hitler Reacts to ObamaCare Maneuvers" Hitler, played by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, is trapped in his bunker with his generals, and rants [in the phony subtitles] about President Obama's revisions to his socialized medicine plan -- and how only he and Nancy Pelosi are still fighting the good fight.

Remember the brouhaha over the video submitted to Move On? And we know the Republicans decided it was Congress' job to censure speech in the past. Logic dictates they should feel the same way here.

Censure the NRCC?

Speaking for me only

You are on your own now. After today, some false hope:

This is an Open Thread.

I just watched it. First rate. It has spurred many thoughts. I'll try to detail them tomorrow. More than ever, I think comprehensive engagement in Afghanistan is imperative to U.S. national interest. In addition, the reporting on Pakistan's corrosive role in the region is outstanding. The interviews with Afghanistan's intelligence minister were most revealing and impressive. PBS correspondent Martin Smith did a great great job.

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

After Snowe's play, and Obama and Reid's slobber job over her, how's the Federalist Public Option sound to you now? Cuz it is looking to me like the choices now from the Senate will be Snowe's Trigger vs. Schumer's Opt Out. I strongly prefer the Federalist Option.

I asked for crime stories from our readers and got nuthin. As punishment, I am subjecting you to an Anna Nicole Smith story:

Anna Nicole Smith was ill, confused and isolated in a hotel room with a cornucopia of prescription drugs in the days before her death, an investigator testified Tuesday in a criminal case stemming from the celebrity model's overdose death. [. . .] The testimony was presented in a preliminary hearing involving charges that Smith's former lawyer-boyfriend Howard K. Stern and two California doctors conspired to illegally provide Smith with controlled substances before her drug-overdose death at age 39.

Until I get some better leads from our readers, I'll be going wall to wall Anna on you . . .

In other news, the Yankees won their series against the Twins on Sunday. Game 1 of their series with the Angels is Friday in the Bronx.

This is an Open Thread.

It's Tuesday afternoon. This song popped into my head:

Made me feel better. This is an Open Thread.

Yesterday, I hit d-day for his, to me, strange post, seeming to favor triggers over the Federalist Public Option (he wrote a comment in my thread saying that's not what he meant.) Today he seems to have learned something about the political game:

The wild card in all of this is Olympia Snowe’s yes vote on the Baucus bill today [. . .] The White House is clearly dying for something they can call bipartisan support, and will likely want to use Snowe in that capacity, as well as who she could bring along – Bill Nelson already intimated today that Susan Collins would come along with Snowe (although her role is probably more as cover for moderate Democrats). Snowe pointedly rejected the public option in her comments.

Bill Nelson? Not the same Bill Nelson d-day was defending yesterday when he was praising triggers? Look, I do not think it takes a genius to see that what Bill Nelson was saying yesterday was a result of his KNOWING what Olympia Snowe was going to do today. Frankly, d-day (and other progressives) got played yesterday. In their fight against the Federalist Public Option they ended up, unwittingly, strengthening the Mushy Middle's drive for the Snowe trigger. Understanding political bargaining was lacking in this instance.

Speaking for me only