"White House Denies Report They’re Pushing For Deal With Lieberman."

[Clio the Leo]

Infer into this what you will....

White House Denies Report They’re Pushing For Deal With Lieberman

The White House is shooting down a report in Politico claiming that Obama advisers are pushing Harry Reid to cut a deal to dump the Medicare buy-in to make Joe Lieberman happy.

White House senior communications adviser Dan Pfeiffer emails me:

“The report is inaccurate. The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible.”

Whatever the case, it doesn’t seem unlikely that the Medicare buy-in will be dropped if that’s what is necessary to get to 60 votes. But the White House insists it’s not pushing for any such thing, at least for now.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/white-house-denies-report-that-theyre-pushing-for-deal-with-lieberman/

Related, Steele admits that the GOP is trying to block "this massive government take over of health care..."
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/white-house-denies-report-that-theyre-pushing-for-deal-with-lieberman/

(lol, are you picking up what I'm putting down Jen?)

[emulatorloo]

1. I infer that P-O-L-I-T-I-C-O is full of shit, once again.

[babylonsister]

3. And they always get away with it and are praised by the beltway

talking heads. Go figure.

[tridim]

4. Can we ban them as a source now?

Please? They are right about 1% of the time, well actually they're "right" 100% of the time.

Fucking liars with a megaphone.

[emulatorloo]

12. I guess DU would get boring if we didn't have these daily POLITICO inspired "Emily Litella" moments

[grassfed]

TPM KOS w/ ind sources

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/14/814081/-Politico:-White-House-Pressuring-Reid-to-Cut-Deal-with-Lieberman

[Arkana]

20. Looks like Kos just got it from Politico.

Doesn't make the story true--it just means that Kos took the bait.

[Cha]

31. Kos will learn to double check politico.

[firedupdem]

2. Politico puts out divisive nonsense, and sits back and laughs

at people gobbling it up.

[Cant trust em]

5. Fancy that. nt

[Beetwasher]

6. Gee, Whatta Surprise

Amazing how gullible fools always fall for this Politico crap. Again and again and again and again. Pathetic really.

[Cha]

28. I know..once again the White House

has to use their time and energy to shoot down a story from politico..they can add matt taibbi to that list of fact challenged reporters.

'Cause they want to.. "Again and again and again and again. Pathetic really."

[Aramchek]

7. what do you know? Politico laid out the bait and the Haters took it without question, again

[tridim]

8. It's not like this is the first time either..

The same thing happens almost daily now.

Ban Politico from DU NOW.

[Arkana]

19. They're like Pavlov's dogs--and they accuse us of being brainwashed cheerleaders.

[Aramchek]

21. exactly, their mouths begin watering at the sound of negative reports regarding Obama

[harkadog]

9. What would you expect the White House to say?

Of course they would deny it. Let's see what the final bill looks like and then we will know the truth.

[polichick]

18. Exactly. nt

[Cha]

29. Politico has a very bad reputation of making up shit..

so EXCUSE me if I believe the WHITE HOUSE.

[jenmito]

10. Hah...

I sure am, Clio! K&R for the shout out. :D

[mkultra]

11. OBAMAZ A LIAR BUT POLITICO IS GOOD!

[high density]

24. Unnamed 'keyed in aids' are always more reliable than the named sources

Politico says so.

[Arkana]

13. That won't stop the people who want to believe the Politico report.

It'll get posted again and again by those who want to believe the worst of this administration.

[Cha]

33. Of course NOT! We need a WHITE HOUSE FACT CHECKER

on DU..PINNED!

[monmouth]

14. I'm hoping....lol...after a bill gets through, Joe Lie has his chairmanship

taken away and whatever else they can do to reign this cretin in. That will be my Christmas and New Year wish, and lower the boom on Mrs. Lie also....

[Clio the Leo]

15. Hookers.........

.... hookers and cocain ........ but not even that is enough to do anyone in anymore is it?

Sigh. It will be a long time until 2012 as far as our relationship with Lieberman is concerned I'm afraid.

[monmouth]

16. I was thinking of Ned Lamont earlier. Wonder what he's thinking...lol...n/t

[Clio the Leo]

17. Poor Ned. NT

[Jennicut]

39. He was not the greatest candidate actually. He was from Greenwich of all places.

One of the wealthiest cities around here. If you got someone more relate-able and with more experience I think Joe would be gone.

[Tom Rinaldo]

22. These are the political facts

The White House will NOT sit by quietly and allow Congress to fail at passing some HCR legislation this session that they can take credit for as an accomplishment of this administration. Coming up empty handed is not a political option they will consider. Does anyone disagree with this so far? Therefor:

1) Either Joe Lieberman or Olympia Snowe has to be convinced to vote for cloture and allow HCR to pass the Senate as currently proposed. Under this scenario that can be attempted by using sticks or carrots or both. Maybe Snowe has enough of a conscience to back down and vote for cloture so as not be the one to stop health care reform from happening, but I wouldn't count on it. I can't think of any sticks Democrats can use on Snowe. Maybe Congress can offer Main citizens some Christmas presents in return for her vote, but it's a long shot. I don't think carrots will work with Lieberman, had that been the case the deal would already have been cut with this last round of negotiations. Th3e biggest stick available is his Senate Chair, but are Democrats willing to whack him with it when he was also the 60th vote for cloture on the spending bill this last weekend? Even if they are willing to use it, I doubt it's a big enough stick. I believe Lieberman is resigned to shifting toward the Republicans because he can not get reelected in CT without their strong help. It's in his interest to make Obama look bad so that Republican fortunes will rise and give him a nice camp to defect to.

2) A deal must be cut with either Joe Lieberman or Olympia Snowe to change the latest Senate compromise HCR proposal enough to their liking to win their vote for cloture. In other words, pay Joe or Olympia's ransom demands to release the legislation out of their clutches. To date this has been the strategy choice used every other time there has been resistance from the Right to HCR proposals At every crucial step it has been watered down to win crucial "moderate" support. Maybe Democratic leadership won't go back to that well one more time, but to bet that they won't is going against a very well established pattern of behavior. Right now those demands include no Public Option PLUS no Medicare buy in for those 55 or over. Will progressives go along?

3) Choose the reconciliation route for HCR to get around the need for 60 votes for cloture. This is not an easy path and Democrats haven't been showing any enthusiasm for trying it so far. It is imperfect and can only be advocated for as an alternative to gutting core elements of HCR as the price for getting 60 cloture votes under the conventional route.

4) Defuse a filibuster threat by defusing a filibuster. This can be done by either using "the nuclear threat" to do away with filibusters altogether, or by changing the Senate rules to lower the number of votes needed for cloture to something like 55. Since Republicans are unlikely to eagerly cooperate with the latter, they may need to be blackmailed with the above "nuclear threat" as the price for their lack of cooperation if they don't.

So unless you think that the Democrats can pull off Number 1, Number 3, or Number 4, there WILL be a deal cut with Lieberman or Snowe.

[unblock]

25. regarding #4, it's not the 40 republicans who need to cooperate to lower the magic number to 55,

it's the remaining 5 jerks in our caucus **like lieberman** whose power derives in no small part from the magic number being 60, not 55.

in practice, i can't see this happening. it was possible to lower the numbers back when a filibuster caused all brought all sorts of embarassment to the senate, but it's real hard to imagine 60 senators agreeing to lower it.

unless, say, the democrats were to get 70 seats (enough to plow through any change) and then actually think ahead to when someday they will go back to 55 seats and change so that the republicans won't have filibuster power later. but politicians aren't known for that kind of foresight.

[Tom Rinaldo]

26. Democrats unlike Republicans shirk away from Hardball

I posted this potential exchange in another thread:

REID: "Give us a few Republican votes so we can invoke cloture on HCR, or else".

McCONNEL: "Or else WHAT?"

REID: "Or else give us the 10 or so Republican votes we need to change the Senate rules to lower cloture to 55 votes from 60".

McCONNEL: "Why on earth should I do that?"

REID: "Because if you don't I have the 51 votes I need to nuke all filibusters permanently right now, and I'll use them. I'll give you 72 hours to decide. Give me the votes to close debate on HCR, or the votes we need to lower cloture to 55 votes, or say goodbye to the filibuster and hello to Democrats governing with a simple, and I might add liberal, majority NEXT WEEK.

[unblock]

27. you presume reid has the 50 votes to nuke all filibusters

same logic, the 10 most conservative members of the democratic caucus would lose significant influence if they were nuke filibusters. so why would they cooperate?

[Tom Rinaldo]

35. We disagree on this

I think Reid could get them if he both he and the President wanted them, but I doubt that he would need them because suddenly Snowe and Collins and what's his face who is retiring from Ohio would vote for cloture. Most of our difficulties are with 3 or 4 Democratic Senators with another few who can be problematic. Don't be so sure that changing the rules would disempower moderate Senators. With a 55 vote cloture they could frequently compete for goodies in return for their vote. With the bar set at 60 the Senate leadership seldom has to pay many Senate Democrats off because most often we are obviously falling short and it isn't worth the effort.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

23. And the headlines go 'round and 'round, whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh...

And it comes out here:
http://www.politico.com/

[janx]

30. Knowing what we know now about the possibility of reconciliation,

we might guess that the unnamed source was talking about HOW to Deal with Lieberman!

:rofl:

[Cha]

32. You got that right, janx!

But, not before some of DU fell for the politico story, hook line and stinker.

:hi:janx

Capn Sunshine's on board..at least he wasB-)

[janx]

34. Right--I saw the Capn hereabouts not so long ago.

Can't wait for more about this reconciliation story! :party:

[IndianaGreen]

36. This denial falls flat in the face of more recent events

Posted at 6:45 PM ET, 12/14/2009

Democrats move toward dropping medicare expansion

By Shailagh Murray

Senate Democrats emerged from a special caucus meeting Monday night determined to pass a health-care bill by Christmas -- but without the Medicare buy-in plan that liberals had sought as an alternative to a government insurance option.

The Medicare buy-in was never warmly embraced by moderate Democrats, but independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman(Conn), whose vote is needed to break a GOP filibuster, appears to have dealt the proposal a mortal blow when he informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) on Sunday that he wouldn't support the buy-in plan in any form.

In the Monday evening meeting, Reid urged Democrats to accept political reality and move the $848 billion bill across the finish line without the proposal.

"It appeared that would be necessary," Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), a moderate, said in response to a question about whether the Medicare expansion would be dropped as he left the caucus.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/health-care-reform/daily-dose/?hpid=topnews

[Mass]

37. Who believes that Reid needed to be pushed to make a deal with Lieberman?

I suspect this report is correct: the WH and Reid are working hand in hand preparing to make a deal with Lieberman and Nelson.

[Clio the Leo]

38. So, anything interesting happen on the HCR front while I was gone?

lol ..... I KNEW when I read the WH's statement it was NOT going to be a good 24 hours. Hence my "Infer what you will." ugh

[budkin]

40. You guys who defended the White House Denial ready to eat up?? Your meal is here!

[chill_wind]

41. Defending and denial can be understood.

The extra-gratuitous, nasty rancor with which it is often offered, not so much.

To be sure, it's not one-sided. But this one's a beauty. I know Politico has a very hit and miss rep, but the last I knew, TPM was not some right-wing rag. And I don't think they take their talking points from dKOS.


(self-edit)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

42. The OP has been an Obama booster since their first post on DU.

I suspect they are going to resist The Crow Nosh until the bitter bitter end.