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The left has been up in arms, wailing and gnashing their teeth about the betrayal of their interests by Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, who has been holding out his vote on health care reform because of his beliefs regarding abortion.
Never mind the Democratic leadership could have seen this coming from late spring last year and failed to prevent this impasse by summer, let alone before the House vote in late autumn. Never mind that national organizations including Planned Parenthood and NARAL let themselves be patted on the head and corralled in the veal pen without a peep of advocacy or in protest until the damage was done.
Nope, it’s all Stupak’s fault.
But the painful truth is that Stupak got something right, as The Hill reports today. Stupak is still pressing for an agreement which accommodates his and his bloc’s position; he knows exactly what he’s dealing with:
“So one of the offers is, ‘Why won’t you just drop this for now? We’re going to work on it later. This thing doesn’t kick in till 2018,” Stupak continued. “Well, jeez, after you tell us no to our face — ‘You’re never going to get anything’ — why would I suddenly think you’re going to give me something now? I’m a little slow, but I’m not that slow.”
He’s absolutely right; this is how every single progressive constituency should have responded months and months ago to this White House. We never should have assumed that we’d get jack from a White House with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as gatekeeper. We’ve been stomped on and marginalized on every single platform issue, from FISA to Guantanamo, to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and ENDA, EFCA and immigration reform, and now to the public option and women’s reproductive health. Everything we stand for has been compromised and tossed aside to cater to the right and to the corporations they serve.
We’ve gotten nothing but lip service since day one of this administration. The lesson hurts like hell considering the source, but one guy had it all figured it out. Maybe it’s time we learned something from him.
18 Comments
So, we should have followed The Stupak Manual? I can’t argue with you on that one, Rayne!
Hey, nothing succeeds like success. He knew exactly what kind of asshole(s) he was dealing with, who told him to take a number.
Well he got their number.
And we never clued in after so many denials and slaps in the face.
It’s about time we wised up. Our chances of passing anything must happen this year, because at this rate, this administration has lost the House this November; the Senate will continue to be on the fence and co-opted by well-trained Blue Dogs for the foreseeable future. Unless we ratchet down like Stupak, we’re going to continue to get the back of the hand when we ought to be applying a well-timed kick in the ass.
Unfortunately for us, in Stupak’s case, the politics and the money are aligned.
In ours, they are not.
We really need for those elites who think they can run amok all over everything and everyone to experience a serious “correction” of their own.
Glenn had a great post yesterday about why Rahm was right about progressives.
Has Rahm’s assumption about progressives been vindicated?
I’ve posted this a couple of times today at FDL, but I think he nailed it so I’m posting it again.
Of course there’s Jane take on this, too, from yesterday morning:
Yes, Rahm Is Totally Vindicated
Some of us were totally vindicated in believing Rahm was going to be a total asshole from the moment we heard he was made Chief of Staff. He fucked up so much as head of DCCC it’s a wonder anybody ever gave him the time of day. In hindsight, maybe the White House wasn’t looking for somebody effective as COS, but something else entirely different.
We got lip service? When?
Was “Fuckin Retarded” lip service?
I must have missed it.
Got a point there, CO, even the lip service we got was pretty bad.
Glenn’s article focused more on how the progressives always can be counted on to cave, and less on Rahm. And they did cave again. The last update on his post quoted Anthony Weiner.
So I guess the perception that we are toothless is more or less accurate. They ain’t gonna pay attention until we really do draw a line in the sand and stick to it.
The left caved? Nooo say it aint so. Rahm played the mouth pieces of the left like they were three dollar crack hoes. I do believe Jane is one of the few who held on to her principles. The progressive congress, the liberal media, were treated like crack hoes. They are running to sign a bill in which NONE of the things they wanted are going to be accomplished. Rahm is right, they are fckin retarded.
Back in 2007, Obama appeared before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and made some promises which, like most of his promises made to progressives, were evidently made on opposite day.
There’s also video of Obama on YouTube, which appears to be from the same event, but it includes Obama telling Planned Parenthood that under his health care plan private insurers will be required to provide reproductive care. The day after the speech, an Obama spokesman told Mike Dorning of the Chicago Tribune that “reproductive health services” included abortion coverage.
Oh, that Obama! He’s such a kidder.
I’ve heard a number of people on the left chuckling about how “cognitively challenged” Bart Stupak is, that he is actually not very bright.
Well, turns out he’s much brighter than 99% of progressives. He knows how to stick to his principles and get what he wants. It’s the majority of progressives that look stupid by comparison.
If by “we” you mean progressives, yes, I agree. In fact, many progressives clearly still don’t get it. I’ve lost track of how many justifications I’ve read just this week that go “we’ll fix it later”. No, it won’t be fixed later any more than it will be fixed right now. There’s no reason to believe it will be easier later, and plenty to believe it’s going to be even harder.
I got that without Stupak having to tell me. I think progressives need to get over being stupid.
I’m not very optimistic about that happening in my lifetime.
Great article. Link which appears in article even better: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/ny-times-reporter-confirm_b_500999.html
When this happens on Immigration reform (already announced as what’s next) I wonder how many blogs will tell us that we have to suck it up and take it again.
Maybe after Kos throws in hos towel and tells us all to suck it up again his pawns will realize they’re pawns.
Rahm is exactly what Oabma wanted and has done what Obama wanted. Why is anyone still making excuses for Obama? As if the man were that obtuse, that utterly witless. C’mon.
And who’s to say it won’t be fixed worse? Supposing this debacle passes, it can always be made worse. No end of ideas for that kind of fix.
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