Politics 2000

The Senate will begin debate on its pending health-care reform legislation Nov. 30 on a 60-39 party-line vote Saturday. Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich didn’t vote. Otherwise, every Republican voted against starting debate and every Democrat and independent supported opening debate after a week-long Thanksgiving recess.

The 8 p.m. vote ended a rare Saturday session that featured more than 10 hours of discussion that alternated between parties each hour. The impassioned speeches clearly didn’t sway anyone to flip his or her vote.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) warned the only way to fundamentally change the 2,074-page bill introduced Wednesday night would be to vote against opening debate. There will be the opportunity to offer amendments. However, McConnell is right.

Think about it. Both sides acknowledge that 60 votes will be needed to pass an amendment since that number is necessary to end debate. There’s no way a Republican-sponsored amendment will attract 20 Democrats (counting independents Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders, who voted with them Saturday). Possibly 11 to make 51 if moderates like Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas) or Jon Tester (North Dakota) want political cover. Never 20 though.

Meanwhile, several Democrats, such as Nebraska’s Ben Nelson, maintained they weren’t voting to approve the bill as currently constructed. They just want to allow debate and the chance to offer amendments. The GOP is trying to tie the procedural vote to defacto approval of the bill itself.

In any event, there isn’t much chance of an amendment Barbara Boxer of California might want, for example, drawing the favor of Montana’s Max Baucus. The Democrats may be united against the Republicans and for the idea of passing some sort of health care bill but the party is divided on the details, especially concerning the cost.

Oprah Winfrey will announce Friday that she’ll quit her syndicated talk show after her current contract expires in 2011, according to published reports. Winfrey has been the number-one American talk-show host for two decades.

Winfrey has 22 months left on her contract with her syndicator, King-World. She has a deal with Discovery Networks to rebrand one of the Discovery cable channels into OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

No one is sure whether Winfrey will resume her show on OWN in fall 2011. Rumors abound that Discovery officials told her to either commit to launching the delayed network or risk the deal being lost.

Having the Oprah Show on OWN would certainly draw attention to the fledgling channel. However, ratings have declined over the past several years. The drop has been more precipitous in the wake of Winfrey’s endorsement of and campaigning for President Barack Obama.

Winfrey has drawn as many as 40 million viewers a week. The bulk of her audience is female and many of her fans enjoy buying the products she endorses. Her lucrative contracts with stations was likely to suffer upon the next round of negotiations.

Beside the ratings slip–even though she’s still atop daytime talk–local stations are struggling during the recession. Advertising dollars are more scarce.

Therefore, the standard rich deals that included 100 percent cash upfront weren’t expected to come this time. Station general managers were expected to offer barter deals: less (perhaps no, in some cases) cash in advance and giving Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Productions, the chance to sell some of the advertising minutes and keep the proceeds.

Winfrey would be able to reap more rewards potentially by moving the show to OWN. However, she stands to lose her position as the nation’s preeminent talker if she’s on a digital cable channel many viewers don’t have.

Attorney General Eric Holder said last week five Guantanamo Bay detainees will be tried in a New York criminal court. Plenty of onlookers are outraged at the decision, partly because the trial will be conducted a short distance from the site of the former World Trade Center.

Instead, opponents argue, military tribunals held at the Cuban base are more appropriate. President Obama has faced obstacles in keeping his promise of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

There is no political support for bringing the alleged criminals to American prisons. Deporting them to their home countries isn’t popular around the world. Funny that no nation wants to import more suspected terrorists. Even if a country would agree to take every one at the base, keeping track of them would be impossible so they’d be able to do more of what they are accused of doing in the first place.

Assuming, of course, they are guilty. The U.S. justice system is based on the concept of “innocent until proven guilty.” I hate the idea that random innocent people are arrested and thrown into jail. That’s what happens though every time someone is arrested, under the law. Doesn’t sound very different from Nazi Germany.

It’s understandable that no one would want to be assumed guilty before having the chance to defend himself in an open and fair trial. Well, as fair and open as the defendant’s wallet allows. More money typically buys better lawyers who can supply more fairness and openness.

To that end, the Canadian Supreme Court heard arguments last week over the case of a Canadian citizen who wants to be extradited to Canada. Omar Khadr wants to leave Guantanamo Bay and face a trial in Canada, if necessary. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to intervene while the U.S. legal proceedings against Khadr continue.

A lower court ruled that Harper’s government must attempt to repatriate Khadr. The Supreme Court heard the government’s appeal of that ruling last week.