Health Care Déjà Vu

Mar 5, 2010 — Politico

Martin Kady II

OBAMA THE SALESMAN: NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear report: “President Obama, beginning a full-court press for his health care overhaul, met Thursday with insurance industry executives and House Democrats as party leaders on Capitol Hill struggled to figure out whether they could meet the president’s timetable for enacting legislation within a few weeks. … He told the liberals that a public option would never pass the Senate, but said he would be ‘personally committed’ to pursuing it once the current bill became law, said Representative Raúl Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona and co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He asked centrists for support.

WAYS AND MEANS SHUFFLE: Sandy Levin may not hold that gavel past next year. Jonathan Allen of POLITICO reports: “The race is on for permanent control of the Ways and Means Committee. The Democrats’ decision to install 78-year-old Michigan Rep. Sander Levin as acting chairman of the panel Thursday forestalled a brutal fight for the support of leaders and rank-and-file members.

“But it also served as the starting gun for a minimarathon that will decide who gets power over tax, trade and entitlement policy for years to come. …Sources close to Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal, who is sixth in seniority on the panel, say he’s reviewing his options and has significant support from Democratic colleagues and business interests on K Street. Neal would have to climb over Levin, Washington Rep. Jim McDermott and Georgia Rep. John Lewis to get the gavel.”

BACKPEDAL ON KSM TRIAL: Another Obama affirmation of Bush terrorism policy – Anne Kornblut and Peter Finn in The Washington Post: “President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

“The president's advisers feel increasingly hemmed in by bipartisan opposition to a federal trial in New York and demands, mainly from Republicans, that Mohammed and his accused co-conspirators remain under military jurisdiction, officials said. While Obama has favored trying some terrorism suspects in civilian courts as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the rule of law, critics have said military tribunals are the appropriate venue for those accused of attacking the United States.”

ANOTHER DEM RETIREMENT: Rep. Bill Delahunt told the Boston Globe Thursday he won't run for reelection in 2010. From the Globe’s Susan Mulligan: "'It's got nothing to do with politics,' the Quincy Democrat said today. ... The 68-year-old lawmaker said he has been considering leaving the House for several years, but was talked out of it two years ago by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who convinced his friend he should stay and help President Obama with his first-term agenda. 'He said, "Come on -- this is a new time. It's a new era. We [will] have a new president. We're all needed,"' Delahunt recalled Kennedy telling him. Once Kennedy died last year, Delahunt said he grappled with whether to stay and work on the issues Kennedy held dear.”

BANK TAX TROUBLE: A glitch in a key financial reform proposal. From Reuters: “The tax on banks proposed by the Obama administration would be passed along to consumers, a leading Republican lawmaker said on Thursday, citing a nonpartisan budget analysis. Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa said the findings from the Congressional Budget Office show that lawmakers need to understand the consequences before authorizing the tax designed to recoup taxpayer bailout funds used to stabilize the financial system.

"The cost of the proposed fee would ultimately be borne to varying degrees by an institution's customers, employees, and investors, but the precise incidence among those groups is uncertain," the CBO said in a letter that responded to questions from Grassley.”

MELANCON DITCHES COMMITTEE: From The Hill’s Aaron Blake and Sean Miller: “Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) has resigned from an influential House committee to concentrate on his Senate campaign. Melancon, who is challenging Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), said his departure from the House Budget Committee had been coming. "That decision was made several weeks back," he said on a conference call with reporters Thursday, "mainly because I didn't physically have the time." He said he "would have liked to have stayed," but his schedule didn't permit it.”

MASSA DISTRICT A TOSSUP: Another Democratic seat is now up for grabs, as CQ-Roll Call’s Emily Cadei reports: “New York’s 29th district was always going to be a competitive race in November, given its long tradition of electing Republicans and the anti-Democratic trends coursing through the country. But freshman Rep. Eric Massa ’s surprising decision not to seek re-election has transformed what was going to be a straightforward race between Massa and former Corning Mayor Tom Reed (R) into an open-seat free-for-all. Given Democrats’ loss of incumbency advantage in the district, and the chance that the open seat could now lure a potentially stronger GOP candidate, CQ-Roll Call is changing its race rating for the general election to the more competitive Tossup from Leans Democratic.”

HAYWORTH AD MOCKS MCCAIN: It’s getting ugly in the Republican primary. From the Arizona Republic: “Sen. John McCain's re-election campaign is decrying as insulting an online ad by GOP Senate challenger J.D. Hayworth that mocks McCain, R-Ariz., by defacing his picture with some sort of blue warpaint. "Ads like this have no place in the Republican primary, and J.D. Hayworth should immediately take it down and apologize," said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., a strong McCain ally.

“The ad, which appeared on the widely read Internet news site the Drudge Report, apparently is a play on the science-fiction movie "Avatar," which is up for Best Picture in Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. It shows McCain's photo defaced with blue stripes and says, "John McCain: Nominee for Best Conservative Actor."

PENTAGON SHOOTER UPDATE: From the AP: The gunman in the Pentagon shootings may have harbored resentment for the military and had doubts about the facts behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. John Patrick Bedell, 36, died after exchanging gunfire with two police officers, both of whom were wounded. In an Internet posting, a user named JPatrickBedell wrote that he was determined to see justice for the 1991 death of Marine Col. James Sabow in Orange County, which was ruled a suicide but has long been the source of coverup theories. The writer said the case would be a step toward revealing the truth behind the 9/11 "demolitions."

WJLA WASHINGTON WEATHER: Gusty breezes will howl out of the north today. Expect similar highs to yesterday’s 48 degrees, but with added clouds. By tonight skies begin to clear with lows in the 20s and chilly winds. The weekend brings near total sunshine with milder highs near 50 degrees Saturday, mid 50s by Sunday. The region appears to remain dry for the foreseeable future.