Krugman: Does Obama Have the Balls to Take on the Right Wingers?

More on reconciliation rules in a fairly readable piece: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fifty_vote_senate

 

Refman, take Glynch's suggestion: visit LBJ's library. Who do you think gave us Medicare? He had vision for a Great Society and the clout to make it a reality.

A blowhard? Did you ever meet the man? Well, I had the privilege. I was a wet-behind-the-ears 19-year-old sent by the Austin American-Statesman to cover one of his barbecues. My assignment was to do a feature from the perspective of a student (I was a junior at the University of Texas at the time). The people there were ancient in my young man's view. They were friendly but disinterested in a student reporter.

There I was munching on some barbecue, potato salad and beans, petting and feeding one of the dogs, a Beagle if I recall correctly. A grandfatherly voice from behind me said, "A man who likes dogs has got to like people."

The man was LBJ. We spoke for 10 minutes or so about his ranch and how good it was to be home. It didn't seem to matter to him that I was politically insignificant and terribly naive. He was interesting conversationalist and an attentive listener -- just as if I were important.

When my colleagues at school were protesting LBJ's war, which he inherited from JFK and JFK's administration, I couldn't. I think -- my opinion -- in his heart he hated the Vietnam war but was trapped by it. In his speech announcing he would not run again, you could see it in his face.

No, accept a moderate conservative's rebuke for impugning a very liberal President. From my perspective LBJ was a genuinely good man who tried to do what he felt was best for the American way of life.

 

The real question is "Does Krugman have the balls to be a real man?"

I'm sick of that guy

 

Heck if I know, but he owns a really really really big gun!

 

Thanks rim

So the new thinking seems to be split the bill into two parts with the most controversial parts (public option) being in the part that could go to reconciliation.

 

It is really easy to use hindsight and selected quotes to make anyone look bad. You shouldn't believe everything you read on winger sites.

 

That's a great story Thumbs. The best description I've heard of LBJ is "Flawed Giant". The man had great political skills and was ruthless about power but he wasn't just after power for power's sake but wanted to do something good with power.

 

The only story I know about LBJ that was not publicized is this...

My father was a young man working at the bank. Another guy at the bank was trying to get his significant other into the country. He was stalled at every turn.

He spoke to the bank President (who donated to the JFK-LBJ campaign). One phone call (and likely the promise of another donation) and his lady friend had her ticket punched for Houston.

Not an awful thing, but an example of politicians for hire.

 

Obama Smerconish Interview: "Guarantees" Reform, Still Open To GOP

President Barack Obama guaranteed on Thursday that health care reform will be achieved, and he stuck by the public option as his preferred choice for revamping the insurance market.

In an interview with Philadelphia-based radio talk show host and MSNBC analyst Michael Smerconish, Obama continued to talk about his desire to bring Republican lawmakers on board. He also chastised, ever so slightly, the press and progressives for getting "a little excited" in their suspicions that he was abandoning the public plan. "Our position hasn't changed," he said.

Obama's most powerful moment, however, may have come when he addressed a caller who had supported his 2008 campaign but was concerned that the president's knees were "buckling" when it came to getting health care reform passed.

"I guarantee you," he told the caller, "we are going to get health care reform done. And I know that there are a lot of people out there who have been hand wringing and folks in the press are following every little twist and turn of the legislative process. You know, passing a big bill like this is always messy. FDR was called a socialist when he passed Social Security. JFK and Lyndon Johnson, they were both accused of a government takeover of health care, when they passed Medicare. This is the process we go through because understandably, the American people have a long tradition of being suspicious of government, until the government actually does something that helps them, and then they don't want anybody messing with whatever gets set up. And I'm confident we're going to get it done."

Obama and his Democratic allies are making a renewed push to bolster public opinion behind his health care agenda. On Wednesday, Obama hosted a call with religious leaders who backed his proposal. Later on Thursday, he is hosting an open strategy session with his campaign arm - Organizing for America - to discuss the political landscape surrounding the health care debate.

Through it all, he has stuck to a familiar script: health care reform needs to expand coverage, lower costs, and increase competition. A public option, Obama said on Thursday, is the best vehicle for achieving these goals. But no one should be "obligated to go into a public plan."

On Thursday, Obama showed a certain amount of frustration with the GOP, but he did little to indicate he was willing to give up on recruiting bipartisan support.

"As far as negotiations with Republicans, my attitude has always been, let's see if we can get this done with some consensus," he said. "I would love to have more Republicans engaged and involved in this process. I think, early on, a decision was made, by the Republican leadership that said, look, 'let's not give them a victory. Maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94 when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the midterm elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out of that playbook."

"But this shouldn't be a political issue," he added. "This is an issue for the American people. There are a bunch of Republicans out there who have been working very constructively. One of them, [Sen.] Olympia Snowe in Maine, she's been dedicated on this. [Sens.] Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) are others. They've been meeting in the Senate Finance Committee. I want to give them a chance to work through these processes and we're happy to make sensible compromises. What we're not willing to do is give up on the core principle."

 

Refman, returning favors for favors is as old as politics. Millions have made contributions to candidates. If someone is prominent enough to do a favor for someone else by making a phone call, what on earth is wrong with that? You say it wasn't "an awful thing," but in the next breath say it's "an example of politicians for hire." No, it is an example of politics, friendships, and using contacts to get something done. I don't see a thing unusual, illegal, or wrong about it. Do we all know bank presidents? Of course not, but you act as if that was an act of corruption. I don't see it that way. It was doing a favor for someone because they asked and you could.

 

You are probably right.

However, it isn't favors for favors. It is favors for money. It is the first story I heard as a kid that taught me that the wealthy can call the President and get what they want right away. The rest of us are stuck with the process, where may may never get the desired result.

Very disillusioning for a young lad.

 

I think you're overreacting here a little. When I worked on the Hill, the least responsive agency was the then INS. Every other agency would jump when you called and identified yourself as working in a Reps office. Not the INS folks. They were just flat out assholes. Every pol I knew, whether Repub or Dem loved to make them do something and pursued these kinds of requests without expecting anything in return (except maybe thinking that everyone in the family would vote for him the next time around and tell all their friends about how they were helped by the Congressman.) Getting families together used to be somewhat of a big deal to all those folks, though it probably is not so much anymore.

In the case you relate, I doubt money played any part and I seriously doubt he spoke to LBJ about it... probably a staffer made a call, which is likely what would have happened if the request had gone through a Congressman or Senator.

 

In Minnesota LBJ is by the old Humphrey Democrats. I once heard Walter Mondale almost breaking down in tears talking about when LBJ invited Humphrey down to his ranch and made him dress up like a cowboy. The local public radio station once a year likes to broadcast a fictionalized account of Hubert Humphrey challenging LBJ on the Vietnam war prior to the 1968 election with Humphrey going so far as threatening to run as an Independent. Its too bad though for all those Humphrey defenders that the LBJ phone tapes show that Humphrey was so desperate to be the VP and LBJ's heir he brown nosed LBJ.

Sorry for the derail just that I find it funny everytime I hear about Minnesotans whining about LBJ's treatment of their hero.