13 Has Never Been a Lucky Number

From CNN:

Just hours after House Republicans managed to pass a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, the Senate is signaling it will write its own proposal — announcing a group of 13 Republican members who will be responsible for crafting the Senate’s plan.

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Dim Bulb Barton

From Bloomberg:

U.S. House Republicans urged passage of a measure to block a phase-out of traditional light bulbs, as the Obama administration called the bill anti-consumer.

The legislation, which was debated on the House floor yesterday and may be voted on this week, would cost Americans $6 billion in energy savings in 2015, the White House said in a statement yesterday.

Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, introduced the proposal to invalidate lighting efficiency standards that would effectively ban bulbs similar to the one invented by Thomas Edison more than 130 years ago. The requirements were included in a 2007 energy law signed by Republican President George W. Bush.

You remember ol’ Joe Barton, dont’cha, kids? He was the one who called the deal worked out between President Obama and BP in which BP would set up a $20 billion fun to pay for damages after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a “shakedown,” and who apologized to Tony Hayward when he testified in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
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Ask and Tell

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who helped shepherd through today’s Senate repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, told reporters after the final vote this afternoon that ending the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers is a big step for LGBT rights.

“To me, it is a step forward to a larger societal acceptance [of gay rights,]” Lieberman said. “This is a civil rights piece of legislation in my opinion.”

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The Party of No Can’t Keep It Up For Long

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

The Louisiana Democrats released a snarky little statement today, calling out Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who has introduced a health care amendment to the try to prevent states from providing drugs like Viagra to convicted sex offenders.

Said the Dems of Coburn: “Surely he would agree that anyone who has admitted or been found guilty of involvement with prostitution should not be covered either.”

Coburn’s amendment seeks to cut off federal funds to those on Medicaid who are “convicted sex offenders, child molesters, and rapists,” because sexual enhancement drugs are covered under the program.

We reported earlier that the Republican strategy to derail the reconciliation bill is to force Democrats to vote down politically juiced-up amendments so that they can paint Dems as sympathetic to sex offenders and fraudsters in November.

Perhaps the LA Dems had Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who has been known to dally with prostitutes in the past, on their minds when crafting that statement.

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Pearls(tein) of Wisdom

From Steven Pearlstein at The Washington Post:

I’m not sure what else was accomplished at Thursday’s Blair House summit, but surely one result is that we learned what Republican “leaders” really think about health care and health insurance.

The most important thing Republicans think is that if there are Americans who can’t afford the insurance policies that private insurers are willing to offer, then that’s their problem — there’s nothing the government or the rest of us should do about it.

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Rethugs, I hope this gives you some cloture…I mean, closure

From POLITICS DAILY:

With no votes to spare, Democratic senators moved health care reform past its first major hurdle Saturday night, with a party-line, 60-to-39 vote to begin consideration of the 2,000-plus page bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled this week.

…snip…

The bill that senators will begin debating after Thanksgiving combines proposals passed by the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Committee Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), and is designed to make health insurance more accessible and affordable. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would expand coverage to 94 percent of Americans at a cost of $848 billion over the next 10 years.

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(Shnooks and ninnies, from the top:  Chinless Mitch McConnell, Kit So-Not-James Bond, Orrin Down-The Hatch, Richard Who? Burr, Mean Mike Enzi,  Chuck Yer-Ass-Is Grassley, Captain Underpants, Limpy Snowe, Diaper David Vitter)

‘Roid Rage

Hey kids! Remember the Singing Senators? They broke up after Trent Lott pulled a Sarah Palin resigned, and Larry Craig tapped his Buster Browns in the wrong men’s room. Well, according to me my anonymous sources, a few of the musical Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee have formed a new group! They’re called Pink ‘Roids. No, not these kinds of roids, the kind you need this stuff for. I’m guessing they picked that name, because they’re always so red and irritated and angry. Anyway, they have a new video out! They really rock!

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(back row, left to right: John Cornyn (R-Easter Island [see below]), John Romeo Ensign, Orrin Down The Hatch, Chuck Your Ass Is Grassley. front row: Jim ZZZZZ Bunning)

To the tune of Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd)”:

We don’t need no legislation
Break Obama: that’s our goal
We love each campaign donation
Listen as we bitch and moan
Hey! Congress! Leave Cigna alone!
All in all, we’re gonna just continue to stall.
Overall it’s just another game of beanball.
♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

The ‘Put Health Care Reform to Death’ Panel

From The Washington Post:

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus is urging three Republican colleagues to sign off on the $900 billion health-care reform package they have helped to negotiate over the past two months, in order to add a bipartisan proposal to the mix before President Obama’s speech to Congress on Wednesday.

The Baucus plan, circulating among the Finance Committee’s “Gang of Six” this weekend, sets forth provisions that have already gained the bipartisan group’s unofficial support and adds nothing that the group has not already deliberated, senior Senate aides said. But Democrats are wary that two of the three GOP negotiators — Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) — could walk away, under pressure from their Republican colleagues to allow Democrats to fight for a bill on their own.

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