1. How can Obama/Senate commit to push reconciliation if the House passes the Senate Bill? Jonathan Chait gets reputation/repeated games:
Why would Obama and the Senate nakedly double cross the House? It would mean never being able to pass a piece of legislation again. The reputations of the double-crossers would be destroyed, both inside Washington and, to a lesser extent, nationally. No remotely rational politician, no matter how evil, would do something like that.
2. Q: Does frequent use of Purell reduce flu? A: Get a flu shot.
3. Tiger’s got wood.
Cheap Talk 
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March 5, 2010 at 1:25 am
Mukei
Re: #1. Based on this excerpt, I’d say that he has misunderstood the structure of the game. The Senate’s behavior is essentially controlled by the Republican minority who want the Democrats to fail completely, and are untroubled by any effect on their reputation since they look forward to a time when they again control both houses of Congress and are free to do as they did before: rule autocratically, completely shutting out the Democrats from participation in the legislative process.
They expect to ensure the game won’t repeat.
March 5, 2010 at 8:46 am
When promises are credible signals « Signal/Noise
[…] (Hat tip Cheap Talk) […]
March 5, 2010 at 10:48 am
Divya
Loved the “A Gaggle of Links”.
Sandeep, please please post your twitter link, at least you will be a lot more interesting to follow than Jeff 🙂
March 5, 2010 at 11:42 am
jeff
divya, you can go back to pretending. i don’t mind.