Should Sebelius be fired.....

It's a legitimate question. It's like someone at a large corporation publicly muddied the water before a law suit, saying yea well, we did let some toxic waste leech out of the container and we did know about it but.

No mater how much the "slip" is "walked back", it is still out there, still percolating in the right-wing echo chamber, still raising most doubts in the minds of those on the fence about the whole idea of Health Care Reform, excuse me, Health Insurance Reform.

So I ask you all, should she be fired?

If I was in charge, she would be pursuing other interests by now.

But that's me. I'm mercurial. I have that luxury.

:kick:

They are running a five minute piece on CNN about Obama Walking away from a public option.

This is why he should consider letting her go.

Plus, it emboldens the right as they smell weakness. They are like sharks. Never forget that.

Someone who obviously cares about health care reform and has real, non-political knowledge about it.

That said, I don't think yesterday's comment is a firable offense.

and further say that Dean should have been in that office in the first place.

He is very articulate on this issue -- I saw him on Charlie Rose and he made a series of well-argued points about the necessity of health care reform. It was impressive -- and he knows what he is talking about!

I honestly don't know.

I'd have to hear what Obama thinks. She is certainly useful to him, and he'd be smart to weigh her benefits vs. her drawbacks to answer your question.

Being mercurial is a luxury, and I'm sure Obama wishes he could exercise his right to it as well. But he has to consider the long-term consequences of such an action!

Good morning!

Or was it a "leak"?

Obama is to a public option...

And then again, it could just be a slip.

Either way, I'm glad I don't have to make those decisions.

I still think it is important to discus this.

been trying to show that the Pukes don't really support co-op's either. They just want the status-quo. If that was their plan it was stupid. They should be attacking the Puke lies with everything they've got. They need to go on serious offense.

Have any of these conservadems helped his administration yet? All I see is them going off message, pissing off the base, coddling the Blue dogs to defy the President, and otherwise creating an enthusiasm gap between us and the pukes.

Dean would have been 1000 times better.

But as far as firing.....no, she has not done anything that awful yet, but she hurt him politically if that is not what Obama wanted said. If Sebelius was floating a trial balloon for Obama, well then, I guess she is just following orders and it is Obama that needs to get his message straight.

I agree with everything you said. :thumbsup:

I highly doubt she "misspoke." There was a reason she said what she did.

I just wish I knew what it was.

Perhaps a tad bit cynical, but never naive.

I presented an option, a viable option in my humble opinion, in order to discus the various outcome possibilities.

1. You pass the House bill with the Public Option.
2. You pass the Senate bill without the Public Option to avoid the filibuster.
3. Then, in Reconciliation (a budgetary process which does not allow filibusters), the Public Option goes back in, and passes with only 50+ votes.

Get the bill the fuck out of the Senate, and we'll fix it in Reconciliation.

Call your congressmen people. Keep the pressure on.

But what about the reconcilliation between the versions.

Could it even get out of committee if the Senate feels it is being rolled...

instead of laying your cards out on the table and saying "Go ahead and vote no now, it won't matter in the end"

You know that Obama prefers cooperation when its available...

on the Ed Show, a solution to the health care problem.

we can show up at these stupid town halls and DEMAND A PUBLIC OPTION!

She was sent out to make that statement as a way to test the mood of the congress. Do we gain or lose votes without a public option? I've heard dropping a public option would cost us more votes in the House than we'd pick up by dropping it. I suspect that's a pretty accurate assessment. They've got two choices now. Either back off and hope we pick up enough of the 18 repub Senate seats to give us a firm majority or pass a watered down version that can be readdressed and improved in the next couple of years.

dropping the public option and they wanted to see the reaction.

such as Obama is trying to get the bill out of the Senate, and into reconciliation, where it will not be subject to filibuster

This White House and Obama had better get their act and their message together. Healthcare reform is way too important for amateur hour.

and a person with strong abilities in this very important area should take over that aspect of her job. Her communications abilities are not good, and on TV she stinks. So, maybe she's great in the office, I doubt it, but she is lousy on camera and should not be doing that in the future.
Our Party has a tendency to think of media appearances as rewards for the big shots, when they are actually moments of great value to the process. The GOP uses specific people for specific media roles, fully trained and ready to strike. We put forth the likes of Sebeleus, or others that I see who frankly seem annoyed to be there, as if explaining their position were beneath them. The message is what is important, and sending those incapable of speaking that message out into national media spotlights is just stupid. This is a Party wide phenomenon.
They need to start up a school in which Debbie Wasserman Schultz trains them to stop being failures in of of the most important aspects of their job. Sean Penn can guest lecture. But they need help. This is a serious lacking in the Party and the administration, they need to respect the importance of communications, and get some talent out there, ready and able. Train them if you must.
But when speaking is a huge part of your job, and you do not do it extremely well, you most certainly should not retain those duties, if not lose the entire job. It is not a minor thing. It might not be termination time, but it is most certainly time for a rethinking of how this message is being sent out, and by whom.
Send only the best to do the hardest jobs. Selling health care reform in America qualifies as a hard job. But we get mediocrity when we need brilliance. That part must be addressed. In order to retain power and pass law, that part must be addressed. We need better communicators on our side, media ready and highly skilled.

some people are freaking out over a comment that's being being twisted by the idiotic media.

Ludicrous!

and I do agree that the media is twisting her words.

BTW, Health Insurance stocks are on the rise today because of the comments made and how they were dissembled by the media...

Inustry looks as if they have dodged a bullet.

overlooked, because public sounds like gov't, which for 30 years has been a bad thing. So public option is demonized more than anything else. Insurance had promised to self-regulate and didn't, so that is something to stress.

Dean is great as advocate. Imagine him muzzled at this before bill stage, spokesman for Congress and not himself?

n/t

Toe the line.

No breaches allowed.

Dismiss a valid question cause it doesn't fit your narrow view of the world.

That's sounds like freeper land to me...

I'm sorry if I offended you but calling for the resignation of the Secretary of HHS over this "story" is just nonsense...and the narrowest view of all, in my opinion.

Of course, this was a fairly annoying communication breakdown. I said that last night. But let's not get crazy about it, eh.

job. I said if it was me I would fire her but parsed that by saying I was mercurial.

What it is it, National Stupid Week?

She's doing alright, although she might be in need of a little trip to the woodshed . :kick:

Why fire her for following orders?

to insurance companies.

I don't care anymore. She's doing the job she was put up to do. That's not going to change if someone else gets her place in the Cabinet.

How in the hell did she get elected to governor in Kansas?

but King and then the OP put it on the spin cycle.

Second, to me that would seem like a drastic overreaction. She was on message and got a redirect and simply used less than the best messaging mostly in an effort to not repeat herself.

Her message is that the option is not the plan but a component of it. It is nothing but a control mechanism to help make sure the regulation works or to give the public an escape pod if private insurance reform is a huge fail. It is good messaging to back the focus off the brakes enough to allow us to talk about the car more.

Not that the option isn't key to making a real go of making this work, especially over the long term but I do think it is silly to conflate it with being the plan.

I didn't spin this, I reacted to what was happening with the News Cycle today. Ed was still talking about it today at 6:00 so the message is put there whether she mis-spoke or not.

It's the reality. Or to use a suddenly hoary description, gone viral.

The president when returning from vacation should ask for her resignation.This does nothing to help
Helath Care reform.Pissing off the Democratic Base during a critical time Is not a good Idea.This Is
not Kansas where a Dem has to act like a Republican to get elected.

She Is helping Republicans with this.Killing Helath Care reform will help Republicans.

poor spokesperson for the administration

We could easily double the unemployment roles in a few days. It would be awesome!

fact that the president's own advisors appear to have fluctuated in their own positions.

I think former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley would have been the best pick for this job. Inasmuch as Kathleen Sebelius holds it at the present, her job seems safe.

She has a pretty but aging face. Now there's nothing wrong with going resolutely gray at her age, in fact, it's positively inspiring. But her 'do is hardly what she needs right now. We need to see more effort. :shrug: ( "I'm just sayin'." )