Consternation on the Hill

I was talking to some friends on Capitol Hill this evening about Obama pulling the rug out from under Pelosi and Waxman on the issue of expanding contraceptive coverage under Medicaid in the stimulus bill and I must say their reaction was more akin to Stephen's and drip's in the thread below than I would have thought (as opposed to my own more sanguine reaction).  The general feeling was that Obama had stabbed the Democratic leadership (and the women's community) in the back and for no good ends.  There was a palpable sense that this boded poorly in terms of future dealings with the bully boys of the Republican right.  (Someone characterized it to me as confusing a lack of principle with being strategic.)

There was also a genuine sense of outrage about how this issue was trivialized and belittled in much of the media when, in fact, the CBO had scored this particular item to result in a net savings of $100 million over three years and $400 million over ten years.  Waxman and Pelosi staffers are miffed about being undermined and members of the women's community feel like they have been thrown to the wolves right off the bat.  So all in all, there is not a lot of happy campers running around the leftward precincts of the Hill.  

Then I topped these discussions off by watching leading liberal Chris Matthews make fun of the proposal while yucking it up with subhumans John Ensign and Mike Pence.  Now I'm getting in a bad mood as well.  And you know what that means -- it's cocktail time. 

Comments

[Sara E Anderson]

Good reminder of what I need to be getting worked up about tonight at Drinking Liberally.

If the Obama administration keeps this kind of thing up, the Daily Show will fare just fine after Bush's departure.

[big bad wolf]

SC, an inaugural ball, a friend that writes for the post, friends on the hill, this past week has revealed you as well connected.

more importantly, what does rye taste like. i saw the russell reserve you mentioned when i was at the store yesterday. i opted for my usual basil hayden's bottle, for i needed sure comfort, not something new, but i did wonder.

[Sir Charles]

I have lived here for 26 years and as a result have acquired a lot of acquaintances (and a few friends) who are on the fringes of power. I remain delightfully without influence.

Indeed, I am viewed by some of them (especially the journalists) as an amusing freak because I view issues with a certain amount of passion. (I will not introduce Stephen to these people as they may feel compelled to dissect him). Passion is seen as highly suspect among a lot of these people. (I have been known to get a little too vocal in my opinions amongst this set when I've had a few.)

Speaking of which I have just polished off the last of the Rye, which I quite liked. I wish I had a better vocabulary to describe its characteristics and how they differ from Bourbon or Scotch. I would say the flavor is similar but slightly rougher and more pungent. You should try it and let me know what you think.

[dm]

Oh, pooh. I was hoping to be able to be sanguine, too.

I've been thinking lately about the myth of "Karl Rove, super genius" and how Obama's managed to create the same image for himself (only this time, with lots more reason to believe it's true) --- commenters at Balloon-Juice, discussing some of these same events, are chortling at Obama's masterful game of "rope-a-dope" and the way he's sold the Republicans the rope they'll use to hang themselves. I'm not sure how that's supposed to work --- maybe he's letting the Republicans give a public demonstration repeating their Terry Schiavo out-of-touchness?

I find myself hoping that we'll be able to look back on this and shake our heads at the brilliance of it all. But hope is not a plan, I guess.

[Corvus]

(I will not introduce Stephen to these people as they may feel compelled to dissect him).

Laugh out loud hilarious, that one was.

Do you prefer, Rye, Bourbon, or Scotch, on the whole? Which is the best?

[Sir Charles]

dm,

I think we should try and stick with sanguine until we see some things play out. But I was jolted by the vehemence of the reaction of this group of people.

[oddjob]

Chris Matthews ("We are all neoconservatives now!") is a leading liberal? Please - not when it comes to "women's issues". He's a 7th grade jerk!

[Sir Charles]

Corvus,

I think the single barrel bourbon -- but it makes me want to do a side by side taste comparison.

Maybe we could do a Netroots Nation brown liquor event.

[Sir Charles]

oddjob,

I meant to put that in quotes.

I was sarcastically referring to the Forbes article on the 25 most influential liberals that I posted about the other day. Matthew was listed as I think the 12th most influential liberal -- Olbermann didn't make the list.

And, yes, on these matters in particular Matthews strikes me as someone who really got twisted by his Catholic education.

[big bad wolf]

passion is no ordinary word. so true, and such a great song. many years ago i read mark crispin miller's boxed in and he was way ahead of most everyone in nailing the emerging culture of dispassion and the way hot people were marginalized. the net gives us some counter to that.

a netroots tasting sounds like a great idea

[Corvus]

Concerning the post topic at hand, I don't know to much about the ins and outs of it, but I think there are basically two angles to look at this: 1) is expanding contraceptive coverage good policy, and 2) does it belong in the stimulus bill.

Now, this blog is full of nothing but likeminded individuals, free of dissent, so I think we can all agree that expanding contraceptive coverage is good policy—hell, its should be free!—but I don't think it necessarily follows that it should be in the stimulus package. The Stimulus Package (God that sounds dirty) is about one thing: creating and saving jobs. It is not readily apparent, at least to me, how expanding contraceptive coverage creates jobs in the way, say, repairing infrastructure, or investing in energy/green jobs, or even covering the debt of states' budgets does. If that argument can't be made, it just looks like liberal interest group pork, and that probably need to be avoided. I watched Pelosi's interview on This Week yesterday, and Stephenopolis actually asked her about it, and she stuttered and muttered about how this is all part of a process, and we are still working on it. She needed to make an argument for keeping it, and she didn't have one. True, it might save the country money, but that's different than creating jobs. Other bills, aimed at doing other things, could include that coverage. And it's probably better if it is in other bills. Obama probably wants to move on Energy and Healthcare next, and probably doesn't want the stimulus to appear like a giant free-for-all, but a responsible and targeted project. Now, if the provision does create jobs, then it is fine where it is. But that case must be made.

...Matthews was a huge dick. He actually spun it as the government trying to interfere in peoples lives. Like Pelosi is forcing people to have abortions or something. What a Dildo.

[Delicious Pundit]

I'm so irritated by that the courtship of Republicans is more than mere lip service; Obama is a better man than I am. OTOH he may have cards he needs to play down the line, I dunno. I have office work now and can't obsess like the old days.

Rye is often described as "spicier" than bourbon (which is made from corn). Think of the difference between rye bread and corn bread; the corn bread, even Southern no-sugar cornbread, is sweeter. My own somewhat limited experience is that rye is more interesting in any cocktail you'd use bourbon in; most rye cocktails (Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Scofflaws) have other sweeteners in the drink, you don't need it from the brown good. I guess I should make an exception for Mint Juleps, or toddies when you have a cold.

[litbrit]

I'm late to the party, which is probably a good thing or I'd be plastered by now, given that I, too, agree with Stephen.

(Sorry, Sir C and Ari.)

I'm sorry, but Pelosi lost me, for the most part, when she took impeachment off the metaphorical table. Same thing with the other milquetoast enablers and Bush apologists, some of whom inexplicably have D after their names. You want passion? Don't get me started. Okay, I will say this: I'm kind of big on the old rule of law thing, you know? To my mind, if you don't have truth, honor, and justice, you don't have dick.

Unless you count Chris Matthews. And as Corvus said, he's actually a fake dick anyway.

Start opening the whoopass cans, Obama! We've had two years of make-nice--time to send the roaches scurrying.

[oddjob]

What a Dildo.

A Tweety special at its unconsciously misogynist best (oh, except for when he goes off on a Hillary binge, of course).

[Sir Charles]

bbw,

Passion is no ordinary word indeed. One of the reasons that I qualified my praise of the Clash show the other night as merely "one of the best" shows I'd ever seen is that I saw Graham Parker and the Rumour shortly thereafter at The Paradise on the Squeezing Out Sparks Tour -- it was extraordinary. I sat with my feet on the stage (always go to general admissions shows with someone who grew up in NYC) about three yards from Brinsley Schwarz and closer to GP when he worked that side of the stage. Tremendous.

DP,

I've mostly been having the Rye in Old Fashioneds, where I was mailnly drinking the bourbon just on the rocks. A scientific test is necessary. We owe it to the public.

[Sir Charles]

Cat got your tongue Corvus?.

[Corvus]

I mean, Booman's informed opinion seems to match up with my uninformed one.

[Corvus]

It was actually the HMTL fairy. Bastard's angry I never update my blog.

[Sir Charles]

We say gay here at the Cogblog Corvus. Or "queer" when we're feeling all edgy. But never fairy.

[Corvus]

*Sigh* I should have used the word faery then, which is slightly more distinct from present common usage and entails the added bonus of more precisely connoting the words origins from Middle French. (It means not fair-like, for fae-like. Fae is the Middle French for for fate. In Old English, that word is wyrd, which has diminished into our present weird. Strange that words that once meant the WILL OF THE GODS have both in English become connotative of being faintly odd. Wonder what that says about our culture as a whole.)

[Corvus]

Also, Booman doesn't actually agree with me. My opinion is probably closer to maryb2004 in his comments, though I don't personally mind if they find a way to keep it.

[Sir Charles]

I think one of the objections that the people I talked to had is the idea that we shouldn't get broader things we want in a must pass bill. The Rethugs never hesitated to take advantage of such things. Of course, tht may explain why they are now on the outside looking in.

[Stephen]

Good God, this thread is awesome.

(I will not introduce Stephen to these people as they may feel compelled to dissect him).

Wouldn't be the first time. A former boss used to introduce me to people as his "brash young colleague," while a pastor friend says that I have the spiritual gift of spitball-throwing.

Maybe we could do a Netroots Nation brown liquor event.

I picked up my first bottle of rye a few days ago. I agree with DP that there's a "spiciness" to it, but that's a bit of a cop-out. It's just different, somehow. My main problem is that I don't know if what I got is any good or not.

A brown liquor event would be very fun, and would set the Cogblog's parties apart from everyone else's. We'll have to work it out.

Now, this blog is full of nothing but likeminded individuals, free of dissent, so I think we can all agree that expanding contraceptive coverage is good policy—hell, its should be free!—but I don't think it necessarily follows that it should be in the stimulus package.

Well, we learned how to squelch dissent from the iron-fisted example of Kommandante Kos himself.

FWIW, I agree that contraceptive coverage might not be necessary to a stimulus bill. I'm upset that the GOP Hissy Fit(tm) worked again.

The more I think about it, though, the more I wonder if perhaps it really is an important part of a stimulus bill. Now that I've got two kids, contraception is an important part of any stimulus that occurs in my life, let me tell you.

[Corvus]

Well, a subset of the Stimulus is stuff that is simply meant to keep things running as usual, so that people's lives aren't drastically thrown off course, such as boosting the funding for Pell Grants to make up for people not having the money for college. You could probably make some kind of argument for family planning services along these lines, but it's a lot harder, since Nonreproductice Sex is more controversial than Our Children's Future.

I don't really mind if we throw we allow the GOP Hissy Fit to work, sometimes. My feeling is, if they bring something up, there should be an iron-clad argument for it. If there isn't, we almost deserve to lose it.

Also, Stephen, your last paragraph? I see what you did there!

[litbrit]

Ah, children. What lovely, courtly, studious, tidy, and high-achieving little bits of eternity I've brought forth. The writing is on the wall, and it's full of Y's.

Never mind contraception, would someone please throw some funding at any scientists working on a time machine?

Because this is one of those weeks (months? Years?) that make me want to travel back to 1991 and rip out my own fallopian tubes with my bare hands.

[Sir Charles]

Oh do I know what you mean -- my 7:30 AM meeting with the Chemistry teacher on the mysterious vanishing homework has been cancelled due to an ice storm. A reprieve for some, but as with Obama, a confrontation looms.

[drip]

Appropos of nothing except the last comment, I watched Lindsay Anderson's fantastic If.... while this thread unfolded. Don't let your son watch it while he's still dragging Dad to 7:30 meetings with chemists. While watching the movie, I missed the fun of imagining dissecting Stephen to look for his passion. Somehow I don't think they'd find it.

I am delighted that I detect a shift in the view of some about the republicans. All they want is more of what got us where we are. I don't think that giving anything to them will result in more votes and I'm damn sure that doing what they want is a bad idea.

If you hold a brown liquor tasting I will tell my favorite Wild Turkey story.

[litbrit]

Would Mount Gay (is that the best brand name ever, or what?) Barbadian rum be considered brown liquor? Because if so, count me in.

Lisa, you'd better warn the fine people of Pittsburgh.

[litbrit]

(Or, if we want to get fancy, Bacardi Anejo 21 in little shot glasses...no, wait, teeny bottles, each with its own paper bag.)

[oddjob]

Strange that words that once meant the WILL OF THE GODS have both in English become connotative of being faintly odd. Wonder what that says about our culture as a whole.

That when the missionaries came we accepted their condemnation of the gods. Thus words that once meant "the will of the gods" came to mean "something odd" via "malevolently pagan". (Oh, and I thank you for explaining to me how it is that the three witch sisters that open MacBeth are known as "the weird sisters".)

[oddjob]

The Rethugs never hesitated to take advantage of such things. Of course, tht may explain why they are now on the outside looking in.

Because the Dems. before them also didn't hesitate.

[oddjob]

a pastor friend says that I have the spiritual gift of spitball-throwing

The politely poetic way of putting it is that you have a talent for speaking truth to power.... ;-)

(Of course, that talent never did Jeremiah any good, did it? :-))

[big bad wolf]

SC, the Commonwealth caused me to miss the squeezing out sparks tour by raising the drinking age in april 1979. i was not yet 18, and though i could get into the paradise in 1978, the new enforcement scared me off the investment of 6.50 or 7.50 i saw parker a couple of times later, and he was excellent, but i think not the same.

litbrit, i love the tiny bottles with the tiny paper bags. i have to tell you, though, that i think it ain't the Y, it's childhood. XX can be equally effective at inducing time-machine reveries.

on matters political, i think the main danger with obama right now is that he may be too invested in being self-consciously open. if he is, that will impair his judgment and hurt his chances of success. it is still very early, however, and he may be exposing the republicans to the light of day in the expectation that it will weaken them further and then he will turn on them hard. in this instance, he may be thinking, give them the contraceptive bill, which while very important as policy is not, for reasons covered by corvus, vital to the stimulus bill. we shall see.

i remain unconvinced that not pursuing impeachment was incorrect. however good it would have felt and however cogent the arguments for it, impeachment was only viable after the 2006 election. it had to be a double impeachment: we couldn't remove the hand puppet and leave the malignant puppeteer. a double impeachment would have been that much more difficult and would have created a difficult political issue. after a double impeachment, nancy pelosi would have become president. that the strongly partisan speaker (i mean that in a good way) stood to become president complicated the matter greatly (no weak carl albert in the wings this time). it would have made it easy to paint the entire proceeding as a witchhunt, a circumvention, rather than a vindication of the law. (think how the on the one hand/on the other hand reporting would have gone). pelosi, i suppose, could have stood aside for reid, but, why should she, and reid would present the same problem of appearing to stand to gain personally. after reid, we'd have been back to a republican insider( condi rice, i think). it seems to me in these circumstances and in the light of the seats gained in 2006, to accomplish what they could, block some things, and play for 2008, rather than to pursue impeachment and possibly lose the public because of it was a very defensible decision, much more defensible than some of the legislative weaknesses shown by the dem leadership from in 2007-08.

folks, i am prepared for the dissent :)

[oddjob]

XX can be equally effective at inducing time-machine reveries.

That was how it was for me growing up. My younger sister, by far, was the hellion.

[oddjob]

it had to be a double impeachment: we couldn't remove the hand puppet and leave the malignant puppeteer

It would have been strange, but they could have attempted impeaching one or the other first, with enough of a time delay in between for a new vice president to be appointed and confirmed by the Senate.

There is no doubt that impeachment would have not removed them from office. The votes were not in the Senate to remove them. Even so, it at least would have made it clear that the Congress was aware serious crimes appeared to have been committed and wanted to make it clear as a matter of official record that they knew.

[Sir Charles]

bbw,

Oh the bitterness of that raising of the drinking age -- speak not to me of it. I remember standing on a table in the campus pub leading a spirited chant of "Ed King sucks" on our last night of legal drinking. I was like you caught in 19 and 2 months limbo -- but I had a fake ID and thus was able to get into the Paradise.

And I hate to say it, but I saw Parker four other times, but it was never quite that good again.

And I hate to dissent from the lovely and talented litbrit, but impeachment would have been a political disaster. A pointless exercise that would have done a lot of damage to the Democrats.

Incidentally, I had a conversation with someone from the reproductive rights community this morning who said "Obama fucked us and didn't get a single vote in the process -- you're next" (me being organized labor because I contain multitudes -- actually its just a few extra pounds from the holidays -- thank God this is a safe space and none of you will make fun of me). "We've pulled out all of the stops for him and he fucked us." I believe this will be a recurring topic on these pages.

[oddjob]

I fully expect to be betrayed now & again. I voted for him knowing that (although given that I live in Mass. it hardly made any difference whether I voted for him or not. It wasn't as though Mass. was going to vote for McTantrum!)

He isn't going to give any of the constiuencies that voted for him everything they hope to get, and no doubt at least some of them will not get stuff they regard as critical. I already am non-plussed with his approach to agricultural matters. He doesn't seem to grasp that agribusiness-as-usual is a cause of global warming.

[oddjob]

(As to Big Labor, yesterday I saw that on TPM one of their posts was about some of Big Labor being unhappy at the lack of reaction by the administration regarding the hold-up of Solis.)

[Stephen]

He isn't going to give any of the constiuencies that voted for him everything they hope to get, and no doubt at least some of them will not get stuff they regard as critical.

Right now no one is getting much of anything from him. Just being better than George Bush shouldn't be enough; that's like the wingnut argument which excused American atrocities because we were still (supposedly) better than Saddam Hussein or Osama.

The thing is, no one is naive enough to expect that Obama is secretly just like Kucinich or something. What makes me mad - and apparently what's getting some other Dems upset as well - is that we're not getting anything in return. If Obama was fucking us over because he needed - and was getting! - some extra votes to pass important legislation, that'd be one thing. But aside from the fact that the most liberal spending bill in the history of gay fundamentalist Muslim Marxist abortion doctors could still pass both houses no matter what Boehner and McConnell say, we're not getting anything in return for the concessions.

Except, of course, the usual blame we always get no matter what happens or whose fault it is. I don't mind that Obama isn't as progressive as me. I do mind that, after the last 8 years of Republican rule and its attendant discrediting of everything the GOP stands for, after poll upon poll making it clear that Americans want healthcare and jobs more than they want control over ovaries, after a historic election where our will could not have been made clearer, Obama and the rest of the Democratic leadership is still trying to curry favor with the press and GOP by sticking it to the Dirty Fucking Hippies.

The political acumen Obama displayed during the campaign doesn't inoculate him from charges of political stupidity now. And he's being stupid.

[oddjob]

Actually, a bunch of those dirty fucking hippies thought he was being stupid during the campaign, too, no?

Dude, as Toast reminded you, it's a week in.

[Stephen]

Dude, as Toast reminded you, it's a week in.

And dude, as I tried to tell Toast, I'm not declaring his presidency a failure, or that he'll be a one-termer, or that he won't ever accomplish anything for anyone about anything.

I'm not denying what he's already done on the environmental front, family planning assistance around the world, closing Guantanamo and ending torture. I'm not suggesting that he's unmasking himself as a secret Republican.

I'm talking about this bill. It's one bill, to be sure, but an extremely important $825 billion bill designed to get us back on the right track economically. And what's getting me upset is not what might or might not happen, but what has already, concretely, happened.

Now let's see if the consensus response to this is again "Stephen doesn't really know what he thinks, so we'll explain to him that he just hates Obama," or if anyone is going to pay attention to what I'm actually writing.

[oddjob]

Yet another new appointee to the Office of Legal Counsel who fought to get Shrub's legal memos justifying torture released.
(Hat tip, TPM.)

[oddjob]

Ah. I misunderstood and read this, "Right now no one is getting much of anything from him.", too broadly.

[drip]

Well, I m a dirty fucking hippie (ret.) and I couldn't tell you during the election seasons whether he would win or not but I could tell you that if he did what he said he was going to do, I was not impressed. He is doing what he said he was going to do, and I'm not impressed. Is he better than Bush? Sure. Is he better than McCain? Sure. Now here is what I don't like right now: he is conceding things (smallish, perhaps) solely to gain republican support and the GOP is asking him to do the things that Bush did, i.e. cut taxes on rich people instead of spending money on poor people; cut healthcare and medicaid instead of spending money on sick people etc. I will admit to feeling vengeful from time to time, but I refuse to cat on this base emotion. Instead I will simply demand that Obama pay more attention to the people who elected him than to those who didn't.

Promising to follow the law gets you no points with me. Obama's steps to stop torture are merely steps to comply with the law and count for nothing. Until Obama acts to prosecute the criminals who ordered the torture, his actions are just covering the tracks of the prior criminals, the participants are accessories after the fact until criminal charges are set forth. These OLC types are just Samuel Mudd setting JW Booth's leg as far as I'm concerned.

[Sir Charles]

To add to my betrayal paranoia, I was just on the phone with a union side lawyer in the South (poor soul) and he pointed out that there is no category for labor on the Whitehouse.gov web site. I, of course, went there and confirmed this.

Now I am going to begin writing posts about Obama's future perfidy and how it is forehadowed in the Curious Case of Benjamim Button as a means of stimulating more comment traffic.

[Stephen]

Well, since I've never been guilty of hyperbole or anything. . .

[Corvus]

I think we have gotten stuff from Obama. He has effectively ended Bush's torture regime. Not only has he ordered the closure of Gauntanamo and recommitted to the Geneva Conventions, all his appointments and hires (especially the hires) are people who were vocally against all the things that the last guys in their jobs did in these regards. What, Obama is going to go back on his word? Who's going to let him, the Office of Legal Council that says that to do so is illegal? The OLC he hired? He's not gonna fire them all in a few months to hire psychos. This is the new regime.

[Corvus]

My guess on the reticence on Labor is that he doesn't want to bring that fight just yet. Big Business is probably the most powerful lobbying arm on capitol hill, so much so that we don't often talk of it in such terms. I don't think Obama wants to take a direct fight with them until he has the strength and built up capitol to do so. So they are rolling with the punches on the Solis nomination. Getting her confirmed quietly, even if slowly, is more important than getting in a dust-up over it right now.

[big bad wolf]

i'm with corvus for now. we have gotten things in the first week. let's see how things shake out over the course of a couple of months. an effective strategy is rarely evident immediately; strategy is, by defintion known to most but not john mccain, for achieving goals is the longer run. obama may disappoint us, as clinton did, but i think it important to observe that clinton jumped out, got hit, and retreated. a slower steadier approach may get us more. or maybe not. we shall see. my words for this week.

future perfidy is in fact the rallying cry of all interest groups, including ones i identify with and is an excellent way to promote comments and, in person, solidarity-building round buying.

[Sir Charles]

I think I actually have a category on my expense vouchers at the office with the term "solidariy-building round buying." Or I should.

[big bad wolf]

the category may be called esprit.

[low-tech cyclist]

Going back to the liquor discussion, I saw a t-shirt last night on Arbat Street in Moscow that said,

VODKA
Connecting People

OK, vodka isn't brown liquor, but it's all I've got.

Other than that Mrs. LTC and I finally made it to Russia, and met the boy who will shortly be our son.

My political posting is really gonna go way down now. It's hard to think about politics when your head's full of the time you've just spent with the world's most adorable 18 month old boy.

[Sir Charles]

l-t c,

That's fabulous. I was wondering where you've been. There have been so many Post related provocations in the past few days and you seemed unusually silent. I was hoping Fred Hiatt's place on the Forbe's list had not made your head literally explode.

Good luck on the adoption and your travels. Give us an update at some point.