Word: optioning
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...about the process that people are likely to be debating for years: Did the road to passage really have to be this rocky? The shape of the legislation - and specifically, the fact that there were never going to be 60 votes in the Senate for a government-run public option - has been clear for months. So why did Reid insist upon taking the public option to the Senate floor as part of the initial bill he introduced, making the fight even messier and at times seriously jeopardizing Dems' chances of passing such a landmark bill? (See 10 players in health...
...would give him credit for trying even when the plan ultimately failed, as it did this week. But Reid seemed not to have considered, or cared about, the collateral damage: forcing moderate Democrats such as Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas to cast a procedural vote in favor of the public option that could prove ruinous to their own careers - and to the party's majority...
...Reid, says Daschle, had no choice but to offer the public option. "He was under intense pressure from the House [which has one in its bill] and the liberals in the caucus to at least make the effort." Also, by including the option, Reid gained a valuable bargaining chip - something he could give up in negotiations to win the votes of more conservative members like Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, an independent who is counted as part of the Democratic caucus, and Nebraska's Ben Nelson...
...three-week January term represents a new provision under the altered academic calendar which then-interim University President Derek C. Bok approved in 2007, and which was instituted this year. While the College initially planned to provide programming during the January period, budgetary concerns precluded that option, leading administrators to instead institute an application process to approve athletes, researchers, and thesis writers needing to stay on campus over the break...
Many factors play a part in the fading importance of capital punishment. The drop in the number of death sentences reflects a drop in the murder rate. Many states have adopted life-without-parole terms as alternative sentencing, and both prosecutors and juries have embraced the option. Also, DPIC executive director Richard Dieter theorizes that in tough economic times, states are reluctant to take on the high costs of capital cases - the special sentencing hearings, the mandatory reviews and the nearly inevitable years of appeals. The DPIC report cites the example of California, where death sentences were up this year...