Word: reid
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...refused to endorse the idea as a must-have provision and that Olympia Snowe of Maine - the lone Republican Senator still supporting any version of health reform - remains opposed to it, Schumer has never given up his hopes of crafting a workable compromise. This week Senate majority leader Harry Reid is expected to unveil the Senate's comprehensive health care reform bill, which is expected to include a public option drafted by Schumer...
...move is a big gamble uncharacteristic of the typically cautious Reid. "I don't bring anything to the floor unless I think I have the votes," he said on Oct. 21. Yet Reid isn't sure he has the votes to bring this bill to the floor, and it's looking unlikely that he'll have enough support to overcome a Republican-led filibuster. Snowe has said the inclusion of Schumer's provision makes it "difficult" for her to vote yes. Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has said he cannot vote for the bill...
...political wiles that, as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, helped him recruit pro-life, pro-gun Democratic candidates such as Pennsylvania's Bob Casey and Jim Webb of Virginia. For the past month, Schumer has been directing a full-court press on the public option, cajoling Reid both in private and in public. "I believe Leader Reid is leaning strongly to putting a level-playing-field, state-opt-out public option in the bill," Schumer said on Meet the Press on Oct. 25. So pointed and relentless were his arguments that at one hastily called Democratic leadership meeting...
...Former majority leader Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, expresses sympathy with Reid's predicament. "I know for a fact that the toughest job in this city is majority leader," says Lott, who knows firsthand the threat of ambitious underlings. After he made indelicate remarks praising Strom Thurmond's segregationist bid for the White House, they were quick to force him out as majority leader. "There's always pressure on you from within your own party and across the aisle. So he's juggling a lot of balls, he's got a very tough job, and it doesn't help...
...sales pitch is three-pronged. First, he says, studies have shown that government competition is the most effective means of keeping down costs. Second, polls show that most Americans want a public option; conveniently some have even begun surfacing in states like Nevada and Arkansas (Reid and Lincoln are two of the most endangered incumbents) showing surprisingly strong support. And third, Schumer has co-opted the language of state-rights, small-government Republicans. "I've never seen an issue where every Democrat really wants us to succeed, from the most conservative to the most liberal. It is universal that failure...