[NOTE: All of this goes out the window if the HCR bill doesn't pass. That said...]
If you don't think the following piece from Alex Pareene is funny then you're probably a bill-killer.
[crickets]
Just kidding...or not?
News of First Major Progressive Legislation in 30 Years Enrages Liberals
Excerpts below the fold:
Hey gang -- time to make the donuts:
[Bill-killers are] inventing a new reality in which this bill's failure means we'll totally get a better health care bill next year or something.
I mean, what?
No kidding. I could get behind sending this bill back and starting over if we could simultaneously turn back the clock to January 21, 2009. But that doesn't stop some observers from framing the question in ways that are not helpful. Of course, if the shoe were on the other foot I'd do the same thing too, but still...
The options are literally "pass this HANDOUT to the insurance industries (that they are still lobbying against!) that will insure millions of people and improve the social safety net for those in danger of losing their insurance" or "fuck off home to let people continue to die because we got super mad at Senator Fuckface from Connecticut."
Couldn't have said it better and then there's this: while you're holding a grudge, Lieberman is dancing!
There is not a third [option where] "Alan Grayson and Keith Olbermann and Matt Taibbi are all elected to a new kind of Senate that only needs three votes to pass legislation and they declare us Canada for Christmas" option.
Ouch! Pareene talks another shot at Olbermann below, but first he takes up the idea of Grayson for president, an idea that I guess didn't show up on my radar until Pareene brought it up. I had come across the meme of "what would Ted Kennedy do," i.e., mount a primary challenge against a disappointing Democratic president, and I respect that. I also respect Gene McCarthy's challenge of LBJ in 68. But those resulted in Nixon and Reagan being elected. So caveat emptor. Think about it: Nixon resulted in Carter who was primaried by Kennedy, which led to Reagan resulting in Bush 41 & 43. So, primary challenges are a mixed bag.
Pareene picks up where I leave off:
Jesus, christ, an Alan Grayson 2012 primary challenge against Obama? [Because] Obama, who is not just "Bush-lite" but Bush-same!
(Remember when Bush attempted to negotiate an international climate deal, pass a jobs-focused economic stimulus, reform the nation's health care industry, and come up with a hopefully coherent plan to end the Afghanistan war in one year?
(And remember how his attempts at all those things were stymied by an uncooperative and undemocratic Senate, but he still managed to make real and tangible gains on each of them?
(Oh, no, you probably don't remember that because it was a joke we were making about how you have lost all sense of perspective.)
No shit Sherlock. What happened to our sense of humor?
And speaking of sense of perspective, most voters will have forgotten about this bill by next November because it doesn't even take effect until 2014.
Oh, no, scratch that -- there are parts of the bill that will take effect as the ink is drying on Obama's (hoped-for) signature on this bill, e.g., ending of denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, small business tax credits for providing insurance, and the ending of the most annual and lifetime benefit caps (it ends completely in 2013), etc. So I hope we hear more about that between now and November.
But I digress...
Pareene genuinely likes Alan Grayson (as do I)...but:
What happens when Alan Grayson is elected president, exactly? His sharp tongue embarrasses Ben Nelson into supporting a woman's right to choose? A well-timed quip convinces the Republican party to give up on a scorched-earth style of obstructionist opposition that will probably yield them electoral victories next year?
He goes on to say that what we need more than one Grayson as president is a House and Senate full of Graysons.
Well, what we need is the complete abolition of the Senate too, but let's start small and aim big, the way progressives did things in the days before a millionaire sportscaster was their spiritual leader.
Ouch!
Like I said -- time to make the donuts.