White House Gets Tough on Congress' Critics, Skeptics

Conservative critics think Minority Leader should be fighting administration harder

(NEWSER) - Why haven’t we heard more from Mitch McConnell on health care? The Senate Minority Leader has kept relatively quiet on the administration’s reform efforts, a stance that has irked many conservative activists who feel McConnell is ducking his duties as de facto Republican Party leader, writes Stephanie Mencimer for Mother Jones. McConnell “could single-handedly destroy this bill,” says pro-life firebrand Randall Terry. “But so far he has not displayed the backbone." More»

But master plan meets resistance as House afraid to vote first

(NEWSER) - The health care reform bill was, in a sense, born on Christmas Eve, and now Barack Obama’s hoping to resurrect it just in time for Easter, writes John Dickerson. According to the plan Obama sent congressional leadership, the Senate would vote through changes to its bill using reconciliation, holding the vote just before the Easter recess so that Republicans will be cutting into their vacation if they try to delay it with parliamentary tactics. More»

President's miscalculations include scale, momentum

(NEWSER) - Scott Brown’s Senate victory in Massachusetts is the final nail in the coffin of the Obama administration’s first-year political strategy, John F. Harris and Carol E. Lee write for Politico . The miscalculations cover “three major counts":

• Believing 2008 was a game-changer: The Obama team thought the "election represented something seismic." But "the assumption that Obama would be swimming mostly with the current rather than often against it on issues such as health care, financial regulation and global warming was naive in retrospect."

Obama's reforms are a step in the right direction, former Senate majority leader says

(NEWSER) - Health care reform legislation has the unexpected support of a prominent physician: former Senate Republican leader Bill Frist. If he were still in politics, “I would end up voting for it," Frist said. The surgeon also blamed some Republicans for not engaging seriously in the health care debate: “Clearly, the death panels and public plan arguments have been overblown." More»

Joe Wilson not wrong about Obama wanting to insure illegals

(NEWSER) - Give Joe Wilson a break. It’s hard to fit the complexities of policy into an outburst during a presidential address, but the South Carolina congressman has a point: If you connect two of President Obama’s top policy priorities, he does want to give insurance to illegal immigrants. It’s just that he’ll make them legal immigrants first, writes Terence P. Jeffrey, editor-in-chief of the right-wing CNS. More»