Greg Sargent says Harry Reid has a "big opportunity" to make amends with the left.
It’s worth noting that widespread disappointment with President Obama among rank and file Democrats for his conciliatory posture towards the GOP and "centrist" Congressional Dems presents a big political opportunity for Harry Reid. No idea if he’ll seize it, but it’s there.
Reid has a chance to emerge as a hero to Democrats who want action at a time when they’re sorely in need of one. If he makes good on his threat to get health reform through the Senate via "reconciliation," rolling over "centrist" Dems, it would resonate strongly with those on the left who blame current Dem leaders — Obama included — for stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the GOP’s desire to scuttle reform at all costs.
Consider today’s news. Paul Krugman’s column today claims there’s been a real shift in liberal opinion about the President. Progressives, he says, feel "punked" by the public option snafu, which is a "proxy for broader questions about the president’s priorities."
Meanwhile, the three Dem Senators on the Senate Finance committee are ignoring Reid's threat entirely as they cheerfully lumber forward with efforts to reach a bipartisan deal. This comes after Chuck Grassley claimed, incredibly, that the town hall outbursts have persuaded him a scaled down effort is needed — raising questions about whether these Dems are so consumed with playing bipartisan kingmakers that they’ve lost touch with reality.
Baucus and Conrad (Bingaman is all but invisible on the committee cabal) are making a mockery of the whole process, from a Dem perspective. They've blown deadline after deadline, virtually giving the finger to Obama and to the rest of the Dem caucus, but particularly the other members of the Finance Committee who have been completely excluded from the process. They allow Grassley and Enzi to go around spouting lies and trashing the process, and at the same time, letting them pull the legislation further right.
In a conference call, the three Democratic and three Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee agreed to redouble their efforts to craft a less costly alternative to the trillion-dollar initiatives so far put forward in Congress. They discussed the possibility of also reining in the scope of their package, the sources said. [...]
Before leaving for the month-long recess, Baucus had pegged the cost of the negotiators' ideas at less than $900 billion over the next decade. Thursday's discussions focused on driving that cost lower, the sources said.
And for what? A bill that Grassley and Enzi wouldn't whip for or even vote for anyway. They're trying to kill healthcare reform and Baucus and Obama are praising them while they do it. Yes, it's lovely to talk about bipartisanship to make the independent voters feel all warm and fuzzy, but it's gotten to the point where it's an embarrassment for the Dems. At the very best, Baucus is irrelevant.
Reid has a unique opportunity to lead here, if he makes good on the threat. The plug has to be pulled (no pun intended) on the Baucus debacle before more damage is done. Bypass Finance and move on without them. It would solidify Reid's leadership in the Dem caucus, because the majority of Dem Senators cannot be pleased with the way leadership and the White House have allowed Baucus to handle this. I'm not entirely sure that it will bring progressives back to the Reid fold, it would sure make Netroots Nation 2010 a more pleasant experience for him.