The Gore-acle Speaks (Softly)

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

With Al Gore’s Current TV in the news — it was Current TV’s journalists who were captured and have now been convicted by North Korea — we take a look today at Gore’s role in pressing the climate-change bill on Capitol Hill.

Gore has been just off stage during much of the debate over global warming policy this year — simultaneously everywhere and nowhere.

His fingerprints are all over the cap-and-trade bill that’s fighting its way through Congress. But the one thing Gore really isn’t doing is talking about what he’s doing.

Former Gore aide Chris Lehane sums it up, as a man not known for his communications skills is developing into quite a communicator — and a fierce guardian of one of the more powerful political brands around.

“Gore is playing three levels of chess on this,” Lehane says.

Click HERE for the full story on Al Gore’s role in the climate-change debate.

On Health Care, Dems Learn to Speak Softly, Carry Big Stick

ABC News’ Teddy Davis and Ferdous Al-Faruque report:

<img src=”http://plsdontcallme.info/wp3/wp-content/uploads/on-health-care-dems-learn-tobr-speak-softly-carry-big-stick-1.jpg&#8221; alt=”On Health Care, Dems Learn to
Speak Softly, Carry Big Stick” title=”On Health Care, Dems Learn to
Speak Softly, Carry Big Stick” />

 

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., discussed health care reform at the Center for American Progress on March 27, in Washington, D.C.
Ferdous Al-Faruque/ ABC News 

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., the powerful chairman of the Finance Committee who is taking the lead on reforming the nation’s health-care system, told the liberal Center for American Progress on Friday that circumventing Republicans on this issue “would not be a good idea”.

He — and several other Democrats — are not, however, ruling out the possibility of bypassing GOP senators through the budget reconciliation process if a deal is not reached by the end of the summer. Reconciliation allows legislation to pass the 100-member Senate with a simple majority rather than the usual 60 votes.

The threat of the budget reconciliation process is an important “club” for Democrats to wield, said Norm Ornstein, an expert on Congress from the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

It gives the party in power leverage over Republicans and the insurance industry that they otherwise would not have.

“We are not at a point yet where the Republican Party wants to be a partner in making major legislation and that’s where reconciliation issue comes back,” said Ornstein. “Whether the administration can artfully use a club over people’s heads, not to use it, but to say . . . to Republicans: ‘we have got an option here and we can freeze you out and do it with 50 votes.'”

“And if you don’t use it, and don’t threaten in a way that alienates everybody, it’s another reason to be hopeful that we can actually get this thing done,” he added.

Ornstein made his comments at the Center for American Progress during a panel discussion which followed the Baucus speech. He was joined on the panel by former Clinton adviser Paul Begala and Time Magazine writer Karen Tumulty. The discussion was moderated by Judy Feder, a fellow with the Center for American Progress who teaches at Georgetown University.

Read the Baucus remarks as prepared for delivery here.