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Lyndon’s Whipping

By John Batchelor on March 12, 2010 at 7:00 PM in Current Affairs

From the blog for The John Batchelor Show, syndicated nightly from 9 p.m. at 1 a.m. ET. Listen via iTunes (click Radio and News/Talk Radio; scroll to WABC-AM).

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Horse-Trading Farmhand.  

Speaking Dan Henninger, WSJ, on Friday 12, re the difference between Senate Majority Leader and VPOTUS and then the accidental POTUS LBJ and POTUS Obama.

LBJ built the foundation for the Great Society by starting in the Senate with the extremely cautious and conservative (and Jim Crow) Democratic bloc in the South as early as 1957 — passing the 1957 Civil Rights Act one vote at a time. LBJ argued that it was critical that the bill pass while maintaining good and meaningful relations between the opponents and proponents.

LBJ also argued for incrementalism.

The 1957 bill was only four pages long and did not achieve anything close to the comprehensive protection of rights in the Civil Rights legislation of 1964 and 1965.  LBJ believed in small bites in order to move to eating the whole pie without Richard Russell smashing the table and chairs and ending the meal.

Also, once the farm-boy LBJ was POTUS, he horse-traded fiercely to bring along the reluctant Western senators, such as promising them new dams and irrigation money.

The contrast with how the rookie Senator Obama has conducted his administration is Sun and Moon. POTUS Obama has reached for a vast reordering of the economy without any votes from the GOP and by damaging if not wrecking the seats of conservative Democrats from the South.

Not only is POTUS Obama not LBJ, but also POTUS Obama is draining the Democratic Party of the strength it has built in the New South.

Whip Count.

Spoke David Drucker, Roll Call, to learn that the Parliamentarian of the Senate has ruled that  the Senate version of the healthcare bill must be voted on by a majority of the House Democrats (216) and then must go to POTUS for signature into law.  At that point, the Democratic Senate must move the so-called sidecar bill to fix the Cornhusker trick, the pro-life trick, and all the other pork in the Senate.

Am told that the Parliamentarian cannot rule out the GOP amendments endlessly.  The GOP calls it the vote-arama.

This process can last until November.  And when and if the GOP changes one comma in the healthcare law (act), it must go back to the House for another vote of 216.  (Late news: rumor on the Hill is to call for the vote on Wednesday 17.

Also, it is said that Stupak and his ten or eleven fellows cannot be solved — since they cannot fix the Senate bill for abortion banning — and that Mrs. Pelosi will make up for it elsewhere.

Also the GOP is saying now that the whip is ten short.  I still hear under 200 also.)

  • sowsear

    Will Stupak and friends Aid and Abet Republicans any further than voting no, or will they leave the rest up to the GOP?

  • John johnwsmart.com

    Here’s what i don’t get: If the House passes the bill, then Obama signs it – who cares about reconciliation anymore? The dems will make an effort, the GOP will thwart and then the Dems will blame them and move on. The law will be in place. Am I wrong? Am I missing something? 
    If i were in the house I would not trust the senate for a new york second. 

  • sowsear

    “Save my presidency”, my, my, my,me, me,me.

  • beachnan

    I love listening to the evening news and their interpretation of all things Obama.  NOT!  Tonight, Brian Williams, “Obama, is trying to keep Americans in their homes,” and even though he went on to admit that the first attempt to help people stay in their homes has fallen woefully short of their goal, so far only 217,000 homes have had their loans modified, that first phrase catches your ear.  Next he talked about how the health care bill is gaining traction, and how this bill was going to provide health care to millions.  I don’t know about you guys, but if somone tells me they are going to provide me with something, I think that I will be getting it for free.  This is bullshite. This plan is going to force all Americans to purchase health care-there will be no free ride, except for the usual suspects.  Brian Williams and MSM doing their job as Obama’s cheerleaders again.   

  • carol haka

    My head hurts.  I’m sorry, but whoever dreamed up this psycho system of government should have to leave the country and return to England. 

    Out, out damn spot!

    Okay, you guys need something to lighten up up.

    The only thing funnier than “Pelosi” in this video is all of the comments regarding the video.  I screamed out loud laughing.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/12/pelosi-obamacare-will-make-it-much-easier-to-be-a-full-time-artist/

    :-D :* :-D

  • carol haka

    Over 300k a month are being foreclosed on.

    Where did all the money go?

    How about a straight across the board 2% interest rate cut on all mortgages without having to refinance or anything?  It would work as a miracle.  After all, the banks aren’t paying a dime to borrow money to carry the loans.  And, don’t we own F&F?

    :-$

  • sowsear

    Oh Soros has some oil drillin going on down Brazil, Goldman Sachs is buying short, you know hedge funds cost money.

  • carol haka

    I saw where the European markets want the hedge funds to stop.

  • snosandy

    I remember when the Senate bill passed on Christmas Eve, one of our Dem Congressmen (Jim McDermott) was on a local liberal talk radio show (Dave Ross) saying the Senate bill was terrible and the House would never vote for the bill they passed.  He also said that all the Obama supporters always had way too high of expectations of Obama and that he continuously shakes his head at how obsessive they are.  Just another HYPOCRITE!

  • carol haka

    They have to be obsessive – they got nothin else.

  • snosandy

    My house lost another $75K in value this past year.  I wouldn’t be able to refinance now since I no longer have 80% equity in it.  So, I’m already overpaying hundreds of dollars every month to make up for those who were irresponsible and bought homes above their means which devalued mine, and now they want me to pay the insurance for people who lead unhealthy lifestyles even though I have always been very conscious of making healthy lifestyle choices for myself.

  • carol haka

    OT – The Democrats refused to stop the over sentencing created by crack vs. cocaine.  They really are a bunch of f***ing elitest aholes.

    :’(

  • jwrjr

    “The contrast with how the rookie Senator Obama has conducted his administration is Sun and Moon”  I would say, rather, to borrow from LBJ, that the difference between LBJ and Ozero is like the difference between chicken salad and chicken sh*t.

  • Trent

    March 13 is National COFFEE PARTY DAY
    We want a society in which democracy is treated as sacrosanct and ordinary citizens participate out of a sense of civic duty, civic pride, and a desire to contribute to society. 
    The Coffee Party is a call to action. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers gave us an enduring gift — Democracy — and we must use it to meet the challenges that we face as a nation.
    http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/

  • creeper
  • getfitnow

    I have a friend who says that most of the foreclosed houses in her area don’t have signs out front–just lock boxes on the door. She said some blocks-half the houses are foreclosed.

    Makes for a bleak neighborhood.

  • Docelder

    They are easy to spot in Tampa by the off brand signs. Probably attorney firms acting as realtors. But you will see these no-name realtor looking signs in the yard. Usually also an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper showing in a front window. It’s a foreclosure. Big banks were too big to fail, but people and smaller banks are just the right size to fail. Convenient. Everything this administration has done so far is just so convenient to corporatists. Go figure, with all the Marxist rhetoric, he is just a mirror image of Bush. But most of us here knew that already.

  • snosandy

    Gag me

  • snosandy

    That should read 20% equity, or 80% loan to value.

  • Linda C

    With the passage of the civil rights ammendment LBJ was well aware that those “southern Jim Crow democrats” would be lost for a generation.  They are the republicans now and not even moderate ones.  Therefore the incremental bit is not a valid argument.  Also in those days Goldwater was considered to be the radical republican.  Now I doubt that Goldwater would even fit into the republican party . As for Stupak,,,,I am tired of my uterus being a political football.  Since he is even against women having to pay extra for reproductive health..I am for men paying extra for their reproductive health.

    Although this bill may help many people get insurance that do not.  I happen to be one of them.  However, without a public option, I am a bit leery of it.