The "enablers," as they've been dubbed by some in the incessant articles about Rahm Emanuel that continue to be published, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and chief political strategist David Axelrod, flooded the Sunday morning chat shows to once again speak up for health care reform legislation that nobody is certain has the votes in the House of Representatives to pass – whether it's at the end of this week, this month, or this year (but for the record both men said would be voted before Obama leaves for South Asia).
There were plenty of Republicans on the chat shows to rebuke what they called the White House spin, none more vitriolic than South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, already getting considerable heat from his GOP brethren for deigning to even to talk to administration and other Democrats to try to push along issues like what to do with Gitmo and immigration reform.
When asked his thoughts on the whole health care thang, Graham said "the American people are tired of this crap." Here's the exchange with ABC's Jake Tapper in context:
Under reconciliation, you can't make any changes to Social Security because Senator Byrd understood it was never meant to be used for a purpose like this.
Senator Byrd said you couldn't pass Senator — President Clinton's health care plan through reconciliation. It was never meant — and you can repeal the Bush tax cuts if you don't like it. If they use this device called reconciliation to deal out Republicans, it will open up Pandora's box.
And the interview I just heard is spin, campaigning. I thought the campaigning was over. Are you trying to tell me and the American people that Scott Brown got elected campaigning against a Washington bill that really is just like the Massachusetts bill?
The American people are getting tired of this crap. No way in the world is what they did in Massachusetts like what we're about to do in Washington. We didn't cut Medicare — they didn't cut Medicare when they passed the bill in Massachusetts. They didn't raise $500 billion on the American people when they passed the bill in Massachusetts.
To suggest that Scott Brown is basically campaigning against the bill in Washington that is like the one in Massachusetts is complete spin. I've been in bipartisan deals, I was in the "gang of 14" to stop the Senate from blowing up when the Republicans wanted to change the rules and use the majority vote to get judges through.
If they do this, it's going to poison the well for anything else they would like to achieve this year or thereafter.
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2010.