Rahm Emanuel Personally Pressed Reid To Cut Deal With Lieberman: Sources

Rahm Emanuel visited Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his Capitol office on Sunday evening and personally urged him to cut a deal with recalcitrant Sen. Joe Lieberman, two Democratic sources familiar with the situation told the Huffington Post.

Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff, has long been identified as leading a faction of White House advisers who have been pushing the Senate simply to pass any health care bill, no matter how weak.

His direct message to Reid (D-Nev.), according to a source close to the negotiations: "Get it done. Just get it done."

Politico reported Monday morning that the White House had pressed Reid to cut the deal after Lieberman (I-Conn) insisted the Senate drop a provision, which Lieberman himself has long favored, to allow those 55-64 to buy in to Medicare. Lieberman is threatening to join a Republican filibuster of the bill if the provision isn't dropped.

The White House denied the report. "The report is inaccurate. The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible," White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer wrote in an e-mail to the Plum Line.

The report, however, according to the two sources, was entirely accurate. "We're long past time for these kinds of games," one source said. White House spokesman Reid Cherlin stuck to the denial: "Our statement is true," he said.

Senate Democrats plan to meet Monday evening to see if it is still possible to hash out their differences.

This story was updated to make clear that the sources spoke to the Huffington Post. They may or may not have been the same sources who spoke to Politico.

Comments

[Ozy]

04:26 AM on 01/14/2010

Fire Rahm Emanuel if you want to save seats!
The guy is a piece of S h it!

[linzy]

11:19 AM on 12/16/2009

I honestly think President Obama is NOT the problem. We need to start on Rham Imanuel--he seems to be the bagman for this travesty. I am wondering what kind of advice the Chief of Staff is giving Obama. Seems like this is being done solely for re-election plans. Little do they know how angry the majority of Democrats are; if they know, they don't care. I am sick of the pandering, think they should run Leiberman (and his wife) out of town and out of office. I want my party back!!

[Doogle]

01:38 PM on 02/22/2010

Some of you question that somehow Obama is not the problem. Stop kidding yourselves. Yes, Rahm Emmanuel is a corporatist thug, but he works for Corporatist Obama. It's the bad cop/good cop routine. They are both corporatists. How come the bailout to the banks. Because this administration favors the corporations. They are corporatists. How come weak jobs bills. Because they don't want unemployed millions regaining their status to good-paying jobs. That is not what the corporations want. They do the corporations bidding. Why no real healthcare with a public option or Medicare for All, which by the way is Socialism and works damn well. Because they are corporatists who work for Big Insurance and Big Pharma. You are kicked to the wayside.
They want it to appear that they fight the Rethugs, but they don't because both sides of the aisle work together for the corporations and against you and me. The latest Supreme Court decision has sealed the fate of this country. This is not a democracy. It is a Plutocracy.

[petermax]

03:15 PM on 12/15/2009

NO GIFTS TO THE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES

If no medicare buy-in option, rewrite the bill to simply regulate the health insurance companies. Make the insurance companies accountable.

[Mulvaney]

01:24 PM on 12/15/2009

The desire to pass any health care bill, no matter how weak, is perhaps what has gone wrong with the administration. Can't get single payer, then perhaps a weak version of a public option. Can't get robust public option, then a limited medicare expansion. Can't get a medicare expansion, then take the bread crumbs that Lieberman might be willing to offer. Can't get the ability to purchase prescription drugs from Canada (which both Obama and Emanuel supported in Congress), then take the donations from Big Pharm instead. We are a long way from when Roosevelt could push bills through on the strength of his popularity and will, or when LBJ could lay it on the line to get something passed. We seem to be in an

[quadgemini]

12:43 PM on 12/15/2009

Never in the history of politics have there been two more two-faced, back-stabbing, double-dealing hypocritical turncoat snakes-in-the-grass that Low Blow Joe Lieberman and Rahm.

Please consider signing this petition urging progressive Senators Russ Feingold, Bernie Sanders, Roland Burris, and Sherrod Brownto stop the Joementum bill (you may have to copy-paste it into your browser, but it's certainly worth the "effort"):
http://act.boldprogressives.org/cms/sign/porescue/?source=taf

Then join me in visiting the whitehouse.gov to urge the President to get rid of Rahm, who has done more harm to the progressive cause than anyone in my memory -- more even than LIEberman.
Thanks

[Matoka]

01:07 PM on 12/15/2009

rather than spend your time on this..... go to the library and get some history books@

[KingBatguano]

12:42 PM on 12/15/2009

Here's a deal : Put them all on trial for treason .

[garymc8]

12:41 PM on 12/15/2009

REMOVE ALL BENEFITS FROM ALL ELECTED POSITIONS LOCAL, STATE AND FED

[dlc1]

12:29 PM on 12/15/2009

Good old joey . . . got his ego inflated and now he has to buy a whole new wardrobe of hats.

[Frank Baltazar]

12:25 PM on 12/15/2009

The Dems and Obama too just lost my vote in 2010/2012

[Matoka]

12:28 PM on 12/15/2009

----and --- most curious .... for whom would/will you vote?

[lysistrata]

12:38 PM on 12/15/2009

No need to vote at all. The very same people who finance the election will decide who will win, that is the people who form the corporate elite. They will vote in place of all of us.

[Doogle]

01:48 PM on 02/22/2010

I am an Independent Progressive. I had been a lifelong Democrat. Changed five months into Obma's administration, becuase he follows along in Geoge Bush's footsteps on everything.

I want to see a progressive primary Obama in 2012. I want to see Howard Dean run in 2012.

[RedWilma]

12:24 PM on 12/15/2009

I'm tired of all Obama bashing. He's just one part of the system and he's not the problem. Individual members of Congress are the problem. Every single Republican is a problem and a few Dems and horrid Lieberman. We need to focus on the seats held by the Republicans and the DINOs and do what we can to get good people elected.

I heard we abandoned the 50 state strategy employed by Howard Dean.
I wonder why. It worked out really well for us.

[Matoka]

12:37 PM on 12/15/2009

I agree ...... fanned.....

[doneflyin]

08:24 PM on 01/13/2010

Rahm was and is opposed to the 50 state plan. One of the reason why he despises Dean. Dean proved the 50 state plan works. Rahm will never forgive him. Probably why there was no position for Dean in the Obama administration.

[doublels]

12:12 PM on 12/15/2009

Why does Lieberman appear to have so much power? I just don't get it.

[magibrotherhood]

12:42 PM on 12/15/2009

read between the lines.

[Matoka]

01:13 PM on 12/15/2009

APPEAR ....that's the operative word ..... there's more to it!!!

[sokolof]

12:08 PM on 12/15/2009

I think it is time the American people to evaluate and monitor every singe individual including Obama and get rid of those whose hands are not clean, or have some agenda except the protection of the American people. There should be a sweeping of the congress, senate and administration, taking out all the dirt out of America's government . Then we will have peace. Can we have transitional government in this country until a clean government is formed? Maybe not. Because there are two forces that are silently fighting in the government, the neo cons and republicans both function for their own selfish reasons. All of them in the government however have one thing in common and that is to protect the corporation not the American people.

[Anym]

12:03 PM on 12/15/2009

His direct message to Reid (D-Nev.), according to a source close to the negotiations: "Get it done. Just get it done."

No matter how bad it is.

"Get it done. Just get it done."

How weak it is.

"Get it done. Just get it done."

How much it is a bailout.

"Get it done. Just get it done."

How much it makes the health care system worse than it already is.

"Get it done. Just get it done."

You gotta love washington thinking.

[Oakland]

11:58 AM on 12/15/2009

Rahm and Obama got to go. These two are starting to make the bankers smell good.

[Doogle]

02:02 PM on 02/22/2010

Howard Dean for President, 2012!

[Waltfl]

11:55 AM on 12/15/2009

Dear Senator Nelson:

As one of your constituents I'd like to ask you for a favor, in resect of the current turmoil over health care in the Senate. Could you please introduce a bill in the US Senate, to prohibit all US-funding for countries that have a governmental health care-system.

The State of Israel, for instance, receives $ 3 Billion of US aid per year, and another $ 2-3 Billion of defense aid. That is a conservative estimate. Israel has one of the best universal health systems for its citizens, with free medication, where children's dental care, maternity, and, as far as I know, even abortions are100% covered.

At the same time many hard-working American middle-class citizens cannot afford health care, lose their homes over medical bills, cannot receive help for medical conditions, and their children run around with rotten teeth. How can we sent our taxpayer's money abroad, in the face of such injustice?

I think it is highly unfair that the US-tax payer funds other countries' universal health care systems, while denying many of its own citizens the most basic health care.

Your help, Senator, is highly appreciated. The people of Florida will not forget this.

Sinceely Yours,