Someone mentioned today that Rep. Anthony Weiner was Jon Stewart's college roommate. Imagine what that duo was like. This guy is smart, passionate and willing to go the extra mile on healthcare reform. I'm glad he's doing what he does.
Now watch how upset Tweety gets when Weiner says he'd use reconciliation to ram the healthcare bill through with 51 votes. He seems to take it as a personal affront:
MATTHEWS: But you never... You would be willing to blow up the Senate rules and basically push it through that.
WEINER: What do you mean, blow up the Senate rules? Look, there's a reason that there's a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate and a Democratic presidency. That middle bloc of Americans want us to get this done.
MATTHEWS: What do you think the Republican reaction would be if you ignored the rules and pushed through a bill?
WEINER: Honestly, waiting for a Republican senator to be pleased with this process is something I'm not prepared to do.
MATTHEWS: No, what would they do? No. When war begins... Look, we've been through goddamned wars in this country, they're easy to start, it's tough to end them. How do you stop a war that starts in the United States Senate right now because you jammed through a bill with less than 60 votes?
WEINER: What do you mean, jammmed, started a war?
MATTHEWS: What are the 40 Republicans going to do? What are they gonna do?
WEINER: Look, outside of this town, the American people really don't care about whether Grassley voted for it or not.
MATTHEWS: Will the government still function if you try to jam this through with 51 votes?
WEINER: I think it will.
MATTHEWS: You think Republicans will put up with it.
Now, you notice anything there? Tweety thinks the Republicans aren't at war with the Democrats! How much worse does he think it's going to get? Arlen Specter told us at Netroots Nation that the Republican caucus decided - before the inauguration - that they wouldn't support any stimulus bill at all in order to break Obama.
During the Bush era, the Republicans wouldn't even let the Democrats sit in on their committee meetings and used every procedural trick in the book to shove legislation through.
Don't you think it's about time the Democrats stopped playing "Mother, May I?"
