Friday's Starting Lineup
By Reid Wilson and Quinn McCord
Good Friday morning. Happy birthday to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who turns 66 today, and to rapper Mos Def, who is 36. What we wouldn't give for a joint birthday party.
Here's Hotline OnCall's Starting Lineup, previewing the people who will make news today:
HOUSE GOPERS: As the Senate struggles through health care reform, the House has already taken up the next big fight, voting late into the night Thursday on a regulatory reform package that would put new limits on financial firms. Final passage is expected today.
Dems are spinning the new regs as "Wall Street reform," avoiding the term "regulatory." Meanwhile, GOPers are calling it more bailouts for financial institutions at another big cost to taxpayers -- something Dems say won't happen, given that taxpayer money won't be used for a new $150B fund set aside to liquidate insolvent companies.
It promises to be yet another bill in which Dems lose some of their more conservative members while GOPers stand united in opposition. The RNC is embracing opposition to health care reform, but we wonder whether standing against regulatory reform while the corpse of Lehman Brothers is still fresh and anger at executive bonuses at AIG and elsewhere still resonates is the best idea for the GOP.
SEN. CHRIS DODD: The CT Dem's polling numbers are some of the worst in the country, and an increasing number of prognosticators are suggesting there is simply no way he can win re-election. Cook Political Report's Jennifer Duffy has switched the race to her "Lean Republican" category.
New numbers "jibe with our view that Dodd is about as unelectable as unindicted incumbents get," and Dem leaders have reached a "similar conclusion." AG Richard Blumenthal (D) won't enter the race until Dodd leaves, so the question becomes how overtly Dem leaders need to be in pushing Dodd out the door.
If they don't succeed, or if they don't begin to try, the very blue Nutmeg State is taking on a distinctly purple hue. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when VP Biden fundraises for Dodd today.
Update: We incorrectly wrote Biden is fundraising for Dodd tomorrow, not today. Our apologies, and thanks to commenter Don for setting us straight.
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: A new compromise between liberal and moderate Dems is being worked over by CBO number-crunchers, and a new score, estimating the package's price tag, will be out in the next few days. If the proposal is deficit-neutral, it will be another win for Dems and might clear a path for final passage as the Senate works through the weekend once again.
But the compromise, in which a public option would be dropped from the bill, has already lost votes that Dems hoped to win -- namely that of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who told reporters she "can't see" how Dems can tweak the agreement enough to win her back. Snowe voted for the Finance Committee bill -- the only Senate GOPer to vote yes on any health care measure -- but she made clear her vote did not guarantee a yes anywhere down the line.
So Dems are back to attempting to win over centrists like Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) to achieve the 60 votes needed to pass the legislation. A CBO score of deficit-neutral would go a long way to assuaging fears. The fate of the compromise is in the accountants' hands now.
Biden is fundraising for Dodd today, the 11th, not tomorrow. Just letting you know!!