POLITICOVOL. 3 NO. 116 www.pOLiticO.cOmthursday, september 10, 2009

seen CLICK? today it’s a family affair, featuring d.c.’s most unrivaled siblings, on Pages 31-33

POLITICSA bid to go where no woman has gone before: representing Mass. in Senate.

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Martha Coakley

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POLITICO 44Sonia Sotomayor makes high court debut with Citizens United case.

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FOREIGN POLICYIran responds on nuclear talks as UAE lobbies to protect energy deal.

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NEWSIs the health care battle lost on the young?

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iNside

heaLth careMore Power For Harkin; A Big Boost For Lincoln

Dodd Keeps A Hand in Health Care

By DaviD RogeRs

Labor and Southern agriculture, two vested interests important to Democrats in next year’s elections, both stand to gain under Senate committee changes elevating Tom Harkin of Iowa and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas to new chairmanships.

Harkin, a coal miner’s son and strong union man, is the chief benefi-ciary of Sen. Chris Dodd’s decision not to take over the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Com-mittee chairmanship left vacant after the death of Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. And together with his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the 69-year-

old Harkin will have more clout over health and public welfare programs than any sena-tor since the late ’60s.

“It is unique,” Harkin told POLITICO. As part of the bargain, Dodd will retain a lead-ership role in the health care debate this fall, but Harkin will be positioned to both

By Manu Raju anD john BResnahan

Sen. Chris Dodd said Wednesday that he’d made the “right decision” in passing up the chance to succeed Sen. Ted Kennedy as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

But that doesn’t mean it was easy.Dodd spent the weekend soliciting advice

from his Senate colleagues, some of whom strongly urged him to give up his Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee gavel in favor of Kennedy’s old post. As late as Tuesday morning, Dodd’s staff didn’t know which way he’d go, and senators he talked to during the day Tuesday said Dodd was legiti-mately torn between carrying on Kennedy’s legacy and finishing the work he’d started on

See HArKin on Page 21

See tiCK-toCK on Page 13

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Sen. Tom Harkin

By PatRick o’connoR anD glenn thRush

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was tell-ing reporters Tuesday night that a health care bill might survive without a public option when Nancy Pelosi bounded to the microphones to cut him off.

“In order to pass a bill in the House, it must have a public option,” the speaker said.

Pelosi’s message wasn’t lost on anyone who heard it: In this House, I’m the boss.

Pelosi and Hoyer, longtime rivals and often effective allies, have chafed against each other during the tense, tiring negotiations over health care reform, with Pelosi voicing the concerns of progressives and Hoyer publicly adopting a more

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Sen. Max Baucus

Can Pelosi, Hoyer keep a lid on tensions over public option?

By caRRie BuDoff BRown anD chRis fRates

Max Baucus couldn’t wait any longer. After months of tentative steps and blown dead-

lines, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) stepped away from the biparti-san health care talks Wednesday and promised to move ahead on a bill — with or without Republican votes.

Baucus faced significant pressure from the White House and his Democratic colleagues to show prog-ress on health care reform, particularly ahead of the president’s joint speech to Congress on Wednesday. But perhaps more than any of the numerous conver-sations he’s had with President Barack Obama or

With time finally running out, Baucus makes his move

By MaRtin kaDy ii

President Barack Obama tried to regain the offensive Wednesday night with an aggressive pushback against op-ponents of health care reform — yet he stopped short of a mandatory prescrip-tion for a government-run insurance op-tion.

The tightrope walk on the signature issue of the Obama presidency had two goals: soothing the divided Democrats gathered to hear the president in the House chamber while offering clarity to an American public that is skeptical and confused about what health care re-form means for it. With Republicans un-

likely to embrace any Democratic plan, Obama also offered his harshest words to date about the opposition, criticizing “unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise.”

“I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s bet-ter politics to kill this plan than improve it,” Obama said. “If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time.”

The great expectation Wednesday night was that Obama would be specific yet simple in his health care address. But while he offered ideas like creation of an insurance exchange for the unin-

sured and mandated coverage for pre-existing conditions — and even offered some outreach to Republicans — most of Obama’s proposals were not new and have already been chewed over in public for months.

In pitching the government insurance option, Obama also left wiggle room for Democratic leaders in Congress to negotiate, as he stopped short of threat-ening to veto any bill that does not have the public option. “It is only one part of my plan,” Obama said of the public op-tion, then addressed “my progressive friends” directly. “We should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal.”

obama: ‘now is the time to Deliver’

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president Barack Obama delivers a speech to a joint session of Congress on the “breaking point” in the health care debate.

See PeLosi-Hoyer on Page 18 See HeALtH CAre on Page 19