A short and not so sweet diary to start of your day, and motivate you for the actions requested for the day in our Health Care action diaries.
The are many liberals who are looking for a reason to cave in. We can not let them.
House Dem: Sorry, We Liberals Won’t Be Unifying Behind Public Option After All
If you want to understand why House progressives don’t get anywhere near the love and attention that Blue Dog Dems do, and why Dem leaders expect liberals to cave again and again, look no further than this quote buried in the Roll Call piece:
"We’re the caucus that least marches to a unified drummer — that’s not what we do," Rep. Mike Capuano said. "I’m serious about increasing access and quality, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a grand slam home run. I’ll take a ground-rule double if that’s what it takes. I’m happy to compromise if that’s what it takes. But compromise is compromise — it’s not rolling over."
This joker, Rep. Capuano, should listen to this diarist...
Let me be clear: I am not arguing that the Democrats should trim their sails and be more "centrist." In fact, I think the whole "centrist" versus "liberal" labels that continue to characterize the debate within the Democratic Party misses the mark. Too often, the "centrist" label seems to mean compromise for compromise sake, whereas on issues like health care, energy, education and tackling poverty, I don't think Democrats have been bold enough. But I do think that being bold involves more than just putting more money into existing programs and will instead require us to admit that some existing programs and policies don't work very well. And further, it will require us to innovate and experiment with whatever ideas hold promise...
Oh, I forgot to mention the diarist, then Senator Barack Obama.
Here is Greg Sargent's analysis of the situation:
What’s odd is that this quote from Rep. Capuano — and other House progressives in the piece — actually undermines the claim by House liberal leaders last week that the progressive bloc won’t budge on the public option. Why would rank-and-file House liberals concede on this point in advance of any negotiations?
Seems like that all but guarantees that the Blue Dogs will have lots more influence than House liberals do. Interesting negotiating approach.
Enough!!! I am sure slinkerwink and nyceve will be posting their daily diaries soon. It is critical that these diaries be recommended and everyone do their part to take action today. The time is now.
Let me repeat my mantra from my last few diaries.
On Wednesday night, we will find out whether we will be fighting with or against the President in the next critical weeks as health care reform legislation is finalized.
And make no mistake recalcitrant CPC members, President Obama, and villagers, we will be fighting, just as the President asked us to during the campaign.
Update [2009-9-8 11:8:39 by justmy2]: Important recommendation from Cassiodorus below.
CALL Capuano. (202) 225-5111. NOW! TELL HIS OFFICE you will not support ANY capitulation on a trigger!
Just.Do.It.
This is going to be hard work folks. We can do it, but we have to remain focused. Keep Fighting.