TPMDC reports:

According to Martin Paone, a legislative expert who's helping Democrats map out legislative strategy, a more robust public option--one that sets low prices, and provides cheap, subsidized insurance to low- and middle-class consumers--would have an easier time surviving the procedural demands of the so-called reconciliation process. However, he cautions that the cost of subsidies "will have to be offset and if [the health care plan] loses money beyond 2014...it will have to be sunsetted."

And there the irony continues: Some experts, including on Capitol Hill, believe that a more robust public option will generate crucial savings needed to keep health care reform in the black--and thus prevent it from expiring. But though that may solve the procedural problems, conservative Democrats have balked at the idea . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) That's not irony. That is a farce.

Speaking for me only

Ezra's title - "Has Obama Played Health Care Exactly Right? Does It Even Matter?. His answer? No.

Boy did Ezra waste a lot of time the past two years analyzing the health care proposals of the Presidential candidates. And then I wasted a lot of time reading his analysis.

Those are hours of my life I'll never get back. Who could have imagined that the new pro-Obama line on health care would be that he is irrelevant? One merit this argument does have is that it does describe transformative change. From the time of FDR, the President of the United states has been the leader on issues in our country. He did not always get his way. but he was able to set the agenda.

President Obama, his supporters say, has changed all that. Now the President does not matter in the debates on what policies to enact. Perhaps this can be a good thing. Except when Republicans are President, it will not be so. Obama is going the way of Jimmy Carter if Ezra is to be believed.

Speaking for me only

Kos writes:

With Independents potentially sitting this next election out (as the numbers hint at), we're in bad shape in a base election. Core Republicans are engaged and solidly home. Democratic constituencies are wavering (look at those African American numbers). The only key Democratic constituency to have moved more Democratic are young voters -- from +30 Democratic to +37, but only because they are abandoning Republicans at a bigger rate than Democrats. And even those gains are threatened by the (non) geniuses in DC seriously contemplating a health care mandate without cost controls (like the public option).

At current rates, any 2010 losses would not stem from any resurgence in conservative ideology -- Republicans are simply not making any significant gains anywhere -- but in a loss of confidence in Democrats. There's a way to change that dynamic -- deliver on the promises made the last two election cycles. . . . Seems pretty obvious out here, outside the Beltway, and the numbers bear it out, but there's no indication that Democratic Party leaders in DC -- from Obama to Reid -- are fully aware of how dangerously close they are to setting the stage for an electoral drubbing in 2010.

What Kos said.

Speaking for me only

Via FDL, The Hill reports that a Blue Dog staffer is saying the Blue Dogs are planning on committing political suicide:

Bruised by a tough vote on climate change legislation in June, burned by fiery town hall meetings in August, and worried about the midterm elections to be held in November 2010, Democratic centrists and vulnerable lawmakers in the party are signaling that they are not happy with Pelosi's plan. "I don't see how we get to 218," said a senior Democratic aide. "The Blue Dogs are ‘Hell nos.’ The people who voted yes [on energy] want to vote 'no' twice."

Is this true? Nah. Gene Taylor and Travis Childers and folks like that of course will vote no. There was never ever any doubt about that. But other so called "Blue Dogs" are almost certain yes votes. From the Hill article:

Dan Riehl (and to a lesser extent James Joyner), miss the point Glenn Greenwald was making in his post American Royalty. Indeed, I have used a different title, American Feudalism to describe the phenomenon, because I think it is more descriptive of what Glenn is talking about.

My reading of Glenn is not that he thinks conservative nepotism is the problem, but rather the absurd view espoused by conservatives that America is some pure meritocracy. And it is not limited to celebrity journalists and political pundits. It extends to everyone. Who your parents are, what they provide you, where you come from, all has a huge effect on the opportunities life provides you. It is true for me and it is true for you. And of course it is true for Luke Russert and Jonah Goldberg and Jesse Jackson, Jr.

On a more general basis, it is true for white men versus African Americans, women, Latinos and other minorities. It is the denial of this obvious truth that Glenn is driving at. He uses celebrity examples to drive this point home. Riehl and Joyner get bogged down in the relative merits of particular examples of nepotism. Hell, they left out the most obvious liberal ones - FDR and Teddy Kennedy. The difference is I doubt very much FDR and Teddy Kennedy would have denied the advantages they were given. Conservative beneficiaries of American Feudalism deny it every day.

Speaking for me only

d-day is upset about Bill Bradley's Op-Ed on a Grand Compromise for health care reform. Always having found Bill Bradley to be the emptiest of empty suits, I am amused. Bradley wrote:

The bipartisan trade-off in a viable health care bill is obvious: Combine universal coverage with malpractice tort reform in health care.

In the words of Gail Collins (when she wrote for the NY Daily News) -- "hahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Of course there is no such Grand Compromise available. What liberal would not sign up for it right now? (Except of course any liberal medical malpractice lawyers. We all have our limits. Just ask the Selfish Socialist Seniors who scream about the government keeping its hands off their Medicare.) But what Republican WOULD sign up for it? Precisely none. But there is a lesson in this for the empty suit equivalents in the "liberal" punditocracy - from Jonathan Alter to Ezra Klein - there is no "compromise" (read capitulation) you can offer Republicans (and probably a lot of Democrats) that will get them to support health care reform. These pundits, led by Bradley's old aide Mark Schmitt, are the heirs to the political stupidity of Bill Bradley. They should be ignored.

Speaking for me only

I heard it last night, and Digby has the critical part of Senator Edward Kennedy's letter to the Pope in the waning days of his life. It was read at his burial at Arlington National Cemetery:

I want you to know, your Holiness, that in my nearly 50 years of elective office I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor and open doors of economic opportunity. I've worked to welcome the immigrant, to fight discrimination and expand access to health care and education. I've opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Those are the issues that have motivated me and have been the focus of my work as a United States Senator.

I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I am committed to do everything I can to get access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and will continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national policy that guarantees health care for everyone.

Senator Kennedy was expounding on how his Catholic faith imbued his political philosophy. He was explaining his religious values. And how they were central to his political values. Perhaps President Obama can take up THIS values argument.

Speaking for me only

6:00 pm ET: A large crowd of staffers and others is assembled at the Capitol awaiting the casket of Senator Edward Kennedy which is en route from Andrews Air Force Base. The procession will drive around the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol and then proceed to Arlington, where Senator Kennedy will be laid to rest.

ABC News reports there are 900 staff on the steps and 4,000 in the plaza and lining Constitution Ave. You can follow on Twitter here.

The official Edward M. Kennedy page with updates is here.

6:10 pm: Motorcade is 2 miles away. Further updates below:

Mesmerizing, Moving, Sad and Joyful. What a wonderful tribute to Sen. Ted Kennedy, by his son, Teddy, Jr. (Transcript here.) Part I:

Part II below:

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, will be laid to rest today in Arlington National Cemetery, near the resting places of his brothers, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Robert Francis Kennedy.

The funeral mass, in Boston (Roxbury actually), at the Basilica of Our Lady Of Perpetual Help, and the burial, some hours after the funeral mass, will be broadcast. All the living ex-Presidents will be attending (correction, due to health issues, President George Herbert Walker Bush was unable to attend.)

President Barack Obama will be delivering the eulogy. susang has the prepared text.

If you are not near a television, you can watch on cnn.com or I am sure other internet outlets.

This is an Open Thread to discuss these events.

This evening, a memorial service will be held (my understanding is it will be broadcast) for the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

It is being billed as a celebration of his life. There is much to celebrate.

Consider this an Open Thread for commenting about the service.

In his last published piece on the subject of health care reform, Senator Ted Kennedy wrote on July 18, 2009:

I long ago learned that you have to be a realist as you pursue your ideals. But whatever the compromises, there are several elements that are essential to any health-reform plan worthy of the name.

. . . To accomplish all of this, we have to cut the costs of health care. . . . [O]ne of the most controversial features of reform is one of the most vital. It's been called the "public plan." . . . This will foster competition in pricing and services. It will be a safety net, giving Americans a place to go when they can't find or afford private insurance, and it's critical to holding costs down for everyone.

(Emphasis supplied.) Don't let the Third Wayers like Ezra Klein and Steve Pearlstein tell falsehoods about what Ted Kennedy thought about the public option. His words speak for themselves.

Speaking for me only