THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
HUFFINGTON 09.09.12
JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
Rep. Jared Polis
(D-CO) addresses
a crowd at a
health care reform
demonstration
in 2009 in
Thornton, Colorado.
on record supporting the public
option through reconciliation.
Responding to the pressure, a
Reid spokesman issued a statement saying that if the caucus
wanted a vote, he would consider moving forward on it. It was
a direct challenge to the White
House, which had little desire to
reignite what they thought was a
hopeless debate.
A few hours after Reid’s office
put out the statement, Emanuel
met senior Reid aide Jim Manley and a few reporters from The
Washington Post and The New
York Times for dinner and drinks
at Lola’s, a Capitol Hill bar and
grill. Seeing Manley at the table,
Emanuel, who was desperately just
trying to get a bill through Congress, offered a response to Reid’s
gesture with one of his own: a double-bird, an eerie sight given his
half-severed right finger.
The public option never got a
vote. But the outside game changed
the fortunes of the seemingly dead
health care bill.
Obama himself, with his signature effort on the brink, broke with
the inside game playbook and used
his bully pulpit in one of the most
effective ways a president ever has.
His aides demanded that cameras
record his appearance before the
House Republican Caucus retreat