Apparently Dick Durbin has the most sought-after job in D.C. First Kent Conrad played Senate whip, pompously intoning that "there just aren't the votes" for a public option in the Senate. He says that because he won't vote for a public option, and apparently his is the only vote that counts.
Not to be outdone, now famous healthcare reform killer Rep. Jim Cooper is getting in on the act. He's not even in the Senate, but apparently, he's been using his recess to do a vote count not just on public option, but on the administration's ability to "go it alone" in getting a public option passed.
Democrats will not be able to "go it alone" on healthcare legislation and force through a bill with a public option on a party-lines vote, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) said Wednesday.
"It's numerically not possible," Cooper, a centrist Blue Dog Democrat who has long focused on healthcare issues, said in an interview on MSNBC. "We don't have enough votes."
It's numerically not possible, of course, if Kent Conrad and the ConservaDems, along with moderates Snowe and Collins, choose to join Republicans in a filibuster against their party's, their President's, bill. For some reason they just keep leaving that part out. The fundamental dishonesty of Cooper is even worse because he is focusing on the Senate. He doesn't want to take responsibility for killing it in the House, perhaps out of fear of liberal backlash, but more likely because people will again dredge up this.
So let's be clear on where Cooper starts: He was against universal coverage. He was a conservative Democrat who wanted a minimalist, incremental approach to health care that wouldn't offend his corporate constituencies. He thought the Clinton plan was too liberal, even as it began as a compromise between liberal visions of single payer and conservative dreams of market competition. Then, on October 6, 1993, two weeks after the Clinton bill is released, Cooper reintroduces his own plan, creating, from the outset, a weak, moderate "alternative" for business, centrists, and other opponents of reform to rally around. "Privately," we learn, "Cooper is convinced the White House will have to bend and accept his position."
Cooper was, from the beginning, an enemy of reform, not a constructive participant seeking compromise. He did not survey the assembled bills and try and forge a deal. Rather, he did everything he could to undermine the Clinton plan, and played a key role in destroying its chances by shattering the Democratic legislative strategy ("Thwarted on the Republican side of the aisle, Dingell turns back to his Democrats -- and once again finds Jim Cooper standing in his way.") and peeling off Blue Dogs and business. Without even the pretense of party unity, there was never the underlying foundation to force negotiations among the key players -- and so, contrary to Brad's claims, Cooper should be remembered not for trying to cut a deal, but for undermining the conditions and legislation that would've allowed a deal to have been cut. He was out for his campaign contributors and, as a read of The System makes clear, his own glory. He wanted to be the dealmaker of health care. He wanted it so bad that he killed the damn thing.
Lesson of the day? Jim Cooper has never been on the side of reform. Anything he says on the topic isn't about helping the party, helping the president, or ultimately helping the American people. It's about Jim Cooper.
