Maybe it passed because Obama came by to give dashing septuagenarian and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) a good luck kiss on the forehead before the big game. Or because Anthony Weiner (D-NY) dropped his hardline Medicare-based public option crusade. Or maybe it passed because the House doesn’t suck.

It’s far from perfect, far from being a vote limited to health care, and far too long: compare its Tolstoy epic-like 1,990 pages to the original Social Security Act’s more novella-like 64. Alas, such is the nature of sausage-making.

By now we all know that on a busy, “nice little Saturday,” the House of Representatives passed a health care reform bill. In June, it also passed climate change legislation. Of course, neither of these bills is law yet, because of the languid pace of that familiar upper house, the Senate. (And because the president would need to subsequently sign them.) Nonetheless, it strikes me as ironic that the House, over four times the size of the Senate and with a few extra members on the fringes of normalcy, often proves to be a more nimble body.

I had always thought of the Senate as the more esteemed and wiser of our nifty bicameral legislature (courtesy of sly dog James Madison), and in many ways that’s true. But its members are, on average, older and more behind the times.

I had always thought of the Senate as the “real” Congress, where the big stuff gets done by household names, your McCains and Dodds and Rockefellers. Lately, it’s a chain of old men playing Red Rover who won’t let any laws come on over.

Through the fall the Senate has shown itself to be underwhelming. Its slothy pace and esoteric procedures are the legislative frustration equivalent of a reality show that drags out the elimination round announcement through three commercial cliffhangers. Read the rest of this entry »

In the wake of last night’s elections results, a few things come to mind:

This was no Super Tuesday: Sorry MSNBC, but 2 East Coast gubernatorial races and a house race so far up north in New York that it has more Canadians voting than any other bloc do not a super day make. This was more like a nor’easter of charismatic-less candidates. Except for the name Scozzafozza. Its Italian phonetic glee makes you want to throw caution to the wind and dig into some penne a la vodka, while watching Fozzie Bear on a TV Land Muppet Show rerun.

Coattails are overrated: Obama didn’t affect these elections. These races for governor appear to have been about issues on the ground. In New Jersey, incumbent Jon Corzine is highly unpopular. There are a lot of reasons why this may be: for instance, he presides over the highest property taxes levied in the history of the state and has a Wall Street pedigree at a bad time to be known for that. Plus, he didn’t wear a seat belt. In Virginia, the GOP’s Bob McDonnell won handily with a focus on local issues and kitchen table common sense. He didn’t spend his time ragging on Obama. The Washington Post validated that choice persuasively with an incisive and revealing poll: 70% of Virginia voters said Obama would not be a factor in their decision, and those who said he would were split evenly between the Democrat and the Republican. So, no net effect. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since David Paterson became Governor of New York he’s been a different kind of politician. But not a successful one.

It’s a little hard to tell if the morass he finds himself in is situational or personal. Is he a capable but embattled leader forced to make unpopular decisions for the survival of the fiscal and social welfare of his state, or a wily State Senator with ineffectual executive faculties?

His State of the State address was actually a resolute, reasoned address for tough times (yes, I was the lone TV viewer), but his bungles have overshadowed that rhetoric.

Paterson has two big personal problems that have led to his political ones. First, he acts as if normal political guidelines don’t apply to him, yet is neither charismatic nor effective enough to be exempt.

In those early days he was a fresh face to most, perhaps even an exciting to inspiring one, as the state’s first legally blind governor and African American one.

He came into office and acted as a shrewder political mind than he was ever going to get credit for. Perhaps he felt that all he had gleaned growing up around an influential circle would enable him to maneuver common pitfalls and move beyond politics.

After all, his father Basil (is that worth a pesto joke?) rolled deep, with former Mayor David Dinkins, Rep. Charlie Rangel (possessor of one of the more ludicrous voices in Congress, neck-and-neck with Barney Frank), and civil rights activist Percy Sutton, in what was called the Harlem Clubhouse. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a week since the Baucus health care bill was introduced and insta-panned. It’s since been downplayed to the role of additional building block and is being revised. The lead headline in The New York Times the morning after the plan was introduced read: “Democrats in Senate Reach for 60 Votes on Health Care Overhaul.” The implication here is that Democrats need those votes to get the legislation passed, because without them, Republicans will resort to a filibuster.

Who cares?

It’s confounding. Why are the Democrats so terrified of a filibuster?

The filibuster is a gift.

Grow a backbone. Call them out. For their political goals, the Democrats should force the GOP to back up its threats and filibuster.

As a friend so brusquely put it: “There is nothing I would rather see than the GOP filibustering health care for poor people. That is a Democratic attack ad for the next 50 years.” Democrats: that’s the win-win you face.

This filibuster is precisely what the Democrats need to reinvigorate themselves and attempt to demonstrate that they are looking out for the not-so-special interests. Otherwise, they’re going to look more and more like bought-out corporatists each day.

Besides, it would be the greatest spectacle in years! Would it not be more impressive than America’s Got Talent to see these old folks read the rules of blackjack, the Bible, BusinessWeek, and recipes for Bundt cake without their bladders bursting? (Sans Flomax.) I bet some Americans would even leave it on CNN in the background at bedtime. When interviewed they might say, “It’s like white [man] noise. It helps me to fall asleep.” Read the rest of this entry »