"Harry Gives 'em Hell" (Krugman)

The following link is to the Dem's website, and presents a pretty tough letter that Harry Reid wrote to Mitch McConnell: Leader2Leader.

(Thanks to Sarah who found it via Krugman's NYTimes Blog -- always worth reading.)

I've seen some suggestions that Nancy Pelosi believes Bart Stupak is bluffing when he says he has a dozen votes against the Healthcare bill if his anti-abortion demands aren't met. Clearly there's nothing she or Steny Hoyer can do for him in the immediate future in any case except promise him a separate vote on the issue, which the Senate would have to approve separately. Abortion issues are probably not subject to reconciliation since they are more regulatory than budgetary. He could demand a promise that the House take up his strong anti-abortion stance, but she could hardly promise him that either the House or the Senate would pass it as a stand-alone measure. As I said in a previous blog, any Dem voting against the Healthcare bill at this time risks being branded as the person who killed Democratic Healthcare (Kucinich and Capuano take note), and probably put the whole party and the President in the category of "losers." If the House can pass the bill without Stupak and his supporters (however many they may turn out to be), then he's a paper tiger. Let's hope that Pelosi and Hoyer are reading the cards correctly.

(The progressive website Talking Points Memo (TPM) has an article that speculates on who Stupak's supporters in the House may be: here's the LINK.)

Finally (at least for now): no day would be complete without the daily petty intolerance report:
High school cancels prom rather than let openly lesbian student attend (AP). I happened to read it: don't bother unless you're sure that more idiocy from Mississippi won't ruin your day. Why are people so nasty when they don't have to be???