Yes, this is like the 7th or 8th post announcing the death of the monster but it's not like there's going to be a surrender announcement where the Democrats stack their 2,000+ page bills and march off the field.

The latest evidence that all this talk of the House passing the Senate bill and then 'fixing' it through reconciliation is nothing more than talk is that Democratic senators are bailing on the idea and it's no sure thing Harry Reid can even round up the 50 votes he'd need.

ReidÂ’s spokesman, Jim Manley, declined to comment on whether the majority leader believes he can round up 51 votes.

“We are still discussing next steps and options with the House, the White House and our caucus,” Manley said.

Seven Senate Democrats and one independent, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, cautioned that they were wary of using reconciliation to push ahead with health care reform. Some said the maneuver would show Americans that Democrats had not learned from the Massachusetts election.

No, not all 8 are guaranteed to vote no but it looks like Reid is starting with about 51 votes and that means he can only lose one more. Add in the Republicans' threat to use their right to bring up as many amendments as they want on any subject and that number is going down, not up.

On Tuesday House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he thinks Democrats will have a decision by next week on how to proceed. He doubts the White House is going to be very involved.

And Hoyer hinted that Congressional Democrats will, for better or worse, be largely on their own in making those decisions.

“I think the president will speak to healthcare,” Hoyer said. “I don’t know what he’s going to specifically say but I would be surprised if he says specifically, exactly how he hopes to get healthcare done.”

Obama has played this, "let them figure it out" thing with Congress on all his major initiatives. How's that worked out so far?

The thing is, Obama is moving on from health care. No, he's not saying it that way but he's clearly made his 'hard pivot' from it to his faux populism, spending freezes and jobs, jobs, jobs. That's hanging congressional Democrats out to dry with an angry base.

Obama isn't and can't come to their rescue, so what's in it for congressional Democrats to keep going on with what is a lost cause? Obama has moved on to something he thinks is more popular, why won't congressional Democrats follow him to what they hope is greener pastures?

To paraphrase John F. Kerry...Who wants to be the last Democratic Congressman or Senator to lose his or her seat for a bill that isn't going anywhere?

It's all over but the shouting and the singing but mostly the singing.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:02 PM | Comments (236)
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Good evening M&Ms.

Tech Support Tuesday

Over the last few years I've become a big fan of Firefox. It rarely crashes, handles lots of tabs, and has a ton of add-ons that make surfing the web so much more pleasant. Here are a couple I think are particularly worthwhile:

Adblock Plus
Blocks ads and pop-ups. And yeah you should disable it on AoSHQ or else the ewok may starve or be forced to go hobo.
Google Toolbar
Lots of useful features - my favorite is that it lets do a Google search on anything highlighted from the right-click menu.
BetterPrivacy
Automatically deletes flash tracking cookies
Copy Plain Text
Lets you copy and paste stuff off a web page without any annoying formatting
Shorten Url
Automatically shortens urls from a right-click menu
Long Url Please
Expands shortened urls so you can see what you're about to click into to.
AutoPager
Automatically loads the next page when you get to the end of the current one.
Reload Every
Lets Firefox automatically reload a certain page every so many minutes. more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 05:43 PM | Comments (715)
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Obama will freeze salaries of top White House officials.

U.S. President Barack Obama will freeze the salaries of senior White House officials and other top political appointees for savings of $4 million in fiscal 2011, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

Fiscal responsibility. It's like a fevah, sweeping DC.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:24 PM | Comments (155)
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Really?

Really?

Posted by: Ace at 03:41 PM | Comments (206)
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No, guess lower.

Yes, it's a biggish newspaper, but you'll have to guess lower.

The answer is thirty five.

Or about the number of friends on your average MySpace page.

Corrected: Ouch! Newsday, not Newsweek as I had thought... Damn, even as I'm writing it I knew Newsweek was now only online. I thought maybe they had some special thing like the NYT had for Krugman.

Ah, well. Still funny.

Posted by: Ace at 02:58 PM | Comments (148)
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Since the major accomplishment of the DemocratÂ’s year long Senate super majority was the election of Scott Brown, they have decided to not run on what they did but rather to try and divide Republicans from the Tea Party groups.

"Given the pressure Republican candidates feel from the extreme right in their party, there is a critical -- yet time-sensitive -- opportunity for Democratic candidates," the DSCC wrote in the memo, which was obtained by FoxNews.com. "We have a finite window when Republican candidates will feel susceptible to the extremists in their party. Given the urgent nature of this dynamic, we suggest an aggressive effort to get your opponents on the record."

The memo encourages Democratic candidates to compel their opponents to answer a series of questions on issues that have helped boost the tea party movement and reveal cracks in GOP unity, including health care, taxes and President Obama's citizenship and ideology.

Among the questions Democrats should ask Republican candidates:

"Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen? Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards? Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place? Do you think President Obama is a socialist? Do you think America should return to a gold standard?"

If a Republican answers no to any of the questions, the memo advises Democrats to "make their primary opponent or conservative activists know it. This will cause them to take heat from their primary opponents and could likely provoke a flip-flop, as it already has several times with Mark Kirk in Illinois."

Yeah, good luck with that.

If a candidate canÂ’t figure out how to navigate some of those questions, then they probably shouldnÂ’t be in politics to begin with.

Also, I think the Democrats are reading far too many liberal blogs. While some of the Tea Party types might be excited about the whole birth certificate thing and the gold standard thatÂ’s not likely to be the majority of Tea Party supporters.

Of course two can play at this game and the Republicans have a list of their own questions that in this environment are likely to play better with voters.

"These kinds of partisan parlor games simply reinforce that the Democrats have a tin ear on what's important to Americans," the committee wrote, citing the need for jobs and reducing the national debt, among other issues.

The memo urges GOP candidates to force Democrats to answer a different set of questions, including whether the $787 billion "stimulus" bill worked.

"Would you support a second so-called 'stimulus' bill, even though the first failed to create much-needed jobs? Or do you believe the unspent money should be returned to the taxpayers? Are you willing to hold open discussions to reach an agreement on bipartisan health care reform, or will you continue to support backroom deals -- such as the Cornhusker Kickback -- in order to ram an unpopular and costly government-run health care bill through Congress?

"Do you support increasing the nation's debt limit by yet another $2 trillion? Do you agree with the Obama administration that terrorists should be afforded the same rights as American citizens, tried in American courtrooms, and ultimately held on American soil?"

WeÂ’ve had the purity fights here but given how just about everyone rallied around Brown, it seems conservatives are far more practical in reality than it might seem in the comment sections of a blog. If the Democrats canÂ’t figure out the difference between a flame war and a real world campaign, I really donÂ’t think we should fill them in.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:49 PM | Comments (102)
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Dude.

Dude.

The nutshell version: The Cleveland Plain-Dealer spoke to “Ellie Light” on the phone this morning and got her to admit — in a “husky voice” — that her name’s really Barbara Brooks, she’s a nurse, and that she wrote the letters on her own initiative. She gave them some personal information to verify her existence and it checked out. Later today, another woman — not husky-voiced — called the Plain-Dealer and said that she’s Barbara Brooks and that it’s actually her husband, a Kossack named Winston Steward, who’s responsible for the Ellie letters and has now taken to posing as her because he’s afraid the “right-wing crazies” will get him. (Question: If you think you’re in danger, why would you expose your wife to that danger by posing as her?)

He posed as a woman, too.

Shocker.

Posted by: Ace at 02:24 PM | Comments (138)
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Oh -- one catch.

In the most Democratic state in the nation, Delaware.

Posted by: Ace at 12:13 PM | Comments (91)
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A big uh-oh if true.

Alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

Thanks to Shirley.

FBI Affidavit: This looks serious, man.

Thanks to MH.

Posted by: Ace at 12:05 PM | Comments (473)
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If I recall correctly (and I probably don't), that is in the range of what the 1994 polls showed just before the election. (In 1994, the polls only broke for Republicans very late.)

From Hot Air yesterday, Democratic-leaning pollsters now say that there is about a 50/50 shot of Republicans taking the House.

I put it at 65-35 myself.

Nine points is big.

Posted by: Ace at 11:40 AM | Comments (78)
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