Yesterday, I got a text from the Washington Post at 11:14 a.m., which read "Mass. Gov. Names Long-Time Kennedy Aide to Senate, Restoring Democrats' Filibuster-Proof Majority."
I laughed and thought, someone needs to tell the White House and the Democrats in the Senate about that "Filibuster-Proof Majority."
Case in point: Senator Tom Carper from Delaware. He's horribly concerned about what Republicans think on health insurance reform. Today, Carper said that he and Republican Mike Enzi (WY) agree on 80% of the bill and "at the end of the day what we need to do is focus on the 80% that we agree on, maybe set aside the 20% that we don’t agree on for some other day. And I hope at the end of the day that’s what we’ll do." Carper, who sits on the all-important Senate Finance Committee, only wants what the Republicans agree to. Via Jed @ DailyKos:
Jed's comment is perfectly on point:
If Carper is being sincere, it's hard to imagine a stupider thing for him to have said. Even if you accept his flawed premise that we should only do things everybody agrees on, the reality is that once you throw the twenty percent overboard, the GOP will decide to disagree with twenty percent of whatever is left over, and we'll be right back where we started.What is it with these Democrats who don't get that they've got power? The Republicans don't matter. Not even Olympia Snowe.
Jonathan Cohn at TNR posed a good question from someone he calls "one equally well-connected insider":
If Snowe doesn't support the bill in committee, are the Finance Democrats really going to vote out a bill that doesn't reflect Democrat values--the public plan, pay or play, etc.That's a very good question. Let's start by asking Tom Carper.
