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Health Reform Advice Obama Might Get From Clinton
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2010 Comment (7)By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Dear Barack,
Healthcare reform is a big deal even if the era of big government ended nearly 15 years ago. And I’ve been where you are, man, and I feel for what you’re going through. If you can get it all done in a day, wrap up the deal with those masters of no, Senate Republicans, then you don’t need advice from me. But just in case you do, here goes.
First of all, the summer playbook was all wrong. You flattered and cajoled Sen. Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman, the same way Hillary and I tried to win over Sen. Moynihan, then the chairman of the same committee. Baucus courted Sen. Snowe all summer, but the Republican dashed Democratic hopes when she voted against the bill when it came to the floor. Ditto with Moynihan, who for weeks and months talked himself into believing he could cut a bipartisan deal with Dole, when all Dole was doing was playing for time. Time was not on our side, nor is it on yours. That’s why I like the look of the stakes today. Did you know High Noon is my favorite movie? But I digress.
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Obama's Presidential Rank: Yet Another Man's Man
Tweet Share on Facebook February 15, 2010 Comment (16)By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Just for today, shall we get real about Presidents and what they are like down deep inside?
Not their complexes nor their childhood myths, but a close look at some to see if he was "a man's man" or "a woman's man." The case of President Obama I'll leave for last. This is something historians often overlook in their biographies--with the notable exception of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Robert's father captured in motion John F. Kennedy's rather ruthless elegance and brilliant irony, accompanied by a charm that worked all the time, round the clock, on men and women. -
Time for Obama, Democrats to Show More Fight Against Senate GOP
Tweet Share on Facebook February 4, 2010 Comment (32)By Jamie Stiehm, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
At least, as President Obama showed last week, you can talk to the House Republicans and have a decent policy conversation. Not so the band of 40 Senate Republicans--soon to become 41, with Scott Brown of Massachusetts joining their ranks today.
Sweet reason just ain't their cup of tea.
I am not excusing the Senate Democrats when I say the Senate Republicans are a truly intransigent group under the genteel veneer. A closer look at the way they have bottled up the nation's business shows they are breaking the spirit of fair play, with our republic getting more fragile by the day. It has never been quite this bad before, which is why the American people don't know a strong-willed minority of lawmakers is actively stopping and making naught of legislation, pressing as it may be. My colleague and editor Robert Schlesinger has explained the fallacy of the Senate filibuster in this space crisply and clearly, pointing out that a so-called "supermajority" of 60 is considered necessary for even an up or down vote. That is how the Senate Democrats passed a healthcare bill by the skin of their teeth late last year. Yet even before Brown painted his state crimson, the yearlong effort had languished and the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy never saw the cause of his life signed into law.
