Picture 184Thus far today, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, and Blache Lincoln have come out against passing health care reform through sidecar reconciliation.

Of course that means they’re defending all the corrupt aspects of the Senate bill that proved to be so unpopular in MA, starting with the Cornhusker Kickback (and including the Louisiana Purchase that similarly bought off Mary Landrieu). And they’ve flip-flopped on their earlier demands that such corrupt deals be removed from the bill.

The New York Times has obtained full copies of two cables Ambassador Karl Eikenberry sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the most recent review of Afghanistan strategy. Although it was known at the time that Eikenberry opposed McChyrstal’s strategy based primarily on counterinsurgency, having access to the full text of the cables provides more detail on Eikenberry’s reasoning.

Instead of paying for fixing the incredibly unpopular excise tax with the savings from a very popular public option, Democratic leaders are planning on more tax increases, and cuts to Medicare Advantage. This is such a politically stupid decision it makes my head hurt.

[FDL has complete team coverage of Perry v. Schwarzenegger--including more legal analysis, court documents, videos, and liveblogging direct from the federal court in San Francisco. You can find it all on our dedicated Prop 8 page.]

This would be bad enough rhetorically during good economic times, a ceding of the battlefield and a validation of the Republican worldview that government is the problem. But because we’re in the midst of high unemployment numbers, net cuts (this is a hard freeze without accounting for inflation) are precisely the wrong way to go, because they depress demand.

Nominations close at midnight tonight, so if you’d like to nominate your member (or steer someone who lives in their district to nominate theirs), please do it by then.

Nominate your member of Congress for the FDL 2010 election support program.

I really have no idea what the White House is thinking.

From the Wall Street Journal: “F—ing retarded,” Mr. Emanuel scolded the group, according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items.

[FDL has complete team coverage of Perry v. Schwarzenegger--including more legal analysis, court documents, videos, and liveblogging direct from the federal court in San Francisco. You can find it all on our dedicated Prop 8 page.]

Everyone in Washington who studies the Pentagon budget quickly finds gobs and gobs of wasteful spending. Not some people. Not dirty hippies. Every. Single. Defense. Analyst.