Arizona Limits Itself To One Piece Of Racist Legislation Per Month

After all, the folks down in Arizona don't want to appear too bat-shit crazy:

A bill to require presidential candidates to show their birth certificates to get on Arizona's ballot won't win approval from state lawmakers.

With legislators working toward adjournment of their annual session, the sponsor of the bill says it won't get a state Senate vote because some fellow Republicans don't support it.

The House narrowly approved the measure last week.

The bill is an outgrowth of some Obama critics' doubts over whether he was born in the United States. Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed Obama's citizenship, and his Hawaiian birth certificate has been made public, along with newspaper birth notices.

I Think He Meant To Say Bush

“I believe that Barack Obama is God’s punishment on us today, but in 2012, we are going to make Obama a one-term president.”

-- Texas state representative Leo Berman, at a Glenn Beck event last Saturday.

So Leo, did the Lord God actually tell you that your punishment will only last four years and not eight years or longer? Only four years of punishment for what you GOP motherfuckers did to our country?

I believe The Almighty is letting you off easy.

Quote of the Week

"I outed him as a straight person."

-- Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) who accused Gregg Kravitz, her primary opponent, of pretending to be bisexual in order to pander to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender voters in her district.

My Favorite Part About Wall Street Reform Legislation

Now that it looks like Wall Street Reform will pass the Senate with at least some GOP support, does that mean that some Republicans will actually attend the signing ceremony? If it does indeed mean that, won't the GOPers who think that Obama is an illegal alien (one-half of them) and those who think he is the Anti-Christ (one-quarter of them) be totally pissed off?

I'm convinced that the main reason the Republicans initially decided to oppose Obama on everything is because they were afraid to tick off the Birthers, who -- as noted above -- make up half the GOP. But somewhere along the line, the Republican Party decided that is was far more perilous to vote against Wall Street Reform, so they concluded that it would be better to cooperate with Obama on this even though half of the Republicans believe that Obama is not an American citizen and therefore not a legitimate president.

I can't wait to see how this plays out.

An Honest Teabagger

"It's not just because he's black. I wish I could tell you that I loved this guy, that he was a great president, that I had faith in him. But I have none. Zero."

-- Teabagger Jerry Johnson, explaining that race is only part of the reason he does not like Obama.

Quote of the Week

[W]e're hoping that President Obama's policies don't succeed. . . .

-- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), directly expressing her sincere hope that the President will not be able to solve any of the problems that the GOP caused (and indirectly expressing her deep hatred for America).

Limbaugh's Idiocy On Display Once Again

Rush Limbaugh said this the other day with regard to the recent mining disaster in West Virginia:

Was there no union responsibility for improving mine safety? Where was the union here? Where was the union? The union is generally holding these companies up demanding all kinds of safety. Why were these miners continuing to work in what apparently was an unsafe atmosphere?

Brad Johnson at ThinkProgress offers up this response:

There’s a simple reason the union didn’t protect the miners: the Upper Big Branch Mine, like nearly all of the mines under Massey CEO Don Blankenship’s control, is non-union. In fact, the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) “tried three times to organize the Upper Big Branch mine, but even with getting nearly 70 percent of workers to sign cards saying they wanted to vote for a union, Blankenship personally met with workers to threaten them with closing down the mine and losing their jobs if they voted for a union.”

Of course, none of this really matters because Limbaugh can say whatever he wants and his listeners will believe all of it. I doubt a lot of Dittoheads visit the ThinkProgress website.

It Begins

Here we go:

A northern Idaho man who police say fired his shotgun near a U.S. census worker who was trying to deliver a census form has been cited for exhibition of a deadly weapon, a misdemeanor. * * *

FauxNews Should Throw In The Towel On This One

I love watching FoxNews when things are going wrong for the Republicans, so -- needless to say -- I was watching Fox a lot when Obama and the Dems passed Health Care Reform a couple weeks ago. It was hilarious.

The Fox talking heads were clearly agitated by the fact that the bill had passed, and they even went after Joe Biden in a big way for telling Obama that "This is a big fucking deal" when the President and Vice-President were too close to an open microphone. The funny part was that at least two of Fox's "guest" commentators thought it was a great moment, and I agreed with them.

In fact, Biden's "F Bomb" was my favorite part of the whole process. Even my Mom thought it was kicked ass, despite the fact that the word in question is not one of her favorites (and, to be fair and balanced, I'm pretty sure she didn't use the phrase "kick ass" to describe it).

But Fox just can't let this one go:

Fox News, which went bonkers over the “F-bomb” that Joe Biden dropped at the health care signing ceremony, has now done a poll to see if their flood-the-zone coverage of that very consequential moment has had an impact.

The answer is Not So Much, according to the poll’s internals:

As you may have heard, Vice President Joe Biden used foul language to describe how important he thought passage of the new health care bill was when he whispered to President Obama “this is a big expletive deal” — do you think the vice president’s use of foul language to describe the bill was offensive, or not?

Yes, offensive: 37%

No, not offensive: 57%

It was a great moment, Fox. Deal with it.

Palin/Bachmann 2012!!

Please God -- let this happen:

HANNITY: Are either one of you considering a run for the presidency in 2012? Just asking. Governor Palin, I’ll start — I’ll start with you. But before I get their answers, how many of would you like to see a Palin-Bachmann ticket?

PALIN: Well that sounds kind of cool. That sounds kind of cool.

HANNITY: Governor Palin, are you thinking about a run again?

PALIN: As I have said, I’m not going to close any doors that perhaps would be open.

By the way, on the issue of Republicans who don't know what the hell they are talking about, here is an excellent article concerning a recent interview with Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. I found this exchange on the pre-existing conditions issue to be particularly interesting:

If you somehow tell companies they can no longer deny coverage of pre-existing conditions, you need to provide them another way to eliminate free riders. Under the new law, individual mandates are that tool. As long as everyone is required to have coverage, nobody can game the system and there’s no longer any justification to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

So if the GOP plan is going to ensure that pre-existing conditions are covered, as Chambliss and McConnell suggested, how would they do it without individual mandates? What mechanism would they use?

Chambliss and McConnell had no answer. Literally.

After Chambliss fumbled an initial response, McConnell broke in with a long and familiar condemnation of the Democratic plan, including its failure to include tort reform. After a few minutes, I interrupted and brought him back to the question: OK, but how are the Republicans going to cover pre-existing conditions?

“The premiums are going up either way,” he said.

OK, I responded, a little stunned. That doesn’t explain how the Republicans intend to cover pre-existing conditions.

“The premiums are going up either way,” he repeated. That was that. We moved on, and I still don’t have my answer.

Don't forget -- the individual mandate was originally a GOP idea. It's pretty clear to me that the Republicans did not think it through when they decided to support coverage for pre-existing conditions but not support the individual mandate, which was their idea in the first place.

Do You Take Prison With Your Tea?

Oops:

Charles Alan Wilson, a 64-year-old Washington man who was angered over health care reform, has been charged with threatening a federal official for allegedly making profanity and misogyny-laced death threats in messages left for Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington announced today.

The complaint alleges that Wilson called Murray's office multiple times between March 22 -- the day after the health bill passed the House -- and April 4. In one message, he allegedly said that Murray "had a target on her back." In another, he allegedly said, "I want to (expletive) kill you."

The press release from the U.S. attorney continues: "Wilson discussed assisting others in an attempt to kill the senator. Wilson's threats were in response to the passage of the Health Care Reform Act." Wilson was arrested this morning. ***

By the way, you can put this one in the "No Surprise There" category.

Quote Of The Week

"Can you imagine if some of these reporters were working on a farm? You planted some seeds and they came out the next day. 'Nothing's happened. There's no crop. We're gonna to starve. Oh, no! It's a disaster!'"

Barack Obama, mocking reporters and pundits for their impatience with regard to the effects of the health care reform bill.

With regard to health care reform, it gives me nothing but pleasure to think that people like this idiot spend most of their day in a rage because these basic reforms are now the law of the land.

Right On Time

I've said this before, but the bottom line for the Democrats with regard to the upcoming Mid-Term elections is jobs creation. Health Care Reform, Finance Reform, and all the other "Reforms" won't mean squat if this economy didn't start creating jobs by the Spring of 2010.

Well, Spring is here, and so are the jobs:

The US economy created 162,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7 per cent, the government said on Friday, bolstering hopes that the economic recovery is gathering steam.

Temporary hiring by the government for the census only accounted for some 48,000 new jobs in March, meaning the private sector has begun churning out new positions.

Economists had expected non-farm payrolls to grow by about 200,000 positions, but they had factored in about 80,000 in temporary census hiring. ***

In addition, the figures for January and February 2010 have been revised and now show a net total of 62,000 positions.

Clearly, this is good news for the Democrats. As far as the Mid-Term elections are concerned, jobs creation needed to start now -- as opposed to this summer -- because the American people need time to get accustomed to the fact that our economy is on the mend and folks are being hired again.

Although the unemployment rate has remained steady at 9.7%, the truth is that our economy would have to create 200,000 jobs a month for an entire year just to reduce the rate by one point, meaning the Dems will probably be stuck with a high unemployment rate for quite awhile. Oh well.

By the way, Obama was on CBS this morning, and he was asked about the level of enmity on talk radio right now. Here is what he had to say:

"Well, I think, when you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck, it's pretty apparent, and it's troublesome." But, you know, keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out. It happens often when you've got an economy that's making people more anxious, but that's not the vast majority of Americans."

Obama also stated that those Americans know he wants what's best for the country and that he is trying to do what's right, even if they disagree with him. He's clearly trying to take the high road here, and although I've been critical of him for keeping an even keel and not getting angry enough at all the bullshittery, I think I understand what he is trying to do.

Obama truly believes that things will eventually calm down in this country, and he doesn't seem to want to burn any bridges by aggressively going after the folks who wish him nothing but ill right now. He's acting presidential. Let's see if this strategy pays off in the long term.

Romney's Blunder (With Update)

I think Mitt Romney blew a big opportunity. He should have kept his public comments minimal during the health care reform debate, then -- when the bill passed -- he should have come out and said, "Although there are parts of the bill I do not like, I find the overall package to be quite good and I support what the Congress and President Obama have done."

Sure, he would have been mercilessly attacked by the Tea-Baggers and all the Republicans who are afraid of the Tea-Baggers (which is all of them), but Romney isn't in Congress and isn't running for anything in 2010. The 2012 primaries are still a long ways off and anything can happen between now and then. Hell, just two short months ago, the popular thinking in this country was that Health Care Reform was dead and Obama's presidency was crippled as a result. Who knows what the political landscape will be like a year from now.

Instead, Romney currently finds himself in an impossible position -- he now has to distance himself from legislation that he himself came up with (i.e., RomneyCare in Massachusetts), and you know that his opponents for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination are going to repeatedly point out that ObamaCare is really just RomneyCare. In fact, such attacks have already begun. My point is that Romney was going to be attacked for his Massachusetts plan anyway, so why should he distance himself from it by opposing ObamaCare and in the process look like the Mother of All Flip-Floppers? By expressing support for ObamaCare, Romney could have defended himself from a position of strength and maybe even counter-attacked.

Every other GOP candidate for 2012 is going to be attacking Health Care Reform. Romney could have separated himself from the pack on this issue, and I think it was a big mistake for him not to do that. The GOP plan was to defeat the reform, and by doing so, break Obama's presidency. That strategy failed; but given that every Republican supported the strategy, it was a failure for every Republican. It didn't have to be that way.

By the way, will this be the new GOP anti-reform talking point?

UPDATE: John Cornyn's strategy on how to deal with ObamaCare? Praise it by faintly damning it:

NRSC Chairman John Cornyn plans to send a memo to Republican candidates Tuesday urging them to be proactive in shaping the campaign debate on health care and not let Democrats "distort our record and our ideas." "On the trail, it's critical that we remind people of the fact that it was Republicans who fought to force insurance companies to compete with one another over state lines for Americans' business. It was Republicans who fought to reform the junk lawsuits that raise medical costs and lower quality by forcing doctors to practice 'defensive medicine,'" Cornyn writes, emphasizing the GOP's record beyond its opposition to the Obama-backed health care bill. "It was Republicans who fought for policies that protected Americans with preexisting conditions and it was Republicans who proposed health care reforms that didn't cut Medicare by $500 billion and raise Americans' taxes by $400 million. It's Republicans who continue to believe that we should focus on reforms which actually lower health care costs for Americans, first and foremost." If the GOP thinks health care is going to work to their advantage this year, that doesn't mean they expect that to happen passively.

RepubliCare (With Update)

There is a lot of stuff coming out on how much of the recently-passed health care reform bill was really just a long list of ideas that Republicans had previously embraced. It's been fairly clear to me for quite some time that the HCR bill was mostly populated with Republican ideas, but neither the left or the right seemed to want to talk about this issue.

And for good reason: The GOP was simply out to "break" Obama no matter how many Republican ideas he embraced, and the Democrats certainly didn't want to point out that the reform package was pretty much based on ideas originally proposed by conservatives (their base wouldn't have liked that at all).

But now that health care reform is the law of the land, this story is starting to gather steam. Yesterday, we learned that Bush speechwriter David Frum, who was recently fired by the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI), made the following comment to fellow conservative Bruce Bartlett:

Since, [Frum] is no longer affiliated with AEI, I feel free to say publicly something he told me in private a few months ago. He asked if I had noticed any comments by AEI "scholars" on the subject of health care reform. I said no and he said that was because they had been ordered not to speak to the media because they agreed with too much of what Obama was trying to do.

Imagine that – a conservative “think” tank muzzled because too many of its members agreed with the President on how to solve one of the critical problems of our time. And the other side calls us Stalinists?

I’ll give the GOP credit, though – they had so much anti-Obama solidarity on this health care reform issue that the Republicans were even able to shut down their own intellectuals. [I was about to finish that thought with “Only in America,” but that’s about as un-American as you can get].

There's more. Check out this video. If you can't get video at your workplace, what it shows is an excerpt from an interview today wherein Campbell Brown at CNN asked GOP senator Orrin Hatch why he's against health care reform now even though he actually supported an individual mandate back in 1993. Hatch's response:

"In 1993, we were trying to kill HillaryCare, and I didn't pay any attention to [the individual mandate], because that was a part of a bill I just hadn't centered on, but since then, of course, 17 years later, when it comes up and I know it's possible it's going to pass, I looked at it, and constitutionally, I came to the conclusion, and everyone came to the conclusion, that this would be the first time in history that the federal government requires you to buy something you don't want."

I'm not even going to try to parse Hatch's bullshit response, because the point is that the media is finally starting to realize that "ObamaCare" is actually "RepubliCare" (or maybe we should just call it RomneyCare).

In any event, the Republicans really blew it on this issue, because all they had to do was embrace their own ideas! They could have easily claimed credit for a majority of the bill, and Obama most likely would have let them do it. Had the GOP done that, there would have been overwhelming bipartisan support for the reforms, and the signing ceremony that happened earlier in the week would have been a great day for all Americans as opposed to what it turned out to be, namely, a huge, momentum-building victory for Obama and the Democrats, and a call to violence for the radical right.

But my question is: What now? I expect that the media will come out with more reporting over the following weeks pointing out just how much health care reform is based on GOP ideas. If this happens, what will be the GOP response? Will Republicans just continue to deny the obvious, or will they be forced to pivot on this issue and embrace the reform? How can the Republicans embrace reform now after spending all that effort enraging their lunatic base?

As I mentioned on Wednesday, GOP Senator Chuck Grassley has already taken credit for some of the HCR law, and I expect we'll see more of this over the next few weeks. But the bottom line here is that the Republicans really backed themselves into a corner on this issue.

UPDATE: Here is what Obama said this morning on Today:

"[W]hen you actually look at the bill itself, it incorporates all sorts of Republican ideas. I mean a lot of commentators have said, you know, this is sort of similar to the bill that Mitt Romney, the Republican Governor and now presidential candidate, passed in Massachusetts."

More on this here.

Lukewarm Condemnation From NRCC

In fact, caliing it "lukewarm" would be generous:

Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) is one of the Democratic lawmakers who has been targeted after the health care vote -- and one Republican group suggests he has only himself to blame for the situation.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere said that while his organization doesn't condone the actions of the person or people who cut a gas line at Perriello's brother's house (apparently under the impression that the home was the congressman's), Perriello is not the victim.

"Central and Southside Virginians are the ones who are going to have the bear the burden of increased taxes," Sere told The Roanoke Times. "What you're seeing is a frustration among his constituents who believe he's not listening to them." * * *

Sere later tried to claim he was he was only referring to marches, demonstrations and letters -- and not physical threats -- but that's total horseshit, of course.

Clearly, GOP leaders don't want to seriously condemn any of the folks who are issuing threats against Democrats because these people form the base of the Republican Party. Check out these results from a recent Harris poll:

* 57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim

* 45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president"

* 38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did"

* Scariest of all, 24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist."

This poll goes a long way to explain why the Republicans have chosen to oppose everything Obama supports, even if the idea was originally a Republican one. I mean, how could a senator or congressman support anything Obama does in the face of these numbers? Such a person would have to go home and explain to half of his constituents why he is cooperating with that illegal-alien-Muslim-terrorizer in the White House.

Two-fifths of Republicans think that Obama is doing many things that Hitler did, and one quarter of them think Obama is the Anti-Christ. How could a Republican ever support Obama on any issue without pissing off these lunatics?

Senator Chris Dodd thinks that things might be loosening up a bit on this front:

"I think, frankly, there are a number of Republicans who went along with the strategy of 'just say no' who were never really happy with it, but if it worked they would go along," Dodd said. "They saw it fail. And now they've had enough of it. and they really want to be involved in crafting things."

I was thinking a similar thing the other day. The most essential part of the GOP's "Just Say 'No' To Obama" strategy was defeating Obama on health care reform; and now that such a goal cannot be reached, my thinking was that a lot of Republicans in Congress might decide that the time has come to do their jobs. But the aforementioned results from the Harris poll have caused me to do some rethinking on that.

By the way, I really like this.

Interesting Interview Of David Axelrod (With Update)

From HuffPo:

One of the president's closest advisers said on Tuesday that Republican opponents of health care reform let down their guard following Sen. Scott Brown's election in Massachusetts, in the process allowing Democrats and the administration to make a final, successful push for the bill.

In an interview with the Huffington Post hours after the president signed health care reform into law, senior adviser David Axelrod pointed to that special election in late January as a pivotal point in the long path to passing legislation.

"Some of the steam went out of the opposition after that," Axelrod said. "I think that people felt like they had made a statement. Perhaps they felt like they had killed health care reform... They thought the fight was over. And that [the president] couldn't now succeed. I do believe that. And it is almost as if they had made the statement that they thought they had stopped the thing. And so it created a breathing space for us to regroup." * * *

I think Axelrod makes a good point, but he and the rest of the Obama Administration need to beware of falling into the same trap. If the Dems for one minute think that momentum is on their side on this and that they can sit on their hands with regard to Health Care Reform, they should think again. The GOP has promised to come after them with everything they've got, and I expect that will happen.

I know that the most recent Gallup poll showed 49 percent approval and 40 percent disapproval of the health care reform law, but all the polls before that showed that most people opposed the reform. The polls basically reversed themselves overnight, and that can easily happen again.

What the Democrats need to do now is launch a spoiling attack against the GOP. Obama should travel all over the country and speak on this issue (I heard he was in fact going to do that). The Democrats and their surrogates should launch blistering attack ads on all the Republicans who opposed this bill (which is ALL of them).

One ad should attack Republicans individually. It should simply lay out the reforms, and then close with "Call Representative So-and-So and ask him why he and the rest of the Republicans opposed a bill that actually reduced the deficit and extended Medicare solvency by at least nine years and provided health coverage to 32 million Americans who didn't have it before."

I have a feeling that a lot of Democrats think this new law will basically sell itself, but that won't happen if they let the GOP frame the debate during the run-up to the Mid-Terms.

UPDATE: This new Health Care Reform law is so full of GOP ideas that I have no doubt Republicans will soon be coming out and taking credit for most of it. Of course, this won't happen right away, because the current Republican plan is to oppose All Things Obama (even if it was a Republican idea to begin with -- e.g., the Deficit Reduction Panel) and, as everyone knows, the GOP is masterful at keeping its people in line and there is no way in hell that . . . .

Wait! ... What's this? Could it be true . . . ?

GOP Senator Chuck Grassley takes credit for health care reform! That didn't take long.

Any bets on who will be the next Republican domino to fall? I pick Rep. Peter King of New York.

Victory!

Danimal just called me to concede that I did in fact win my $10 bet with him -- although his call might have been premature given that the GOP can still pull all sorts of delaying tactics to prevent the final vote from happening before midnight --but it is clear now that Health Care Reform will pass the House.

This is a huge accomplishment, historically and politically. If the bill hadn't passed, Obama's presidency would have been crippled and the Democrats would have been absolutely screwed in the upcoming Mid-Term Elections. Now they can campaign from a position of strength. In fact, with regard to the Health Care Reform issue, the Democrats need to do three things to the GOP during the run-up to the Mid-Terms: (1) attack, (2) attack, and (3) attack more.

Even though these reforms really aren't all that different from the stuff that the Republicans were supporting during the Clinton-era health care debate, the GOP nonetheless decided that the best thing for them to do politically was to sit on the sidelines and instead do anything and everything they could to turn this Health Care debate into Obama's Waterloo. They need to pay for that decision, and the Democrats can make them pay if they do the following things:

** The Dems need to constantly point out that the reforms passed today are very moderate. In fact, the whole thing was a huge compromise. The so-called "public option" was actually a compromise on the single-payer deal, which is hilarious because the public option wasn't part of the bill that was just passed. When Obama signs this bill into law, it should be a very somber moment -- he should simply point out that these basic reforms needed to be passed decades ago, and he should say that he signs on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens who died because the American people did not have the political will to get this done sooner.

** The Dems need to constantly point out that the GOP didn't do squat on Health Care Reform when they were in control all those years, and as a result 45,000 Americans died each year who wouldn't have died had they had health coverage. The GOP loves to protect unborn fetuses, but they don't give two shits about folks after they are born and Obama and company need to point out this hypocrisy at every opportunity.

** The Democrats need to constantly ask the Republicans this question: Why in the hell did your party uniformly oppose a bill that actually reduced the deficit and extended Medicare solvency by at least nine years and provided health coverage to 32 million Americans who didn't have it before!? One of the GOP's talking points on this issue is that these reforms will increase the deficit, and Republicans continue to make this argument even though these reforms actually reduce the deficit by $130 billion in the first decade, and $1.2 trillion in the second. The GOP will continue to bring up this fake issue; and every time Republicans do it, the Democrats should simply call them out as liars.

On that last point, Obama and the Dems need to rid themselves of their fear of calling Republicans "liars" on this (or any) issue. I hate it when Democrats use phrases like "well, that's not exactly true" or "Mr. So-and-So has his facts wrong." Lies such as "death panels" or "government takeover of health care" were able to gain traction because the Democrats' response to all that bullshittery was weak at best. That needs to change.

All you hear about these days is how badly the Democrats are going to lose this November. But that doesn't have to happen, especially if our economy starts creating jobs again over the next few months. But it will happen if the Democrats continue to act like a bunch of political weaklings.

Bad News For The GOP (With Updates)

The Congressional Budget Office just released its final numbers on the health care reform bill, and it is good news for the Democrats. Steve Benen sums it up:

[T]he final package costs $940 billion over 10 years. It reduces the deficit by $130 billion in the first decade, and $1.2 trillion in the second. The bill will bring coverage to 32 million Americans, while extending Medicare solvency by at least 9 years.

Democrats have begun calling the package the "biggest deficit reduction measure in 25 years," which happens to be true. It's also arguably the biggest cost control bill ever.

Also note, the final Democratic proposal lowers the deficit more than the previous versions. The Senate bill was projected to reduce the deficit by $118 billion in the first decade, and this one does even better. * * *

I have a $10 bet with Danimal that the House will pass the bill before the end of the day on Sunday, so this report gives me some hope that I might win that bet. Having a very active Dennis Kucinich on board doesn't hurt the Democrats' chances either:

A few hours after Rep. Dennis Kucinich switched his support to become a critical vote for the health care bill, he took to the House floor to ask wavering colleagues to join him. Astonished colleagues pointed to Kucinich (D-OH) darting from member to member on the House floor yesterday, saying privately they'd never seen him get so involved in whipping a vote.

It's not just progressives he's targeting to keep in the fold, it's everyone, a top Democratic aide told me. Members know that Kucinich - a staunch antiwar liberal long in favor of a single-payer system and often going out on a limb with his own agenda - is setting aside deep ideology to help get something passed. "It's a totally new dynamic. People are realizing he's doing it for history," the aide said. * * *

Even if this weekend's anticipated vote doesn't go the Democrats' way, the CBO report does give them a little cover. They can point out during the run-up to the 2010 mid-terms that the Republicans opposed a bill that actually reduced the deficit and extended Medicare solvency by at least nine years while providing health coverage to 32 million Americans who didn't have it before.

Of course, the Dems can more effectively use these arguments against the GOP if the bill passes. My hope here is that the House Democrats who are still on the fence will figure out that they are going to be attacked on health care reform no matter what happens with this bill, and that it would be better to defend themselves from a position of strength (i.e., defending a law that they passed without any GOP support) than from a position of weakness (i.e., defending a failed bill that they couldn't pass even though they controlled both branches of Congress and the White House).

UPDATE: How do we know the CBO numbers are bad for the GOP? Because the Republicans are attacking them.

UPDATE II: From First Read:

We’re told that the White House and House Dem leaders are fewer than five votes away from 216, after Dennis Kucinich’s no-to-yes switch yesterday and pro-life Dem Dale Kildee saying that he’s ok with the Senate bill’s abortion language. * * *

Quote Of The Week

"See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."

Isaiah 49:16 (i.e., the Bible passage that Sarah Palin quotes to justify her use of notes scribbled on the palm of her hand).

The Bible doesn't refer to teleprompters, so I guess that's why Palin has no problem attacking Obama for using them.