Lawrence O'Donnell Suddenly the Voice of Sanity on Democrats' Legislative Strategy

Via Newsbusters here is the short version of Lawrence O'Donnell in a moment of sanity this morning on "Morning Joe" explaining how completely unprecedented the path Democrats are taking to pass their health care agenda. He stresses reconciliation has never, never, never, been used like this before. Newsbusters also highlights a portion of the segment where O'Donnell points out the group think among the media that Democrats must pass health care that is unpopular with the American people:

O'DONNELL: I have never seen, when people come on this show all year, everybody, the conventional wisdom on this show is the Democrats have to pass something because it will be terrible if they don't because they'll show they can't govern. And the thing they have to pass is opposed by a majority of the public. Fifty-three percent, you know, somewhere in there, maybe more. No one has given me the example of the party that passed the thing the public didn't want in order to win an election. But every single pundit on this show--except for you as far as I can tell--for a year, Democrat and Republican, they all agree, that this has to be done. The group-think in the media about the Democrats have to do this for their own good is virtually universal. And that group-think is joined at some point in the Congress and we'll see if that's the group-think that gets them through to do this.

I have also embedded the entire 11 minute segment below the jump, O'Donnell makes a few points on where he thinks Republicans have failed to effectively oppose the legislation.  He keys in on the taxes later in the segment and early points out Republicans haven't pointed out how unprecedented the path as mentioned above.  He makes hay of Mike Barnicle who argues that the only reason the bill is unpopular is people are too dumb or something to understand it.  Just for laughs it is worth a watch to see Eugene Robinson hem and haw trying to explain how this is all perfectly reasonable.   Again O'Donnell interrupts and says no there is nothing reasonable or precedented.  It's all worth a watch if you have the time.

Morning Joe Cuts Lawrence O'Donnell's Diatribe Against Mark Thiessen

There was plenty of vitriol the morning on "Morning Joe" as Lawrence O'Donnell was brought in to argue with Mark Thiessen author of  Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack.  As usual O'Donnell launches into a stream of incoherent attacks against Thiessen trying to make the point the real failure against terrorism came under the Bush administration on September 11th.  This was entirely beside the point of the segment, however, which was to question whether the dissolution of the CIA interrogation program under the Obama administration would keep America safer or would, as Thiessen argues, bring us back to the pre  9/11 mentality that essentially invites another attack.

Oh Joy, Another $1.6 Trillion in Deficit Spending

The big news of the day is the budget, all $3.8 Trillion of it, including a $1.6 Trillion deficit. We'll hear lots of talk of what was inherited to be sure. This CBO graph, however, puts the inheritance in context:

To be sure, Republicans spent like drunken sailors, but they don't hold a candle to the Democrats.  Rep. Jeb Hensarling made an appearance on Morning Joe this morning to discuss the budget shortfall and his famous exchange with President Obama at the Republican House retreat on Friday.  The point he makes quite early in the segment is one that bears repeating.  Congress spends the money and it was a Democratic Congress that has controlled the budget since 2006.    Republicans were certainly not without blame but they paid a dear price for their spending and were voted out in droves beginning in 2006.  

Hensarling makes mention of Paul Ryan's budget at the very end of the segment.  Ryan issued a statement today about the budget and has analysis, charts and graphs including the following graph to illustrate how fiscally responsible the Democrats have been since taking charge of government:

Perhaps this explains why Joe Scarborough concedes Paul Ryan is a star at the end of the Morning Joe segment:

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