Via FDL, Bloomberg's interview with Obama OMB head Peter Orzag:

Congress will likely complete a health-care bill within six weeks, and a measure being drafted by the Senate Finance Committee may provide the basis for final legislation, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said. . . . Orszag signaled the administration doesn’t consider a government-run insurance program essential to the legislation. He suggested it would be sufficient to either create nonprofit insurance-purchasing cooperatives or set “triggers” to activate a public option if needed to cut costs.

(Emphasis supplied.) Three points. One, 6 weeks is AFTER the deadline for including a public option in a reconciliation bill. Second, it has been established that co-ops are usless. Third, it has been established that President Snowe's trigger proposal is a joke.

If Orzag is right, on the issue of health care reform President Obama has turned over the reins to "President" Olympia Snowe. What a wimpy Administration. Jimmy Carter comes to mind.

Speaking for me only

So many want to focus on GOP obstruction as the problem regarding health care reform. This is a dodge. The Democrats control the Presidency and both houses of Congress. If there is a failure of governance, particularly on health care reform, the fault will be placed, properly, on Democrats. Ezra Klein writes:

What Republicans -- and, when they're out of power, Democrats -- are doing is essentially discrediting the political process. . . . Republicans may think they've found a clever strategy in making it hard for Democrats to govern, but what they're really doing is making it nearly impossible for anyone to govern. American politics is trapped in a cycle of minority obstruction, and though that's good for whomever the minority is at the moment, it's not particularly good for making progress on pressing issues.

This is simply false. Republicans governed during the Bush Administration. They governed very badly. But they governed. I can only speculate why Ezra insists on emulating David Broder (personal ambitions?), but it is demonstrably false.

If Democrats want to be successful, they need to understand that it is their turn to govern, not the Republicans. And if they fail to govern well, they will rightly be held to account. That is how politics works. And that is how it should work. Elections are supposed to be about choices. Republicans do not agree with Democrats. If the electorate chooses Republicans, then Republicans should enact Republican policies. If they fail (as they did), they get voted out. Same for Dems. It's called accountability.

Speaking for me only

So far, no snow in Denver or Boulder, which is where I'm headed for the dentist.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Ben Kuehne, as I've written before, is a leading criminal defense lawyer in Miami. The Government charged him with money laundering and related crimes. He moved to dismiss arguing the exception in 18 USC Section 1957 prevents the government from indicting a criminal defense lawyer for taking payment from a client. The district court agreed and dismissed the count. The Government appealed. The trial court's order is here(pdf).

Oral arguments were this morning and David Markus at the SDFla blog has an excellent recap. While one can never predict how an appellate court will rule from oral arguments, it appears the panel was all over the Government and favorable to Ben's position. David thinks the court will uphold the dismissal.

Ever wonder what really goes on during the execution of a search warrant for drugs? Hopefully, this is an anomaly. Watch as Lakeland, FL Sheriff's deputies play a Wii bowling game on the suspects' TV for 9 straight hours. They were caught by his home security camera. The funniest part is the cop who jumps up and down for joy when getting a strike. The somber tone of the newscaster in describing the suspect (as if he's Jack the Ripper) is a bit odd. At first I wondered if he was trying out for a remake of Dick Tracy but then he gets really into describing the game action.

From a surprising source, Ezra Klein, riffing off of Sen. Kent Conrad:

[SEN CONRAD:] [T.R. Reid] found [that] many countries they have universal coverage. They contain costs effectively. They have high-quality outcomes, in fact higher than ours. They're not government-run systems in Germany, in Japan, in Switzerland, in France, in Belgium -- all of them contain costs, have universal coverage, have very high quality care and yet are not government-run systems.

Germany, Japan, Switzerland, France and Belgium have a level of government intrusion in their systems that would make the average tea partier retch. In France, for instance, the government provides all basic insurance coverage directly. In Germany, insurers aren't permitted to make a profit. In Japan, health insurance is publicly provided, and private insurance is available only to ease co-payments or cover services that the government leaves out. This stuff makes the shackled public plan look downright objectivist.

James Joyner writes about the new GOP opposition to mandates that I posted about yesterday. He links to a blast from the 2008 primary past by Ron Chusid defending then candidate Obama's opposition to mandates:

Here is an interesting thing:

Pelosi is planning to include a government-run public option in the House version of the healthcare bill. She wants to model it on Medicare, with providers getting reimbursed on a scale pegged to Medicare rates. "The speaker is full-steam-ahead," said a senior Democratic aide.

Speaker Pelosi is rejecting the Ross-Waxman deal that Blue Dog Ross already rejected. Of course, the normal course, insisted upon by the JournOListers, would be for Pelosi to appease Ross and take the legislation further to the right cuz, you know . . . 'health care reform' . . . 'don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good' . . . 'Dems are chumps' . . and all that. Indeed, it is time for Matt Yglesias to accuse the Speaker of "sociopathic indifference."

Speaking for me only

We have vague terror threats guaranteed to strike fear in the heart of every American because they reference football stadiums, hotels, and mass transit. We have President Obama today calling for a renewal of expiring Patriot Provisions.

The FBI says:

"Nothing in the bulletins references the current investigation," a Federal Bureau of Investigation issued spokesman said Tuesday. Investigators still don't have specific evidence indicating an imminent threat to particular targets in the alleged plot, federal officials said.

That hasn't stopped Republicans from claiming: [More...]

After four hours at the jail today, I'm ready for some TV. There's The Biggest Loser, Part II of Dancing With the Stars and The Good Wife.

The best I think will be The Biggest Loser. What are you watching?

If you'd rather talk about something else, go right ahead.

Denver CBS reporter Rick Sallinger, who usually has good information and sources, just reported on TV that Najibullah Zazi's terror case may be moved to New York, while his father's false statements case would remain here.

If that's true, I'd expect new charges to be filed against Zazi since venue isn't proper in New York on the false statements charges. (He made the statements in Colorado.)

Zazi undoubtedly will not be happy to trade the FDC in Englewood, CO for MCC Manhattan or MDC Brooklyn. But it makes sense for the Government to prosecute this "plot" as a single case in a single jurisdiction. And it makes even more sense for the Government to do it now. [More...]

Want a "bipartisan" bill, Max Baucus? Well those mandates will have to go:

On Tuesday, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) described the health care legislation being considered by the Senate Finance Committee as a "stunning assault on liberty" due to a provision that would require individuals to buy insurance. The attacks have confounded Democrats in and out of government, who noted quickly that mandating coverage was, until recently, a relative given when it came to health care reform.

Demonstrating the sheer political stupidity of Democrats, here was their reaction:

The attacks have confounded Democrats in and out of government, who noted quickly that mandating coverage was, until recently, a relative given when it came to health care reform.

Idiots. What? They thought the GOP would stop bullying them once they gave them their lunch money (a robust public option)? If there is a more incompetent political bargaining organization than the Democratic Party, it would be hard to find.

Speaking for me only