RUSH: You know, we talked about this yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, about how Harry Reid and Pelosi are still plotting behind scenes in order to move health care through reconciliation. In fact, grab audio sound bite number 12. Now, this is Pelosi yesterday afternoon in Washington at her weekly press briefing, and she said this about getting health care reform passed.
PELOSI: We go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people.
RUSH: That’s Nancy Pelosi. Now, every day there’s a different story on this. The Washington Times today: ‘Democratic leaders on Thursday shelved plans to push through a major health care overhaul, casting aside President Obama’s top legislative goal, which has bedeviled congressional Democrats for more than a year. Senate Democrats put a positive spin on it, arguing that they’re sidelining it until later this year — possibly until the summer — so they could deal immediately with Mr. Obama’s State of [Obama] Speech call to address the economy and job creation. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said a comprehensive bill is still a priority, already has plans to pursue small, targeted health bills, such as a repeal of insurance companies’ antitrust protection. Rank-and-file Democrats aren’t optimistic about the fate of a comprehensive overhaul.’
Then you go to the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein: ‘David Axelrod: ‘Reconciliation is a Tool That is There to be Used.’ This is very interesting to read. I think they’re stunned more than I believed and more than maybe they know. ‘The Republicans have it both ways,’ David Axelrod said in a conversation with a handful of journalists this afternoon. ‘They have the ability to block, but they assign us the responsibility to govern.’ But pressed for the White House’s answer to that dilemma, Axelrod fell back on platitudes. ‘They either work with us or they have to pay the price for working against us,’ he replied. But what price? For the last year, Republicans have worked, assiduously and effectively, to derail the Democrats’ legislative agenda.’
I have a question: How can they say that? What did the Republicans do? The Democrats have voting majorities (or had until Massachusetts) in both houses. They got their 219 votes in the House. They had 60 votes in the Senate. The Republicans could not have stopped them! The Republicans didn’t do anything. If anybody did anything, it was the American people: The tea party people, talk radio, everybody that does not want any part of this socialist takeover of the economy. The Republicans didn’t do diddly-squat. They couldn’t have even if they wanted to. If the Republicans had gone out and made massive preference appearances, it wouldn’t have been covered much — and had they done it, it would have been portrayed as gridlock, a party that said ‘no,’ which they are portrayed as anyway.
But this sentence: ‘For the last year, Republicans have worked, assiduously and effectively, to derail the Democrats’ legislative agenda,’ how can they say that? And this, in fact, was a constant in Axelrod’s remarks. So here they’re trying to get the Republicans to join ’em, trying to get the Republicans to cross the aisle, bipartisanship. So this must be noted, as it is the new talking point against the Republicans — and the Republicans ought to stand up against it and be proud. Absolutely! Because the Republican Party is doing what the voters have said they wanted, and that is oppose this. But the overall point is that there was nothing the Republicans could have done to stop any of this. It was their own wishy-washy Democrats they couldn’t unify. Mr. Unifier could not bring his own people together.
And, by the way, I warned you about this: You notice all the people in Obama’s orbit, how angry they are? Obama doesn’t even unify his own staff. Reverend Wright is always angry at somebody. Bill Ayers trying to blow something up every other day. I mean, there’s no unity out there anywhere. So it’s not a surprise he can’t unify his own party. The thing that killed the Obama agenda so far was sunshine. It was the light shining on everything he was doing. When we were able to find out the stuff they were pulling and able to tell people, the light showed the shadows of the Democrats’ motivations. Axelrod says, ‘They made a decision they were going to sit it out and hope that we failed, that the country failed.’ Bang-o. I am in their head. Except: When they fail, the country breathes a sigh of relief. When they fail, the country is spared.
If they succeed, we are in heap big doo-doo. Ezra Klein writes: ‘It’s been an inarguable success for the Republican Party. Health-care reform is on life support. Republicans just won a Senate seat in Massachusetts. Election experts are beginning to talk about a potential Republican takeover in November. There is no case to be made that the GOP is in a worse position than a year ago. Which made Axelrod’s threats of consequences a bit tinny. ‘If they want to block everything,’ he said at another point, ‘they will be held to account.” Isn’t that hilarious? We can’t block anything! The Republicans in Congress cannot block anything, yet the bullying and the intimidation continues. ‘Later,’ Axelrod said, ”We are going to very visibly seek their support moving forward, and we will shine a bright light on them when they don’t.” Bring it on, baby. Bring it on.
Turn the bright lights on because then people will see you, too. Frankly, it’ll take a load off of us. ‘But if it’s hard to shine a light on minority obstructionism, it’s entirely possible to launch an attack on the tools of obstructionism.’ This is in the Washington Post. This is the writer saying it: ‘[I]f it’s hard to shine a light on minority obstructionism, it’s entirely possible to launch an attack on the tools of obstructionism.’ So, anyway, ‘Asked about reconciliation,’ which is the point here, ‘Axelrod chose his words carefully. ‘Reconciliation is a tool that is there to be used,’ he said.’ The bottom line is they haven’t given this up. They have not given up health care, despite all the stories that you see. It is their signature. It is the thing on which everything else they want to do depends — and Pelosi, Reid, whoever, they’ll find a way. And Obama wants it just as much as he always has. So keep a sharp eye, folks, as we will.