Democrats Prepare to Go it Alone

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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September 16, 2009

Democrats Prepare to Go it Alone

Faced with the prospect of having to pass health care legislation without Republican votes, President Obama's chief political adviser David Axelrod "met with Senate and House Democrats on Tuesday to stress the importance of party unity," The Hill reports.

"Democrats control 59 seats in the Senate. Without a single Republican vote, they would be forced to advance health care using a budgetary maneuver that requires only a simple majority."

Said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "If we can't get the 60 votes we need, then we'll have no alternative but to use reconciliation."

Meanwhile, Fox News reports that Axelrod called the president of the Massachusetts Senate to lobby for the law change to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate seat until the Jan. 19 special election is held.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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September 16, 2009