My boyfriend to do world tour with band +Platonic Vegas trip with Ex +Join Army-Then We Get Married

[kpete]

If Health Care Dies, Who Will The Murderer Be?


Let's call this the "My boyfriend is going to do a world tour with his rock band, then have a totally platonic weekend in Vegas with his ex-girlfriend, then join the Army, and then we'll get married" plan. Anybody see any potential problems here? Ezra Klein does:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/rahm_emanuel_makes_me_very_pes.html
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/if-health-care-dies-who-will-the-murderer-be

The timetable Emanuel is laying out makes little sense. The jobs bill will take some time. Financial regulation will take much longer. Let's be conservative and give all this four months. Is Emanuel really suggesting that he expects Congress to return to health-care reform in the summer before the election? Forgetting whether there's political will at that point, there's no personnel: Everyone is home campaigning.

Moreover, there's a time limit on health-care reform. The open reconciliation instructions the Senate could use to modify the bill expire when the next budget is (there's disagreement over the precise rule on this) considered or passed. That is to say, the open reconciliation instructions expire soon. Democrats could build new reconciliation instructions into the next budget, but that's going to be a heavy lift.

The good news, for those inclined to freak out, is that Emanuel is not necessarily speaking for the administration.....Emanuel's message is not David Axelrod's message. And it's not Obama's message. But Emanuel is out there floating his rock tour/Vegas/Army enlistment plan, and that's a major problem for Democrats, not to mention the national interest.

via:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/giving-himself-away-by-digby-it-would.html

[wyldwolf]

1. Another "Emanuel as puppet master" type post. I rather prefer Jonathan Cohn more realistic take

"Was this a trial balloon? It's impossible to know. Emanuel's qualms about strategic over-reach on health care are among Washington's worst kept secrets. It's always possible he was freelancing. But it's hard to imagine that, in a sit-down interview like this, Emanuel would toss out an idea like this without at least implicit approval from above."

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/rahm-thinks-reform-can-wait-while