After days of Republican senators whining about Democrats’ promise to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure proposal and the President’s more progressive infrastructure priorities together — the latter through budget reconciliation — Biden put out a statement attempting to clarify a situation that GOPers had sought to muddle.
The messaging could be a little clearer here, but things seems to be moving in the right direction. At the very least, the Dems are on the offensive, for a change! 
As I read all this, I think Biden still expects to see both bills on his desk at the same time.
And this is exactly what Democrats should do - with or without Republican support on one of them (a few Republicans will vote for the “traditional” infrastructure package, despite the whining of several - if not, so what?).
Well Well Well…Who knew Barr was deep state
How Barr Finally Turned on Trump - The Atlantic
Same message with a jab at Mitch. And I love that he refers to it as his Families Plan.
“So to be clear,” he continued, “our bipartisan agreement does not preclude Republicans from attempting to defeat my Families Plan; likewise, they should have no objections to my devoted efforts to pass that Families Plan and other proposals in tandem.
It looks as though the Republicans are falling apart and the Democrats (so far) are holding together, for the most part. Let’s hope this continues for at least a little while (fingers crossed).
Is Biden tempering his stand, tempering his statement to take away Mitch’s bitch, relying on Pelosi to kill the revised infrastructure plan if reconciliation doesn’t pass, or signalling that Manchin and Sinema are on board with reconciliation?
Well worth the listen
Message discipline is critical for Democrats. There can be no room for misinterpretation. BTW, Laura Ingram demanded we defund our troops. Where is our response? Do we have to depend on the Lincoln Project to eviscerate her?
I saw that earlier. There’s another juicy comment about how McConnell encouraged Barr to say there was no widespread fraud.
On the main article – Biden’s habit of saying something before his brain is fully engaged was going to be a problem eventually, but I’m glad it happened on something like this where he can make a good recovery.
“My suspicion” — what utter bullshit. He was flying all over the world trying to get dirt.
Arrogant prick who thought he’d remain in power.
Ah, the disgraceful slob’s rehabilitation tour has started.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Thank you for letting me start my Sunday with a good hearty laugh. (Not at your expense, I assure you, but at the concept of Dems having any messaging sense, much less a strategy.)
The President’s declaration issued Thursday echoed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) sentiment earlier in the day, in which she said that the House would not take up either piece of legislation until both are passed through the Senate.
Biden is being very cagey. Of course he’s not going to veto anything. He’s not going to need to because Pelosi’s not going to let it get that far.
This gets the media back in line, but nothing has changed on the ground. It’s still all or nothing.
ETA: Josh just wrote a post about this very topic.
I feel the trickle of news about the Trump indictments is exerting gravity on this situation. Biden, hemmed in on one side by Sinemanchin, is left to incrementally chip away at the McConnell Obstructionist Bloc, The weird mix of grievance, transparently poor strategic thinking, and tribalism that holds the MOB together will be stressed by revelations that their Supreme Leader is a tax cheat and money launderer.
All along eliminating the filibuster has been Plan A for me and it still is. If we only can use Plan B, however, we could do worse than having Pelosi and Biden work compromises — they are savvy enough legislators that the results will be progressive-ish.
I think I see the problem here. I guess this is a concept most Republicans are not familiar with.
I personally find the value of message discipline to be overrated, but the key is to be more disciplined than your opponent. Trump has basically destroyed the GOP’s ability to put out and keep to an effective message, making even Democrat ‘message discipline’ look like a well-oiled machine in comparison.
Biden was quoted as saying “If this [infrastructure bill] is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem.”
That sounds like an explicit, not implied, veto threat, but I’m good with the press calling Biden’s later statement a clarification.
At this point (noon on Sunday, 6/27): Hard to say. At least as far as I can read the tea leaves, the messaging is one big muddle.
I can only hope that Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, all 50 Senate Dems (including Manchin and Sinema), and the entire House Dem caucus are on board, together, and hanging tough.
“Many news outlets subsequently adopted McConnell’s framing and took the GOP hand-wringing at face value.”
Many news outlets have little or no credibility anymore.
