Bill Clinton to address Senate Democrats on health care

[IDemo]

Source: CNN

November 9, 2009 9:24 p.m. EST

CNN has learned from two senior Democratic sources that former President Bill Clinton will attend the Senate Democrats' weekly luncheon Tuesday to address the caucus about health care.

A notice obtained by CNN went out to Senate Democrats saying, "All Senators should be aware that former President Clinton will be making a presentation on Health Care at tomorrow's caucus lunch. Senator Reid has requested that all Democratic Senators attend."

A constant refrain from Democratic leaders is that wavering Democrats must heed what they say is a lesson of the Clinton administration: fail to pass a health care reform bill, and congressional Democrats will suffer on Election Day.

With this visit at a critical time for health care in the Senate, the former president will be able to deliver that message in person.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/09/bill.clinton.health.care.senate/index.html

[Bonobo]

1. Who in fuck's name unrecced this already!? And why!?

I would favor kicking said unreccer the fuck off DU.

The mods and admins can see who did it.

Whoever the ass is, I hope they get a tombstone soon.

[elocs]

2. Whoever did wanted attention and you gave it to them. Congratulations!

Stop obsessing about Recs or UnRecs because in 24 hours it will be meaningless anyways. Why on earth judge the quality of a thread with Recs or complain about UnRecs in the first few minutes of a new thread?

[LiberalFighter]

12. +10

[HughMoran]

4. I think the Republicans here are getting a little impatient

One also unreced a thread entitled "Fuck you Joe Lieberman" before anybody had voted yet - lol.

[DWilliamsamh]

9. WHO CARES!! Stop asking this question,,, you just give them what they want.

And really - WHY does it matter?

[harmonicon]

40. no shit

I avoided taking part in the whole "rec/unrec" debate when it was going on. Why some people want to keep it going is beyond me. I avoid reading threads that start with "rec this..." and now I'm done reading comments on this thread, because this kind of shit just makes discussion impossible.

[WileEcoyote]

13. Sniping and smearing are what they do.

I've often wondered at what and why these spies do the things they do. Seems every time I post something about the Kennedy assassinations some goof comes up with a tired ass "This only harms the poor Kenendy family". that doesn't sound like any Democrat i know of.

The extent that these GOP spies reach here is unknown but probably higher than what we suspect.

[bjobotts]

21. Every night I find all items here at DU have been unrec'd.But when it begins I don't know

[bjobotts]

22. Some senatedems hide behind the filibuster to keep from having to commit

[bjobotts]

23. They do better when dems don't have a majority saying there's nothing we can do.

[madmax]

29. Not very fond of this unrec system.

I don't get the point. If you don't like the thread, then don't rec. Why the need for unrec? I must have missed that class ;)

[orbitalman]

41. Buzzflash.com solves this.

Some articles, if not direct links, contain a recommend. The difference is it is only a recommend. Negative comments are seperate; plus the user's name goes into a positive or negative box for all to see.

[Bragi]

50. I unrecced it because I oppose the Clinton-Bush tag team

Slimeball Clinton has been appearing on stage with Bush for big $ to provide a cover of respectability to Bush.

Once he started doing that, he lost all credibility for me. He is scum.

- B

[Bonobo]

62. So you felt an issue of this importance should not go to the Greatest Page because of that!?

That's sub-moronic, kid.

[Enthusiast]

77. He has a good point.

If anything half the country has never admitted the failures of G H W Bush or G W Bush adequately to suit me. Why give them cover by acting as though they have credibility or are generally 'good guys'.

[Bragi]

78. I don't think a Bush PR front man should be on a list of greatest anything /nt

[niceypoo]

72. Pettiness and thin skin go hand in hand

So to be consistent you also hate Al Gore because he chose Lieberman as his running mate, am I correct on this point, no?

[Bragi]

80. The difference: Lieberman=asshole, Bush=war criminal /nt

[davidwparker]

63. because the unrec feature seems to be used by 'bots who want to

suppress unflattering posts about 1) their "boy friend" or 2) position.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. K&R for Bill Clinton, the most persuasive speaker we've got!

:kick::bounce:

[Segami]

7. Will traitor Joe also attend this meeting? Hmm, didn't LIEberman

help propel his traitorous self to national prominence with that famous, traitorous spectacle speech where he called president Clinton's personal behavior “immoral,” he became the first Senate Democrat to chastise the president over the affair, despite a longstanding friendship that began in 1970 when Mr. Clinton, as a Yale law student, volunteered in Mr. Lieberman’s campaign for the State Senate.

It would seem that a pattern is repeating here once again with traitor Joe looking for another national stage with media coverage to promote his Republican positions and views He needs to be stripped of his HLS chairmanship and booted to the curb like rotting garbage.

I hope Clinton fries him behind closed doors.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Bill Clinton campaigned for Lieberman the last time, too.

And if anyone could put Lieberman in his place, Bill Clinton could. x(

[Capn Sunshine]

17. Lieberman is not a Democrat, he's an independent

I hope they realize letting him in would be the same as broadcasting it on closed circuit TV to the RNC

[Segami]

19. LIEberman caucuses with the Democratic Party.

President-elect Barack Obama has informed party officials that he wants Joe Lieberman to continue caucusing with the Democrats in the 111th Congress, Senate aides tell the Huffington Post. Obama's decision could tie the hands of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has been negotiating to remove Lieberman as chair of the Homeland Security and Government Reform committee while keeping him within the caucus. Lieberman has insisted that he will split from the Democrats if his homeland security position is stripped.

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/obama-wants-lieberman-to_n_142731.html>

[ChiciB1]

65. My Wish Is That HE TELLS Them That What Passed In The House ISN'T

really WHAT most of us had in mind when we wanted HCR!! From what I've been able to gather from the 2000 page intricate, read between the lines and fine print, the bill isn't one "for the people" especially with THE STUPAK THINGIE in it!!!

[Rhiannon12866]

88. Agreed.

Bill Clinton had a view on abortion that no one but the far right could argue with, that it be legal, safe and rare.

[bc3000]

5. But they want to lose so they can continue to make promises they never intend to fulfill

Many of our democratic senators are more comfortable in the minority

[earcandle]

6. We are the laughing stock of every developed and undeveloped country without public health insurance

as a right.  This is absurd that the conversation has finally
surfaced and they will bury it without any flak. 

Dummy Americans. 

[dflprincess]

8. They will suffer on election day if they fail to pass real health care reform

[nolabear]

11. I'm glad to see them making some demands of the Dems.

At least it looks as though they're twisting for a little party unity.

[EFerrari]

14. It's so nice of them to leak their lunch plans to the little people.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. Good

[SandWalker1984]

16. Good ol' Bill, the Liberal Hero

Good ol' Bill, the Liberal Hero
by John Pilger
JohnPilger.com

8 Aug 2007

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger looks forward to the arrival of Bill Clinton in London where an "audience" with him will cost up to £799 a head. In examining Clinton's liberal credentials and comparing them to George W. Bush's record, Pilger illuminates what Hillary Clinton might offer America and the world as the first female president.

On 14 August, you are invited to “an audience” with Bill Clinton in London. You have a choice. You can attend the “breakfast and speech” or the “brunch buffet and speech”. These will take place in the white elephantine Millennium Dome, where a place in the “Kings’ Row” will cost you £799. Last year, Clinton made more than £5m granting “audiences”. Not only the usual corporate types attend. A few years ago, I watched a conga line of writers, journalists, publishers and others of liberal reputation shuffling towards his grotesquely paid presence at the Guardian Hay Festival.

The Clinton scam is symptomatic of the death of liberalism – not its narcissistic, war-loving wing (“humanitarian intervention”), which is ascendant, but the liberalism that speaks against crimes committed in its name, while extending rungs of the economic ladder to those below. It was Clinton’s promotion of the former and crushing of the latter that so inspired new Labour’s “project”. Clinton, not Bush, was Cool Britannia’s true Mafia godfather. Keen observers of Tony Blair will recall that during one of his many farewell speeches, the sociopath did a weird impersonation of Clinton’s head wiggle.

Clinton is able to make a shedload a money because he is contrasted with the despised Bush as the flawed good guy who did his best for the world and brought economic boom to the US – the fabled American dream no less. Both notions are finely spun lies. What Clinton and Blair have most in common is that they are the most violent leaders of their countries in the modern era; that includes Bush. Consider Clinton’s true record.

In 1993, he pursued George H W Bush’s invasion of Somalia. He invaded Haiti in 1994. He bombed Bosnia in 1995 and Serbia in 1999. In 1998, he bombed Afghanistan; and, at the height of his Monica Lewinsky troubles, he momentarily diverted the headline writers to a major “terrorist target” in Sudan that he ordered destroyed with an onslaught of missiles. It turned out to be sub-Saharan Africa’s largest pharmaceutical plant, the only source of chloroquine, the treatment for malaria, and other drugs that were lifelines to hundreds of thousands. As a result, wrote Jonathan Belke, then of the Near East Foundation, “tens of thousands of people – many of them children – have suffered and died from malaria, tuberculosis and other treatable diseases”.

Long before Shock and Awe, Clinton was destroying and killing in Iraq. Under the lawless pretence of a “no-fly zone”, he oversaw the longest allied aerial bombardment since the Second World War. This was hardly reported. At the same time, he imposed and tightened a Washington-led economic siege estimated to have killed a million civilians. “We think the price is worth it,” said his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, in an exquisite moment of honesty.

Clinton’s economic “legacy” – like Blair’s – is the most unequal society Americans have known. In his last presidential year, 1999, I walked along the ocean front at Santa Monica in California and was struck by the number of middle-class homeless, “bag gents” who had lost executive jobs and families thanks largely to Clinton’s North American Free Trade treaty. As for working Americans, the boasted high employment figures concealed a reversion to real wage levels of the 1970s. It was Clinton, not Bush, who wiped out the last of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Back in Santa Monica the other day, I noted the bag gents had multiplied.

These days, you see Good Ol’ Bill, or the Comeback Kid, as he is variously known, wiggling his head on the TV news, campaigning for his wife, Hillary, among Americans who, terminally naive, still believe the Democratic Party is theirs and that “it’s time to vote a woman into the White House”. Together, the Clintons are known as “Billary” and rightly so. Like Good Ol’ Bill, his wife has no plans to address the divisions of a society that allows 130,000 Americans to claim the wealth of millions of their fellow citizens. Like GOB, she wants to continue Iraq’s torment for perhaps a decade. And she has not “ruled out” attacking Iran.

Those settling down in the Kings’ Row at the Millennium Dome on 14 August for breakfast or brunch with GOB, having transferred another swag to the Clinton bank account, are unlikely to reflect on the blood spilt and the epic suffering caused, or on the moral corruption of the liberal ideology that courted and acclaimed Clinton, along with the criminal Blair.

But we should.

*****

In 1992, Bill Clinton ran his campaign on health care reform and that Gulf War 1 was wrong. What Bill Clinton gave us was NAFTA down our throats, WTO & GATT, reduction in capital gains to 15% so that wealthy would pay less while moving the jobs out of the country. Then Bill gave us the 1996 Telecommunications Act. That's why the mainstream media is now nothing more than corporate propaganda and agendas. The icing on the cake was bombing the aspirin factory.

When he and Hillary left the White House in 2000, they were broke. Now they are worth well over $150 million from shaking down the rich he made richer during his presidency.

Hillary was one of the biggest recipients of health care money in the Senate. Don't believe me, see the movie Sicko by Michael Moore.

Now I'm supposed to believe that Bill is going to ride in on a white horse and save health care reform for us.

With Bill's track record, it's more likely his horse will take a sh*t on us as Bill backs the private mandates while getting them to dump the public option. After all, Bill needs a few more million in his investment trust and word on the street is that the health care corporations have money to burn (your premiums).

[still_one]

26. Clinton isn't doing this for money. He doesn't need it. He is doing this for the country

and for his wife's legacy

I have a lot to criticize Bill Clinton for, but not this time. Just like he intervened in North Korea, he is going to try to salvage this, and at least give us a basis to a healthcare plan that can be improved refined, and eventually become single payer. That is my view.

I know the purest's won't believe that, but I think it is a start, and definitely better than what we have now

Removing the inane abortion amendment to the house bill, it actually isn't that bad for a start

[pundaint]

31. CLARITY!

Nicely stated Mr. Pilger, thanks for the post SW'84

[still_one]

18. It is about time that somebody tried to crack some heads, It appears Obama can't do it

Yes, I know I will probably get ragged on for that comment, but I have had it with this compromising bullshit. We either stand together for the people or fall, and those Congress people who believe they are more important than the country, the party, or the people, have to be told in no uncertain terms that their career in the Democratic party will be over if they don't do the right thing

LBJ would have never gotten Medicare or the Civil Rights Act passed if all he tried to do was build a bipartisan consensus

I have no idea why Obama won't assert himself

[Cha]

20. You have no idea what President Obama

has done..but, don't let that stop you from acting like you do.

Pres Obama, Biden, Clinton..they're all working to get this done together while those who voted against it are whining in the wings.

[still_one]

24. You have no idea. He wasted months trying to build bipartisanship with republicans

who were never going to support him, in fact they wanted to destroy him

He better learn real quick or this will be history

[Cha]

25. He knows what he's doing. And, you don't.

[still_one]

27. We will see, I hope I eat my words, at least in regard to healthcare, and you are right

and I will definitely take back everything bad I have said about him if he actually has the courage NOT to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan

We will know about that in a few days, and we will know about healthcare in a few weeks

[pundaint]

30. I also don't know what he's doing

But I do have eyes, and I see victory being declared over a bill that institutionalizes and protects for another decade the primary cause of our health care woes - the Health Insurance industry. Although to call an enterprise which adds no value but dissipates resources an industry is a stretch.

Contrary to his campaign promise he chooses to do his dealing behind closed doors, so all I can judge him on is his results, and this is the best Republican bill we could expect, but as a product of a Democratic super majority, it's a piece of shit.

[still_one]

53. I am not happy with everything that came out of the House, but in all fairness we saw the republican

bill already, and it wasn't even close. It didn't cover existing conditions or recension at a minimum, and was worse than what we have today.

As far as the current bill from the house, I believe that the abortion amendment must be removed, and costs must be capped.

I also believe it provides a basis which can be improved upon, and it will save lives

Unfortunately, because Obama has been weak at best, we will be lucky to get anything in my view

[TriMetFan]

59. I agree with you 100%.

LBJ knew how to twist arms. Obama is a light weight when he comes to this kind of stuff. Or he just pulled the wool of the people to get elected.

[nolabear]

64. Really? I had the impression he was cracking heads with Clinton as the hammer.

This didn't come about by itself. I think Obama's style throws the LW who want revenge, angry recrimination, something to make up for the pain we've endured. My impression of Obama is he wants to get a job done, knows how slowly the wheels grind, and is in there grinding for the people rather than being the dictator the RW claim he is. As much as some would hate it, compromise is a smart goal or else the disenfranchised will blow back and we'll just get caught in the pendulum swings of retribution by those who want to remain in power for their own ends (inc. us).

[ChiciB1]

66. No Ragging From Me... I Too Don't Understand WHY We Don't Seem To KNOW

where he stands or WHAT he's thinking these days! I heard several comments made just this AM about his seemingly lack of communication is having an affect on many Democrats!

He certainly doesn't look like the man I THOUGHT I was voting for! I'm just very FLUMMOXED myself!!

[tomm2thumbs]

28. K&R - but after the C-Street story on Rachel, who knows how many 'Dems' are implants

I'm starting to think Lieberman is one of those self absorbed God-chose-me idiots and who knows how many more are in the 'club'.

[The Wizard]

32. Will Joe Liebermann

be there or will he be giving Aetna the reach around?

[indimuse]

KNR!

;)

[indimuse]

33. KNR!

;)

[indimuse]

KNR!

;)

[indimuse]

34. KNR!

;)

[Faryn Balyncd]

35. What NEEDS to be said: Pass THIS bill & we'll become the MINORITY party that sold out the middle...

....class.

Passing "a healthcare bill" will not save us on election day, once the public receives their ever-escalating mandatory premiums from the cartel....

And when the public, which supports Medicare-for-All realizes that WE peddled a "public" option that was designed primarily to enable the insurance corporations to dump the most expensive 3-5% and to give the false APPEARANCE of a real public plan similar to Medicare, they will reject our party for generations.

[Demeter]

36. Sounds like the kiss of death to me

Bill isn't the hero he'd like to be.

[joeycola]

39. Apparently Obama and the WH think he will

be the hero and bring the Dems home.

[Vinca]

37. Bill needs to invoke LBJ and pull them up by the ears.

[ShortnFiery]

38. Bill's personally RICH beyond his wildest dreams. Does any of us believe that, deep down,

Bill Clinton gives a rat's ass about the common man? The Average American? I don't. We are NOT part of their club. It's all A GAME to them ... a photo op for "The Big Dog."

[La Lioness Priyanka]

46. do you feel similarly for kennedy and for kerry? i think you are wrong

there are plenty of wealthy people who care about the poor and the downtrodden

and yes, they also like a photo op. frankly, who doesnt. even mother teresa liked her photo ops.

[closeupready]

81. I don't really like him or Hillary, but I do think he knows how to do this.

Obama does not. And I do think Bill will crack heads - if anyone can bring it home, Bill can and will. Even if it's just a game to them. Honestly, I don't care if it's a game to them - Bill is the best player we got.

[LanternWaste]

83. I think FDR cared for the common man...

I think FDR cared for the common man. I think the Kennedy's did too. I think Kerry still does. What I don't think is that a man's convictions are tied to his wallet-- regardless of how large or how tiny that wallet may be.

[Captain Hilts]

42. As prez he - and Prez Obama - were afraid to make enemies. As former Prez, he can knock heads. nt

[blm]

48. yeah...like he did for Bush's Iraq war.... hopefully, he'll use his skills for GOOD this time.

.

[ProSense]

71. It's funny how many people who have been criticizing the bill suddenly

are cheering on its success because Clinton goes to the Senate.

[blm]

73. heheh...yeah....kinda noticed that...

in my view, it's really part of BC's ongoing attempts at rehabbing his own BushInc asskissing and watercarrying past.

But, hey....it's been a long time since he's done real good with his skills, so, I'll take anything useful from the guy.

[Postman]

43. Bill Clinton can kiss my liberal ass.

[Mr. Sparkle]

44. The Big mans stock just went up in my book ! n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

45. excellent. glad he will remind them of their possible political future

[Bragi]

47. Will he bring his friend George W Bush with him again?

He seems anxious to share the stage for $ to try to rehabilitate Bush, so I'm wondering if he will be appearing in tandem with that POS war criminal, or doing this one on his own?

- B

[BlueJac]

49. Fuck the NAFTA asshole Bill.....

ship a few more jobs out of the country Bill after you lick papa Bush's ass. It is time for progressive politics and let go of the people that fucked this country up!!!

[Captain Hilts]

61. I WISH the jobs had gone to Mexico....but they didn't. nt

[vaberella]

51. What' s up with the Clinton hate?!

My only issue with the guy is Haiti. But I like him otherwise.

[BlueJac]

52. Bill was a good Republican.....

kept the good old boy network in place with Alan Greenspan and the Chicago boys

[still_one]

54. There was a lot of things his administration did that continued the republican policy of

deregulation, which led to the destruction of the fairness doctrine, repeal of glass steagal and too big to fail mergers

Still, compared to the republicans, it is night and day. Would a republican ever appoint Ruth Bader Ginsberg? I don't think so

[Captain Hilts]

60. Carter started de-regulation. He got the ball rolling. Phones. Airlines. nt

[DFW]

74. He appointed Bader Ginsburg AND Steve Breyer

As my man Stan would say, "'nuff said."

(...on that score, at least, and if you don't think that's a big deal, look at the voting record of Alito and Roberts)

[Bragi]

56. He has chosen to be a highly-paid human shield for GW Bush /nt

[John Q. Citizen]

58. He shoved NAFTA down our throats, passing it with minority Dem support and majority Repo support.

Right after that, the Dems lost the House and Senate for the first time since Eisenhower. Democratic voters stayed home from the polls, Republican voters turned out in exactly the same numbers they did in 1990, the previous mid term.

Clinton never took responsibility for that, and instead tried to blame the Dems for not passing his managed care health care bill. It was lucky they didn't because managed care has proven to be a failure.

[vaberella]

68. And there is DADT/DOMA....Okay so Clinton had a lot of problems international and national. n/t

[Postman]

69. NAFTA, Telecommunications Act of 1996, Repeal of Glass-Steagall

What did this asshole do that was good for the average working American?

[Love Bug]

55. I'm curious to know exactly what he's going to tell them.

Telling them to vote together so they can get reelected is not the same as telling them to vote for a HC reform bill that is actually about REFORM. The article is not clear on this.

I'm pretty disenchanted with Clinton lately. This dog-and-pony show he's doing with gee-dubya is embarrassing and he is squandering his legitimacy on someone who should be a pariah everywhere. Shame on him.

[Poll_Blind]

67. I mostly agree with your concerns and curiosity. n/t

PB

[barbtries]

57. i hope they listen

[LaPera]

70. Hopefully Clinton can do some good - Public Option needs to be passed before years end.

[robinlynne]

75. The Senate Dems have a weekly luncheon? let's go!

[DFW]

76. I very much hope Lieberman is NOT there

The report said Clinton would address Senate Democrats. Lieberman is not one. I see no reason for him
to be present, and I hope Harry Reid feels the same way. For that matter, I hope Lieberman also feels
the same way. If he wants to be present, it certainly is not for the purpose of being inspired by Bill
Clinton. Ergo? Ergo, it would be for the purpose of telling Mitch McConnell and John McCain what was
said, if he isn't already broadcasting it to them in real time from his cell phone.

I've been present when Bill Clinton has given speeches, and, in small groups as well as big gatherings,
when he is in top form, he is one hell of a riveting speaker. He has no personal stake in this one way
or the other, so I suspect he's in this because for once it's something he really believes in. Closure
for what Hillary didn't accomplish in 1993, maybe, but if that's his motivation, I don't really care.
If he can sway a wavering vote or two, let him speak. He'll not sway Lieberman except if he holds a
knife to Lieberman's jugular (I expect that even Lieberman gets swayed by stuff like that), and he
wouldn't do it (at least not with witnesses present--all bets are off if they're alone in a dark alley).

[Blue_Tires]

79. Bill's message paraphrased: "DO NOT FUCK THIS UP"

or probably something similar :)

[24601]

82. I'd like to see former Presidents exercise their privilege to speak

from the Senate floor where the American people would see it too.

[Deep13]

84. For those dismissive about #42...

...can we really afford to be choosy about our friends or which assets we will use? Clinton will be there promoting health care reform. How will that hurt?

I'm aware of Bubba's shortcomings, but I also know the context so I'm a little more forgiving than some here. Of course the lesson from the '90s is that no matter how centrist or accomodating a Democratic president is, the RW noise machine will still paint him as some kind of radical socialist ubber-hippy. So we might as well for get about going after the center and be what they are going to accuse us of being anyway. If "Obamacare" is getting the reaction it's getting on the right, a truly social solution would make their heads explode.

[Number23]

85. Rec'd. And I love what he said to the folks on the Hill

"Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said Clinton reflected on his experiences in the early 1990s and told senators "we got lost in the magnitude of the problem, and in search for a more perfect answer I lost the fight."

Clinton said he hoped all the senators understood his bottom line: "It's not important to be perfect here," he said. "It's important to act, to move, to start the ball rolling."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul

[ProSense]

86. "I'm gonna tell them Olympia is right. They ought to follow Olympia,"

Big Dawg: here.

[newspeak]

87. Ko was talking about it tonight

what it sounded like to me is just get the damn thing passed, who cares what's in it. Or pacify everyone, just get it passed.