Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

OBAMA: I've looked very carefully at John Boehner's plan that he put forward. Uh, I've looked at Tom Coburn and -- and, uh, Senator Burr's plan, uh, that's been put out there. Paul Ryan, uh, has discussed some of the issues surrounding Medicare. I've looked at those very carefully.

RUSH: Yeah? Well, now, just what, three weeks ago, two weeks ago Obama said this...

OBAMA: What I've done is I've said to the Republicans, "Show me what ya got! You've been sitting on the sidelines criticizing what we're proposing."

RUSH: That was February 2nd. Republicans had no plan, "sitting on the sidelines." Today, what happened to party of "no"? I thought they had no plan. He's looked at Boehner's plan, Coburn's plan, Senator Burr's plan, Paul Ryan's. He doesn't agree with any of it, but he's admitted looking at it.

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RUSH (continued): Lamar Alexander uses Obama's words on filibustering against him. He used the same bite that we played yesterday where Obama was talking about how the Constitution was threatened if the Senate got rid of the filibuster rule. This is Lamar Alexander from just this morning...

ALEXANDER: My request is this. Before we go further today that the Democratic congressional leaders and you, Mr. President, renounce this idea of going back to the Congress and jamming through on a partisan vote through a little-used process we call reconciliation, your version of the bill. When Republicans were trying to change the rules a few years ago, then-Senator Obama is the following: "What we worry about is essentially having two chambers, the House and the Senate, who are simply majoritarian. That's just not what the Founders intended." We'll have to renounce jamming it through in a partisan way -- and if we don't, then the rest of what we do today will not be relevant.

RUSH: So there's Lamar Alexander just hammering Obama with his own words. This is what Obama said April 25th, 2005, in the National Press Club.

THEN-SENATOR OBAMA APRIL 25, 2005: A change in the Senate rules that really, uh, I think would change the character of the Senate, uh, forever. [snip] Uhhh, and what I worry about would be th-th-that you essentially still have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply majoritarian, uhhh, absolute power on either side, and that's just not what the Founders intended