Wow. Things are getting way ugly in the Democratic party trying to get a health care reform bill passed in the Senate.

First topic - a move is afoot to change the rules of cloture to make it easier to break GOP filibusters:

Given what he sees as the abuse of power by a couple members of his own party whom he said are threatening to join the minority party if their every demand is not met, Harkin is considering reintroducing the legislation.

“I think, if anything, this health care debate is showing the dangers of unlimited filibuster,” Harkin said Thursday during a conference call with reporters. “I think there’s a reason for slowing things down ... and getting the public aware of what’s happening and maybe even to change public sentiment, but not to just absolutely stop something.”

...

He said for instance if 60 senators could not agree to end debate, it would carry on for another week or so and then the number of votes required to end debate would drop by three. Harkin said it would carry on this way until it reached a simple majority of 51 votes.

“You could hold something up for maybe a month, but then, finally you’d come down to 51 votes and a majority would be able to pass,” Harkin said. “I may revive that. I pushed it very hard at one time and then things kind of got a little better.”

I think I’m gonna break out the “H” word here and call Harkin a hypocrite, even though it is the same legislation he introduced fifteen years ago. The difference? Then, his party was the minority, and this legislation would have reduced the power of his own minority party to hold up the work of Congress - something most of us would probably consider commendable. This time, his party has a near super-majority (everyone says the Democrats have a supermajority, but fail to recall that it’s actually 58-40-2). He’s basically introducing this as a way to ensure that his majority party gets its way, not some altruistic ideal of making Congress more efficient. So he gets the “hypocrite” banner of the day.

Second item - It appears Harry Reid is refusing to use reconciliation:

As the White House rushes to the finish on health care reform, fissures on the best way to get there are developing between the White House and Senate Democrats.

Two sources have told CNN that White House Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use the budget process known as reconciliation to push through health reform – and that Reid has rejected that request.

The procedure, which can only be used on budget measures, would allow Senate Democrats to bypass the 60-vote threshold required to end debate on the current bill, and pass the proposal by a simple majority – but would require major changes to the legislation.

Reid’s resistance, said the sources, stemmed from concern that adoption of the strategy would spark major political pushback from Democrats facing re-election next year.

I’ve written about reconciliation a bunch of times; I think it’s a craven load of crap. On the one hand, props to Harry Reid for refusing to go that route even though it’s been authorized. On the other hand, sweet political move, you hack. Still, I have no desire to see reconciliation used on policy measures (I don’t really like it for budget measures, but this bullshit of calling policy issues a budget measure to get around an obstinate minority is beyond the pale). So I’ll give Reid a thumbs up on this one.

Third - The infighting in the Democratic party is amusing as hell. They’re targeting Rahm Emanuel with a public option ad:

Is this the first-ever TV ad aimed at a White House chief of staff?

In the wake of the news that Senate Democrats are abandoning the Medicare buy-in—or any other type of public option compromise—to get 60 votes on health care, the liberal group Progressive Change Campaign Committee says it’s airing a TV ad in Chicago targeting Rahm Emanuel.

“Will Rahm Emanuel fight for the insurance companies—or for us,” the ad says.

The video of the ad is on the linked page. Seriously. Rahm Emanuel is who you choose to go after? This is getting really sad, little boys and girls.

Fourth - since they can’t bully Joe Lieberman, they go after his wife:

Progressive Democrats are so angry at Sen. Joe Lieberman, they want to punish his wife, Hadassah.

...

The liberal activists want to see Hadassah Lieberman booted from her position as “Global Ambassador” for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

And they’ve called on a range of stars, including Andie MacDowell, Christie Brinkley, Cynthia Nixon and Ellen DeGeneres, to help pressure the famed breast-cancer research group.

...

Komen has thus far not been inclined to listen.

Even more pathetic. Remember me mentioning that 58-40-2 thing? Lieberman isn’t a Democrat. You assclowns kicked him out. But since you can’t get him to come crawling back to lick at your boots, you go after his wife? Grow a pair already.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this - the Democrats have such an overwhelming majority that if they can’t convince just 2-3 other people to come along with them on their joy ride, well, maybe, just maybe, it doesn’t deserve to pass. This is a point I made each time I wrote to my Senators about the reconciliation issue. It’s really not that hard to grasp.