Rep. Allen Boyd (D-FL) represents the panhandle of Florida, which is one of the most conservative places in the country. I don’t expect him to vote like a Democrat from New York City. But I also don’t think he’s a good example of what most Blue Dog Democrats are facing with the health care bill. A lot of the Blue Dogs come from districts that Obama carried, some of them easily. For Democrats that come from districts where McCain dominated, I understand that their constituents have a certain lack of trust of the new administration. For those Democrats, their job is to explain how health care can help them and put the screws to the health insurance industry that is ripping them off and giving them a shitty product. Democrats from really heavily conservative districts should be using more populism, not less. But the Blue Dogs are actually do the worst of both worlds. They’re soft-selling reform while promising to protect the health insurance industry. Of course that is not going to sell well.
Outside of the few districts where the health insurance industry provides a lot of employment, there are no districts where slamming the health insurance industry is bad politics. Sell the bill. Don’t apologize for helping people out.
I think it was Bill Press that said on his show the other day that he would rather see “real republicans” in the seats currently held by many of the so-called “Blue Dogs.” In principle, I am inclined to agree, particularly if they turn out to be the primary reason for the defeat of real health care reform…
That said, I would really like some of the “fiscal conservatives” (or the Obama Admin, for that matter), many of whom happily voted for Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, to explain to me how a health care bill without some sort of public option is going to cut costs. Maybe somebody can help me out here…
The CEO’s promised Obama they would cut costs at their Cheney-like summit.
What a complete load of shit — basically the kind of thing I would expect from republicans…
Of course, I’ve been saying for some time that he’s a Republican.
Sounds like good advice to me, BooMan.
but that is the problem .. no one seems willing to call the Blue Dogs out on their Corporate Whoreishness
I just love this. Liberals have no interest in the corporate world??!!! It’s only the Republicans and those evil, nasty Blue Dogs that only sell out to corporate interests?? Highly unlikely!!!
I also think it’s quite funny when people bash and trash the very constituency you need to get reelected in the next election cycle. Believe me, the moderates and conservative Democrats you are ripping to shreds over health care is going to backfire come 2010 and 2012.
Many liberals work in the corporate world. But we object to the rules that govern the corporate world because they are rigged against ordinary people who get killed in the stock market, get killed with dangerous products, get killed on wages, get killed in medical costs, and get killed with bailouts when things go south.
Believe it or not, many liberals also believe in free markets. We also believe in fair markets that aren’t rigged for the benefit of a few cunning and deceitful people, with some actual enforceable rules in place to prevent cheating for personal gain. If they think the health insurance status quo is just fine, then the republican party needs to grow some stones and just say so; otherwise, I’m still waiting to hear some solutions from republicans (other than the usual bullshit tax cuts/credits).
All things being equal, if you have to choose between the interests of your constituents and the interests of a corporation, who do you choose? Safe drinking water or larger profits? Safe working conditions or larger profits? Access to health care or larger profits?
When the constituents consistently come out on the business end of the equation then I would say that that’s a problem, a problem that is often exemplified by the GOP and the Blue Dogs.
I feel like this entire thing is a waste of time.
Dumb…Blue Dogs? You do love your redundancies, don’t you?
PS. Thank you for spelling strategy right. Hopefully this marks the end of its too-cute-for-words alternative.
l guess we can now, officially, count steny hoyer among the blue dogs:
way to go, asshole. undermine the speaker and the progressive caucus in one fell swoop.