JK part of "heated party lunch"

[Inuca]

with WH director yesterday (only saw it now, may be old news to you guys).

According to The Washington Post, Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.), Barbara A. Mikulski (Md.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and others demanded that Lew explain what the president was doing in his talks with Boehner.

Following the tense 45-minute meeting, Mikulski turned to her colleagues and said, "I haven’t seen a meeting like this in my 35 years in Congress," the Post reported.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43851666/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

What the hell is going on?!?!?

[Blaukraut]

1. Obama is what's going on, as usual

He is so determined to look reasonable that he is actually beginning to appear UNreasonably wimpy. To cut deals with Boehner in secret just so he can get his "Big (shitty) Deal" is a slap in the face of our Democratic leaders in both House and Senate and definitely undemocratic. I hope our Dems stand as a firm bloc and vote this deal down if it contains cuts and only the promise of revenues some time down the road.

Since when are promises made by republicans any good? I feel bad for John Kerry. He must be torn about supporting the President and standing by his principles. I hope he comes down on the principled side.

[MBS]

2. Ditto

I share the frustration and anguish of the Democratic congressional delegation, and I'm totally behind anything they're doing to push Obama to do what's right (AND, not incidentally, what's most fiscally responsible), namely, push for more revenue, especially from the wealthiest Americans.

I understand how important it is to get the debt ceiling raised, and I understand what a political bind we're all in because of the outrageous (yes, and unpatriotic) intransigence of the Republicans . I get the constraints and the urgency.
But it's equally urgent for us to restore our country to its best and most responsible, most forward-looking and most compassionate self. (Also, end the BLOODY TAX CUTS FOR INCOMES OVER $250,000! I mean, what the h___?)
I find myself longing for FDR in the White House (or Obama in his FDR mode, using his eloquence to educate the public and fight for what's right)-- a LEADER –  not a Broker-Surrenderer in Chief.

[karynnj]

3. Ditto

The really sad thing is that by the time something is placed before the Democrats by Obama and the Republicans, it might not be just a case of supporting the President and standing by principles, but facing the casting of a vote, that he will know is wrong, because failure to pass things could tank the world's economy.

I have heard Lawrence O'Donnell, who personally has written the necessary legislation to raise an earlier debt limit, say that even if a bill fails, a clean bill just raising the limit could be written and voted on even at the eleventh hour.

I saw Bernie Sanders' summary of the Gang of six bill ( http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=dd367779-8eb7-4298-83ab-7c3b9b2286f5 ) and really can't understand how Durbin agreed to it. (Incidentally, I am completely impressed with my future Senator here. Another reason to look forward to eventually moving to Vermont. I do see that Kerry's, and even more so Durbin's, roles are necessarily different from Sanders - and that Senaders is needed to clearly spell out the problems and pull the Democrats to fixing the obvious problems here.)

While looking for the Sanders' summary, I found the rollcall story on this. I love Mikuski's description of the lunch as "volcanic".

They had Kerry and Durbin quotes:

“The responsible thing to do in the Senate, for the country, is to not have default and to embrace a big deal in concept, with a specific time period to try to implement it, to not try to have to vote on it,” Sen. John Kerry told reporters after the luncheon. “The virtue of the Reid-McConnell package is that it is not a kick down the road. It is, in fact, a very specific and very tough process, which the Senate and Congress would have to complete the task of the big deal. So you get the best of both worlds.

“The best thing for us to do is to embrace the McConnell-Reid approach,” the Massachusetts Democrat added.

Durbin, who is also a member of the Senate’s bipartisan “gang of six” that is working on its own deficit reduction package, expressed reservations Thursday about the Senate’s ability to approve a deal like the one reportedly in the works between Obama and Boehner.

“It would have a very difficult time passing the Democratic Senate,” he said of any large package of spending cuts without revenues. “I’m looking for balance, and balance means revenues as well as spending cuts.”

http://www.rollcall.com/news/senate_democrats_volcanic_over_deal_rumors-207575-1.html

I found nothing new in Kerry's position vs what he said in the senate speech. Reading between the lines, both Kerry and Durbin agree that a serious, long term solution is needed and they don't want the big deal that the President and the Republicans hastily put together under the gun of the August 2 date.

[Inuca]

4. Thanks for the quotes

interesting to see black on white that he thinks that the McConnell-Reid deal is the best option right now.