Sebelius Confirmed
It seems to me that if you can only get 65 votes for what should be an uncontroversial HHS appointment, then the odds of a broad bipartisan coalition for big picture health care reform are not so good.
Two of the six Republicans who voted for Sebelius were the Senators from her home state of Kansas. That includes Sam Brownback who, last I checked, was more-or-less the leader of the anti-abortion movement in the Senate. Under the circumstances, it’s hard to know what more outreach and whatnot could have been done. But the prevailing spirit within the GOP is clearly that Obama is a very bad president and so they should vote “no” on his initiatives. Which is fine. But it means that if Obama wants to deliver on his campaign pledges, he needs to use every legal means at his disposal to just pass things over the objections of the minority that opposes him.
10 Responses to “Sebelius Confirmed”
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April 29th, 2009 at 8:46 am
I more or less agree, but I also think it was worth setting this up in such a way that the Republicans are getting a clear chance to participate in crafting a broad, bipartisan, plan. They probably won’t take that opportunity, but I think it is worth underscoring the fact that Obama and his congressional allies aren’t cutting the Republicans out of the process, but rather that the Republicans are cutting themselves out.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:51 am
he needs to use every legal means at his disposal to just pass things over the objections of the minority that opposes him
And in addition to that, spokespersons need to absolutely hammer the point that R’s are being pig-headed obstructionists.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Let’s keep in mind that it is just a little itty-bitty teeny tiny little minority.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Two of the six Republicans who voted for Sebelius were the Senators from her home state of Kansas.
Nine (now eight) Republicans voted for Sebelius — Roberts and Brownback from Kansas, plus Specter, Collins, Snowe, Bond, Lugar, Gregg, and Voinovich. Still not good, although I’m surprised to see Kit Bond there.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Is it really any surprise that Roberts and Brownback voted for Sebelius? It basically takes her out of the running to succeed Brownback in the Senate. It just goes to show you how stupid the TradMed is that they never mentioned this(that I know of).
April 29th, 2009 at 9:39 am
The prospects for a broad bipartisan coalition were never good in any case because one of the parties doesn’t even believe there’s a health care problem and is ideologically opposed to any of the possible solutions. Fortunately all that is required to pass a solid health care bill now is to either hold all 60 Senate Democrats or swap one or two Democratic defectors (Nelson, Bayh, etc.) with Snowe and Collins. That won’t necessarily be easy but it’s far from impossible.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:52 am
It basically takes her out of the running to succeed Brownback in the Senate.
I don’t know the answer to this so I’m not being snarky here, but is there any chance that the they just know her and are friends. Friends across the aisle didn’t used to be rare.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Is it really any surprise that Roberts and Brownback voted for Sebelius? It basically takes her out of the running to succeed Brownback in the Senate.
Since neither of them would be losing a race to her, if they were supporting her so a Republican would win that seat it would stand to reason the rest of the Republicans would as well. That doesn’t seem to be the case, so my guess is that being from Kansas they just genuinely like her and think she’d be good for the job.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:08 am
They also probably both realize that, contra recent GOP rhetoric, she is not out there promising an abortion in every… pot. I mean it’s easy for Jim DeMint to sit there and rag on this woman he doesn’t know, and characterize her as an actual child-hating abortionist just waiting to get at your unborn babies, but it seems much harder for people who actually worked with her to adopt that extreme view.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Coupled with the House vote on the budget today, with not a single GOP-er voting yes, its abundantly clear that the Party of No is gonna keep on partying like it’s 1999. Well, like its 2005, anyway.