CONFIDENCE IN ENZI, GRASSLEY ‘PRETTY MUCH GONE’…. Greg Sargent flags this clip from MSNBC yesterday, in which Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) chatted with Ed Schultz about where health care reform stands in the Senate.
Schumer says there’s “real determination” among Democratic lawmakers to get reform done. As for some of his GOP colleagues, the senator added, “[T]he idea of having Grassley and Enzi negotiate in good faith is pretty much gone.”
Schumer said he’d “prefer a bipartisan effort,” but given Republican tactics of late, he doesn’t think it’s “likely to happen now.”
These remarks, coupled with Robert Gibbs’ comments yesterday, suggest Dems have at least noticed what Grassley, Enzi, and their cohorts have been up to, and they’re pretty sick of it.
And as if on cue, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley told reporters today that the “only” way to get a bipartisan deal done on health care reform “is to defeat a Democratic proposal,” and start over with a process in which the failed and discredited Republican minority gets to help write the bill.
Any hopes that Grassley could be a credible negotiating partner on were wildly misplaced.
