Grassley: If Obama Doesn’t Publicly Renounce Public Option Now, He’s Not...Interested In Bipartisans

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/grassley-obama-should-publicly-drop-public-option-now-to-prove-hes-really-bipartisan/

Grassley: If Obama Doesn’t Publicly Renounce Public Option Now, He’s Not Truly Interested In Bipartisanship


Senator Chuck Grassley now appears to be throwing the gauntlet down before the White House in a way that seems explicitly designed to make trouble for President Obama at an extraordinarily sensitive moment — which will fuel charges he’s not negotiating in good faith.

Specifically: Grassley’s now demanding that Obama publicly repudiate the public option right now to prove he’s truly interested in bipartisan compromise. That, to me, is the most interesting news in this extraordinary interview Grassley gave The Washington Post:



This is partly a paraphrase. But presuming it’s accurate, it’s pretty striking. Grassley knows the White House is under tremendous pressure to contain a revolt on the left over the public option. It’s hard to imagine any reason for demanding Obama renounce the public option right now, before there’s even a bill out of the finance committee, other than to make life politically difficult for the President.

How does that compare with the White House’s treatment of Grassley? When the Senator endorsed the “death panel” claim, the White House reaffirmed its commitment to working with him. Dems quietly let Grassley claim a big victory by dropping the public option from the Senate bill he’s negotiating. And when Rahm Emanuel questioned the sincerity of GOP leaders yesterday, an apparent shot at Grassley, the White House rapidly walked it back.

Grassley, meanwhile, has now raised the bar yet again for what will constitute true bipartisanship on the White House’s part. Pretty telling.

to work together in a "bi-partisan" way, we can only assume they have no interest in healthcare reform or working for a solution?

What definition of "bipartisanship" they use but from what I have seen and heard it is not in any dictionary I can find, he is really pretty ignorable. No one that really counts cares a lot what he has to say.

You know damned full well that even if your party authored 90% of the bill and made it so that there would be a few cosmetic changes while keeping the gravy train rolling and the American people sick and broke your party would still never vote for it. Keeping the words "health care reform" and "Democratic President" separate are of paramount importance to your rotten party and we all know it.

There is no such thing as bipartisanship with a party of tantrum throwing two year olds, which is just what you are, Grassley.

So just dry up and blow away. You're not fooling any of us.

so sit down and shut the fuck up

is nothing bipartisan about being held hostage by a minority party. Fuck you Gr-ASS-ley!

remember what 'bipartisanship' was when bush took office and the republicans were in charge??? do what we want or we'll do it anyway. they still want their way... end of discussion. they have never been interested in doing anything but get in the way and stop the dems from getting anything done.

That's the way it works, you know? You may have won the election, but that doesn't mean I still can't have everything I want. Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

http://www.equalrights4all.org/religious/bible.htm

and no dope for that 3....

where the kidnappers keep upping the ransom.

"Only if Obama agrees not to have any actual reform in the health care reform bill -- in other words, only if he completely gives the process over to the Republican -- will this be bi-partisan." -- Sen. Assley

the prez is waiting for him to quit.

like a fucking asshole.

If we just need a simple majority in both houses to pass health care reform then why do we need the republicans at all :shrug:

Obama now has the stage and opportunity to say that he either will abandon the public option - and all the negative voices on DU will be proven accurate, but at least we'll know exactly where we stand, or he will say that he will NOT abandon the public option, clearly and definitively.

And because its a Rpublican doing the pushing, it's much easier for us to frame the moment as the Repugs being unwilling to compromise.

This is excellent.

We do.

It's a bizarre thing to ask for and he's overplaying his hand. He's asking who are you going to ally with, us or the progressive wing of your party. Obama can't placate both.

So he's demanding that Obama enter an aliance with Repugs, who in the end don't even want a bill, against the progressive Democrats.

That's overplayed.

Notice he's not even saying he might VOTE for a bill without the public option.

The bill is already written by GOP members and Dems have made over 100 "compromises".

It's time to point this out and demand THEIR support now.

Don't let the minority get to call ALL the shots.

Sen. Bob Casey held a tele-forum a few nights ago. One of the live callers admitted to being a republican. In what I hope is a promising new trend, she said that she's tired of the repugs doing nothing but complain about everything. She said that it's obvious that the Democratic party is the only one actually interested in doing something to help all of the American people and not just play kindergarden politics. I'm not holding my breath, but I hope that the assinine comments by Grassley and other repugs will start to turn more and more people against their whiny stall tactics. As I said, I'm not holding my breath, but....

But I'm not going to put spend any time thinking about it. I remember when the word "bipartisan" didn't sound like the clicking of a gun to me.

... the bill even if it included all the "changes" the republicans were insisting on? Now he wants to blackmail the president for his vote. That's not very plausible, is it?

It is obvious that Grassley hasn't figured out he and the Repugs lost in November.

The repubs sure didn't give a fuck about it when they were in charge. And there is no chance of bipartisanship when the other side is only interested in torpedoing the plans.