The New "Very Serious People": Our Village Bloggers

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Media
Posted on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 03:33:09 PM EST
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This Greg Sargent post explains precisely why I am trying hard to coin the new phrase "Village Bloggers" --

There’s a debate raging in the blogosphere about whether the Senate bill has been so watered down that it’s time to try to kill it, and one thing that’s interesting is how cleanly it breaks down as a disagreement between operatives and wonks. The bloggers who are focused on political organizing and pulling Dems to the left mostly seem to want to kill the bill, while the wonkier types want to salvage it because they think it contains real reform and can act as a foundation for further achievements.

[. . .] In the latter camp are wunder-wonk types like Ezra Klein, Jonathan Cohn, and Nate Silver.

(Emphasis supplied.) You see. The new Very Serious People. Our very own Tom Friedmans. BTW, NATE SILVER is now a health care "wonk"?!? Sheesh. And why no Kevin Drum or Matt Yglesias? I wonder if feelings have been hurt.

Speaking for me only

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The New "Very Serious People": Our Village Bloggers | 18 comments (18 topical)

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Why do all the "wonks" (5.00 / 4) (#1)
by lilburro on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 03:42:37 PM EST

totally miss the fact that the main problem with the subsidies is that they are just money shoveled to private insurance companies?

And the subsidies are pretty much the only thing they are excited about right now.

Greg says (5.00 / 3) (#2)
by kmblue on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 03:46:05 PM EST

Howard Dean says "kill it".
I'm down with that.
"Village Bloggers" is a great term and I'm down with that, too.

Don't forget WKJM (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by Pacific John on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 03:52:09 PM EST

No wonder Sargent doesn't work for him any more.

So I like both terms, but what does "village blogger," convey that "access blogger," doesn't?

Can't we go back to the more direct coinage of MWOnline? ;)

I bet Sargent stopped working for Marshall (none / 0) (#6)
by Dan the Man on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:23:51 PM EST

because of all of the technical problems his Horse's Mouth blog had on the TPM web server. TPM was too lazy to hire someone to fix it resulting in the blog disappearing for months during the 2008 primary season. Fortunately for us, none of the other TPM blogs suffered the same technical problems as Sargent's.


: I found it a strange coincidence that (5.00 / 4) (#7)
by Pacific John on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:28:31 PM EST

Sargent's blog seemed to have problems to the point that he wasn't published anywhere on TPM when he took the relatively objective view that some anti-Hillary NYT attacks were from partial quotes, a standard that until '08, the progressive blogosphere was religious about.

The funny thing is that Nate would be the first (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by Socraticsilence on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:05:12 PM EST

one to tell them how wrong they are- guys a whiz with statistical analysis- his modeling revolutionized baseball and could do similar things in predictive analysis of baseball- he's not a policy guy in any way shape or form-- neither is Cohn- Klein on healthcare- is a wonk he's certainly more informed than any other media guy on this (and only this) issue.

digby makes a valid point (5.00 / 7) (#5)
by MO Blue on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:12:30 PM EST

*I realize that the subsidies and the medicaid expansion are meaningful. But they are also going to be subject to ongoing funding battles in an age of deficit hysteria. I don't hold out much hope for any improvement on that count. Indeed, I fully expect they will be assailed as welfare and eliminated as soon as Republicans gain power. They have learned from their mistakes --- don't let any liberal "entitlement programs " become entrenched. That's why a big comprehensive program would have been better. It's much harder to disassemble. link

With the insurance industry and pharma given free rein to charge whatever price they want, Medicaid expansion and subsidies may not be a viable option even when this insurance program is implemented in 2014.

: Old point from me (none / 0) (#9)
by Big Tent Democrat on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:39:17 PM EST

Sliver does polls and (5.00 / 1) (#15)
by TomP on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:54:44 PM EST

is a centrist. A statistician is not a health care expert. Excellent post, BTD.

What about Klein's argument against (none / 0) (#8)
by Socraticsilence on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:39:14 PM EST

Reconcilation- you know that under Reconciliation things like the guarenteed issuance and the ban on Recission would be stripped since only budgetary items can be included?

Well gosh (5.00 / 2) (#13)
by Steve M on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:46:26 PM EST

do you think we could get 60 votes for a ban on rescission in a standalone bill? I'm pretty sure we could.


: That's what I'm saying (5.00 / 2) (#16)
by lilburro on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:57:21 PM EST

the argument that killing the public option was a necessary distraction so we could get minimal insurance company reforms just seems so pathetic to me. So many new goalposts have been erected that health care reform appropriately looks like a graveyard.

What about my argument that (none / 0) (#10)
by Big Tent Democrat on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:40:12 PM EST

you get expansion of public insurance through reconciliation, which you don't get through Ezra's Lieberman bill?


No doubt (none / 0) (#12)
by Socraticsilence on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:45:18 PM EST

I like John Cole's answer- do both- try and push this through, the use reconciliation to push through a public option somehow I doubt that's realistic.


Chuck Schumer's answer from September (5.00 / 1) (#14)
by Big Tent Democrat on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:50:58 PM EST

I love how people are discovering the virtues of proposals made months ago now.


Actually to be really honest (none / 0) (#17)
by Socraticsilence on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 05:02:02 PM EST

I like the Baucus Bill if you actually read the text of the bill (which I admit I only did because it was a class requirement and because I'm applying to intern with him) its a lot better than what Reid's proposing w/o the Medicare buyin (which let's be honest would have been amazing- in the long run it was a better idea than the public option).


: It was indeed (none / 0) (#18)
by Big Tent Democrat on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 05:08:17 PM EST

Which makes losing it that much more disappointing.

Nate Silver is billed as a wonk (none / 0) (#11)
by ruffian on Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 04:44:53 PM EST

and not one of

The bloggers who are focused on political organizing and pulling Dems to the left

And then the link to the Wonk summary has Silver's quote which is totally about praising the Public Option as a useful political punching bag, and tool for pulling the debate farther to the left. He also seems unreasonably confident that Joe Lieberman and friends have no more complaints in store, now that they have defeated the PO and Medicare expansion. Now I don't know enough about Silver to know if he is really well versed in heath care issues, but this example surely does not show him as a wonk to me.