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Rep. Edward Markey on the Republican's "do nothing substitute" health care bill. Well said Congressman.

Markey: You know the G.O.P. used to stand for Grand Old Party. Now it stands for grandstand, oppose and pretend. They grandstand with phony claims about non-existent death panels. They oppose any real reform and with this substitute they pretend to offer a solution while really doing nothing. G.O.P.--grandstand, oppose and pretend and make no mistake about it the Republican substitute is not real reform. It does nothing to curb skyrocketing healthcare costs. It does nothing to provide real insurance coverage to millions who are now uninsured. It does nothing to stop the unfair practices of insurance companies. I urge my colleagues to vote no on the Republican do-nothing substitute.

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From Progress Illinois-Durbin: GOP's Obstruction Of Unemployment Benefits Extension "Fundamentally Unfair":

Now that the Senate has overcome a procedural hump and voted by a wide margin in favor of cloture on H.R. 3548, an extension of federal unemployment insurance, Democratic Senators are laying into their Republican counterparts for the multiple delays they caused over the past few weeks. On the Senate floor today, Sen. Dick Durbin listed off the unemployment rate in the states represented by the 13 lawmakers who voted against the measure last night. "This Republican obstruction," he said, "when it comes to something this basic, is fundamentally unfair."

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And from an update of their original post:

5:45 p.m.: After a quick debate this evening, the Senate voted by a widemargin (87-13) in favor of cloture on H.R. 3548. While one more cloture vote will be required to bring the final bill to an up-or-down vote, the Senate is now expected to take up the bill in its current form, including the amendments added by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), in the coming days. Open Congress has listed the 13 lawmakers who voted against the procedural motion, which you can see below:

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)
Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Sen. Thomas Coburn (R-OK)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
Sen. Jefferson Sessions (R-AL)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)

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Rachel Maddow and Kent Jones do a hokie, but apt parody of what dealing with the Republicans on health care amounts to. Kent Jones really doesn't want to order pizza, and the Republicans really don't want any sort of health care reform.

Maddow: Republicans in the United States' Senate are Kent. And we're trying to order pizza. They do say that they want health care reform.

[....]

Because Republicans have said that they want health care reform, Democrats have been trying to work with them to come up with a bill that both sides can agree on. We can compromise. Democrats took national health care and single payer off the table from the very beginning because they were sure that Republicans wouldn't want those.

Then they started negotiating down from there, trying to find something, anything that the Republican would say yes to. But just as national health care was unacceptable to them, and single payer was unacceptable to them, the public option is also turning out to be unacceptable to them. And now even the further watered down reform option of co-ops are unacceptable to them.

[....]

That's a really important moment. Senator Grassley is the top Republican negotiator in the Senate on health care and he just admitted to Chuck Todd that even if he personally gets to draft a bill for the Senate to vote on, even if he ends up with a policy to vote on that he thinks is great, he himself might not vote for it.

Mean while Jon Kyl, the number two Republican in the whole Senate told reporters on a conference call today that dropping the public option still won't get any Republicans to vote for the bill.

No matter what is in the bill, Republicans are not going to vote for the bill. No matter what is on the pizza, Kent doesn't want it.

Maybe it's time for Democrats to take the hint. Republicans don't want pizza. Order exactly what you want. Put together the best possible reform bill purely on the basis of what you think the best policy for the country is, and then, forget the Republicans. Focus on getting all the Democrats in line to vote for it.

The Republicans are not here to help. And Kent is not here to make a good pizza order. Take the hint.

Rachel talks to Frank Rich about the Republicans political strategy of obstructing everything and whether it's time to blow up the filibuster. While I agree with Rachel that blowing up the filibuster is a bad thing for minority rights in the Senate, I think that at least the threat of if is something I'd welcome given how the Republicans are acting these days. That or make them actually have to filibuster and take the political consequences for their actions. Break out the diapers and the cots!

Frank Rich is correct in this interview and the GOP is in denial and adrift from the American people. Rich hopes that some of them will come back to their senses and work in a way which benefits the American people. The problem is if any of the GOP House members vote their conscience, they've probably got more extremist primary challengers waiting for them. Their party truly has boxed itself into a corner with choosing to be the party of "No", racism, obstructionism, tax cuts for the rich, eat the poor and real life circumstances be damned.

I think the only gut check that's going to fix them is actually being voted out of office. In the mean time I'll settle for diapers and cots in the Senate and Harry Reid growing a spine if they want to obstruct.

Olbermann: Breaking from New York only days ago when opposing President Obama's stimulus plan the Republicans in Congress complained that the stim did not focus sufficient resources on housing. Tonight now that President Obama has unveiled his plan to fix the housing crisis, in our fifth story in the Countdown the Republicans are saying the President has focused too many resources on housing.

Keith follows up with Richard Wolffe and HUD administrator Shaun Donovan about the help for home owners President Obama is proposing and the Republican opposition to it. The GOP as usual is saying "No" to anything President Obama is proposing without offering and real solutions of their own.

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David Shuster talks to Jane Hamsher about her article at the Huffington Post DC Journalists Love GOP Obstructionists, But Americans Don't.

There appears to be a pretty big gap between what DC journalists think Americans think, and what Americans actually think. No better example of this can be found than the "winners" and "losers" that DC media are proclaiming in the wake of the passage of the stimulus bill, and what DailyKos/Research 2000 polling on the subject indicates.

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Rachel Maddow would like for the Republicans who want to use the stimulus bill to make political hay to get out of the way of the ones who are actually trying to save our economy. She notes the importance of quick action if the stimulus is going to have any chance working.

Her use of the term Know Nothings reminded me of an article I read back in November at Alternet titled Thanks to Sarah Palin, We Get to See the Cruelness of the GOP as It Really Is which described the Know Nothing party of the 1840's.

But there is another strand that runs through their history.

Back in the 1840s, there was a group called the Know Nothings. They were against immigrants and for real Americans. ("Real American" did not then, as it does not now, refer to Indians; it refers to descendants of English immigrants.) The movement was based on fear. Irish and German Catholics were going to take over. They would take orders from the Pope-in-Rome (one word). Their values were not "our values." They drank. Their nunneries were virtual brothels and when the nuns had babies they practiced infanticide.

The Know Nothings started with secret societies like the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, associated with William Poole, better known as Bill the Butcher, depicted by Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York. Their public political face was the American Republican Party, which became the Native American Party, and finally the American Party.

Their platform was:

• Severe limits on immigration, especially from Catholic countries.
• Restricting political office to "native-born" Americans.
• Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could gain citizenship.
• Restricting public school teaching to Protestants.Mandating daily Bible readings in public schools (from the Protestant version of the Bible).
• Restricting the sale of liquor.

Rachel's Know Nothing obstructionists and the Know Nothings of old do seem to be cut from the same cloth don't they?

Rachel reminds the Democrats that they won the election mainly because the public did not trust the Republicans to run the economy and so they should fight against the GOP obstructing the stimulus bill. From Think Progress, it looks like they already caved on the family planning provision in the bill.

Rachel also takes the editorial staff at the Wall Street Journal to task for their article citing the debunked, nonexistent CBO report which the media has cited 81 times in the last six days. Talk about marching in lock step.

Rachel followed with David Sirota, who opined over why the Democrats are so worried about getting bipartisan support for the bill and what the costs are when appeasing Republicans.