As Michael noted, Claire McCaskill is now defending herself against Krugman on Twitter:
Just saw Krugman’s comments on reduction in recov act. Question for him. Would no stimulus act be better than one thats 800 B instead of 900.
She follows that up with
Compromise had to happen or we would NOT have 60 votes. Period.
And for further evidence of how much the bill is the same, she claims:
Original Senate bill was 60% appropriationss, 40%tax cuts. Compromise was 58, 42.Senate bill is 90% the same as House bill.
I’m glad that’s she expressing herself here, and that we’re able to somewhat have a dialogue. But I’m not sure how much in good faith it is. McCaskill began by stating how glad she was that they got a $100 billion cut out of the bill, that the “silly stuff” that Republicans didn’t like is now out. She then switches to a passive aggressive mode in defending the cuts – it’s basically the same bill and it wouldn’t have made it through the Senate – but glosses her own role in making the cuts. From the way she talks about the bill, wouldn’t she have been among those voting against the bill if the cuts hadn’t been made and new non-stimulative tax cuts hadn’t been added in?
UPDATE: One of the last tweets from the only Twitter feed McCaskill is following (which is her press secretary’s):
So glad that Claire was part of this moderate team Nelson is calling “the jobs squad”. Very cool. Hopefully the others will see this is best 6:33 PM Feb 6th from web
…And another tweet from McCaskill’s press secretary approvingly points to an awful article by Dana Milbank about how McCaskill, Lieberman, Lindsey Graham, and the other “moderates” are workhorses trying to get the bill done, while everyone else, including Harry Reid and Barack Obama, are just show ponies trying to get attention.
An excerpt below the fold:
“As I have explained to the people within that group, they cannot hold the president of the United States hostage,” fumed Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.). “If they think they are going to rewrite this bill and Barack Obama’s going to walk away from what he has been trying to do for the American people, they’ve got another thought coming.”
ad_iconHolding the president hostage? This caused the workhorses to rear up.
“Oh, goodness, no,” said Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) as he returned to the dealmaking table in Dirksen. “I’m for human rights.”
And Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) chuckled at her leader’s accusation. “A little dramatic, don’t you think?”
that it took Twitter for dialog with Claire to happen. But …. ok.
I too doubt that this response is in good faith. You are absolutely right she didn’t originally Twitter that it was the only way to get the bill passed and it was a SHAME that the stuff had to be dropped. NO. She was proud.
It does sound like she would have voted against it without those cuts.
I think it is becoming clear that she is in danger of being a one trick pony – she came out of a background of requiring efficiencies in spending and minimizing budgets and she’s gonna continue to do that even when the times don’t call for it.
…and sit around the table with spinners:
Claire McCaskill’s Twitter post:
Somehow writing a post in a new media genre that thrives on superficial sound bites about a broadcast media show which specializes in superficial sound bites, making an allusion that you had difficulty getting a word in edgewise, strikes me as ironic. But that could just be me…
because the constitution is even more important to me than jobs. But for anyone who is of a different mind bent, aligning her with Nelson makes me think I was wrong to support her in the first place. After all, Talent and Nelson would have been on the same side.
And you know what this makes me wonder? Should I bother working for Robin Carnahan? Maybe I’m wrong about her too.
Claire McCaskill’s latest Twitter post:
If she did, it might not be a very fun Sunday.
and say what we would or wouldn’t do and think it would be easy to to do it. But it would be tough to make those decisions knowing you have all the lives of the country in your hands. We are only really concerned with a very few, but the decisions she makes really concern the entire country.
As we see, there are just one or two votes making a difference in the Senate right now. And yes, I would rather have something than nothing. So if it takes this comprimise then yes that’s what I want.
There was a comparison in the KC Star yesterday, there isn’t a lot of difference between the House version and the Senate version. There are some differences, but what differences there are can possibly be made up in the budget or in bills later.
We, as progressives and democrats are fighting a huge battle. The entire country and the media is still in the mindset that anything against the Republican Party is Unpatriotic. Just as it used to be for the last 8 years. So they have been all over the TeeVee and still are telling everyone that this bill is nothing but PORK…it is wasteful spending, it is junk, it is nothing.. and they were winning the battle. They were winning it in the House, by joining together and voting against it in a block, every one of them even though Pres. Obama did everything in his power to try to get them to support the bill.
They even stood and lied, and were believed and never questioned when they said he didn’t listen to them, he didn’t do anything for them, they were shut out, when it was obvious that it was not true, yet not one media outlet ever called them on any of the lies ever.
Now, in the Senate the exact same thing is happening. And here you are, the Dems, the progressives falling right back into the same trap that all the rest are… instead of doing something constructive about it… you are shooting messenger.. Did any of you ever call the Senate and yell at Sen. Bond?? Did any of you ever call Roy Blunt?? Did any of you call Sam Graves?? Or any of the rest?? Have any of you done anything but complain about Claire???
There was a report on Mother Jones that the calls into the Congressional Switchboard was running 100 to 1 to the Republican Senators … is it any wonder they are voting against this bill??
Sorry, for the long rant, but this is just getting to me. I live on a very low fixed income and I am just tired of everyone sitting around complaining but not really doing anything about it.
Last week she was attracting media attention everywhere by rants against CEO bonus’ and calling them idiots. This week on MTP she lectures us on the dangers of populism and tells we are NOT bailing out CEO’s but rather banks and the financial system.
[emphasis added]
That smarmy son of a bitch should have been stripped of his committee assignments and kicked out of the caucus.
A Small Clique Of Legal Extremists…
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And then he should have to answer at The Hague.