I’ll say this for George Bush: you’d never have caught him frantically negotiating against himself to take the meat out of a signature legislative initiative just because his approval ratings had a bad summer. Can you imagine Bush and Karl Rove allowing themselves to be paraded through Washington on a leash by some dimwit Republican Senator of a state with six people in it the way the Obama White House this summer is allowing Max Baucus (favorite son of the mighty state of Montana) to frog-march them to a one-term presidency?
Indeed. It's also not just something that happens in Washington either. Last week I was having a conversation with a colleague about the various land mines that former Coloado governor Bill Owens left laying around, specifically the destabilization of the Public Employees Retirement Account. From Owens' far-right ideological perspective undercutting PERA in his first term was a significant victory that is paying great dividends right now. Democrats seem to be incapable of seizing ideological victories in the same way. As Taibbi says, Democrats bargain away real reform and real change before the process even starts.
1 comment:
Agreed Steve. I was telling some friends last night that the Dems should have unveiled a 100% real single payer European-style health program. Then when all the usual suspects freaked out the same they freaked out with the watered down ideas, then they could have "compromised" into the public option.
I'm totally at a loss for words right now. If the White House really is abandoning the public option because of the town hall crashers, then I shudder to think how every other legislative battle will go the next three and a half years.
Glad to know someone like you is just as frustrated as someone like me.
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