When one constantly repeats that Republicans have good ideas and one seeks "bipartisanship' regardless of a year of obstruction, one emboldens one's enemies. And they just demand more.

SURRENDER BARACK has been their message and it continues.

Mr. Obama made the announcement in an interview on CBS during the Super Bowl pre-game show, capitalizing on a vast television audience. He set out a plan that would put Republicans on the spot to offer their own ideas on health care and show whether both sides are willing to work together.

"I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward," Mr. Obama said in the interview from the White House Library.

NY Times

So here we go again.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said in a statement that he welcomed the bipartisan meeting on health care and called on the president to begin the dialogue "by shelving the current health spending bill."

"The fact is Senate Republicans held hundreds of town halls and met with their constituents across the country last year on the need for health care reform, outlining ideas for the step-by-step approach that Americans have asked for," Mr. McConnell said. "And we know there are a number of issues with bipartisan support that we can start with when the 2,700-page bill is put on the shelf."

When asked by Ms. Couric if he would agree to discard the bill and start over, the president said he would not. The starting point, aides said, would be with the proposals that passed the House and Senate.

NY Times

Well, I'm glad that the President said "no," but once again we see that the Republicans will only obstruct. Perhaps the President thinks that this will "expose" Republican obstructionism, but I am not optimistic. They have been obstructing for a year and it has paid off for them.

Greg Sargent at the The Plum Line says it well:

Shocker of the day: Republican leaders respond to Obama’s announcement of bipartisan health care summit by reiterating that the only hope Dems have for bipartisan cooperation is to fully embrace the GOP health care plan and nothing more.

50 senators could pass the fixes needed and then the House could pass the fixes and the senate bill. Instead, we get circuses televised.

On a deeper level, if we keep reaching for a bipartisanship that can not exist with the regionally dominated Republican Party (The South), we continue to send the message that the Democratic Party cannot govern and that it is weak. Why should people fight for ideas when we are constantly told that Republicans have good ideas also. Really? Which ones? Screwing working people? Women? Minorities? The Environment?

I am sick of "bipartisanship."

The Republicans screwed upo this nation and now fight to prevent our government from fixing their f..k-ups. We simply cannot afford bipartisanship anymore. Too many people are losing homes, jobs, even their lives for lack of medical care.

It's time to act. Fix the bill and pass both.

Remember the Wizard of Oz? Just as Dorothy always had the power to return to Kansas by clicking her heels three times and saying there's no place like home, 50 Democratic senators have the power to create health insurance reform by fixing the bill and passing it through majority rule (reconciliation). We have 58 Democrats (including Sanders who is independent), I don't count Lieberscum.

Click your heels and fix the bill, and we will have health insurance reform.

The wizard explains that he, too, was born in Kansas and his presence in Oz was the result of an escaped hot air balloon (although his balloon says Omaha, which is a city in the neighboring state of Nebraska). He promises to take Dorothy home in the same balloon, leaving the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion in charge of Emerald City. Just before takeoff, Toto sees a cat and jumps out of the balloon's basket. Dorothy jumps out to catch him and the wizard, unable to control the balloon, leaves without her. She is resigned to spend the rest of her life in Oz until Glinda appears and tells her that she has always had the power to return home, through the power of the ruby slippers. Glinda explains that she did not tell Dorothy at first because she needed to find out for herself that she doesn't need to run away to find heart's desire.

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