I couldn’t be happier. What are the Republican’s going to do, put him on double-secret probation? Road Trip!!
I’ll just copy my comments from the other thread:
They recessed Friday until April 12th.
Other than wondering why he waited six months, I have no problem with this. What choice did he have?
I’m thrilled. I remember during the primaries Obama said he wanted to include the other side in the process of making policy. Clinton (rightly so, I’m sad to say), thought that was a naive position and asked him what he was going to do when they just stuck a roadblock in front of every path. He said he thought the right thing to do was try to work with the opposition, but if that doesn’t work you ultimately have to brush them aside and move forward without them*.
He’s fulfilled his obligation. There is no public option, there aren’t a lot of things he wanted in the bill, things the right wouldn’t stand for. He gave up a lot and still there wasn’t a single republican vote for the health care bill in the house. Not one. The right is marching in lockstep, they clearly won’t work with him. Despite losing a national election in every way possible they aren’t willing to compromise at all. It’s time to brush them aside and move forward.
*I am paraphrasing here, but it’s the general gist of the argument.
You forgot to tell us the other half (what these Republicans were offering as their end of the proposed political bargain).
Purity of essence, Steve.
It’s always purity of essence with these modern day conservatives.
Find someone the Senate is willing to confirm.
The problem isn’t that the Senate isn’t willing to confirm. The problem is that the nominees aren’t making it to a vote.
It only takes one Senator to place a hold, and often the holds have nothing to do with the person nominated, but are just so the Senator can call attention to some other issue. I suspect somewhere between most and all of the current nominees would easily be confirmed if brought to a vote, most would probably even survive a filibuster attempt.
So to make it through the confirmation process, you don’t need the support of the Senate, you need the unanimous support of the Senate, and they may vote against you based on things that have nothing to do with you, but because they’re having a spat with the President based on some unrelated issue.
You can’t go lower then 0 votes. They are like 3 year old kicking their feet and saying they aren’t going to go out, and then having a tantrum about being left home. When the GOP reaches the maturity level of the average 7th grader (I’m not setting the bar very high here) then we can talk.
It’s just like them complaining that Obama is not longer being bipartisan, or that they didn’t have a say in the health care bill after those involved in the compromise voted against it.
It looks like there is no such person.
Sure there is. The Republicans would confirm someone if they were allowed to pick that person.
But a Democratic pick is, for them, by definition unqualified and not confirmable.
Leaving aside the issue that most of these blocks weren’t about the qualifications of the nominee anyway, but just a way for Republicans to continue to obstruct Obama for the sake of obstruction.
But they’re not obstructing just for the sake of obstruction, they’re obstructing for the sake of fucking Obama over and getting more of their guys elected in 2010; maybe even a second “torture president” come 2012.
Obama showed more restraint than I would have. He should have simply filled all 70+ vacancies.
Well put.
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