GIBBS: I was told that K Street had a copy of the Baucus plan, meaning, not surprisingly, the special interests have gotten a copy of the plan that I understand was given to committee members today.”
TODD: K Street got it and you guys haven’t?
GIBBS: Not surprisingly. Yes.
VIA MSNBC- “Morning Joe” and THE HILL
Now that’s not something you see everyday. Gibbs had flat out accused the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the leader of the health care reform effort in the Senate of being more loyal to the K Street healthcare lobby that he is to his own president.
Why would the White House engage in such a sniping, particularly at this crucial time in the debate?
Gibbs may have been channeling Obama’s utter disgust with the decision he made to invest heavily in the bi-partisan negotiations of the “gang of six”, lead by Sen. Baucus. Baucus had convinced the president that these talks represented the best chance for a bi-partisan solution. Bad call by Obama, a reality driven home all too clearly that day in August when Sen. Chuck Grassley – the leader of the GOP contingency participating in the gang of six negotiations — stood before his constituents in Iowa and told them they had every reason to fear health care reform and the pending extermination of granny.
The White House had been punked and the president had to be pissed.
Maybe it was payback for the White House having been snookered into allowing Baucus to take the lead in the Senate healthcare debate in the first place. Under normal circumstances, the job would have gone to Senator Ted Kennedy. Sadly, Kennedy’s health had made a leadership role impossible.
In the effort to gain control of the Senate push for health care change we could believe in, Baucus published a White Paper laying out his vision for health care reform. It was a vision that very much mirrored Obama’s own thoughts and beliefs as the document contained many progressive concepts, including the idea of a public insurance health option. Baucus got the job, despite his status as one of the primary recipients of health related industry money.
Baucus has fallen a long way since the publication of his White Paper. Gibbs’ suggestion that K Street received the Baucus proposal before the White House had seen it might suggest a reason for Baucus’ fall from progressive glory.
Still, the timing of Gibbs’s shot across the Senate Finance Committee bow is interesting. Word is that Baucus has given his fellow gang of six members until 10am today to come back to him with their comments on the proposal he circulated a few days ago. What they say will, no doubt, play a significant part in what Obama elects to include in tonight’s pivotal speech. Thus, there should be quite a few conversations today between Obama and Baucus.
Ah, to have a tap on those telephone lines. Where is the NSA when you need them?
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