Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

In 1993, Democratic "centrists"... helped defeat Hillarycare, believing that their power was unshakable... teaching the new President a lesson about who was boss. The Gingrich Revolution was condign punishment for them, though what the rest of us did to deserve it I don't know. For Gingrich and his allies, the health care debate was... really about... destroying the power of a Democratic President. It's not surprising that the Republicans have remembered that lesson, but it's disappointing that the "centrist" Democrats have forgotten it.... Harry Reid ought to enforce party discipline on the cloture vote. No on cluture should mean no subcommittee chair, no pork, and no money from the DSCC. Every Senator should be free to vote his conscience... on final passage, and on amendments. But no Democrat should side with the Republicans in denying the President an up-or-down vote on his top priority, which has been a central issue for Democrats going back to Harry Truman.

Another sex scandal out of the Fellowship's C Street Complex, a kind of fundamentalist flophouse for members of congress run by Doug Coe's elite sect, the Family. The resident to stray is Mr. Family Values himself, Rep. Chip Pickering. Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford are also C Street alumni.

Now, you can argue that given the political realities it just wasn’t possible to pass a bigger stimulus, which may or may not be true. But that’s not the argument Larry is making — he’s saying that the plan was just right in economic terms. And I can only hope they didn’t really think that.