According to CNN, James Carville thinks the Democrats in the Senate should force a Republican filibuster of health care “reform”.
“What about this?,” Carville said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, “Suppose they pass a House bill that can get 56 Senate Democrats.” Then, Carville suggested, instead of using reconciliation, a special budgetary maneuver in Senate procedure that frustrate GOP attempts to mount a filibuster, Democrats should call for a vote. “And make [Republicans] filibuster it. But the old kinda way is that they filibuster it and make’em go three weeks and all night and [Democrats] will be there the whole time.
“Then, you say, ‘They’re the people that stopped it. We had a majority of Democrats. We had a good bill. They stopped it.’”
How can anyone, much less a professional political hack like Carville, not recognize what would happen? There’s a bipartisan movement happening, and it’s against ObamaCare, not for it. Even if there were 56 votes in the Senate (and I’d be surprised if there were 46), these folks have to understand that voting for the bill as written will assure this will be the last term for many of them.
It’s happened before.
The Democratic strategist also rejected any comparison between the Clinton administration’s failed efforts at health care reform in 1994 and the Obama administration’s efforts now.
Democrats “pulled the plug,” Carville said, on health care reform in August of 1994, just months before the mid-term election where Republicans took control of the House. Now, “this is August of the year before the election,” Carville said.
“Make’em filibuster it and then run against a do-nothing Congress [in 2010],” the former aide to Bill Clinton and longtime ally of both Clintons told CNN’s John King.
While the American public isn’t known for it’s long memory, on this issue, I think timing isn’t going to matter.
His wife, seems to better get it, I think.
“He’ll be fine but the Democrats in Congress won’t. And you’re already hearing Democrats in Congress saying, ‘This is déjà vu. This is what happened with Bill Clinton. He makes us walk the plank and then we lose’ — as they did . . . in 1994,” the Republican strategist said.
Matalin also predicted that like Mr. Obama’s approval rating would bounce back after losing his Democratis House majority in 2010, just like Clinton’s did after the 1994 election.
Of course, that’s the best possible solution. A President that reminds Republicans that they are the ‘small government’ party, and their control of the purse strings. Getting as little as possible done isn’t at all a bad thing; just ask Bill Clinton.
Windy Recycling Day 