"Our very distinguished speaker"

A day or so after Bill Frist said Social Security "reform" wasn't going anywhere this year, not only does the White House rip him a new one, but his Congressional counterpart suggests that the Senate should take up the bill before the Houes does. Because, you know, congressmen will face an angry electorate long before most senators. Nancy Pelosi weighs in, brilliantly.

I think from what we can see, some of the Republicans are distancing themselves from what we know of the President's plan. Some in the Republican majority are asking the President to submit a plan so that they know what it is they are working from. What we do know of the plan is something that is very unpalatable, slashing benefits by as much as 40 percent. The American people understand that. Taking $2 trillion out of the Social Security trust fund to pay for private accounts does not make Social Security stronger. The American people know that. So they are confronting their Members of Congress with questions about those two issues that we know are supposed to be in the President's plan that have been presented by the White House thus far.

But it would be interesting to see the President's plan in its totality. The President has told us not to do anything until we see his plan, hold your fire until you see our plan. Well, again, what we have seen of the plan has created a response. I think it is very clever of our very distinguished Speaker to say to Mr. Frist, "After you."

As Sam Rosenfeld writes, “'Very distinguished' was a nice touch."