Gibbs Slams Key GOP Health Care Negotiator: He's Walked Away From Table

[laughingliberal]

Source: Huffington Post

The White House on Monday accused one of the key Senate Republicans working on health care legislation of abandoning efforts at crafting a bipartisan bill.

While criticizing the GOP's overall approach to the debate, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made a point of singling out Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), one of the three Republicans in the Finance Committee's negotiating "Gang of Six."

"It appears that at least in Senator Enzi's case, he doesn't believe that there is a pathway to get bipartisan support, and the president thinks that is wrong," said Gibbs. "I think Senator Enzi has clearly turned over his cards on bipartisanship and decided it is time to walk away from the table."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/31/gibbs-slams-ke...

---

White House starting to sound as if a Democrat lives there. Yay!

[timeforpeace]

1. He should chill out. Who cares what Enzi does?

[trumad]

2. LOL---I never thought I'd side with a Republican Senator...

[xultar]

3. They had no plans on compromise from the fucking get go. That shit was as

obvious as the stink of a rotting corpse on a tin roof in the fucking summer.

I know what the WH is trying to do but shit, we could have had something before the recess if we'd just gone it alone.

Now it makes Obama look weak because he wanted something before the recess. And to top it all off Teddy is gone and he didn't get to see anything done.

[byebyegop]

7. Obama's kung fu is strong. He knows what he is doing.

Give him the benefit of the doubt. These are very smart seasoned politicans. Obama, Rahm, plus some of the backroom people like Delays aids. They know better than anyone what is going on.

[bc3000]

12. I concur. He is using the rope-a-dope

[byebyegop]

23. On hardball today that slate lady was talking about it as a poker game

Nobody want's to show their hand just yet. If anything the GOP has been the ones flinching and showing their hand.

All you progressives freaking out need to take a chill pill. Your underestimating the game Obama is playing here! He has said as much in recent speeches. About how the left got excited about hints of softening on public option. How everyone is getting 'wee wee'd up'. How the media likes a ruckus.

Just chill the fuck out!

[No Elephants]

26. +1 Looks like your post was a sock magnet, too, LOL.

[laughingliberal]

4. I believe I found the following exerpt most encouranging

"In targeting Enzi, Gibbs offered the strongest hint to date that the White House is fed up with the process and progress of bipartisan negotiations in Congress"

Very happy to hear White House getting fed up with 'bipartisanship.' Leaves the way clear to pass real reform instead of the watered down hit on the working class that Baucus' 'gang of six' have been working on.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Why hasn't he said anything about Sen. Grassley?

[laughingliberal]

6. I expect that's coming soon

In light of this article that ran today, I believe he will get hit by the White House very soon. Could be wrong but I believe we are going to see an all out push from the White House to show the American people just how disingenuous these R's in the "gang of six" have been.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/08/chu...

[Cha]

8. +1

I agree...I got something from Obama today that says he "wants me in his "Kitchen Cabinet"(unofficial advisors) ..and a Fridge Magnet of him and the White House proudly displayed..www.democrats.org

I love their ingenuity.

[laughingliberal]

10. A very good sign n/t

[Hansel]

31. Enzi is the warning to Grassley to tone down the rhetoric.

They must think that there was no chance to ever win Enzi's support so he was expendable. I'm sure that there have been some behind the scenes warnings to Grassley that what goes around comes around and that they aren't screwing with him.

Grassley savors being seen as a "bipartisan" senator. As long as he believed that the WH wasn't serious about challenging him on that he was able throw meat to the right wing with impunity. Now he will think twice about what he says out of fear that the WH will begin to elevate Harkin in a very public way as being the only effective senator from Iowa. Remember, Iowa is a very politically savvy state and Obama can play Iowan politics like nobody can.

That's my theory anyway.

[damntexdem]

9. That's right -- slam him for walking away! Then thank your lucky stars that he did.

Maybe the White House can get over its "bipartisanship" obsession and get real about passing health insurance reform.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. "We've lost Enzi!"

[Divine Discontent]

15. LOLOLOLOL- - - We've lost Enzi!!!!!! What will we ever do! Please, don't throw yourselves from

the tops of your roofs! Things will get better and negotiations to water down real reform will commence again soon!

[laughingliberal]

13. Write up in Washington Monthly today

ENZI GIVES UP ON GOOD-FAITH TALKS; WHITE HOUSE NOTICES.... Let no one say the White House was impatient. Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, ostensibly a member of the Finance Committee's farcical Gang of Six, kept trashing health care reform. President Obama and other Democratic leaders kept pretending Enzi was negotiating in good faith, reality notwithstanding.

This weekend, however, Enzi delivered the Republicans' weekly address, and he went too far. Enzi denounced the Democratic reform proposals, using painfully dishonest rhetoric, and even lending credence to the "death panel" garbage. It was an ugly display for anyone, but that the scripted remarks came from a Gang of Six member made Enzi's diatribe particularly ridiculous...




..."It appears that at least in Senator Enzi's case, he doesn't believe there's a pathway to get bipartisan support, and the president thinks that's wrong," Gibbs said. "I think Senator Enzi's clearly turned over his cards on bipartisanship and decided that it's time to walk away from the table."

Gibbs added, "The president is firmly committed to working with Democrats, Republicans, independents, anybody that wants to see progress on health care reform." That group, at long last, no longer seems to include Mike Enzi.

<snip>

tp://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/0...

[Cha]

14. It's unfolding

very nicely..thanks enzi for showing what a deadender you are on the radio.

[notadmblnd]

16. He was only at the table to obstruct

He admitted that himself. Who really cares if the bill is bipartisan? There's no reason to look like the Dems are trying to work with the pukes. It never happened when they ran things. They're answer to Dems was tough shit, and that's the answer they should be hearing from the Dems now.

[laughingliberal]

17. I believe that we are starting to hear that from Democrats

And I believe we will be hearing it get louder and louder as the end of the recess gets closer

[Uncle Joe]

18. Put universal single payer coverage for every American back on the table

and fuck the Republicans, let the bastards go down opposing what will become the most popular legislation of the 21st century!

We have a chance to put a stake in their black hearts and you guys want to bring them human feeder cattle!

[veritasvg]

19. Enzi Walked Away...

...because he knows the whole thing is dead. He has a professional staff. They read the polls.

[Ztolkins]

21. You mean these polls?

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/8/26/131840/361

[No Elephants]

27. You mean the polls that say 79% of Americans want a public option?

[veritasvg]

28. I Mean...

...the polls that caused Obama to pull back his mandate for a public option, which will get him in deep trouble with the House liberals and probably result in our getting no bill at all.

[No Elephants]

29. I doubt Enzi was ever on board. And I would rather have no bill than a bill without a strong

public option. And I don't mean co-ops.

[Hansel]

32. Yes, that's it...

[fascisthunter]

20. Enzi gave the Dems an out....

the dems can truthfully state they tried and the GOP didn't.

[and-justice-for-all]

22. Why were they invited to the table in the first place..

Oh, yeah, bipartisan bullshit..

[MannyGoldstein]

24. Thank God - Perhaps Obama has finally hopped on the Clue Train

There's no dealing with these beasts. They need a whack on the head, not endless unrequited compromise.

[SpartanDem]

25. The talk of bipartisanship has been just political posturing

it was just question of when this it would end.

[No Elephants]

30. If it was posturing--and I am not sure it was-it went on much too long. Rahm declared quite a while

ago that adoption of the amendments that the Republicans wanted would have suffice as bi-partisanship. Then, they continued to let this limp on until it was in disarray. Then the August break came. Republicans were organized for the break ahead of time. Democrats weren't. Worse, they were in the impossible position of defending a bill that did not really exist yet.

[SweetDreams]

33. White House

Love that!

[Doremus]

34. All the Dems have to do is keep their caucus together.

The Blue Dogs need to be told the facts of political life (theirs) in no uncertain terms.