I love this shit. Jane Hamsher responds to my piece by saying that Rahm Emanuel did too start talking about triggers in January. To do this, she creates a timeline of sorts with the first date listed as February 2009. But, if you click on the article, it’s to a Sam Stein piece written on July 9th. What does that have to do with February (or January, for that matter)? It turns out that Stein had one of those ‘sources close to the administration.’
…a source close to the administration, who has been in contact with the White House on health care matters, said that Emanuel has been “floating” the trigger compromise since January.
Apparently, that unnamed source who isn’t even a member of the administration stuck in Hamsher’s memory banks. She’s been running with that theory ever since. Her only other listing on the timeline that precedes the Wall Street Journal article I cited, is to another Sam Stein article, from June 2nd. That piece merely notes that the administration and members of the Senate were debating the merits of Olympia Snowe’s trigger idea. This is surprising? In June the Democrats didn’t even have 60 members in their caucus (Al Franken was sworn in on July 7th).
Somehow these two incidents contradict my assertion that “Rahm Emanuel [first] floated the trigger in the Wall Street Journal on July 7th.” Backdating Sam Stein’s July 9th response to the WSJ piece to February was a nice trick, but totally dishonest.
And so it goes…