Meet the Process

Speaking of David Gregory and Meet the Press, his first four questions of David Axelrod yesterday were about whether the Senate would pass a climate change bill. Not whether the bill should pass, not what the bill would do or whether it would work- simply whether it will pass.

MR. GREGORY:  An important victory for the president Friday night on the climate change bill, he gets it through the House.  But there were signs of division among Democrats.  Forty-four Democrats voted against this.  Is this a red flag about whether this massive energy bill is going to fail in the Senate?

MR. GREGORY:  But Republicans say it's not going to create jobs, it's going to kill jobs, and they say it's dead in the Senate.

MR. GREGORY:  Do you have unity among Democrats in the Senate?

MR. GREGORY:  But you're facing the prospect--the very real prospect of a filibuster by Republicans in the Senate.  Do you have the votes to overcome that?

And when Gregory finally moved on to a question about health care, it was again a vote-counting question, not a substantive one:

MR. GREGORY:  There's a lot on the agenda, and health care is the centerpiece of all of this.  But again, that fact of 44 Democrats opposing you on climate change in the House, is this a shot across the bow that applies to health care?  Do you think the president will get a healthcare reform bill that includes a public plan this year?