Calling the Republican Bluff

Posted on 02/08/2010 at 8:24 pm by Bob Cesca

This is all playing out nicely. With this idea of a televised summit, the president called the Republican bluff about listening to their (ridiculous) ideas about healthcare. It’s not even 48 hours into the announcement of the idea and the Republicans are already struggling to wiggle out of the thing.

And the latest word via Countdown is that the Republicans won’t meet with the president unless reconciliation is taken off the table. Ezra Klein told Keith Olbermann that the president should agree with that demand — but only if the Republicans agree to an up-or-down vote. No filibuster.

But beyond the finer points of the Republican demands, it’s obvious that they simply have no interest in having any summit (televised or not), and they have even less interest in passing healthcare reform.

Bluff successfully called. Flawless victory.

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  • GOVCHRIS1988

    Ok, this should be the top sign shit isn’t going down. They know their asses would be exposed. I mean, come on, REPUBLICAN CHOSEN ECONOMISTS!? The same ones who said that the Bush Tax Cuts would stimulate the economy and leave us with a 61 Billion dollar surplus in 2012. BITCH,WHAT!? Drop reconciliation, scrap the bill. The Jane Hamshers of the world sides with these guys? Really?

  • roxsteady

    Touchdown Mr. President! Now, I disagree with Ezra. I wouldn’t agree to shit! I’d send them back a letter, through the press, just like they did, stating that all negotiations will take place at the table, in public, at the summit. Meanwhile, thanks to these punk ass Republicans every citizen who didn’t know what reconciliation meant will now know. They’ll also likely find out that Bush did it twice to give tax cuts to the rich. At that point, they’ll hopefully call the Whitehouse and demand they use it! Stupid Republicans. I think that’s an oxy moron?

  • http://edmigper.wordpress.com _emp_

    It’s a flawless victory IF it works out, which it rarely does. Watch Fox News play it differently and watch it backfire.

  • roxsteady

    When they don’t show up, it will show the country that they have no ideas and have once again said no. Mission Accomplished!

  • jhw22

    I agree with roxsteady (sorry, Ezra). All things — and I mean ALL things — should be allowed in the discussion. If they won’t show up because they don’t want to hear the R-word (tee hee)then they lose their whole argument of not being included.But I think they’ll show up anyway. Just like when McCain put his campaign on hold for a day.Jennifer

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    Nope, they are in a corner, and they absolutely WILL NOT show up, even if the Dems promise to scrap the whole bill and start over. There is only one Republican who actually wants to work on a health care bill, (Paul Ryan)and if he steps out of line with the Repubs now, he’s fucked.The Repubs are gambling right now, rolling the die. They are betting EVERYTHING on their understanding of what Massachusetts meant, what Independents want, and what will happen in November.Once again, a political party has the written the people’s mandate without ever once asking the people what that mandate really was.Are you watching this Bob? Make sure your party never makes that mistake again.

  • kansasdem

    It’s definitely a “rope-a-dope” strategy. The only flaw is that a lot of the electorate are in fact dopes!

  • veralynn

    I agree with Pooper. Shit, that was hard to type. :) I want them to show up but they won’t. They will go on Fox and watch the happenings and criticize everything going on in the WH. Then the followers of Faux nation can see how the dems kept them out of discussions. and the cycle goes on and on. I say call them on the bullshit and make them filibuster, you only need a simple majority to change that back I think. And you make all those old men stand at the podium reading histories and recipes. Maybe they will read some history and learn something.That is what I want to see. We will see how long those guys can hold out and for how long. I would pay money I currently do not have to see that.damn, this country scares the shit out of me sometimes, the easy things don’t work the way they should. and we can’t even get started on the long term problems because the media are now the corporations and the opposition party is seeking nothing for winning, they just want to win. they don’t care if they fix the country, they will be okay. They will have more lobbying jobs when the foreign corps start gearing up for campaign season. This is going to be a bloody, brutal election.Of course, I could just be in a bad mood and all this shit is crazy. Our fellow Americans have gone nuts. Some on our left and all of the ones on the right. We either come together or we don’t. I would rather we did.Rant is over, thank you for reading. :)

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    Oh, Bob, you’re just an ObamaBot™ and etc., whaddyoo know (except what you’re talking about)?I saw the best tweet tonight. I think the end of the Age of Stupid may be close at hand: not only has the wingnutosphere convinced itself they can successfully frame Obama as egomaniac, they think he’s afraid of Congress.First Senator Shelby backed down (I thought he would); now I have a feeling Ben Nelson will be subject to the same treatment he got with health care: Obama gave him the porkola and made sure the details wound up on Huffington Post’s front page.

  • Allonfla

    @PPP: “Once again, a political party has the written the people’s mandate without ever once asking the people what that mandate really was.”I know you are talking about the 2008 elections right? Not one special election from one state right?

  • ec

    If the Republicans continue to want to talk about strategy (reconciliation, fillibuster) instead of policy, Obama will do well.He just needs to point that out in big, big letters.If they show up and suggest scapping Medicare, Obama has them where he wants them.Otherwise, Obama is facing a pretty big spin machine.Obvious post, I know.