I disagree. It just makes me all the more riled up, that people are being gulled by the media to think they can get Blue Dogs to be anything other than RATs when in fact the result is foreordained based on that 222-count "Slaughter" vote. No one should stop calling. Just getting madder about "Who voted for the Slaughter Resolution" and demanding accountability thereto.
I want you to see what I got today on this, and the whole discussion is very compelling to me, that Pelosi is merely trying to save a few Blue Dog butts by green-lighting their NO votes.
Time will tell if this was right, but it sures sounds it to me...but yeah, don't get discouraged. Get even more DETERMINED to eliminate their majority, and leave there not even a shred of Congressional communists in donkey-clothes...
Obamacare passed...
The Charleston Daily Mail ^ | March 19, 2010 | Don SurberI hate to tell readers this, but Obamacare passed on Thursday at 2:22 PM.
That was when the House approved the Slaughter solution 222-203.
A vote for Slaughter was a vote for Obamacare. It did not barely pass because a few of those abstentions and maybe a couple of the Nos were green-lighted by the partys leadership.
The stories about the House votes all get the math wrong.
It is not about how many votes Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco needs it is about how many votes she can shed.
Pelosi is going to pass it 216-215 if she can, allowing more than 30 Democrats (mainly Blue Dogs) off the hook. They will be granted Indulgences by Pope Pelosi to officially vote against it so they can keep their seats.
Willie Brown, the longest serving speaker in Californias history, explained all this in his November 15 column in the San Francisco Chronicle: If theres one thing the recent health care vote proves, its that Nancy Pelosi is the most focused House speaker since Tip ONeill. Im not talking about the merits of the bill that emerged from the House the debate on that subject is far from over. Im talking about Pelosis behind-the-scenes leadership to get the job done in such a way that at-risk Democrats can still win re-election.
The pundits portrayed the 220-215 tally and 39 Democratic no votes as signs of Pelosis weakness. What they missed was that Pelosi got her majority while letting Democrats from conservative districts off the hook. Nancy knows that the first thing on every Democratic House members mind is getting re-elected. In turn, as speaker, her first and foremost job is to ensure they get re-elected.
She also knows that the most important vote they cast once they are re-elected will be to keep her as speaker. And if that means letting them be a Republican now and then, so be it. Thats not weakness, thats politics.
Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times is the only reporter I know of who gets it. He reported: But as the week inches along, with momentum steadily building to a Sunday vote, the party leaders are also beginning to decide which politically endangered lawmakers will be given absolution to vote no.
Politics is an art, not a science. It requires little brains, but much cleverness.
It is about power and Mrs. Pelosi wields it well.
The one remaining hurdle for Obamacare and it could be 20 stories high is whether Obamacare passes muster under the second paragraph of Section 7 of Article I of the Constitution: Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.
In order to make budget reconciliation in the Senate, you need a law. The Senate passed the bill. The House must adopt it and then the president must sign it into law for the Senate to revise it without a cloture vote.
If there is any change even one word in the House version from the Senate version, you might not have a law.
OK. I’ll buy that.