Host of The Young Turks Cenk Uygur interviewed Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) in the aftermath of Brown defeating Coakley in MA. Rep. Yarmuth's comments on the likely fate of healthcare reform were especially interesting. Here is an excerpt from the interview (full interview and transcript are also included):
You don't get bipartisanship by asking politely. Obama made the mistake of asking Republicans over for tea in his first year in office and thought he could charm them into voting his way. You don't swing votes by asking politely, you swing them by implicit political threats. You do it with political force.
So, in financial reform Obama shouldn't ask Republicans to vote with him, he should dare them not to. He should say:
"You want to vote with the bankers. Go ahead. I dare you. Every day I'm going to talk about how these bankers took hard-earned taxpayer money and turned it into record bonuses for themselves. I'm going to show pictures of their yachts and mansions. And then I'm going to say you want to protect them so you can hang out with them on their private jets and play with them in their vacation hideaways. I'm going to take a cut out of you and put it on a picture of their yacht. I'm going to name names. I'm going to make you famous. You still want to vote with the bankers. Make my fucking day."
For months people have been talking about whether Michael Steele, the head of the RNC, should be fired. He says ridiculous things, gets himself and his party in needless trouble, has nearly run out of money and caused dissension within the ranks. But he has also won three important elections. Tim Kaine, the head of the DNC, on the other hand, has caused no trouble but lost nearly every election. So, who is really the one that should be held accountable?
8:20pm ET:
Political activist and publisher of http://greenmountaindaily.c
om/ John Odum talks about Bernie Sanders, Howard Dean and the drama behind the public option.
The Wall Street Journal writes today about how the tea party movement might be turning on Wall Street. I don't really believe it, but I'm excited by the possibility. Could the tea party guys actually be legitimate? Well, there is one way they can prove it.