Jon Stewart applies the Glenn Beck method of “journalism” and discovers that Sesame Street‘s Bert is actually … Hitler. Watch.
Speaking in Moscow, Hillary Clinton calls the U.S. relationship with Israel “deep and broad, strong and enduring.” That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Reporting on big votes like the health care bill in the House can quickly get amorphous and it’s easy to lose track of the fact that despite all the noise, the focus from the White House and House leadership is on less than two dozen members whose votes are genuinely in play.
Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH) switches from no to yes on health care reform.
Wingnut Congressman: Health Care Reform will be as dire as “Great War of Yankee Aggression.”
(ed.note: Yeeehhhaaaaw …)
In a shocking development, Peggy Noonan is accused of making “the most cliched, hackneyed assessments.” In this case, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was referring specifically to her take on health care reform. Watch.
An article ran in the Politico yesterday which I thought rather credulously repeated Senate Republicans’ claims about how much success they think they’ll have scuttling the Health Care fix bill as it moves through the reconciliation process. (See our earlier piece on the Senate GOP’s psyops strategy to kill Health Care Reform in the House.)
But there’s a part of this drama that’s gotten far too little attention.
Most of what senate Republicans say they’re going to try to do is fight like crazy to keep the least popular parts of the original Senate package in the bill. That’s right. They’re going to go to the mat for the ‘Cornhusker Kickback.’ They’re going to do everything they can to prevent the “Cornhusker Kickback” from being overturned. Same with the “Louisiana Purchase”, the tax on “Cadillac” Health Care plans and a bunch of other stuff. Read More
There was an alleged Democratic memo (flogged hard by Drudge and originally published by Politico) which had the Democratic House leadership alleging telling members to keep quiet about plans for a “doc fix” later this year (basically something that would bust the budget and make the deficit reduction moot). But Democrats up on the Hill are saying categorically that no Dem communications person authored it. And they claim it’s a “hoax”.
A fraudulent memo leaked to the press sounds like something more out of a movie than anything that really happens in DC politics. But the Dems are screaming bloody murder. And the Politico has now taken down the piece to confirm its authenticity.
I’m not ready to call this a hoax. I definitely believe the leadership aides who say they’re sure no Dem office authored the thing. But there are a lot of Dem offices. And there’s always that weak link, someone who puts something stupid to paper. So even for them it’s hard to prove a negative. We certainly cannot. But Politico pulling the piece suggests they’re not confident it’s real.
But that’s where it stands right now. We’ll keep you posted.
The House Republicans are now holding a press conference attacking the CBO numbers which say that the Health Reform bill lowers the deficit. Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) didn’t reference the disputed memo but said that just this morning Speaker Pelosi said that they would do a “doc fix”. And she did seem to say that. Here’s the quote.
Q: Madam Speaker, on the Medicare question, the so-called doctor fix, can you speak to why that was not included in this legislation?