Well that was quick. Yesterday, I wrote that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should try to kill Max Baucus' bill, despite the bills bipartisan support. I think he may have torpedoed it before I even hit publish. And so went the day that Reid, "cut a wide swath through the Senate."

From Politico:

"Grassley and three to four Republicans would have voted for it, but all the other Republicans would have beaten the living s—t out of us [during the 2010 midterms], claiming the bill was too bloated," said a Democrat who supported Reid's decision, explaining the leader's logic."

As the story says, the Majority Leader replaced the bill with a much smaller and narrower $15 billion version. There is some question as to whether the bill is too small, which is funny considering that Republicans have been bashing Democrats for about nine months now for wanting to pass big bills. How can you not love politics?

And if you ever wonder why people look down on voters, it might be because they believe this stuff.

Some links:

• You may have heard that Bill Clinton was in the hospital yesterday. He apparently will be released today and is alright after having two stents placed in one of his coronary arteries.
• Interesting look at Obama's politics and whether he really does want to be a "great one-term president." I also noticed this exchange and remembered it:
  

  "If the price of certainty is essentially for us to adopt the exact same proposals that were in place leading up to the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression . . . the result is going to be the same. I don't know why we would expect a different outcome pursuing the exact same policy that got us in this fix in the first place." He continued: "If our response ends up being, you know . . . we don't want to stir things up here," then "I don't know why people would say, 'Boy, we really want to make sure those Democrats are in Washington fighting for us.'"

• Uh, thing is, very few of you out there think DC is doing anything good right now. Thank goodness I don't have an approval poll. Just living here would bring it down.
• For those of you who just say, "a Kennedy could fix everything," well, for the first time in half a century, there will not be one in Congress.

Last thing I wanted to add is that there has been a lot made of a recent poll that showed Obama running even with an unnamed Republican in 2012. While it does say something that he's fallen that far, what most people are taking seriously is the fact that it was an unnamed Republican and not some great candidate.

Well, that's why it was so close. It was basically a presidential approval rating poll. Had there actually been one of the many second-rate Republican candidates on the poll, Obama would've led easily. They do an unnamed poll because they know it will turn out that way. A lot of unnamed polls will go against the establishment. But the simple fact is that there is no leader of the Republican party, with its strongest voice being Sarah Palin. Who, by the way, is not the first person to write notes on her hands. My how the debate has fallen.

Anyway, I just wanted to point that out. Put Obama up against any of the "leading" Republicans right now. It may not be because of hope or whatever else, it may be just the lesser of two evils, but he'll still win.

Whether anything gets done at that point, well, not if Harry Reid has anything to say about it! Okay, that was a joke, but not totally off base. Have a good Friday.