Legal Commentary

Playing Dumb For Obama

By Big Tent Democrat

Ezra Klein:

The question has never been whether the White House supports the public option. It's whether Congress -- and, in particular, the Senate -- has the votes to pass it. Sebelius's statement this week does not change the administration's position. But it is being widely reported because it comes in context of the sagging popularity of health-care reform, and the changing conventional wisdom on the legislative politics. Namely, many think it increasingly likely that the White House will have to compromise on the public option because it will not be able to find sufficient votes in the Senate and is growing more desperate for a deal. That may or may not be true, but that's the actual story here. Blowing up Sebelius's comments is just a backdoor way of getting at it.

(Emphasis supplied.) My gawd. The timing here, like most everything in life, is of course the issue. We are nearing endgame in the bargaining on health care reform and having Sebelius say what she did on the Sunday morning shows NOW is of course the issue. Is Ezra pretending he does not know that? But let's face it, Ezra has been acting as a tool for the Obama Administration on this issue all year. It's one thing to not care about the public option and Ezra really never has. That's fine. But stop pretending that this is nothing. You just look foolish.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 17, 2009 (boomark / email).