Last night/this morning: Mike Allen/Politico puts out stories quoting anonymous Democrats that Obama told Senate leaders he met with last night that he still favored Olympia Snowe’s trigger; none of the Senators confirms this. Allen also floats preposterous claim that Pelosi doesn’t have votes for [any] public option and is considering a trigger.
7:50 a.m. Greg Sargent/PlumLine, White House Clarifies . . .
The Times reports that when Reid signaled “his inclination to add the public option to the bill,” Obama “asked questions, but did not express a preference at the meeting.”
But the senior White House official points out that the discussion was not about the public option in general. Rather, Reid was specifically raising the possibility of a public option with an opt-out clause as one potential route. On this specific policy option, the official says, “the White House did not state a position either way.”
8:42 and 8:56 a.m. TPM explains why Allen’s House reporting is confused on House support for a public option and dead wrong on a trigger.
TPM also shows video of Valerie Jarrett appearing on Morning Joe to deny Obama is favoring a trigger and insists the President is working for a public option, which he thinks is the best approach.
10:21 a.m. [updated] Sam Stein and Ryan Grim/HuffPo Seething Dems Hit Back on Report Public Option is Dead in House
“Speculation that a final decision has been made about the public option are not accurate,” read a statement issued by the Speaker’s deputy communications director
Nadeam Elshami. “We continue to work with all the members of the caucus to build consensus.”“It’s not true. No decisions have been made,” said Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) . . .
Indeed, a Senate aide whose boss was in the meeting said that Obama was “non-committal” on which approach he preferred, though he was “skeptical” on a proposal that would allow states to opt-out of a national public plan. Another aide whose boss was also in the room said that Obama “stopped short” of embracing the so-called trigger idea.
11:15 updated 1:38 p.m. Jason Links/HuffPo — White House, Lawmakers, Knock down Politico Article on Public Option
12:36 p.m. Michael O’Brien/The Hill Obama Working to Get Public Option
. . . Deputy White House Secretary Bill Burton said that President Barack Obama is working on votes in the Senate.
“I will say that the president continues to think that the public option is the best way to achieve choice and competition, and that’s what he’s working toward,” Burton said during a press gaggle on Air Force One this morning.
12:37 [updated 4:35 p.m.] Stein/Grim HuffPo Reid is Only One or Two Votes Shy of an Opt Out Public Option, but . . .
Reid doesn’t intend to drag the decision out. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) told HuffPost that when he asked the leader on Wednesday if he could send Reid a letter reiterating his support for a strong public option, Reid told him to hurry.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/23/reid-is-only-one-or-two-v_n_331652.html
3:11 p.m. Brian Buelter/TPM –Sources: White House Pushing Back Against Senate Public Option Opt Out Compromise
Multiple sources tell TPMDC that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is very close to rounding up 60 members in support of a public option with an opt out clause, and are continuing to push skeptical members. But they also say that the White House is pushing back against the idea, in a bid to retain the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
“They’re skeptical of opt out and are generally deferential to the Snowe strategy that involves the trigger,” said one source close to negotiations between the Senate and the White HOuse. “they’re certainly not calming moderate’s concerns on opt out.”
3:28 p.m. Ezra Klein And Ezra sums it up: “The WH basically told [Reid] ‘We hope you guys know what you’re doing.’”
So, everybody clear?
——
That is just a sample of the claims/counterclaims that have come out in the last 24 hours. Some of these stories are based on named sources (or close, like “aides to Senators in the meeting”), but several are not. I don’t see any basis for granting total anonymity to these sources and lots of reasons why they should be put on the record, especially when different sources have different agendas and they’re claiming contradictory positions. That would help us understand what the White House and Reid are up to.
34 Comments
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About The Seminal
Advanced search
Scarecrow, surely you are not suggesting that Mike Allen continues to be a putz?
Why single out Allen? There appear to be any number of people (not reporters) in this story fitting that description.
“I don’t see any basis for granting total anonymity to these sources and lots of reasons why they should be put on the record, especially when different sources have different agendas and they’re claiming contradictory positions.”; totally agree. It is the spineless CMM reporters -they ARE NOT journalists !!- who are so worried about ‘access’ that this sort of drivel commands the headlines.
The answer to how not to control the healthcare message is, { be a Democrat.}
How to control it is be a Republican.
It’s a lot easier to make something look bad, than to make it look good when it is going to cost money. So the Republicans have had the upper hand. If You didn’t notice the Dems were just a little slow at answering the repubs and rebutting and refutting what they claimed.
When Obama promised that legislative efforts in his administration would be transparent and clear to the american people, I don’t think Americans envisioned what is going on now. Americans had, and have, a right to expect better from Obama, who campaigned on this issue, and uttered this promise literally thousands of times.
Obama is not only the leader of the country, he is also leader of the majority party. He has the ability to do better than this. Regardless of what he and his staff may be doing behind the scenes, he has failed miserably with his transparency pledge.
so many sophmores1
Agreed. Key part is that it’s not just the reporters.
From the direction things were heading this week, especially peaking on Thursday, this is a staggeringly bad day for the Dems. And it really needs to be hung on the White House which doesn’t seem to have thrown their weight around either Nancy’s whip count not where Reid was headed. Instead, they just keep enabling those who want to damage the bill.
Just strange day. It’s ones like this that make you want to throw in the towel on the whole process.
John
Is there a yo yo video game?
It’s not just msm….is it?
So many pots. So many kettles.
Until Obama stands up and says directly into a camera – the time for debate is over.. put a strong PO in or I will veto a bill . I simply don’t believe he is for it at all.
Marc Ambinder has an update — the WH tries to deny the TPM reports.
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/10/white_house_denies_report_that_it_wants_to_weaken_public_plan.php#
this country is soooooooooooooo behind the times sheeeesh
Was it something I said? /s
Politico wants to be seen as the top of the heap, so why NOT give Allen top billing?
That’s not the way you win at poker. In poker if you can take the pot without showing your hand, you really win.
I’ve always thought Allen belonged at the top of a heep.
Obama = HCR saboteur?
Sorry I missed all this on C-SPAN today. Will it be rerun sometime?
It was on C-SPAN, right? Like candidate Obama promised?
Oh, goody, Lawrence O’Donnell just said on Countdown: “And…. Roger Ailes for President?” Another Mike Allen brain fart in Politico today.
One has to wonder if this yo yo game, coupled with dragging this thing out, is intentional to confuse and exhaust those of us trying to pay attention and put pressure to keep a public option. I admit that I’m getting f#cking exhausted by this back and forth BS and have often considered taking a break from political blogs/news sites for a few months just to cool down and spend that time and energy on something else.
Ambinder didn’t state what the question was that Pfeiffer was answering. That would have been too helpful.
No.
Games like this go on in DC all the time, usually behind closed doors and out of sight of most in the media. Generally, there are only two players to the game, and they push at each other until one wins and one loses — all behind those closed doors.
In this case, however, DC outsiders have inserted themselves into the game, whether the inside DC players like it or not. That has changed the dynamic considerably, and where everything ends is still up in the air.
The DC players would rather have settled this quietly amongst themselves long ago. The yo-yo game has been played because people beyond the beltway are not content to let the game be played as usual. As a result, the DC players find themselves in an unusual position: negotiating with each other while trying to get those on the outside to push against the other side.
If you are looking for someone to blame for the yo-yo game, blame Jane.
Jane was all Politico today…saying that story follwed what the WH has been pursing all along.
Let’s get on the same page, choir.
It’s hard enough.
when trial balloons have their own posse of trial balloons, be wary…
I agree, but I don’t think precision mattered today. There’s too much conflict/chaos going on when the WH and Senate leadership ought to be working hand in hand; suggests someone is out of control, but who? And why?
If I tried, I could learn how to make a balloon into an elephant, a confused Dem, a yo-yo.
If I tried really hard.
Did I say Pussing? I fixed it in edit.
the house whip from S.Carolina said on Keith show
white house was for a trigger….wtf
WTF happened to No Drama Obama?
A new, contradictory report every hour…It’s getting tiring.
I don’t suppose it would be possible to get some of the outlets here–plum line, TPM, etc., to simply stop reporting anonymous sources on this topic. It isn’t bringing any understanding to what is going on–in fact just the opposite.
If the news media can defend Fox, why can’t some of the new media just stop playing this game.
IS THAT LIKE BRICKING A CAMEL?
With this bill we will find out how strong a prez BO is. He can’t even get his party on the same page with him how can he…
No Single Payer, No real Public Option, just a gun waring trigger finger kind, maybe, pretend, false Public Option. Some thing that can cause bunches of trouble for the dems down the road.
Prez O, are you listening?
http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord/news/x1136018582/Howard-Dean-opens-author-fest-with-healthcare-talk
And PO, your biggest mistake was not putting Dean in charge of this. It would have been a done deal by now and the Denms would be having poll numbers out of this world.
As to how much credence and effort we should expend on pronouncements from any news outlet I would stratify them in this way:
-no credibility or time wasted on not for attibution sources as they are pointless and meaningless;
-little to no credence given to attributed sources for the same reason;
-and very little credence to given to pronouncement direct from the horse mouth, sources for the same reason.
As to the PO, we should have concluded by now that Obama is indifferent as to the form it gets passed or whether it gets passed at all. This as judged by his unwillingness to do anything to promote its passage. and not by whatever pronouncements he has made regarding it.
It can not be argued that in being passive he is promoting the PO since the two are mutually exclusive. To promote something is to act otherwise the appropriate term is to be idly musing about something. We do not need to concern ourselves with what he is thinking, because that is unknowable.
Our role is to advocate for the PO ourselves with all means available as this approach has been seen to work.
I guess also that we should convince ourselves of the vacuity of some news outlets and to gauge them to see how well their reporting comports with the truth of subsequent events.