Posted on 12/21/2009 11:09:22 AM PST by goldstategop
Kathryn, re your Facebook friend who asks, "Can we officially retire the phrases 'blue dog' democrats and 'pro life' democrats? Because there is no such thing:"
As I wrote back in the summer, "Put not your trust in Blue Dog Democrats." It was folly to bet the Republic on the likes of Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln and other "moderates" who are, by definition, trimmers and accommodationists.
By contrast, Barney Frank and the more ambitious Dems are thinking long-term. And, if it's a choice between getting government health care or keeping Ben Nelson, it's no contest. Not to keep quoting myself ad nauseam, but as I said to Hugh Hewitt a couple of months back:
I think the administration is willing to take the hit. In other words, to get health care, they would be willing to reduce their majority, and perhaps even lose their majority in the House and the Senate, because they know it’s a game changer. Now to sell that to individual Senators and Congressmen, you’ve got to have something up your sleeve for them... There are strange elements in play here. But they’ve factored into the whole business a potential, I think, a potential significant loss in the year 2010, in next year’s elections.
I've been saying for a year now, in NR and NRO, that the object for savvy Dems is to get this thing passed in whatever form because, once you do, there's no going back. Kim Strassel in yesterday's Journal gets it:
So why the stubborn insistence on passing health reform? Think big. The liberal wing of the party — the Barney Franks, the David Obeys — are focused beyond November 2010, to the long-term political prize. They want a health-care program that inevitably leads to a value-added tax and a permanent welfare state. Big government then becomes fact, and another Ronald Reagan becomes impossible. See Continental Europe.
Just so. And that's worth whatever hit they have to take in 2010. Every time I make the point, someone says, oh, Jim Webb this or Byron Dorgan that, or have you see Harry Reid's numbers in Nevada? Oh, please. We've just seen what happens when you make Ben Nelson your Maginot Line. The Dems are thinking strategically; the Republicans are all tactics
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
I sincerely hope that EVERY “blue dog” in the house is replaced in 2010. I never liked that expression anyway. I equate “blue dogs” with “RINO’s”,
blue dogs are frauds. POS Jim Webb is the biggest one.
Republicans are such losers. Permanent losers.
Steyn ping.
Yes, but the point of the article is that after passing health care and other socialist programs, it no longer matters.
“POS Jim Webb is the biggest one”.
You got that exactly right! Warner is going right along with him. God help us!
Steyn gets it.
Agreed. Steyn’s last line says it all. These Repubs are minor leaguers. The Dems have a goal and are all about attaining it.
The Repubs are clueless and have been for a decade. Otherwise, they’d have spent the 12 years they had with a congressional majority passing laws to shore up liberty, not undermine it by porking up their districts with government entitlements.
Their only other ‘accomplishment’ was an entitlement program for seniors, which was just another tactic. Nothing strategic about it.
“it no longer matters”
I agree that the “blue dog” term no longer applies.
The Dems are thinking strategically; the Republicans are all tactics
And piss poor tactics at that.
It was plain that in order to get this instituted the
dem/coms were willing to spend time in the political
wilderness only because their shining goal was that
much closer to reality.
As they told us time and again, they’ve been trying
to get this in place since FDR or before and we know
that the Soc/coms were infiltrating our government
even then and to an extent hardly realized even today.
Once you hit the tree, as much as you might want to
play it over, there’s no ignoring your bloody nose,
and the tree is still there.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
Getting $6,300.00 a month 'office allowances' paid to them AFTER THEY LEAVE OFFICE a la Hastert, that's where.
Its all water under the bridge now.
Yea, but there's a tsunami headed for that bridge.
They also know there are enough acorns that any loss will only be temporary.
You said it all. The Republicans had 12 years to reduce the size of government. Name one significant program they cut? This tells me that they never intended to cut anything.
Funny how I was just thinking about the George Wallace quote. “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these two parties”.
There isn’t any difference between the two parties. They all work for the bankers. The larger the government grows, they more bonds they have to sell, the more money they make. The only way to reduce the size of government is to get rid of the Federal Reserve. It is no coincidence that the income tax and Federal Reserve act were signed into law the same year. You could not have a large federal government without a Federal Reserve.
“There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these two parties”.
And a dime doesn’t buy what it used to!
It’s simply time to change the rules. This concession to assured 2010 losses and promises for slush fund payments coupled with Pelosi’s ‘go to jail’ clause is their preemptive blow-back tactics. People are continually asking, ‘what can we do?’ and within the ‘laws’ the leftists are enacting, they know more than most the answer is ‘not much.’ But they can’t stop a tax revolt, they can’t stop us from simply saying NO, and they can’t stop what is bound to happen.. the creation of a completely ‘black market’ society. The Signers of our Declaration of Independence became enemies of the King. They knew by signing on the hounding would start but principle and their courage prevailed. This is what the communists can not account for. How this takes shape is dependent on freedom loving G-d fearing American innovation and that is the most powerful force in the world.
www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20091218.html
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