Hoyer: Dems have 2 weeks to decide healthcare reform game plan

By GottaLaff

First it was by summer. Then it was by Thanksgiving. Then it was by Christmas. Then it was by the new year. Now:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Democrats have a two-week window to determine their next move on healthcare.

Don'tcha hate broken deadlines? So does Nancy Pelosi:

[...] Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) [...] said last week there was “no rush” to figure out how to pass healthcare after Democrats lost their 60th vote in the Senate.

You can't break a deadline if you don't have a deadline. Smart girl.

Earlier in day, Hoyer laid out what he and other Democratic leaders see as the four options available to them: Pass a smaller series of health reform measures; pass the Senate bill along with a companion bill to “fix” certain aspects of the Senate bill and have the Senate use the reconciliation process to pass the “fix”; pass the Senate bill in its current form; or abandon healthcare reform efforts altogether.

Hoyer said he agreed with Pelosi’s assessment that the House lacks the votes to pass the Senate bill as is, and said that passing no legislation isn’t viewed as a realistic option by “most of us.”

That's nice. Now do it.

UPDATE, the Rushpublics are threatening obstruction... again:

John Podesta tells TPM there is a growing "consensus" behind "having the House pass the Senate's health care bill but only with guarantees that it could later be amended through a reconciliation bill."

Meanwhile, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, told the New York Times that, of reconciliation, Republicans "would make it an extraordinarily difficult exercise."

Timeline required

By GottaLaff

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki:

[T]here will be no agreement on a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq unless it includes a 'specific' timeline and is not 'open-ended.'

Obama: 153775

McCain/Bush: 0

H/t: Noah for the video link. Stranahan rocks.

Follow the bouncing McTimeline

By GottaLaff

All you need to know about Flippy McTimeline's lack of consistency is laid out in a nice column at TPM Election Central. Of course, the corporate media will have nothing to do with this... but we will.

John Sidney McCain on Obama's 16-month timetable: "I think it's a pretty good timetable"

By GottaLaff


McFlipFloppy can't go one day without changing his story:

Following Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s declaration of support for a 16-month withdrawal timeline from Iraq, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been struggling to respond. He spent most of this week railing against any “artificial timetable” for withdrawal from Iraq, vaguely insisting that the U.S. will withdraw only “with victory”...

But today he spoke to Wolf Blitzer:

When asked if Maliki would “persist” in requesting a 16-month withdrawal timetable from Iraq, McCain responded, “He won’t. … I know him.” McCain then praised Maliki’s 16-month timetable:

BLITZER: So why do you think he said that 16 months is basically a pretty good timetable?

McCAIN: He said it’s a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground. I think it’s a pretty good timetable, as we should — or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions on the ground.

The preceding Scooby Doo "Wha-a?" Moment was brought to you by the letters W, T, and F.