Follow tonight's debate with Craig on Twitter

Filibuster Rules Update: Forbes columnist Bruce Bartlett emailed this interesting scenario for breaking a filibuster based on endless quorom calls (described in last thread). Reid's office claims they can't do this, but I suspect it's mostly because they just don't want to go this far: "Filibusters can be broken by establishing a quorum and then locking the doors so that no senator can leave. The Sergeant at Arms has the power to do this and compel the attendance of every senator, not just a number sufficient for a quorum. Afterwards, quorum calls would be out of order. It's ugly, but has been done in the past."

Why doesn't Harry Reid force an old-fashioned filibuster that could make Republicans look silly? Because he can't.

The Senate Majority Leader must get 60 votes to start the health care debate -- which he aims to try on Saturday -- and he'll need that many again when it comes time to try and stop the debate for an up-or-down vote.

So why not make Republicans really filibuster, provoking the spectacle of marathon speechmaking? Because it's just not that simple.

Under Senate rules, filibusterers need to do no more than call for endless rounds of quorum calls. The only drama for television would be watching successive roll calls, and that's nothing like the Hollywood scenario we saw with Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

No, as we point out in today's Video Trail Mix (produced by CQ-Roll Call's Andrew Satter), Reid is doing all that he can do -- collect 60 votes for a super-majority that allows a final vote.

Meet Up with Craig and Helen Thomas
Get a signed copy of "Listen Up, Mr. President"
Saturday (11/21) 1:00-3:00 PM ET
American History Museum, Washington DC

Craig and Keith Olbermann discuss what Sarah reads.
(MSNBC, 11/19)

Meet Up with Craig and Helen Thomas
Get a signed copy of "Listen Up, Mr. President"
Saturday (11/21) 1:00-3:00 PM ET
American History Museum, Washington DC

Was his choice of words merely a tease for those who urge immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops? He might really be setting up a process for something more long term -- and more costly in American lives.

When war presidents use such language, often it's an effort to appease anti-war sentiment while preserving the war itself. It's a game they play with words. They try to convince us to believe a contradiction: Escalation Accelerates Withdrawal.

The test will be in what Obama ultimately decides about Pentagon requests for more troops.

Richard Nixon actually escalated the Vietnam War following his administration's talk of "peace is at a hand." George W. Bush's White House used "endgame" lingo even as they "surged" in Iraq.

Sadly, presidents often manipulate language in these ways as a means for expanding unpopular wars.

Craig on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann"
Tonight (11/19) MSNBC 8:50 PM ET
Topic: Sarah Palin's reading list

Cashing in requires nothing more than what she's doing - selling books, collecting speech fees, and possibly aiming for Oprah-like TV bucks to host her own daily talk fest.

But gaining political power - such as becoming the first woman president - requires at least the pretense of something that has so far eluded her: SUBSTANCE.

It wouldn't take much, really. Prove that she can grasp anything more complex than shooting a moose and history could be made.

Palin has nailed the glib charm that so often fuels success in our celebrity-tinged political culture. Find a way to persuade the persuadable voters that she can at least understand the basics while assembling a team of wise ones who inspire confidence, and she will be no joke in presidential politics.

McCain, Oprah, God, Todd: A Roundup of Palin Coverage

Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao emerged with nothing but rhetoric about "good will" on Tuesday after many hours together. We saw similar vague talk without deals following Obama's other international trips.

At least Obama is not making the mistake of getting bad deals just to say he did something, like when John Kennedy was taken to the cleaners in his first meeting with the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. After that 1961 meeting in Vienna, Kennedy told his brother Robert it was "like dealing with Dad -- all give and no take."

Craig and Keith Olbermann discuss Palin's latest drama: McCainiacs and Oprahlooza (MSNBC, 11/16)

• Palin's Book Goes Rogue on Some Facts
• Oprah's Sarah Palin interview incites 'perky' reactions
• Palin tells Oprah she won't rule out 2012 candidacy
• Palin Onstage, Still Moving Off Message
• The Palin Conundrum For Miffed Romney

Meet Up with Craig and Helen Thomas
Get a signed copy of "Listen Up, Mr. President"

• TONIGHT (11/17) 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM: National Press Club Book Fair, 14 & F Streets NW, Washington DC

Watch Video:

• Thomas assesses the White House press corps.
• Crawford: Other U.S. presidents have taken on the press before Obama vs. Fox.
• Thomas and Crawford assess President Obama.
• Thomas and Crawford discuss President Lyndon Johnson's strengths, which included understanding his audience.

Craig on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann"
Tonight (11/16) MSNBC 8:50 PM ET

 

Give the President a break. It's a tough job.
(Produced by CQ-Roll Call's Andrew Satter)

LEIPZIG (1989) -- Communist East Germany's rising frustration showed in the words of a handmade banner Tuesday outside this city's oldest church, the Lutheran St. Nikolai.

"SED - das tut weh," it read. Translation: The Communist Party gives me a pain.

Since early October, Leipzig, 75 miles southwest of Berlin, has been the fulcrum of east German discontent. And the Romanesque walls of St. Nikolai provided its sanctuary.

Monday the city repeated a weekly routine: 300,000 orderly protesters marched from prayer services at St. Nikolai to a target of their hatred - the headquarters of Stasi, East Germany's once-feared secret police.

For seven Mondays factory workers, seamstresses, clerks and teachers - the city's core population - met at this church to hear the Rev. Christian Fuehrer urge quiet determination in their struggle against the state.

"We begin each march with prayer, setting the mood for non- violence," Fuehrer said. "If the power of the streets can stay non-violent, we will achieve even more far-reaching changes."

So far the strategy has worked beyond the imagination of its founders. Few thought the government was creative enough to open the Berlin Wall, as it did last week.

"It is unbelievable and unexpected," said Christoph Kehler, a Leipzig activist. He compared it to the biblical story of the walls of Jericho tumbling down.

Kehler and other Leipzig dissidents believe that their city spawned national unrest. He said critical food shortages and widespread unhappiness here first exposed German communism's dark side: a failed economy and a citizenry without hope.

Life grew so intolerable that something snapped two months ago, dissidents say, producing the nation's first round of protests.

Then neighboring Hungary opened its border to the West, punching a hole in the Iron Curtain that drew tens of thousands from Leipzig.

That's when church and civic leaders began forcefully seeking political reforms.

"Without it, our city would become extinct," Fuehrer said. "Everyone would leave."

The Monday protests became a way of maintaining hope - and keeping people home.

Beginning Oct. 9 the rallies drew the attention of the international news media. Other East German cities joined in.

Worried Communist leaders who tried to speak to the crowds were booed off the stage. They were called "lazy gangsters" and "dirty liars."

The dam burst earlier this month when the government tried a show of force to disperse the crowd. At the next Leipzig rally, Nov. 6, more than a half million protesters clogged the city's Karl Marx Square.

By week's end most government leaders had resigned, and the Berlin Wall was coming down.

A West German newspaper editorial praised Leipzig's marchers: "The perseverance, the courage and the maturity that they discovered in themselves became a force the Communist leadership no longer dared resist."

Dissident leaders were relieved Monday to see continued enthusiasm for the rallies. They do not want the government's new openness to dampen interest in reform.

"We have won back only a piece of our freedom," said Sebastian Pflugbeil, a physicist in Leipzig.

Banners on public buildings throughout Leipzig on Tuesday gave a list of demands. One read: "Free votes - free press - free thought: Democracy."

In the city's center, Karl Marx Square, a black coffin used in Monday's march perched on a bench. It bore the inscription in German, "Here lies the Communist claim to power."

Fuehrer said his congregation and dissidents throughout the country are just learning how to express themselves freely.

"They are losing their fear," Fuehrer said. "You can see it in the banners."

At Monday's pre-march service, Fuehrer urged parishioners to speak out, saying the "walls within the mind" must crumble as the wall within Germany had done.

Before leaving they sang a hymn, which ended: "Loosen our tongues, and we shall bear witness to freedom; wake us to a new life." -- Craig Crawford, The Orlando Sentinel (1989)

Go to Soap Box Alert
"Honor our WWII Vets & the Victims of the Holocaust"
(Follow instructions for registering, provide your zip code -- and automatically generate messages to your lawmakers)

More information on Patton's Liberators

• Liberator Campaign Blog (by Trail Mixer jamie)
• Sign the Petition

Why Congress Prefers Your Emails

EAST BERLIN (1989) -- There was a telling joke Sunday at the end of East Berlin's newest mile-long line to freedom in the West.

Each new arrival to the freshly opened Potsdamer Platz crossing through the Berlin Wall was greeted by those already standing in line with the shout, "Last one out, turn off the lights."

Hundreds in the crowd of East Germans doubled up with laughter each time the line was delivered. The sentence, some explained, is often used by the Communist authorities in urging the public to conserve power and lessen the strain on the country's fragile electric system.

The saying took on another meaning over the weekend as 3 million East Germans - a sixth of the nation's population - walked or drove into West Germany. East Germany had opened the border Thursday.

The lights were out Sunday across East Berlin, from the shattered Berlin Wall to the high-rise suburbs 40 miles away. In this communist city of a million residents a visitor could walk for blocks without seeing anyone.

Although most of those who have been leaving have returned at the end of each day, a question lingers: Have the lights gone out for communism in Germany?

Definitely, answered many East Berliners who said their decision to continue living in East Berlin depends on wiping out the country's one-party rule. They plan to stay for nothing short of radical change, including free elections with competing political parties.

Hurrying home with three plastic bags full of West German food and magazines, Helmut Rissel said there was no turning back to Communist Party leadership.

"We were so tired of their lies, always telling us to sacrifice and then taking all they could," Rissel said.

While reveling in the joy of visiting the once forbidden West, East Germans still showed the determination that it had taken to bully their government toward democracy.

Defiant banners hung on the apartment buildings of Marzahn, an East Berlin suburb, including one that simply proclaimed, "Forty years tyranny." After exercising their newly won right to visit the West, many East Berliners talked Sunday of the differences they had found: faster cars, more colorful clothes and fully stocked grocery stores.

They were amazed at the variety of consumer goods - but stunned by the prices.

High prices made it easy to spend the $55 that the West German government was giving each visitor from the East. Banks stayed open all weekend to give out the money, stamping passports to prove receipt.

Despite the prices, the East Germans were envious once they found out what they had been missing.

That will make them even angrier at their government, said an East German businessman who asked not to be named.

"Now they are seeing what they could have had under capitalism," he said.

Shows of anger produced this turn of events, East Germans said as they took time Sunday to reflect on their new freedoms.

They talked of the huge protest rally last Monday in Leipzig, when 500,000 marched through East Germany's largest industrial city. Others mentioned the symbolic show of spirit in Halle, where 80,000 stood in the rain for two hours.

Most credited what has become known as the "exodus" to the recent flight of East Germans through the newly opened border between Hungary and Austria.

"The government knew we would all leave forever if we couldn't at least go West for a visit," Gisela Browatzki said as she returned home with friends to their homes in Marzahn. They had just paid their first visit to West Berlin.

Browatski, 27, had stayed home Saturday with her 6-month-old baby while her husband ventured to West Berlin. "As soon as he got in, he called me from the phone booth to say he got in," she recalled. "He was laughing because I said it was a joke. No one would get through."

Going west for the weekend was a bittersweet experience for many.

The Berlin Wall crumbled too late for Christina Konigsberger, 46, to see her sister Gabriela, who died two weeks ago in the West. During the 28 years since the wall went up, they had exchanged letters and talked on the phone without once seeing each other.

"Seeing her husband and where they lived was good," said Konigsberger as she crossed back to her East Berlin home. "I sat at her kitchen and imagined we were talking."

Konigsberger's experience shows why so many East Germans are not offering thanks to their government for opening the wall. They can't forget the pain of 28 years spent waiting for it to happen.

Realizing they must go even further to keep East Germans at home, the country's Communist Party rulers are making promises at a dizzying pace. Free elections, new parties, labor unions and less control of the marketplace are all on the bargaining table.

Gertrud Schultz is feeling the change at the Tin Tack cabaret, where she works in East Berlin's politically progressive Prenzlauer district. She writes and performs satirical plays about politics.

"The government used to send in censors who changed the words and kept us very mild," Schultz said Sunday. "I haven't seen them for days. Now we can tell the jokes that everyone was telling at home." -- Craig Crawford, The Orlando Sentinel (1989)

BERLIN -- Freedom. Here Saturday you could even taste it.

Ruth Dost savored her first Burger King Whopper and laughed as mayonnaise and ketchup oozed onto her hands. The 31-year-old East Berliner was jubilant at finally entering West Berlin, the neon city that beckoned from across the Berlin Wall but always seemed so distant.

"I would stand on my toes and look over the wall," Dost said. "What could all those bright, colorful lights mean, I would think. It's so wonderful."

Buying hamburgers was a small part of a shopping frenzy by hundreds of thousands of East Berliners. Imprisoned for 28 years in a failing economy, they walked across a once impenetrable barrier and found a wonderland of consumer goods.

The East German government made the crossing easier by punching more holes Saturday in the 28-mile wall that encircles West Berlin. As each new crossing point opened, thousands of East Berliners streamed toward the once forbidden city.

For the more adventurous, freedom came Thursday night, when news of the border opening first spread.

"My boss came in yesterday, slapped down the newspapers and said, 'Let's close up and go to West Berlin,' " said Manfred Wernicke. "Today I bring my whole family."

More than 500,000 East Germans visited the Western sector of the long-divided city Saturday, West Berlin Mayor Walter Momper said. Another 600,000 entered other parts of West Germany, according to border police.

One of the visitors was Gertraud Wehowsky, 80, who stood crying in the middle of a West Berlin street. On a storefront she saw the emblem of the hometown she fled when the Russian army advanced at the end of World War II.

After settling in Berlin as a teacher, Wehowsky watched in horror a decade later as the communists built the wall across her street.

"Never did I think I would live to see this," said Wehowsky. "Thank heaven, we now have a new future."

Most of the newcomers to West Berlin were young people. They had never seen it before or known anything other than communist rule.

Dressed in dark, outdated clothes, the East Berliners stood out, if not for their style then by the sheer look of amazement on their faces.

They pointed and stared at West Berlin's high-tech hardware. They marveled at the electronic billboards that flashed the latest news of their country's changing ways.

Along West Berlin's sprawling main drive, where cars had to give way to the pedestrian army, a crowd gathered in silence outside a music store. They stood transfixed at the sight of three dozen stacked TV screens showing the same music video; loudspeakers blared the accompanying beat.

Still absorbing the shock at suddenly being free to travel, East Berliners got down to the real business of democracy - buying things.

Armed with $55 each in West German currency - a gift from their host government - the East Berliners bought with a vengeance. Their brown-and-black clothes were soon brightened by multicolored shopping bags on their arms.

At the 18 Woolworth stores in West Berlin, the merchandise moved faster Saturday than it does in months, said downtown store manager Gerd Blos. He stood guard at the door, not letting new customers in the packed store until others left.

Inside, the consumer rush was on. T-shirts, jackets, even toiletries sold as fast as buyers could grab.

Frederich Gabrich, 17, bought his first compact disc. "Soon I will buy the machine that plays it," he said.

For those not spending money, there was plenty to enjoy in the bright autumn chill and the impromptu carnival in the streets.

With scarce room to move, couples strolled arm-in-arm down streets that are usually choked with traffic.

There was plenty of free food and drink, if it was worth standing in line up to an hour and longer.

Ambulance trucks parked all along the main roads, their drivers pouring buckets of hot apple juice into small paper cups for the thirsty crowds.

At one intersection a group of singers and guitar players led hundreds in a rendition of John Lennon's refrain, "Give Peace a Chance."

Some stood for hours at public telephones, using their coins to call friends and family in the West.

"That was my uncle in Hamburg," said Heino Mohring. "He's in the hospital and we haven't talked for many years."

Mohring said he will use his West German money to go visit his uncle.

Few East Berliners said they will move. For now they're satisfied with being able to freely visit the West.

"We have our jobs, our families. We don't want to leave if we don't have to," said factory worker Ernst Kutzbach. His son, Thomas, bought an 8-by-10 inch photo of a red Chevrolet Camaro at poster store.

"He says he will own one someday," said Kutzbach, smiling at the 10-year-old.

Many West Germans were glad to hear that their eastern cousins won't all become permanent residents.

West Germany already faces a shortfall of 1 million homes for its own citizens. In two days 1.1 million East Germans have crossed into the west, or 7 percent of their county's population of 16.6 million.

"Some of us do worry that we will be putting immigrants in our homes," said a West Berliner who asked not to be identified.

And not all East Berliners were totally impressed with what they found across the wall.

Watching dozens of her countrymen lined up to see a sexually explicit movie, Eva Beeskow was appalled. East Germany doesn't allow such films, she said.

"Perhaps this is too much freedom," said Beeskow, her husband nodding in agreement. "Perhaps we'll teach each other some lessons."

-- Craig Crawford, The Orlando Sentinel (1989)

NBC's Tom Browkaw reports from the Berlin Wall in 1989

Those who decry spending a trillion dollars a decade to expand health insurance are not so vocal about similar spending levels for our aimless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their combined cost now happens to be on the verge of reaching $1 trillion -- in less than ten years.

Oh, and then there's this -- the Congressional Budget Office, the source cited for the health bill's cost, actually predicts that after factoring in the tax provisions and spending reductions in the House bill, it would actually reduce the deficit by $104 billion.

More Baby Talk on Health Care:

Phony Jail Bait Politics

Phony Page Count Politics

Craig and Helen Thomas now on C-SPAN'S Book TV

"A serious obstacle to reform is the compressed legislative calendar. Both chambers are scheduled to be in recess for part of this week, to mark Veteran's Day. When the politicians return, they have a week before the Thanksgiving break. After the turkey has come and gone, they have only three-and-a-half working weeks left before the Christmas break." -- The Economist

• All Eyes on Sen. Harry Reid
• Insurers, Drugmakers Turn to Senate for Health-Bill Changes
• Senate, House Health-Care Legislation: Side-by-Side Comparison
• Party-Buckers on the Health Care Vote Mostly From 'Purple' Seats

 

Craig and Helen Thomas on Book TV
Book Launch Party, Lebanese Embassy
"Listen Up, Mr. President"
C-SPAN2: Monday (Nov. 9) at 7:30 AM ET