Peter Roff 35 minutes ago

Senate GOP Vows United Opposition to Health Reform Reconciliation

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

A unified Senate GOP let the Democrats know Wednesday that it will resist efforts to ram the healthcare bill through Congress using the legislative maneuver known as the reconciliation process.

In a letter to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, the 41 members of the Senate Republican Conference announced they would vote as a bloc in order to remove the changes needed to "fix" the Senate healthcare bill that are necessary to winning the votes of recalcitrant House Democrats unhappy with the cost of the total package as well as the comparatively weaker language banning abortion funding.

As things currently stand, the House must pass without amendment the version of the healthcare bill approved by the Senate at Christmas in order to get around the possibility of a GOP filibuster. If the Senate bill is amended in the House it would have to go back to the Senate once again, where it would be "dead on arrival" because Reid is now one vote short of the 60 he needs to bring it to the floor.

To get around this problem, congressional Democrats have been working on a strategy involving the reconciliation process where the changes demanded by wavering Democrats necessary to winning their votes for the Senate version of the healthcare bill would be worked out in reconciliation, a parliamentary maneuver typically used to address budget and spending issues that cannot be stopped with the filibuster.

The GOP letter makes its combined objection to the strategy clear.

Mary Kate Cary 03:48 PM ET

A Wine Diet? Study Shows Alcohol Helps Women Lose Weight

By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog 

Ladies, great news today! According to the New York Times, "new research suggests that women who regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers and are at lower risk for obesity." 

The study was published in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, and get this: It states that compared with nondrinkers, the risk of becoming overweight is almost one third lower for middle-aged women who drink one or two "alcohol beverages" a day (let's just cut the mumbo-jumbo and say WINE). 

Other gems buried in the research: The less-weight-gain-if-you-drink rule doesn't apply to men (sorry, guys, I'll just drink your wine for you), for two reasons. First, alcohol seems to speed up a woman's metabolism, but not a man's. So we might actually burn calories drinking wine? Is that like the story that chewing the grapefruit uses up more calories than the grapefruit contains? How great is that?

John Aloysius Farrell 12:33 PM ET

Why Cheney, Kristol Are Wrong About DOJ Al Qaeda Lawyers

By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

More than a little on Thomas Jefferson Street have I poked conservatives for abandoning their libertarian principles when their espoused values clashed with partisan gain. It's fair, then, to praise conservatives like Ken Starr, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and others for defending the Al Qaeda 7 from attack by Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol, and other right-wing opportunists.

The issue is not whether enemy combatants are entitled to the same rights under our Constitution as American citizens. They are not--though our conservative Supreme Court is, slowly and deliberately, awarding foreign detainees considerable protections. The question is whether an American lawyer who represents an unpopular cause should be the target of a witch hunt. And that is where your rights, and mine, get whittled away by folks like Cheney and Kristol, in their drive for personal influence and attention, or partisan profit.

Robert Schlesinger 11:56 AM ET

Are Republicans Trash Talking Into a Healthcare Reform Trap?

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Republican leaders' concern for centrist House Democrats is really rather touching. But it may for a couple of reasons be self-defeating. Blue Dogs and other fiscally focused House Democrats wrestle with the issue of whether to vote for the Senate's version of healthcare reform--which has provisions they don't like--on the promise that the Senate will then pass a bill fixing said problems. One issue: House Democrats simply don't know if they can rely on their upper chamber brethren to follow through and pass whatever changes are agreed upon. Now come House and Senate Republican leaders with helpful advice for wavering Democrats: Don't trust the Senate, they'll hang you out to dry.

Peter Roff Yesterday

Pelosi: Pass Health Reform So You Can Find Out What’s In It

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

It has been said well and famously that politicians only really commit a gaffe when they tell the truth without meaning to. Add House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the list.

Speaking Tuesday to the 2010 Legislative Conference for the National Association of Counties, Pelosi began the windup of her healthcare pitch by alluding to the controversies over the healthcare bill and the process by which it has reached its current state. Then, just after saying, "It's going to be very, very exciting," Pelosi gaffed, telling the local elected officials assembled that Congress "[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it, away from the fog of controversy."

Robert Schlesinger Yesterday

Romney's 2012 Health Reform Problem

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Mitt Romney told Fox News Sunday this past weekend that the healthcare overhaul he presided over in Massachusetts was the "ultimate conservative plan" which has little to nothing in common with the villainously liberal Obamacare plan inching through the Congress. Of course as the Huffington Post's Sam Stein points out, the Romney and Obama plans have several things in common, like insurance mandates, minimum standards, and subsidies for people who can't afford coverage. The key differences, according to Romney, are that his plan lacks price controls, and that Obama's plan is federal, rather than state based.

Anyway, as Greg Sargent reports, the actually conservative Club for Growth isn't buying Romney's healthcare repackaging. According to Sargent, one club official said "unequivocally" that it is "not a conservative plan," and that if Romney thinks otherwise, he's "in the wrong party."

Especially in 2012--and especially if the health overhaul passes--this is going to be a problem for Romney.

Peter Roff Yesterday

Government’s GM-Chrysler Ties Make Toyota Probe Look Bad

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

There are a lot of places a politician does not want to get caught in Washington. One is leaving the scene of an accident. Another is coming out of a strip club. A third is in the middle of an apparent conflict of interest.

The charge that an appearance of a conflict of interest exists is, more often than not, used as a smear, as a way to blacken someone's reputation without having all the facts in order. It's hard to defend against, something on the order of deciding how answer the question "Hey buddy, when did you stop beating your wife?" in a way that doesn't add to your troubles.

An apparent conflict of interest, being largely subjective and based on the way an aggrieved party or crusading journalist interprets the facts, is a difficult thing to explain. Which makes it far more difficult to deal with than an actual conflict of interest--which these days is usually dispatched easily by admitting to it or reporting it, apologizing, and then seeking and receiving a waiver from the controlling legal authorities, which allows everyone to go forward as if nothing untoward happened.

For that reason, apparent conflicts get far more attention than actual conflicts. And it's a shame.

Take the case of Toyota. The giant Japanese automaker is now being investigated by several federal agencies and--thanks at least in part to pressure from the White House--at least one committee of the U.S. Congress, which are looking into allegations that many of the cars it currently manufactures have safety problems.

Robert Schlesinger Yesterday

Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh Unwise to Embrace Nutty Eric Massa

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Is it possible that ex-Rep. Eric Massa is some sort of Democratic sleeper agent? Perhaps a clever test devised by Democratic leaders to tease out the worst cases of Obama-obsessed lunacy on the right? One can almost imagine the chortling in Democratic meetings: They hate Obama so much they'll believe anything if it casts him in a bad light. I'll bet they'd even embrace a patently nutty, single-payer-healthcare-touting, ethically tainted, backbencher if he was nasty to Rahm.

Consider the evidence.

Laura Chapin Yesterday

Texas Gov. Rick Perry Won the Battle but Could Lose the War

By Laura Chapin, Thomas Jefferson Street blog 

Memo to Rick Perry: Santa Anna thought it was all over after the Alamo, too. 

Last week--ironically, on Texas Independence Day--Texas Gov. Rick Perry won a smashing victory over his primary challenger, Texas's senior United States senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, by 21 points. He did it the old-fashioned way: jingoism and vitriol, appealing to the lowest common denominators among Republican base voters. 

Rick Perry may have won the battle and lost the war, because here's the truly offensive part: He doesn't believe a word of it. Every outrageous pronouncement is simply a foil to set himself as the True Texan in the race. The more eastern pundits attack him, the better he likes it. Perry has reincarnated himself as Ricky the 14th: Texas, C'est Moi. 

So what's behind the hairspray? Rick Perry is as cynical and mundane a politician as they come. He talks about promoting jobs while raising taxes on small businesses. He talks about being a stand-up guy and fighting Washington corruption while protecting the lobbyist/government revolving door in Texas. He rails against Washington while ensuring that Texas remains a federal tax "donor state." And he relentlessly ensures that Texas kids end up at the bottom of the economic ladder.