this is an adventure

CHANGE: “Progressives blast OfA as a soulless, top-down machine that’s alienating the base, even as some state party officials complain that the group is stepping on their toes. Conservative Democrats, too, grumbled over the summer when OfA ran mild, campaign-style ads in their districts backing health care reform.”

“Obama plans to raise as much as $120 billion through a fee on financial institutions to help recoup losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program and reduce the deficit, according to an administration official… The proposed fee revenue is almost three times what analysts expect the 10 biggest U.S. banks earned in 2009.”

John Bolton outlines the stakes: “Obama is not looking to build his foreign-policy legacy on top of disputes that predate his arrival. He is working to move past these, toward the day when he can implement his own foreign policy and national-security agendas.”

“Today, the Senate President, acting on the advice of the Senate Parliamentarian, ruled that these rules changes are actually just procedural changes and, despite what the actual words of the legislation say, are not rules changes. Therefore, a two-thirds vote is not needed in contravention to longstanding Senate precedent.”