Marion Berry takes a swipe at Obama on his way out the door:

Berry recounted meetings with White House officials, reminiscent of some during the Clinton days, where he and others urged them not to force Blue Dogs “off into that swamp” of supporting bills that would be unpopular with voters back home.

“I’ve been doing that with this White House, and they just don’t seem to give it any credibility at all,” Berry said. “They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’ We’re going to see how much difference that makes now.”

What a crock.

According to the Center for Public Integrity:

So far this year, the Blue Dog Political Action Committee is on track to shatter all its fundraising records; in fact, the total for the first six months of 2009 — more than $1.1 million — is greater than what was raised in the entire 2003-04 fundraising cycle. Furthermore, according to analysis by the Center for Public Integrity of CQ MoneyLine data, the energy, financial services, and health care industries have accounted for nearly 54 percent of the Blue Dog PAC’s 2009 receipts (up from 45 percent in 2004).

Opensecrets ranked the 52 members of the Blue Dog caucus in order of money they had taken from the health sector since 1989. Berry came in 10th at $571,664.

Marion Berry is the Vice Chair of the Blue Dog health care task force. The Blue Dogs were responsible for jamming every single shitty piece of lobbyist-written legislation into the health care bill. They decided early on to try to make the House bill more like the Senate bill, because they said that would be more popular. Take a look at the polling — it isn’t by a long shot. In swing districts like Berry’s.

If Berry wants to blame anyone, he should look to his Blue Dog bretheren who have been soaking up the lobbyist cash — and delivering.

Did Obama put a gun to his head and make them take it or something?