GOP stall tactics to kill health care reform

This is really incredible video to watch. If you want to understand what the press means when they say that Republicans are trying to stall out health care reform, check out this video. It depicts Republican (Senate) committee members denying the committee leader's request to approve Republican amendments by unanimous consent (meaning a block vote to approve them).

The good news is that we can look at this tactic as old news: this committee is, this morning, the first in the Senate to pass its version of a health care reform bill.

Bonus question: want to guess how many Republican committee members voted to approve the bill?
Answer: none.

Why special elections are not much better

You know, I'm starting to have a geriatric crush on Ed Rendell. The Governor of Pennsylvania just knows politics like the back of his hand and is able to tell it like it is.

In the wake of the human circuses that have been the appointments of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's Senate seats, Sen. Russ Feingold (another personal fav) has proposed legislation that would mandate special elections to fill replacement Senate seats, not gubernatorial appointments. Seems like SUCH a great idea right? Let the PEOPLE decide!

Wrong, says Gov. Rendell. He explained on MSNBC that, in actuality, the political parties would be choosing the replacement. There would not be time for open primaries in these cases, so the state GOP would choose one candidate, and the state Democratic party would choose one candidate. In a state like New York, that is all but assuring the Democratic party is choosing your next Senator. And does that sound much better to you?