Rahm says that the White House is going to "try to act first on job creation, reducing the deficit and imposing tighter regulation on banks before returning to the health measure." Drum:
Given the normal pace of congressional action — including the usual Republican obstruction — this would mean no action on healthcare for at least a month or two. Maybe more like three or four. Or maybe never. New pronouncements seem to come almost hourly on this stuff, so I'll wait for a few other folks to chime in before coming to any conclusions. But if healthcare is now domestic priority #4, it might as well be domestic priority #100. It might not quite be dead, but no matter what Obama said in his State of the Union address, the grim reaper is starting to hover uncomfortably close by.
Maybe Suderman is right and I'm still in denial.
But why Rahm Emmanuel, whose job it was to manage the Congress and get health reform passed, is still directing legislative strategy when he has proven he is incompetent at it, is beyond me. More evidence, I suppose, that in government, rank failure means career success.
And what's also notable is that Emmanuel's rep is as an attack dog, someone who can really twist elbows and enforce discipline. He has proven to be none of the above – just another useless Democrat excusing failure and losing nerve and incapable of getting his own party to deliver on clear, unequivocal campaign promises.
The Dish 