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Bart Stupak (D-Gilead)
Which is crazy, because if Rahm really cares about a “w” you have to wonder why the White House wasn’t whipping for the bill regardless of what it said just to get something through. Because Tuesday actually turned out better for the Democrats than anyone predicted, and now the unemployment figures have everyone panicked.
The 20 or so House Democrats who won’t vote for any health care bill at all now probably looks more like 25 (or more). Even those in Virginia with strong Democratic majorities who saw Deeds get wiped out in their district are running scared. Which has the effect of lowing the bar for empowering any group within the caucus that can rally enough members to get to 39 and stop the bill from passing, like Bart Stupak and the anti-abortion Dems.
So this was a very good sign:
Organized labor, still battling to stop plans to pay for health care through taxing expensive plans — but unwilling to flatly oppose reform — will consider a plan to reduce its contributions to Democrats who don’t side with them on the issue, a labor source said.
The federation’s executive council will meet Monday in Washington to consider, among other things, “how to hold politicians more accountable to the workers that helped elect them,” the source said, outlining a threat aimed primarily at the Blue Dog Democrats considering voting against a health reform package.
“One of the options is cutting off contributions to politicians who aren’t supporting the issues that workers care about,” he said.
The suggestion is based on a Sheet Metal Workers’ decision to stop giving money to politicians in favor of dedicating it to the issue campaign for health care legislation.
Why would the Blue Dogs care? Well, glad you asked:
As individuals, the 52 Blue Dogs have received the plurality of their 2009 campaign contributions from a traditional Democratic ally: organized labor. Labor political action committees have filled the Blue Dog Coalition members’ campaign committee coffers with more than a million dollars so far this cycle.That ought to get some attention. And if the White House wants to whip votes for the House bill (rather than empower Blue Dogs to align it more closely with the Senate Finance Committee bill), you can bet that other unions will soon follow suit.
Organized labor has given Bart Stupak 33% of his total lifetime campaign contributions. Something to think about.
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About FDL Action
“They cleared one hurdle Friday when liberals supporting a government-run Medicare-for-all system withdrew their demand for a floor vote.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/house-health-bill-obama-m_n_348208.html&cp
Now if that and the tabling of the Kucinich Amendment and the Eshoo amendment still being in the bill doesn’t tell everyone how fucked up this legislation is, I don’t know what to think.
Call your Representative and tell them to vote NO until it’s changed to allow for a floor vote on single payer and Kuchinch’s amendment is restored and Eshoo’s removed.
Now I wonder if the AFL-CIO suckered me, when they provided a toll free number to call my local U.S. House Representative, urging support for H.R.3962.
Quote: Call your representative toll free today in Washington in support of H.R. 3962, the House bill: 1-877-235-2465
Their talking points included Demanding a strong public health insurance option. and NOT taxing our health care plans.
I was smart enough to change that last item to No regressive taxation, but I did urge passage of H.R.3962.
Jack ( @I_Voter )
If you are interested in the subject – SEE:
Citizens Political Power in the U.S. http://bit.ly/ftukH
not healthcare. health insurance reform.
very nice, I hope their contribution is more then the insurance industry though, if it’s not they will probably go where the money is
I’m starting to wonder: is the definition of a Blue Dog a dem from a conservative district who relies on corporate handouts for campaign financing?
So where are we with this. I’ve been urged by several groups to call my BlueDog today to urge him to support health care reform. But I haven’t called yet, because I’m not sure I like the bill as it stands.
On the other hand, I’m sure he doesn’t like it for all the wrong reasons, and I hate to encourage him.
What to do….
Lobbyists bad, unless they’re good.
I’ve made that point many times, but some folks don’t like to admit it.
What’s a w?
Jane,
Are you aware of this story:
Axing CHIP: Big Pwogs’ Conspiracy of Silence
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/13406#Respond
Rockefeller: House Repeal of CHIP ‘Intolerable’
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/13089
House Health Bill Kills Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/12913
Not to crash your report, but I’m getting frustrated by what seems to be a conspiracy of either silence or ignorance on the big blogs.
Labor Unions represent people, not corporations. Resources are pooled for maximum impact. Totally unlike, say, the Tobacco lobby that takes corporate money and throws it at electeds for the sole purpose of boosting corporate profit (at everyone else’s expense).
Huh, I hope they block the bill from passing too. It’s a big, smelly, pile of SHIT IMO.
a win (any bill they can point to and say they did something)
Organized labor’s money will only count if it amounts to more money than the money from Big Insurance and Big Pharma. My Blue Dog senator Evan Bayh’s wife got a cool 2 million just for sittting on the boards of various medical entities just for looking pretty. That’s a good chunk of change and certainly enhances the Bayh family assets. My Congressman, Mark Sauder, is just a damn lost cause.
yes, yes. Labor will send out mailers, encourage members to join campaigns, hold rallies, and outside of contributions, their greatest asset is thousands of boots on the ground for your campaign and gotv efforts – recall in 08, 52,000 members knocking on doors for BO in MI, OH, PA, IN alone
” So where are we at with this”; as you can see from my post, I’m aganst passing flawed legislation just so Obama and Rahm can claim a ‘w’(win).
And BTW, Jane is also against this bill as it is written.
Also see my comment here
Bart Stupak (D-Gilead)
LOL: this Gilead?
OFG — I’m with you. When I order a Porterhouse Steak and the waiter person brings me a small bowl of cocktail weenies instead, I tell that server to take it back to the chef and tell him where to put it.
Speaking of the healthcare bill(s), here’s a blurb that just washed over the transom from my illustrious hack congressidiot, Ken Calvert.
“There are a number of reasons why I oppose the bill: the over one trillion dollar price tag, tax increases, a public option that will crowd out private insurance, no verification to prevent enrollment of illegal immigrants, and the creation of massive government bureaucracies and mandates.
I wholeheartedly support improving our current system. However, in my opinion government-run health care is not the answer. We should not rush into what I believe are expensive and radical experiments when targeted, bipartisan solutions are possible.”
Can we target this asshole, please? He is a loathsome creature.
I must say that what Jane says would be good news if it weren’t for the fact that the fix is in. The progressive block’s resistance to a weak sauce HCR bill has nearly melted away. You can see it in their faces when they talk about the issues. Anthony Weiner, gone. “Won’t Blink First” Grijalva, gone. Many others too numerous to name now, gone. What is so disheartening about this is that the progressives will get re-elected without a Health Care bill. Only Obama and the Blue Dogs stand to loose. So how is it that the progressives are caving so early in the game? When you have an advantage you use it. That is, unless you have your head up your ass so far that you can’t see out. They really need to get a spine and learn from Republicans. When you get a concession, it means that you can get another. All you have to do is be ready to walk unless you get your way. I now have to blame the progressives for a less than adequate bill. If they vote for it they own it. Strangely enough, the progressives caving to a wimpy PO in name only will probably do the Blue Dogs in just as much as if a bill hadn’t been passed at all.
Yes, the loss by an apologetic non-Obama weasel Democrat in Virginia should certainly give other Democrats reason to reconsider their support of Obama’s agenda! What idiots. How do they even succeed in the lowest level of politics, let alone get elected to Congress thinking like that?
Hey, idjits: 2010 will be a BASE election. That means motivating your BASE to vote for the things you and the BASE commonly support: health care, the environment, womens rights, labor. Don’t go all GOP-lite, idjits; there are perfectly acceptable GOPs already for GOPs to vote for, so they won’t vote for you. And the Democratic BASE won’t come out for a GOP-lite. We’ll stay at home.
Will this lesson ever reach them throught the Conventional (Rahm) Wisdom they are exposed to in The Village every single day? High Broderism really sucks and is bad for America.
And sadly, the dems who will be hurt most by backlash when this watered-down piece of crap doesn’t deliver real reform are the very Blue Dogs and ConservaDems who forced it to suck in the first place.
If these a-holes hadn’t stood in the way of a good, solid bill, they would have been rewarded by happy voters – even in so-called “swing” districts.
The MSM is making this into a liberal vs. conservative issue, but once the legislation gets enacted, it’s not so much. Many conservatives will scream bloody murder if you try to take away their Medicare or VA benefits. And THOSE are the swing voters they need.
Mark Souter is getting a GOP challenge from the right, I read somewhere. Have you any Democrats to stand up in the unlikely event Souter’s defeated by a wingnut? A Democrat might sneak through!
I do not understand why Calvert is not in prison. His land deals alone would seem to qualify.
was pleasantly astonished when Rahm’s hand picked DCCC successor Van Hollen admonished Dems to run as Dems yesterday
You’ve certainly got my vote on that. I know the FBI has been nosing around his shady deals lately. He dismissed the reporting of it, of course. I cannot overstate my contempt for this guy, and I’m hoping he 1) loses his seat next year and 2) gets summarily hauled into the slam shortly thereafter. I’d be doing the happy dance…
Isn’t Dr. Hayhurst running against Souder again? He seems like a fairly strong candidate. I don’t think he’s a bleeding-heart liberal, but I suspect he won’t be quite as conservative as Joe Donnelly over in the 2nd district. And he’s already actively campaigning.
It is WAY past time for liberals to open up a great big ol’ can o’ whoop-ass on the Blue Dogs and the Repubs. Not because they aren’t exercising party loyalty, but because they aren’t exercising CONSTITUENT loyalty. The majority of Americans has consistently expressed support for a real public option.
If they can’t seem to bring themselves to support those who actually put them in office, then they need to be made to realize that they might not be invited back to the dance next year.
FYI
From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
more likley, this Gilead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Gilead
Given his obsession with the abortion issue…
The problem, Sufilizard, is that the Pelosi bill “will fail” in 2019, or whenever all of its provisions will eventually take effect.
It’s really sad that everyone is being asked to forget the original demand, a “robust public option.” All that lobbying for nothing.
As for Jane Hamsher, she once said this:
Jane, have you changed your mind?
Indeed. Bart Stupak IS Commander Fred. Which means that Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin is Serena Joy and we’re all Offred.
Gasman, maybe the progressives don’t want power.
And you know this how?
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
I have wondered about why the Democratic leadership , particularly in the House of Representatives, caved in to the the Blue Dogs for so long on health care when they had labor to muscle most iof the bastards. I figured that Rahm was holdin’ EFCA out for next year as leverage to keep labor from pressurin’ his toadies in the House but if the leadership had really wanted a bill sooner than Thankgiving, they could’ve had one (especially this weak one) by cuttin’ organized labor loose on ‘em in return for promise of an early engagement on EFCA.
What do you know about what has been goin’ on in the White House backrooms…was Rahm holdin’ labor hostage with EFCA while plannin’ ta pull it after healthcare got watered down…kinda a Lucy move with the football?
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THIS BATTLE IS GOIN’ ON UNTIL THEY’RE ALL OUT OF A JOB!
It’s past time for us to cut off Dems that vote like T-beggers and GOPpers.
We shouldn’t advertise for them either.
Actually, the basic problem has always been with us, and is encapsulated in these lines of William Butler Yeats:
The Dems are easily cowed into “playing nice” and, in the words of Saul Alinsky, are easily suckered by the Cons into living up to their own book of rules where etiquette is concerned. The Republicans, aided and abetted by a corporate media they either own or have cowed, get to do what they want.
speak for yourself.. some of us will be Offred’s husband, who was summarily executed before the events in the novel, if I recall. ;-P Olympia Snowe might be the new order’s Offred. The rest of us are probably just dead. Palin so needs a cameo in that universe.
Citizen Hychkla:
Now that Trumka (Ricard, I think) has the AFL-CIO, I think we can expect that a lotta Blue Doggies are gunna feel the pinch. But the current leadership coulda used labor earlier to whip the mangy curs.
It’s past time to quit worrying about Blue Dogs or conservadems.
Progressives should kill this god forsaken bill!
I would never stoop so low as to make fun of Bart Stupak’s name. But I feel really bad for him because he has such a stupid name.
Citizen RieszFischer:
I think he’s named appropriately.
Phoenix Woman, the Pelosi bill’s major provisions don’t take effect until 2013 — before then there will be the “band-aid period.” Nobody is going to judge this thing by the band-aid period.
This is not about etiquette, nor is it about playing nice. It’s about withdrawing a fundamental demand, the demand for a robust public option, and leaving the electorate hanging. The Republicans know why they will be voting in 2010 — they all believe in the same pack of lies. The Democrats?
O/T
MY GAWD! Even MSNBC! This woman on MSNBC is now asking about this Hasan considering himself a Muslim first and an American second. Do you know how many Christians I’ve heard say the EXACT SAME THING (Well, not exact, they’ve said they’re Christians first and Americans second). Where’s the questioning of THAT?????
Goddammed the media CAN BE SO FUCKING FRUSTRATING I WANNA THROW A SHOE THROUGH THE SCREEN !!!! AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
Citizen ES:
I’m afraid your are right…but only if they’d done it earlier in the process with the protective cover of organized labor. They could’ve cut Rahm’s nuts off early in the process and we coulda had a real bill.
David’s upstairs with a Dem who ate his wheaties this morning
win
makes sense, thx
I appreciate Trunka’s sentiments but I wonder how much weight he carries when it comes to campaign contributions.
A clown like Mary Landrieu relies on the Building & Construction Trades, or the maritime unions, to bulk up her campaign coffers. Trumka doesn’t control that money.
The problem is that this bill is like an elephant. You can’t sit down to eat and eat an entire elephant at one time. It should be sliced up and the most agreeable portions should be voted on early.