Snowe: White House Needs to Compromise on the Public Option

[Joanne98]

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) may be the deciding vote--and the deciding voice--on health care reform, but for the time being she's warning President Obama that she doesn't support a public option without a trigger and urging the White House to compromise with other Republicans.

"I talked to last week while I was in Maine and I talked to him on Monday as well," Snowe said on MSNBC earlier today. "We talked about the public option. I was ... urging him if he could take the public option off the table in his speech this evening so it could provide, I think, a momentum of a different kind in moving this issue forward overall."

Despite this pressure, Obama is nonetheless planning to support the public option in his speech tonight, by some accounts very strongly. However, Snowe remains convinced that the President will be flexible on the public option when push comes to shove.

"I think he is going to be very flexible, absolutely," Snowe noted. "I have discerned that in my previous conversations as well, that he has a practicality and a pragmatism and he recognizes that those are essential to achieving an agreement. He would prefer to have a bipartisan a agreement and broad support at that."

"The point is I don't support a public option. And none of my Republican colleagues do and some Democrats in the Senate and even in the House. I think the point is how do we bridge the divide?" That is why, she said, she suggested the so-called trigger mechanism months ago.

Continued>>>
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/snowe-white-house-needs-to-compromise-on-the-public-option.php?ref=fpb

[BurtWorm]

1. Fuck you, Snowe, and all your mushy Republican asshole colleagues.

:patriot:

[ThomWV]

10. +1

[grytpype]

2. Do we need her if we use reconciliation?

Because I don't think we do.

[WI_DEM]

20. Can we get it thru reconciliation? do we even have 50 votes? lots of dems are opposing the

public option in the senate.

[elocs]

23. Exactly. I doubt that there are even 50 votes in the Senate. How pathetically sad. n/t

[KoKo]

3. On CNN just now they showed Snowe saying that...and said Obama's speech

will not urge public option but will talk about co-ops and "other suggestions" as all options that he is open to, according to the release of the speech to Blitzer.

Okay..so Obama's scheduled to do a Six Week Road Trip and he's going to tell folks at Town Halls that he's open to anything? What? What's the point. How can you urge support when you aren't sure what you are urging folks to support. :shrug: I've never seen any President do something like that.

[BurtWorm]

8. Ridiculous! Snowe and the other change-resisters in Congress, I think, are in for a severe shock

if they truly think they can sap the life out of reform with this constant whining over the public option. I hope Obama socks it to them. Hard.

[tridim]

9. She's lying, just like every repuke does 24/7.

She gets no special treatement from me because she's a "moderate".

[closeupready]

11. Yeah, I don't like that. As a leader, you can't be open to just anything.

You are going to have to throw your support behind something real at some point - this is that point. Actually, some would say that point came and went long ago, but if he did it now, we're ready.

[ejpoeta]

4. gee... when is she up for re-election!

[FiveGoodMen]

5. Not soon enough...

[closeupready]

6. The Democrats don't need to do shit, Olympia.

they have the majority and the White House.

[BeyondGeography]

7. So now this mushy little Pub is THE deciding voice on Americn health care?

Not buying it.

[mitchum]

12. Fuck you in your oh-so-patrician mouth, Olympia

[Donnachaidh]

13. she represents one of the poorest states in the nation

She should be ashamed of this mess. Olympia knows where she can put her *trigger*.

[ddeclue]

14. The public option IS the compromise Snowe - your side lost

quit being obstructionist.

If I were Obama I'd give her a choice - vote for this or I'll be flying up to your state in AF1 every weekend to campaign for your opponent.

where are Obama's balls?

LBJ would have done this to her.

Doug D.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

15. Ummm... absent a veto threat the WH doesn't need to compromise on anything

If the situation is that whatever Congress passes will be signed then the WH has no meaningful position.

Congress-persons describe their range of actions (vote yes, vote no) but the WH has never even hinted at a diverse set of responses so it isn't really a party to any of this.

She might as well tell me to compromise.

[Dr Fate]

16. Conservatives & corporations sure do order our DEMS around a lot.

You would think that our DEMS would oppose this attitude and therefore oppose them, just based on pride alone.

We shall see, but my best guess is that the folks who control our party basically AGREE with the conservatives (Blue Dogs even CALL themselves Conservatives)-and it's all a game of Good-Cop/Bad Cop.

I hope to be proved wrong.

[Democracyinkind]

17. Snowe White: House Needs to Compromise on the Public Option

semantics. gotta love it.

[subterranean]

18. The White House needs Snowe's vote,

if only so they can say the plan has "bipartisan support."

[Justitia]

19. who could blame her? Rahm has promised her that would be the deal. Blame him.

This "deal" between Rahm & Snowe has been laid out by Campaign Silo:

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/02/rahm-pushing-triggers-through-olympia-snowe/

[customerserviceguy]

21. This is just a desperate cry

for pork. I'm sure she and Collins can be bought off, if it comes to that. It wouldn't even take much pork to make an impression in Maine, and you get two for the price of one.

[cap]

22. yeah, right... so you guys can jam the trigger later on...

come on...