God I hope David Broder is wrong. “The President has told visitors,” the Washington Post columnist wrote last week, “that he would rather have 70 votes in the Senate for a bill that gives him 85 percent of what he wants rather than a 100 percent satisfactory bill that passes 52-48.” The good news is that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is now talking about how bipartisanship may need to be redefined downward if the Democrats are going to pass meaningful healthcare reform. In a meeting with journalists last week, Emanuel proposed that healthcare legislation could be bipartisan without Republican votes. “There will be ideas from both parties, and individuals from both parties, in the final product,” he said. “Whether the Republicans decide to vote for things they promoted will be up to them.” ( David Axelrod seconded the emotion in his appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”)
As President Barack Obama finishes his fifth month in office, Ed Schultz talks about GOP’s “obstruction plan” against Obama’s efforts to get the country out of the economic crisis and unto a path of healthcare reform. The Nation’s editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel encourages Americans to “remind legislators why we put them in office,” mobilize and improve their own lives. It is time for Obama, too, to communicate better with the nation, stresses vanden Heuvel: “I think Obama needs to get outside of Washington and speak as he did during the campaign.”
Before taking office, President Obama stated his intent to bring unheralded transparency to his administration in a stark contrast to the secretive years of the Bush White House. Ari Melber, net movement correspondent for The Nation assessed that progress at the “Obama@100: A Progress Report from The Nation“ panel discussion in Washington, DC April 22.
While the President has done well honoring public information requests and embracing web and citizen media, access to information by the other two branches remains challenging. Melber was joined by The Nation’s Editor and Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington, DC Editor Chris Hayes, National Affairs Correspondent William Greider, the Executive Director of the Center for Community Change Deepak Bhargava, Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN).
Representative Donna Edwards provides a look into the Congressional Progressive Caucus and urges progressives to speak up and challenge the Obama presidency to deliver innovative and powerful legislation. Edwards discussed the state of the presidency at the “Obama @ 100: A Progress Report from The Nation” forum April 22 in Washington, DC. Panelists in the discussion included The Nation’s Editor and Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington, DC Editor Chris Hayes, Net Movement Correspondent Ari Melber, National Affairs Correspondent William Greider, the Executive Director of the Center for Community Change Deepak Bhargava, and Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN).
For more video of the discussion please watch Obama@100 .
Michael Steele challenged his Republican party to chart a new direction to electoral victory in a much-hyped speech Tuesday. The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel addresses Steele’s goals and provides some ideas for the Republican party to become a viable and moderate opposition party. While she gives Steele some sympathy for having to deal with Dick Cheney gone rogue, vanden Heuvel maintains the issue of torture cannot continue to be used as a partisan football.
Holbrooke faced very few tough questions–not even on drone strikes. Rep. Lynn Woolsey did press Holbrooke on the fact that 90 percent of the administration’s war supplemental goes towards military expenses, while the counterinsurgency strategy calls for a ratio of 80 percent political and 20 percent military.
“Where is the place for smart power, investing in humanitarian needs and infrastructure, economy, food, so that we can shore up the people?” Woolsey asked.
“Smart power,” Holbrooke said, “… is exactly what this bill is trying to do.”
“You outlasted the bastards, man,” Bruce Springsteen told the roaring crowd.
I think that was my favorite line at the rollicking birthday concert celebrating Pete Seeger’s 90th!
"You outlasted the bastards, man," Bruce Springsteen told the roaring crowd.
There were other uplifting, astonishing moments Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, at a five-hour concert which Seeger only OK’d because it raised much-needed funds for his Clearwater project–a non profit organization which the oft-maligned bard started in 1969 to clean up his beloved, polluted Hudson River.
Fifteen thousand people, of all ages, (okay, median age was probably 55) danced, clapped and sang along as Seeger did a soaring version of “Amazing Grace” and the saintly looking Joan Baez sang ” Where Have All the Flowers Gone.”
The Nation editors and writers discuss the encouraging decisions of the administration as well as some moves that deserve criticism from the left at the “Obama@100: A Progress Report from The Nation” panel, April 22 in Washington, DC. While panelists gave Obama praise for signing the stimulus bill and repealing the global gag rule, the administration’s reluctance to prosecute Bush-era officials for torture has disappointed progressives. Panelists in the discussion included The Nation’s Editor and Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington, DC Editor Chris Hayes, Net Movement Correspondent Ari Melber, National Affairs Correspondent William Greider, the Executive Director of the Center for Community Change Deepak Bhargava, Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN).
As President Obama hits his 100th day in office, the marker is defined by accomplishments–pledging to close Guantánamo, repealing the Global Gag Rule and working toward nuclear nonproliferation–and blemishes, particularly the flawed bank bailout and questionable plans for military escalation in Afghanistan. In this video, Nation Editor and Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel discusses Obama’s actions from the first 100 hours in office. She also answers questions raised at The Nation’s recent “Obama @ 100″ forum in Washington, which featured a panel of Nation writers and Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD).
There were two important hearings regarding Afghanistan on the Hill last week — in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and at the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ (CPC) third forum examining the war. Both raised critical questions about the current strategy of escalation — questions Congress should take to heart as it considers the $83 billion war supplemental in coming weeks.
Senator John Kerry — who as a young Vietnam veteran famously asked the Foreign Relations Committee, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” — now chaired that same committee’s hearing titled “Voice of Veterans of the Afghan War.” He said in his opening statement that he “would not compare all of our conflicts to the Vietnam War…. [That] does not mean, however, that there are no parallels between the two wars.” The hearing bore out some of those parallels.
There was a diversity of opinion among the four veterans and retired Colonel Andrew Bacevich as to whether sending more troops is the right thing to do. But there was also something they held in common: their connection to this war — its stakes, costs, and consequences — is very personal (in the case of Bacevich his personal connection comes not only from having served in Vietnam but also losing his son in Iraq.)
Retired Corporal Rick Reyes was the most vocal of the Afghanistan War veterans in opposing escalation. He spoke of his determination — and that of his fellow Marines — to “fight the enemy” following 9/11. But Reyes said that instead they were “sent to fight an enemy we could never see. The entire time we were there, we were chasing ghosts.”
