Reply #2: "My priority is simple; keep our eye on the ball. "

[Tom Rinaldo]

As for your first highlighted passage: Some here try to claim that, in honoring the seperation of legislative and executive powers under the Constitution, Obama bears no real role nor responsibility in what gets decided on by the Senate. Many here feel Olympia Snowe, as a member of the minority party, has been given undue influence in the internal discussions about how the differing Senate bills get merged. I point out that Obama's Chief of Staff is in that room but Olympia Snowe is not. Obama has a strong role and he is playing it, for better or worse.

If one or more of us underestimates Harry Reid or Barack Obama now, but what finally emerges proves us wrong, there was no real harm done once the record on their achievement is corrected. If one or more of us have to eat our angry words for selling a Democrat short now, again no real harm done.

The only real harm is if we get distracted over personal loyalty test fights now and in the process fail to project a strong enough message about what we expect Congress and our President to deliver, to this Congress and this President.