Rep. Barney Frank is not a wobbly moderate in a marginal
district, but a liberal Democrat who has been supportive of the
health care push. And that's why this statement below, which
essentially rules out all of the options being discussed for
pushing through Obamacare, deals a potentially fatal blow to the
legislation.
The following was read on MSNBC by Rachel Maddow, and I
transcribed it off the screen:
“I have two reactions to the election in Massachusetts. One, I
am disappointed. Two, I feel strongly that the Democratic
majority in Congress must respect the process and make no
effort to bypass the electoral results. If Martha Coakley had
won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise
between the House and Senate health care bills. But since Scott
Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the
Senate, that approach is no longer appropriate. I am hopeful
that some Republican Senators will be willing to discuss a
revised version of health care reform because I do not think
that the country would be well-served by the health care status
quo. But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out
any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts
election had not happened. Going forward, I hope there will be
a serious effort to change the Senate rule which means that 59
votes are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are
the rules by which the health care bill was considered, and it
would be wrong to change them in the middle of the process.”
UPDATE: Frank's comments rule out delaying the seating of Brown
and ramming a bill through in the meantime, rule out simply
passing the Senate bill as is, and rule out passing it through
the Senate using the reconciliation process. The only "hope"
Frank holds is a compromise in the Senate with Republicans, but
I'm not sure how much appetite there would be for dragging on the
process for what could be months, even if there were some magical
accord that could be reached between the two parties. And if
President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid try to ignore Frank
and push ahead anyway, the comments he made are a political
goldmine to Republicans. Plus, the fact that Frank felt
emboldened to jump out with this statement so soon after the
results suggets he's probably expressing the private views of
other members. Simply put, it will be difficult for Democrats to
revive Obamacare after tonight.
