EckerNet.Com

Last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that a compromise had been reached with moderates, allowing the Senate to move forward on health care.  Almost immediatly that proved to be untrue, as several Senators, most notably Senator Liebermann indicated they did not agree with the Medicare expansion.  What happened?

It seems pretty clear that there is no way Democrats could have reasonably expected that Lieberman was actually on board with the Medicare expansion.  He repeatedly publicly confirmed his opposition to Medicare expansion, appearing with several other Senators on a number of occasions.  It appears unlikely that Reid could have actually counted Lieberman as part of the 60 votes, despite their current thrashing and wailing.

With the attacks on Lieberman increasing, including personal attacks on his wife, it appears likely that Reid\’s announcement was an attempt to strong arm Lieberman, in what he probably hoped was the proverbial straw.  By announcing a compromise and that the signature issue of the Obama administration was moving forward, Reid forced Lieberman into the position of having to stand in them way of what Reid likely sees as a historical step forward in American history.  He gambled that Lieberman would not have the cajones to stand in opposition to the great liberal movement of the Age of Aquarius Obama.

It\’s a gamble that Reid lost, adding yet another miscalculation in Reid\’s increasingly inept demonstration of leadership.  It was a loss that prompted Obama to initiate the panic sequence as he called for a meeting of the Democratic caucus on Tuesday.  In advance of that meeting the Democratic caucus met again in a closed door session (remember when Obama promised this would all be in the open?), and it appears they will be jettisoning the Medicare expansion…..to be replaced with what, if anything, has not been announced.

Will this be another false compromise or is Reid again gambling with a bill that is drastically different from the House??  This sets up a showdown between either a ping-pong reconciliation strategy or dragging out a conference committee into the new year.  It\’s a gamble that\’s questionable at best.  Although to be fair, at least it\’s better than his odds of being re-elected next year.

[Crossposted at True North]