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| 8/28/2009 11:05:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Sen. Russ Feingold |
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Feingold backs away from Mercer remarks
Senator now confident reform will pass and include public option
What a difference six days makes.
On Wednesday, Aug. 19, at a town hall meeting in Mercer, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold was sounding downright disheartened in assessing the prospects for passing substantive health care reform this year.
A bill would not be voted on by Christmas, Feingold declared, and one might never happen at all, he added.
But by Tuesday night, Aug. 25, after national news outlets picked up The Lakeland Times story reporting his remarks, the senator was suddenly in a much more confident mood, saying he would work "to make sure" a reform bill passed by Christmas.
At the Mercer meeting, Feingold's dismal perspective was greeted with applause from a crowd of approximately 150 people.
"Nobody is going to bring a bill before Christmas, and maybe not even then, if this ever happens," Feingold said. "The divisions are so deep. I have never seen anything like that."
Feingold repeated his appraisal more than once.
"We're headed in the direction of doing absolutely nothing, and I think that's unfortunate," he said when asked about the plight of uninsured Americans.
News travels fast
It was one of the most pessimistic summations to date by a leading Democrat of the condition of health care reform, and national news outlets immediately pounced on the story. Hours after appearing in The Lakeland Times Tuesday, the Drudge Report featured the story on its website, and conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh read it on his Tuesday morning talk show.
From there the story made its way to such outlets as the British BBC and Salon. By Tuesday night, Feingold's office issued a more upbeat statement to Politico.
What changed in six days?
In the statement, Feingold said the crowds in the days since Mercer were more pro-reform.
"At the beginning of the August recess, most folks coming out were opposed to any sort of health care reform," Feingold said. "But in the last few I have held, I have noticed more and more reform proponents coming out and being heard. Overall, in the 17 years I've been holding these meetings, there has been strong support for health care reform."
Feingold said his prediction of a Christmastime package was nothing new, but on Tuesday he backed away from his Mercer musing that a bill might never happen at all.
"I've been saying for weeks that it will probably be right before Christmas before we have a health care reform bill to vote on," he said. "I will continue working to make sure we do and it is one with a strong public option."
If Feingold was one of the most high-profile Democrats to express doubts about the ability to pass a bill - even if temporary ones - he was not the only senator to do so. On Wednesday, Politico reported that Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) was also judging the effort to be in trouble, though, as Politico's Ben Smith put it, he talked in less dramatic fashion than Feingold had.
"I don't think it's going to be possible to work it out with the administration because they're all over the field - all over the ball park, I guess, as we say," Politico quoted Grassley from a news conference call transcript. "And, you know, one weekend, the secretary of HHS is saying you don't have to have a public option. The next day, the administration gets hit from the left, so Obama says public option is still very, very important to them."
Grassley also mentioned public opposition.
"But, yes, I do believe it's possible to reach an agreement," he said. "But I have to confess to you to be a little more cautious when I say that now, because I've been out here listening to my constituents. And if - and if other members of Congress are hearing what I'm hearing, they're saying, 'Slow it down. Do it a little more carefully. Make sure you know what you're doing. And maybe do it even a little more incrementally.'"
More fallout from Mercer
Meanwhile, by Wednesday national conservatives were taking aim at other remarks Feingold made in Mercer, accusing the senator of suddenly trying to paint a more conservative picture of himself.
Writing on the website of the conservative publication Human Events, Connie Hair cited The Lakeland Times article to say Feingold was distancing himself from the president.
"Just how badly has Obama's political capital shrunk?" Hair wrote. "Bad enough for one of the most liberal pols on the planet - Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) to bail on the prez. As reported yesterday in The Lakeland Times, in a town-hall meeting this week the hyperliberal Feingold not only touted his opposition to the 'cap and trade' national energy tax but made a point to tell the crowd, 'There's a survey that shows that I am the Democrat who has least voted with President Obama.'"
Hair urged conservatives not to be fooled.
"Feingold has a 100 percent voter rating from the ACLU," she wrote. "The uber-liberal Americans for Democratic Action rates him at 100 percent. The American Conservative Union gives Feingold an 8 percent rating and the Club for Growth rates him at 1 percent. Feingold was the first to call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. This is not a conservative Democrat. He's left of the left.
"And he's jockeying for a 'voted least with President Obama' scout badge? Dismal days in Obamaland," she concluded.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, September 04, 2009
Article comment by:
Jim
How would this be considered hard news? This reads to me like just a bunch of meandering opinions. Hard news on this subject would be an in-depth analysis - with facts, not opinions - of the health care system - how it compares in quality of service performed, number of deaths due to errors, overtreatment and infections from hospitals stays. What are the real results of healthcare systems in other countries? Please - facts - not opinions. Crowds of people shouting "America has the best system in the world" when all empirical evidence shows that to be untrue contributes very little to the discussion.
Real facts, real numbers - please.
Posted: Friday, August 28, 2009
Article comment by:
Kerry Thomas
Once again, The Lakeland Times does more hard news than almost any other newspaper in Wisconsin. Congratulations!
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