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Some steps forward, giant step back

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

An Open letter:

Dear Senator Dodd:

I really wish you all the best. That’s why I wrote that resolution for which you thanked me so warmly at the event in Groton this past July.

But you make it so hard. The knock is that you’ve lost touch; that you’ve been in Washington too long. That’s one knock, anyway.

Lately you’ve tried. You’ve done good work on health care substance. You’ve made the right noises about credit cards. You’ve reached out to the folks back home.

But seriously, you need some folks back here in Connecticut you can call and talk to about what people back here are really thinking. You have a primary coming up, which you’ll probably win, but you won’t do yourself any favors if you turn off enough good Democrats to just squeak by.

Had you talked to anyone with their finger on the pulse among us real Democrats, you would never have said this about Joe Lieberman’s proposed treachery:

But Lieberman’s fellow Connecticut senator, Democrat Chris Dodd, who faces a tough reelection fight in 2010, dismissed the idea that Lieberman would incur any retribution.

“No, no, no. People are going to be all over the place,” he said when asked if Lieberman should be punished. “The idea that people are going to be reprimanded because somehow they have a different point of view than someone else is ridiculous. That isn’t going to happen.”

As Yoda might say: “Tone deaf he is”. We don’t necessarily need the red meat that Republicans serve up to their base, but that doesn’t mean we’re willing to eat shit. Many of us actually really care about health care. We understand that the public option is a poor substitute for a single payer system, but we also understand that no public option, or a weak public option, will make any health care bill into a giveaway to the insurance industry.And as Rachel Maddow demonstrated last night, Wall Street knows it too. We also understand that Lieberman’s professed reasons for opposing the public options are a mixture of bullshit and lies. We actually care about health care more than we care about whether you continue to occupy a seat in the U.S. Senate, or about your relationship with turncoat Joe.

We see Mitch McConnell putting out the word to his troops that a vote for cloture is verboten, and then we see that you are greenlighting Joe Lieberman’s treachery. The contrast is stark and it doesn’t sit well. In one minute you did more harm to the cause of health care than anything you might have done to help the cause in your committee. A closed mouth or a no comment would have been far more palatable, and probably more strategically useful.

It boggles the mind that you and your fellow Democrats got no prior commitments from Lieberman regarding exactly this contingency; it’s not like no one could have predicted it. It’s even worse when you grant a pardon before the crime.

Enacting a health care program that is not a sham will enhance your re-election prospects. Coddling Joe Lieberman won’t, particularly if by doing so you torpedo health care. If we end up with another Republican Senator from Connecticut, your supporters like me will be disappointed. Joe Lieberman will be ecstatic, make no mistake about it. It’s time for you to put the interests of Connecticut ahead of Joe Lieberman’s.


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What a shock

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

So Joe Lieberman is threatening to filibuster the public option. Some might wonder why he is taking this position, since as recently as 2006 he campaigned on a promise to give us a public option, when he promised:

MediChoice to allow anybody in our country to buy into a national insurance pool like the health insurance pool that we federal employees and Members of Congress have.

I have a theory.

Joe Lieberman is a bitter man. He blames progressives for his ignominious defeat in the 2006 primary, and rightly so. He has no principles left, having abandoned them years and years ago. So he sees this as payback time, the chance to get back at us, and at the Democrats, including Chris Dodd, who backed the legitimate candidate in 2006. Reid says he’s not worried about Lieberman. If that’s so, it can only be that he has something on him.


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Opt out

Monday, October 26, 2009

Just as a matter of public policy, I think the “opt out” idea is pretty stupid.

But from a political perspective, it has some interesting possibilities.

If the public option is a strong one, with reasonable premiums and good coverage, it will be extremely difficult for Republicans to opt out, particularly if it also represents potential savings for the state. It will be grand political theatre as the future Mark Sanfords strike poses for the base while the legislators worry about retribution from the normals. It will make the stimulus debate look civil.


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Good News, Bad News

Monday, October 26, 2009

The only thing keeping the inept Democratic Party afloat is the even more inept, and far more politically tone deaf Republican Party. Case in point, is the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, made possible by Obama’s strategic elevation of its former Republican Congressman to a federal post. The 23rd is the most conservative District in New York State, but the Democrat is favored because the ideologically pure (including Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty) are backing the Conservative Party candidate over the relatively rational officially endorsed Republican. It’s internecine conflict at its juiciest. Isn’t it fun to watch them eat their own?

The Conservative candidate is ideologically pure, passing all the tests (abortion, guns, anti-union, etc.) Unfortunately, it turns out that he doesn’t know or care about issues of importance to the District, as he demonstrated to the editorial Board of the Watertown Daily Times (via Talking Points Memo) recently.

A flustered and ill-at-ease Mr. Hoffman objected to the heated questioning, saying he should have been provided a list of questions he might be asked. He was, if he had taken the time to read the Thursday morning Times editorial raising the very same questions.

Coming to Mr. Hoffman’s defense, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who accompanied the candidate on a campaign swing, dismissed regional concerns as “parochial” issues that would not determine the outcome of the election. On the contrary, it is just such parochial issues that we expect our representative to understand and be knowledgeable about, if he wants to be our voice in Washington.

Sam Gejdenson at his worst never dismissed district concerns as “parochial”, and he lost simply because he was perceived as out of touch. This guy is out of touch and proud of it, or at least Dick Armey, his loyal supporter, is proud of it.

This is good news since it diminishes this guys chances of winning the election; bad news because it may lessen the chance for a Democratic win. From what I hear, the Democrat is a potential Blue Dog, so that would be no great loss. What’s wonderful is that this appears to be a sign of things to come. No Republican is safe if he or she does or says anything that might appeal to those who think, even on a part time basis.

A bit off the point, but what’s this with the demand that they give him the questions first? When I ran for office in Groton, we were routinely interviewed by the Day. It never occurred to me or anyone else to ask for the questions in advance. If you put yourself forward as a candidate you have an obligation to demonstrate familiarity with the issues, or reap the consequences. This guy is running for Congress, and he thinks it’s unfair if the local newspaper asks him about something other than abortion, death panels and guns.


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Guest Post: Obama’s Connecticut visit

Sunday, October 25, 2009

As I mentioned Friday evening, Groton Democrat Liz Duarte, was Ned Lamont’s guest at the Obama appearance in Stamford. I asked Liz to write something about the event, and I am pleased to present, live and unedited, Liz’s account of the night. I was pleased she could do this, as I had heard rumors that she planned to have her right hand preserved in amber or something, which would have made writing sort of difficult. So, without further adieu:

I had the incredible good fortune of being a guest at Ned Lamont’s table at the Chris Dodd fundraiser with President Obama as the speaker. Being nervous about our infamous 95 traffic nightmare, I left 5 hours early. Not a bit of traffic between 12 and 2 pm going to Stamford! There were open seats in the lobby area so I sat down near Mark Davis, TV reporter, and did my people watching for 2 hours. He reads the NY Times and talks a lot on the phone. The lobby was filled with security. The bomb sniffing dogs were frightening looking with their muzzles. About 4 pm lines started to form only no one seemed to be directing people where/how to register or where to go. The people who paid $2450 for the private reception did get in right away though! Metal detectors were set up and I was nervous that I’d set it off with my metal hip and knee. Hmmm – not a beep. Makes me wonder how good the detectors were?

I waited in line to register and stood next to Gail Malloy, sister of Dan, who was very cordial and friendly to everyone – she worked the line! Because there was only one person with a laptop checking in 1000 people, the line didn’t move. I finally told the staff I knew where my table was because Ned Lamont had already gone in. She let me in without even looking up my name. My first thought was: maybe everyone from Groton could have gotten in for
free??

The program started right away with 2 speakers and the room was only half full. After we got our salads, John Larson introduced Chris Dodd. Chris knew everyone was there to hear the President so he didn’t speak long. Then the shining moment – President Barack Obama walked up to the podium to speak. By this time everyone was finally in the room and we yelled and cheered loudly. The President laughingly said we were a feisty group. He spoke for over ½ hour. He complimented Chris Dodd for all the fine work he has done and is still doing now. He talked about Health Care reform, Wall St., education, and mops (a great story of Republicans complaining but not helping). I frantically took pictures in the beginning, trying to get good angles around the tele-prompters. Then I stopped, put the camera down, took a breath and felt how wonderful it was to be in the same room as our great President and just listened. He spoke so passionately. It brought me to tears.

I do have to admit, however, the secret service were creepy. I swear every time I looked at the 2 men standing in front/side of Barack Obama, they looked straight at me. I was getting a bit paranoid. But I forgot about them when Obama ended his speech. As the crowd was ecstatically cheering, Susan Cocco (former Hillary Clinton CT Campaign manager) who was sitting at our table, rushed up to the blue curtained barricade. In an instant, I followed her
– yes my new knee and hip are working just fine – I haven’t moved that fast in years! President Obama walked around the barricade area and shook everyone’s hands who were within reaching distance. I was one person away from him and he shook my hand. All I could say to him was, “thank you so much for all you are doing”. Then he was out of the
room.

If you’re wondering what you eat for $1000 – it was salmon and steak over a squash mixture. It was very good.


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Scott Bates says we should get out of Iraq. Remember Iraq?

Saturday, October 24, 2009

If you didn’t notice it at the time, check out Scott Bates recent column in the Day. Scott points out that we have actually achieved all the goals (bullshit that they were) we set for the war in Iraq when we started it, and that it is therefore time to leave.

Iraq has fallen out of the news, replaced in recent months by Afghanistan. We have short and limited attention spans. Remember when Iraq almost unseated Joe Lieberman?

No good will come from the adventure in Iraq. Once we leave, it may very well make common cause with Iran. Under Saddam there was a nice healthy (from our perspective) enmity between the two. But we have to leave, if for no other reason than that we are impoverishing ourselves with endless war.


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Fruit Loops, a Smart Choice no more

Saturday, October 24, 2009

When we (and that includes me, for sure) whine about Obama’s shortcomings, it’s useful to remember all of the important things that have changed somewhat below the surface, at least below the surface of everyday conversation or bloviating. A case in point is the fact that the corporate “nutritionist” front group Smart Choices has virtually agreed to go out of business, faced with pressure from the federal government, and some state governments, including our own.

Under pressure from state and federal authorities who feared consumers would be misled, the food industry on Friday started backing away from a major labeling campaign meant to highlight the nutritional benefits of hundreds of products.

…

Officials with the program said that Smart Choices would suspend most of its operations while they waited for the Food and Drug Administration to devise regulations for package-front nutrition labeling. Those rules could differ from the program’s criteria.

“I regard it as a partial victory,” said Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general, who recently began an investigation into the program to see if the labeling campaign violated his state’s consumer protection law. He called on more companies to pull out of the program.

Among the Smart Choices was Kellogg’s Fruit Loops, which, would, I suppose, be a smart choice if the only other choice was a meal consisting of pure sugar.

This is the sort of thing corporations could do unchallenged during the Bush Administration. Under Bush, Blumenthal might well have been opposed by the Federal government, which might have claimed that his efforts were preempted by Federal law. Bush did a lot of harm with the bureaucracy. He handed numerous agencies over to the corporations they allegedly regulated. Obama can undo that harm, and he is, this Smart Choices situation being just one example. Just as Bush’s moves went largely unremarked, Obama’s have been largely ignored. It’s often said that a president’s Supreme Court nominations are of prime importance, and they are. But appointments to the bureaucracy can have a huge and lasting impact. The country is a lot better off already thanks to Obama.


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Groton Girl Hits the Big Time

Friday, October 23, 2009

Our own Liz Duarte sent this picture from Stamford, where she was the guest of Ned Lamont at tonight’s fundraiser for Chris Dodd. Seems she also shook the hand of a recent Nobel Prize winner.


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Friday Night Triple Feature

Friday, October 23, 2009

First, for the quality, Stevie Wonder singing Superstitious, Live on Sesame Street. I’ve been putting up these videos for several years,trying not to repeat artists, and I’m fairly sure I haven’t gotten around to Stevie Wonder, which just goes to show how deep the bench is when it comes to 60s era music. That’s actually not fair to Wonder, since he’s really a starting player, but you get my drift.

Here’s a Stevie Wonder bonus. It didn’t get top billing, since it’s obviously lip synched, but it’s worth watching for the period piece dancers. Yes, we used to watch that stuff without laughing.

And now, for something completely different.

My secretary told me about this video from the old Tracy Ullman show. You have to watch the whole thing. 99% heartwarming and life affirming, 100% New York cynical. Choreographed by Paula Abdul, I am given to understand.

I’ve been on the go a lot lately, and am on my way out of the door now, which explains the lack of recent political posts, and the fact there probably won’t be one tonight.


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Better late than never

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

From the Hill, via Washington Monthly:

Say hello to “Medicare Part E” — as in, “Medicare for Everyone.”

House Democrats are looking at re-branding the public health insurance option as Medicare, an established government healthcare program that is better known than the public option.

The strategy could benefit Democrats struggling to bridge the gap between liberals in their party, who want the public option, and centrists, who are worried it would drive private insurers out of business.

While much of the public is foggy on what a public option actually is, people understand Medicare. It also would place the new public option within the rubric of a familiar system rather than something new and unknown.

What brilliant strategy! How could something so blindingly obvious have occurred to elected Democrats? It’s simply not in their nature. Couldn’t they have come up with something even more obtuse than “public option” to sell the plan? How about “non-insurance option”. That has a deadly ring to it.

I don’t want to beat my own drum, but no one else will, so it falls to me. I’ve been saying this for months. Consider this from a a few months back, when I was bemoaning Obama’s failure to effectively sell the public option:

This is what comes from fashioning your opening bid as something that you believe can be sold to an opposition that you should know will inevitably oppose anything you do. Had he started with single payer, he could have compromised down to a public option. How hard could it have been for him to realize that neither the Republicans nor the insurance companies would have gone with his opening offer, no matter how reasonable. How hard to see that advancing a confusing plan, just like Clinton did, gives our enemies a chance to confuse while making it impossible for your friends to explain. How much simpler would our job be if we were defending “Medicare for all”? That’s a program everyone understands, even the idiots attacking the public option while insisting that their Medicare be protected.

This doesn’t really prove anything about me. It does prove something about the PR blindness of the Democratic Party, which has consistently failed to sell its programs effectively. Partly because, like the battered spouse syndrome victims they are, they are deathly afraid of vigorously advocating for what passes as their beliefs. For thirty years the Beltway wisdom has been that government is not the answer, and they have now, despite all evidence to the contrary, come to believe that’s what the people out here really think. They now find themselves in the position of being dragged to where most of them want to be by a public that can no longer be fooled, for as Steve Benen points out, even given Obama’s failure to advocate for the public option, even given the media’s almost unanimous insistence that the “centrist position” is business as usual; even given the industry’s scare tactics, the public is increasingly warming to the idea:

As it turns out, reform advocates may not even bother with the rebranding effort, since the public option already enjoys broad national support, which seems to keep going up (though one wonders if the polls would be even better had “Part E” been the rhetorical norm from the beginning). So, don’t necessarily count on a big p.r. push on this, though we may start hearing the phrase far more often.

It would be a shame if they didn’t use it. Imagine where we’d be if the Democrats had actually taken control of the debate, rather than handing the entire issue to the tender mercies of Max Baucus and his insurance lobbyist friends. How easily could Baucus have opposed Medicare for all, like he opposed the public option?

Digby weighs in on this here.


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