From Politico.com:Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tries his best these days to elude the horde of congressional reporters who stake out every negotiating session on health care. He will slip through obscure exits, sprint down hallways and brush past those trying to suss out his views — with good reason.
Right now, Grassley can’t please anyone.
As one of the last prominent Republicans engaged in bipartisan talks, Grassley is the man in the middle of a colossal legislative debate that could realign American politics for years to come.
To many Republicans, he is a Democratic enabler, playing into President Barack Obama’s strategy of winning a few GOP votes and calling the final product bipartisan. Senate Republican leaders have gone so far as to suggest Grassley doesn’t speak for their members. To many Democrats, Grassley is the guest who stayed at the party too long. They can’t do much of what they want to do on health care as long as he stays at the negotiating table.
There are a handful of big decisions hanging over the next month of deliberations: Create a public insurance option or not? Tax health benefits or find the money to pay for an overhaul someplace else?
And will Chuck Grassley stay or go?
The answer to the last question could do just as much to shape the dynamic of the debate as the first two, because Grassley’s departure, should it come, would effectively end Obama’s hopes of getting more than token GOP support for his signature legislative effort.
Grassley said he plans to stay as long as his conservative views are being heard and to leave when the bill crosses the line. That could happen in three weeks, when two Senate committees merge their separate bills ahead of a floor vote, or in three months, when the House and Senate meet in a conference committee.
But if Republicans allow Democrats to get their way, “it is going to screw up the health care system ... and [it] will be screwed up forever,” he said.
That's not very bipartisan of you, Senator.
And leave it to GOP shill and FOX News tool Dick Morris to bitch about a final bill that hasn't been written yet.
“Republicans should not, under any circumstances, give this bill even a single vote,” (the) conservative commentator and former strategist to Bill Clinton wrote on Human Events last week in a column that singled out Grassley. “To do so would be to offer Obama an out, doom America to a deteriorating health care system and take away the Republican Party’s best shot for regaining political power and majority status.”
Along with signing the legislation that repealed Glass-Steagall, DADT and NAFTA, hiring Morris wasn't one of Bill Clinton's better ideas. And Dick, are you aware that after Clinton canned you for letting that hooker listen to your conversations with him, nobody takes your advice anymore? I mean, you work for FOX News!
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