Public Option Alive

President Barack Obama has never previously said the public option must be in the health care bill. Senator Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have promised the public option in the bill. Obama's Joint Session of Congress speech left progressives wondering if the public option was being abandoned.

"The public option -- the public option is only a means to that end," the President said. "And we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal."

Administration officials implied a health care bill without the public option would be acceptable.

Rahm Emanuel's comments to the Wall Street Journal created a progressive backlash.

WASHINGTON -- It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said.

"The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private insurers honest," he said in an interview. "The goal is non-negotiable; the path is" negotiable.

Kathleen Sebelius and Robert Gibbs made similar comments on the Sunday talk shows. The White House held private meetings with health industries companies and refused to make the visitor logs public. Obama attempted to have Tom Daschle appointed as Health and Human Services secretary. Daschle is a paid advisor for UnitedHealth and Tennessee Hospital Association. He has also worked as a lobbyist. Daschle has been going to the White House in attempts to steer Obama from the public option. To make matters worst: a memo of the deal the White House and Max Baucus struck with the pharmaceutical industry has been leaked to Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim.



The Baucus bill has been greeted with contempt. Senator Jay Rockefeller said he won't support the Baucus mark up.

"There are only about 4 to 7 [Co-ops] that exist [nationwide]. And I’m very skeptical… of starting up a system that doesn’t work."

Rep. Anthony Weiner called the bill "dead on arrival."

Rep. Weiner on Maddow: Baucus Bill Dead on Arrival- Watch more Politics Videos at Vodpod.

President Obama has had a sudden change of heart. The Hill reports Obama gave a near endorsement of the public option.

"I absolutely do not believe that it's dead," Obama told Univision. "I think that it's something that we can still include as part of a comprehensive reform effort."

Blogger Jesse Livermore predicted in August that the Baucus bill would fail. I agree that the bill will pass by reconciliation.

Side note: Health care industry officials that met privately with the White House.

The Disappearing Public Option

I wrote a post two days ago noting the public option is polling higher than President Barack Obama. Jed Lewison noticed the same polling thread. The latest Research 2000 poll has the public option at 58 percent and the President's favorability rating at 52 percent.

Other polls:

CBS News has the public option at 60 percent. A Kaiser poll has the public option at 59 percent. With supermajorities in the House and Senate, it would appear possible to pass the public option. Greg Sargent found a White House memo that makes no mention of public option polling.

Okay, so the White House is circulating an upbeat polling memo citing a bunch of public surveys showing that public opinion still tilts heavily in Obama’s favor on health care.

The memo, by Obama pollster Joel Benenson, doesn’t mention the public option (the White House may not be committed to it) and largely cites general numbers showing support for action and for Obama’s plan.

But here’s the funny thing: We went back and checked, and virtually every poll cited in this memo also found strong support for the inclusion of a public plan.

The only public option poll cited by the memo is an MSNBC poll with the public option at 43 percent. Sargent explains the poll was controversal because it did not inform respondants the public option was a choice. It is clear the Obama administration wants to kill the public option. There are sereral polls showing support for the public option. The White House chooses the worst poll.

Back in June, Obama refused to firmly back the public option. Obama cut a deal with Big PHAMA. Obama agreed to Medicare not being able to negotiate for lower drug prices. The pharmaceutical industry passes $80 million in saving over ten years. That is $8 million-a-year. That is a wise investment for multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Millions of Americans receive their prescription drugs through Medicare. Wal-Mart was able to negotiate for chaeper prescription drugs. Obama will not allow Medicare the same right. Big PHAMA will continue to makes billions by rasing prices.

Obama attempted to appoint Tom Daschle as Health & Human Services Sec. Daschle has longstanding ties to health reform opponent UnitedHealth and Alston & Bird. Daschle is a registered lobbyist. This was the man Obama told American that would reform health care.

Obama is against the public option. It was the carrot on the stick to entice progressives. The Obama plan is Big BIG PHAMA happy and mandate every American buying private health insurance. The health industry lobbying money will put Obama over the top in 2012. I can't think of another reason.

Obama has the supermajorities. The public option is polling well. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the 60 member Progressive Caucus will not pass a health care bill that excludes the public option. Obama is not attempting reform and had closed door meeting with health industry officials. Every passing day makes Obama less of the reform candidate proclaimed himself to be.

CNN Poll: 55 Percent Favor Public Option

The latest CNN poll shows 55 percent support for the public option. Approval for the public option is two points higher than a CNN poll on President Obama's approval rating.

Majorities now disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy, health care policy, taxes, the federal deficit, and Medicare. He still gets majority support for his handling of foreign affairs, race relations, terrorism, and Afghanistan.

Two major reasons for why Obama is polling better on foreign policy than domestic matters. Obama's foreign policy team of Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, George Mitchell, James Jones, Richard Holbrooke and Susan Rice are amazingly competent people. The people selling Obama's health care proposal are Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod. Would you have those three men handle Pakistan? Obama's threee close advisors are so concerned with protecting the President that Obama has become too cautious. Obama bears much of the blame, as well.

Obama has no heavyweight to sell health care. Obama's neoliberal tendencies will not allow him to have the progressive Howard Dean near the White House. Tom Daschle was a hysterical bust. Kathleen Sebelius is to boring to sell the message. The White House has no one but Obama. The President's handlers fear having him commit to the public option. Fear is a horrible way to make policy.

Joe Scarborough Praises Howard Dean

An interesting tweet from Joe Scarborough.

I don't agree with Howard Dean's approach to HCR but I think he is a GREAT spokesman for Democrats. He's fearless.

The neoliberal Obama administration would never allow the progressive Dean to be a health care spokesman. The Obama health care message is mush. Dean's voice is clear, concise and strong. Scarborough is a die hard Republican but respects a good politician giving straight talk. The Obama people thought (get ready to laugh) Tom Daschle was going to be their neoliberal Dean. Nevermind, Daschle works for the anti-health care reform UnitedHealth Group.

Sommer has retained such influential outsiders as Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate Leader who now works for the large law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird. Daschle, a liberal from South Dakota, dropped out of the running to be Obama's Secretary of Health & Human Services after disclosures that he failed to pay taxes on perks given to him by a private client. He advised UnitedHealth in 2007 and 2008 and resumed that role this year. Daschle personally advocates a government-run competitor to private insurers. But he sells his expertise to UnitedHealth, which opposes any such public insurance plan. Among the services Daschle offers are tips on the personalities and policy proclivities of members of Congress he has known for decades.

Conceding that he doesn't always agree with his client, Daschle says: "They just want a description of the lay of the land, an assessment of circumstances as they appear to be as health reform unfolds." He says he leaves direct contacts with members of Congress to others at his firm.

I find at hard to believe Obama wanted to appoint Daschle to create real change.

Update: Keith Olbermann reports on Obama meeting with UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley twice to discuss health care reform. Why is Obama meeting with a CEO of a company sued for Racketeering. UnitedHealth have settled many cases out of court.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tom Daschle Is Out and Good Riddance

I never really cared when Tom Daschle was in. Daschle was a horrible Senate Democratic leader. I have little reason to believe Daschle would have made a good Health and Human Services Secretary. The only reason Daschle was nominated was because he was an Obama campaign advisor. The $100,000 in back taxes is a good reason to kill the nomination.

Daschle couldn't defend himself from attacks by Jeff Gannon. Daschle was a worse Congressal leader than John Boehner. The American Prospect's Robert Kuttner wrote "Daschle Too Timid To Take on Bush Tax Cut." Daschle publicly backed the Iraq war.

Ahead of the vote, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle announced Thursday morning he would support Bush on Iraq, saying it is important for the country "to speak with one voice at this critical moment."

Daschle, D-South Dakota, said the threat of Iraq's weapons programs "may not be imminent. But it is real. It is growing. And it cannot be ignored." However, he urged Bush to move "in a way that avoids making a dangerous situation even worse."

Why would Barack Obama pick Daschle to be his universal health care point man? What is it in Daschle's background that made the President a believer? Did Daschle suddenly gain Hillary Clinton's health care knowledge and Dick Cheney's skills as a political operative? Daschle would not have been seeking a second tire cabinet position, if he was that smart. My only conclusion is Obama was rewarding a campaign crony.

Update: Facebook has the group Appoint Howard Dean to HHS!

Update: ""I screwed up," Obama, on the Daschle nomination.

Update: PSoTD thinks Daschle withdrawal "might be the best thing that's happened to the Obama administration so far."

Here Comes the Subpoenas

Karl Rove and Scott Jennings have been subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats sent a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement. They have asked special counsel to investigate to investigative if Alberto Gonzales perjured himself to Congress.

Gonzales made claim that he visited John Ashcroft's hospital room. There have been news stories that Gonzales was seeking approval to continue a classified surveillance program. Gonzales wished to circumvent acting Attorney General James Comey. Ashcroft turned down Gonzales's request.

Gonzales testified that he visited the hospital on the behave of Democrats. Tom Daschle, Jay Rockefeller, Jane Harman and Nancy Pelosi stated that is false. Futhermore, an Office of the Director of National Intelligence document reveal that Democrats did not dicuss reauthorization of the domestic surveillance program during the March 10, 2004 meeting. Gonzales's cover story has been blown by eyewitnesses and documentation.

Testifying before a Congressional committee is the same as testifying in court. The laws of perjury apply. Elliott Abrams pleaded guilty to Congress to two felonies for perjuring himself to Congress. Abrams said these word to John Kerry about Contra funding.

"I can say that while I have been assistant secretary, which is about 15 months, we have not received a dime from a foreign government, not a dime, from any foreign government."

Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia funneled 32 million of his country's money to the Contras. The current President gave him the nickname Bandar Bush.



In other news: The House Judiciary Committee voted to file contempt charges against Joshua Bolton and Harriet Miers. Bolton accompanied Gonzales to visit Ashcroft. Miers was part of the email exchanges dealing with the U.S. Attorneys purging.

“In our system of government, no one is above the law,” Rep. John Conyers, the committee’s chairman, said in a letter to the White House.

Tony Snow responded by kicking out a Yiddish diss. I swear I'm not making this up.

“This is pathetic,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow. “We have hundreds of hearings that have produced bupkis.”

The literal definitions of bupkis is beans. Perhaps Snow is confusing the judiciary committees the House Committee on Agriculture.

If that was the case then Mr. Snow wouldn't be in full spin mode.

McCain Planned to Join Democratic Party in 2001

The Hill breaks the story that John McCain was planning to leave the Republican Party in 2001. Reporter Bob Cusack got Tom Daschle and lobbyist Tom Downey on-record about meetings McCain had with Democrats to plan his departure from the GOP. McCain was sour about losing to Bush and the direction his party was going in.

Democrats didn't approach McCain. His chief political strategist John Weaver did; as a go-between man.

At the end of their March 31, 2001 lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Bethesda, Md., Downey said Weaver asked why Democrats hadn’t asked McCain to switch parties.

Downey, a well-connected lobbyist, said he was stunned.

“You’re really wondering?” Downey said he told Weaver. “What do you mean you’re wondering?”

“Well, if the right people asked him,” Weaver said, according to Downey, adding that he responded, “The calls will be made. Who do you want?” Weaver this week said he did have lunch with Downey that spring, pointing out that he and Downey “are very good friends.”

Downey then called Daschle.

“Within seconds” of arriving home from his lunch with Weaver, Downey said he was on the phone to the most powerful Democrats in town. One of the first calls he made was to then-Senate Minority Leader Daschle.

“I did take the call from Tom [Downey],” Daschle said in an interview. “It was Weaver’s comment” to Downey that started the McCain talks, he added.

Weaver caved and admitted that McCain talked to Democrats about joining the party. Weaver points out that McCain quickly rebuffed the offers. That differs from Daschle's story.

"Both Sen. Reid and I talked to [McCain] both individually and together," said Daschle.

John Edwards talked to McCain about joining the Democrats. An aide on the Edwards' campaign confirmed the story.

Michael Crowley of the New Republic said a source confirmed McCain's intention to defect is true. What's hysterical is the reason he changed his mind was Jim Jeffords left the GOP first and McCain knew his defection wouldn't make as big a news splash. What an ego.

McCain is fucked if this story gains traction. I'm not talking about the nomination. He never had a chance. He will have a hard enough time staying in politics. Retirement is looking good.

Update: Count on Power Line to find the silver lining in a damaging story about a Republican.

My guess is that after the 2000 election, McCain was understandably at odds with President Bush; like most Senators, he has friends on the other side of the aisle and probably did grumble to them about the Bush administration. In early 2001, the Democrats were desperate to convince a Republican to change parties, and McCain, as the loser to Bush in the 2000 primaries, was a natural choice.

With hindsight, the thought of McCain in the Democratic Party is ludicrous. Imagine a pro-life Joe Lieberman, and you're still only part way there. Given the way the Democrats have abandoned the war effort both in Iraq and globally, whatever grievances McCain has had against the Bush administration over the years are relatiely insignificant.

Will these reports hurt McCain with the Republican party's base? Probably not much. The base already doesn't consider him a very loyal Republican; that's the price you pay if you want the media to praise you as a "maverick." But the marginal impact of this story is no doubt small.

Democrats went after Lincoln Chafee and Jeffords. McCain's aide came to them. Ed Morrissey is skeptical about the story's validity, but adds:

If true, this would effectively end McCain's presidential bid. He already has trust issues with Republicans, and this will do nothing but cause them to reject him entirely. However, the people who sourced this story have plenty of motivation to derail McCain, including Edwards, who thinks he may run against McCain in the general election. The principals tell completely conflicting stories, and the nature of the issue almost ensures that no independent proof one way or the other could exist. I'm betting this is nonsense.

UPDATE: Allahpundit puts more credence in it than I do, making the good point that if it were just a smear, they would have waited until the general election to use it. However, the same would be true if the story is on the level. Why talk about this now in either case? It almost seems like someone couldn't wait to spill the beans -- and that does give some weight to the story.

Allahpundit correctly points out Romney's and Giuliani's people are going to work the phones and use this against McCain. The sooner the Maverick is out the faster they can grab his fundraisers and campaign staffers. How Power Line thinks this story won't have much of an impact on McCain is beyond me.