Talking Points Memo

All Nonsense

2010-03-16T22:35:42Z

The procedure every(GOP)one is so up in arms about is called a "self-executing rule." How many times did the Republicans use it the last time they controlled Congress, 2005-06? More than 35 times! And the Democrats? They complained about it then too, though to the best of my knowledge there were no claims of treason.

Norm Ornstein has the story.

Petraeus Makes His Move

2010-03-16T21:59:59Z

I mentioned a few days ago that part of the backstory to the recent crisis in US-Israeli relations is tied to a briefing David Petraeus gave the Adm. Mullen and the Joint Chiefs back in January. (And let's not get upset about the word 'crisis'. Friendships and alliances have occasional controversies and crises. There's nothing wrong with that. Denial feeds problems.) At that briefing, which reportedly to the Chiefs and the administration by some surprise, Petraeus made a straightforward case that the lack of progress in settling the Israel-Palestine dispute was damaging American interests in the Middle East and the lands of Islam more generally.

Now we have him saying it in his own words, in prepared remarks before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Lists under root causes of "drivers of instability, inter-state tensions, and conflict ... [and potential] root causes of instability or as obstacles to security" Petraeus notes the following ...

Insufficient progress toward a comprehensive Middle East peace. The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the AOR [CentCom Area of Responsibility]. Israeli-Palestinian tensions often flare into violence and large-scale armed confrontations. The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world through its clients, Lebanese Hizballah and Hamas.

In a sense, all of this is no more than commonsense, a given in many conversations about the US position in the world, especially in the arc of Muslim majority nations from the eastern Mediterranean to Indonesia. The continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict directly harms the vital interests of the United States. But if this is the consensus view at the highest levels of the US military, that's a very different world we're living in than the one we've been in heretofore.

What remains to be seen is whether this is a statement not to be acted upon or a strategic analysis that will inform Pentagon policy.

Presented By:

2010-03-16T21:59:59Z

Big Boats

2010-03-16T21:25:32Z

Evaluating the Connecticut Senate and Gubernatorial hopefuls, yacht by yacht.

Taketh the Cake

2010-03-16T20:24:10Z

Okay, this is rich. Rep. Eric Cantor is insisting that Speaker Pelosi hold an up or down vote on the original senate bill alone rather than a single vote on the original bill and the amending bill.

Really?

Have we forgotten why we're here? The entire reason we're in this situation is that Cantor's fellow party members in the Senate won't allow any votes on health care at all. They wouldn't allow it last year and they're still blocking a simple up or down vote on any health care bill in the senate. That's the whole ball of wax.

So why doesn't Speaker Pelosi propose a trade. Cantor gets his pals in the Senate to allow a simple majority vote on health care and then everything can be done through a plain old-fashioned conference report. And voila, everything's taken care of.

Seriously, Republicans are standing tall on majority rules and procedure when everything happening here stems from the Republicans refusing to let the majority vote on anything?

Let's Be Clear

2010-03-16T17:07:08Z

Before the bamboozlement gets too far, let's be clear about what the House is considering doing. There are two bills. The senate's original bill and the changes to that bill the House has now negotiated with the Senate. Normally, this is all hashed out in a conference committee. And it's all voted on in a single vote. In this case, that's not possible because of the continuing Republican filibuster in the Senate. So the House is considering taking both bills, consolidating them into a single vote, up or down. The old fashioned way. This isn't 'not having a vote'. And this has been done repeatedly before. Anybody who thinks these two bills shouldn't be passed simultaneously or thinks one or the other shouldn't pass has a simple solution. Vote no. Simple.

This isn't complicated. It's consolidating two votes into one.

Unease

2010-03-16T17:02:45Z

We're picking up signs that the right is having some success with their 'no vote' meme. It's actually true. There is a vote;they're consolidating both into one. But some wavering Dems in the House are starting to bleat. We'll have details later this afternoon.

Pricey

2010-03-16T16:08:26Z

Judge upholds $20,000 fine against Birther Queen Orly Taitz.

The Higher Learning

2010-03-16T15:44:11Z

Rachel Maddow discusses with former Rep. and now John McCain senate challenger J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) whether marriage equality really will lead to marriages between men and horses. Watch it.

Desperate

2010-03-16T15:20:12Z

"All liquored up on sake" ... "a suicide run" ... bizarre invocations of assassination. Threats of civil (or perhaps not so civil) disobedience against new Health Care laws. The Republican rhetoric sure is heating up as momentum gathers for a final vote on Health Care Reform. But there's no missing that it's the intensity of desperation.

For weeks many Republicans and Democrats have argued that if Health Care Reform is unpopular now (which it is by a marginal and decreasing degree) it's not going to get more popular once the Democrats pass it in the face of popular opposition. On its face this is a plausible argument. It even contains a certain logic. Republicans have obvious political reasons for making the argument. And some Democrats probably even believe it's true. Yet the available polling and historical evidence all suggests that it's flat wrong.

As I noted yesterday, since the Dems got back on track toward passing Reform, they haven't taken any hit in the polls. Indeed, support for the Democrats and Reform itself are both rising. Trend or not, what's certain is that there is no evidence from polling data that the renewed push is hurting the Dems in the least. And there's increasing evidence to the contrary. And that simply confirms the most salient and real lesson of 1994. For all the rise in right-wing militancy, discontent over guns and other wedge issues, and even with all the structural threats to Democratic rule, what really killed the Dems was that at the critical moment they flaked. President Clinton bet his whole presidency on grand promises about Health Care Reform. His party controlled the entire federal government (though the control was more illusory than today), and they didn't deliver anything. Impotence isn't just demoralization to supporters and enlivening to political opponents. For a big swath of the public, policy proper in its specifics is always in competition for a more elemental desire for effective and efficient government, government that can at least be expected to execute in most cases on its plans. It's really not such an alien or odd predisposition. In our lives, most of us would like to work with or under managers who share our values and management styles. But given the choice of an effective manager who we don't particularly like and an incompetent, I think most of us would prefer the former.

Passing Health Care Reform won't save Democrats -- whatever 'save' means in this context. They're going to have a very hard November. But there's little doubt that passing will improve their prospects politically -- perhaps only marginally, perhaps by quite a lot. Republican leaders get that, which is why they're pulling out all the stops for a final push to stop it. So since the politics makes sense and the policy does too, there's simply no reason not to push ahead to conclusion.

Who's Being Insulted?

2010-03-16T13:58:26Z

Jon Stewart: How Congress is like Pro Wrestling. Watch it.

Presented By:

2010-03-16T13:58:26Z

CODE RED!

2010-03-16T13:43:00Z

Tea partiers, Republicans, and Republicans masquerading as tea partiers are rallying against health care reform this morning on Capitol Hill at an event they're billing as "Code Red."

This rally is being organized by the more establishment side of the tea party movement -- or co-opted side, depending on your point of view. The sponsors include the Tea Party Express, founded by Republican operatives in California, and FreedomWorks, the corporate-funded outfit run by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey. Accordingly, the list of speakers is dominated by elected Republicans, albeit some of the more whacked members of the GOP caucus: Reps. Michele Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Joe Wilson, and Phil Gingrey.

We'll have a reporter and photographer there and will bring you more on the event later.

TPMDC Morning Roundup

2010-03-16T13:24:14Z

White House Middle East Envoy George Mitchell delays his planned trip to Israel indefinitely. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

How To Sell It

2010-03-16T12:58:13Z

We've posted the talking points that the White House is circulating to House Democrats on how to sell health care reform as a campaign issue in 2010.

Really?

2010-03-16T05:08:08Z

With "Beware the Ides of March" now the new GOP talking point, we are all clear that that was a warning that a bunch of knife-wielding senators would slaughter Caesar while visiting the Senate, right? Is this a reference to GOP reconciliation dead-enders? What are we talking about here?

Israel-Palestine

2010-03-16T04:02:42Z

A fascinating quick read from Ha'aretz's Akiva Eldar. The first part gives some of the background on just what happened with that announcement of new building in East Jerusalem that has rocked US-Israeli relations. And then after that, a brief discussion of a conversation Eldar had a few years ago with David Kimche, the legendary Israeli spy and diplomat who died last week at 82. They discussed a proposal Kimche and a colleague submitted to the Israeli cabinet in June 1967, outlining a two-state solution quite similar to the various proposed 1967 border-based agreements that are the only real solution to the conflict. Of course, the idea was rejected.