President Obama Pandered Like Crazy to Olympia Snowe for Health Care Vote, Got Nothing

[DonViejo]

By David Weigel | Posted Wednesday, April 24, 2013, at 3:58 PM

The benevolent gods of review copies have sent me Fighting for Common Ground, the memoir/jeremiad by former Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. As woe-is-the-Republic texts by retired moderates go, it's got nothing on 2012's Arlen Specter offering. There are no tales of obese senators rising, Botticelli-like, from the steam of hot tubs. But it does tell us just how hard the president flop-sweated to bring Snowe into the cloture vote for health care. Snowe recounts a conversation with POTUS after she approved of the Baucus version of reform in committee.

The President also called me after the conclusion of the markup. He began by telling me, "A great statesperson (ed - statesperson?) once said, 'When history calls, history calls,'" and said I could make history by supporting health care reform when it's considered on the Senate floor. "You could be a modern day Joan of Arc," he offered. I laughed and replied, "Yes, but she was burned at the stake!" I added, "I don't mind taking the heat, but I have to believe it's the right policy for America." The President responded, "Don't worry, I'll be there with a fire hose."

What happened next? According to Snowe, "the melding of the Finance bill and the Senate HELP committee legislation was conducted in the shadows." Public pressure got to her, too—voters raised "legitimate questions" about the need for/wisdom of a bill. But Obama kept calling, reaching Snowe "more than a dozen times," meeting with her in person eight times. The final meeting occured five days before the Senate's cloture vote, in 2009.

Throughout the health reform debate, the President worked with me in good faith, and I believed he was doing so now. By this point, however, I realized that the legislation had essentially been pre-ordained. ... "Mr. President," I responded, "I sincerely appreciate your offer. But if I couldn't secure changes in the bill now, it's not going to happen when I'm the only Republican on that conference with all the Democratic leaders."

And she walked.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/04/24/president_obama_pandered_like_crazy_to_olympia_snowe_for_health_care_vote.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content

[msongs]

1. pandering to republicans is one of his top skills lol nt

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Groveling

Sucking up

Kissy face

etc.

[Cha]

5. Those are only your malicious words.

[CBHagman]

3. Three observations, albeit without reading the attached article yet.

1. The Republicans' modus operandi in recent years has been oppose everything, and while I don't doubt that there are sometimes pieces of legislation where bipartisanship is evidence (New START and the repeal of DADT are examples), it's fairly obvious that "when in doubt, don't" is the rule and not the exception.

2. It's easier to oppose something than to pass something.

3. It boggles my mind that it's so difficult to improve our health insurance system. People are bankrupted, people die because of the way things are set up.

[Cha]

4. "Pandered"? I see no pandering. that's just david weigle's ill informed word.

I see him trying to get her vote with reason.

[Doctor_J]

6. Yes, the Kasparov of politics is really a patzer

He also got nothing for extending the tax cuts, nothing for proposing SS benefit cuts, nothing for refusing to arrest Bush & Cheney, and so on. He's either the worst politician in history or is on the Repukes' side in all of this.

[Carolina]

7. Excellent, Doctor_J, and soooo true

Obama keeps ceding any and everything for nothing.... the very definition of insanity or stupidity... or even duplicity.

I actually find him worse than Bush in this sense: with Bush we knew we were going to get screwed and we did. But Obama is like the abusive spouse who declares how much he loves us in campaign speeches but then safely back in the White House, abuses us with his proposals and acquiescence to repukes without so much as an attempt to fight!

[lunatica]

8. But, but they swear he never reaches out to them!!!!

Olympia Snowe is obviously lying! Throw her under the bus Godammitt!