Make Them Put Their Names On It!

It never ceases to amaze me how Democrats can fuck up a wet dream. I mean you have an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate and yet you STILL can't get together to pass major legislation with out intraparty squabbles and political posturing. Now mind you we kind of expect this in the Senate where the rules are a little different, but this show of disloyalty by the Blue Dogs in the House over health care reform is, in my opinion, beyond the pale. You don't want to be seen as a sheep, ok fine I can deal with that. But to threaten to derail the bill because its basically not Republican enough straight up pisses me off.

Now here is the deal, House leadership has now decided to "delay" the roll out of their draft of the bill to stroke these people's egos. I have to say that I am totally opposed to his gesture of weakness by House leadership. The truth is what this will do is embolden the Blue Dogs to do this kind of thing over and over again at the eleventh hour when progressive legislation is about to be rolled out. It will basically end up being the House's version of a filibuster only this time initiated by our own Party. How sick is that?

So my suggestion is this, MAKE THEM VOTE AGAINST IT. Call their muthafuckin bluff! It sounds good on paper to say that you will vote against a health care reform bill but when the poll numbers show over 70% support for it do you REALLY think they will have the stones to vote against the bill? I sure as hell don't. Remember many of these folks come from districts where the only way they got in was strong support from Democrats. If they lose ANY of that support it won't matter how conservative or moderate they are, the Republicans will beat the shit out of them. So lets see who the hell has the stronger poker hand. Lets see if they are willing to throw their political careers away by voting against a strong public option. Lets see if they want to REALLY align with the party of no. Oh I imagine there might be 5 or even 10 who are that committed to being DINOs but thats about it.

Here is one time when Nancy Pelosi really should shove it right down their damn throat. This isn't EFCA, this isn't cap and trade. This is an issue that polls with higher support than any other thats on the table right now. Its time Democrats started acting like it!

Update: I wanted to post two videos to help make my point. One "Blue Dog", Loretta Sanchez, came out just this morning in opposition to the letter's stance against a public option in health care. In no uncertain terms she expressed her support for a public option and said it was essential for health care reform to reduce costs.



That just shows to me that they don't have a united front on this which is all the more reason to call their bluff.

The second video is of progressive Congressman Keith Ellison showing himself and his colleagues strongly supporting a public option.



More of this please!