Everybody knows by now that the House passed health care yesterday. I spent the evening, beginning at around 8 PM, speaking with a number of Reps from both sides of the aisle. Pay special attention to the last two videos because that's where you are going to find what the media, once again, studiously ignored. I guess it's just no fun reporting on well-mannered crowd of people thanking Congress for doing what they were sent to Washington to do...
Tea-baggers, on the other hand... well, they spit and say mean things, so let's put them on TV! </snark>
Anyway, over the flip for my report from last night. There are some really good progs down there; each one of them are scarred (some more than others) from the 14 month war they just fought.
(Videos of Jerry Nadler, Donna Edwards, John Garamendi (unsung progressive hero that won Ellen Tauscher's old seat), Tom Perriello, Kathy Castor and, perhaps, you??? underneath)
First, the losers. I didn't do much with Republicans. It just wasn't their day.
But...
I had heard a rumor that since the world was coming to an end if health care passed, Republicans were going to try to avoid all the drama by holding a mass-suicide event immediately after the vote. I asked Jason Chaffetz about that.
A while later, I was standing near the tunnel that leads from Cannon to the Capitol when Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, a very liberal Democrat and (former?) pastor, walked by. He ran into Rep. Hensarling, a conservative's conservative. I witnessed them speak for about 3-4 minutes and wondered if they were talking about the spitting incident (Cleaver had been spat upon by a tea-partier the day before). I decided to ask about it:
And here are last night's victors, Democrats that voted for the bill, in the order I interviewed them:
Jerry Nadler, a leader amongst progressives:
Donna Edwards (a rising star in the progressive caucus):
Kathy Castor, from Tampa Bay, Fl:
John Garamendi, former insurance commissioner, energy expert and strong progressive from California. When I was stringing for FDL, Garamendi made a point to stop and thank me for the work FDL was doing to whip on health care.
Tom Perriello: widely percieved to be one of the most threatened Democrats in the country; his distinction is his strong claim to "conviction politics". A few months ago he told his supporters and opponents alike that he didn't run for office to be re-elected. Instead, he's there to make a difference by doing the right thing. His district is one of the "reddest" House seats held by a Democrat, but don't tell him that!
BTW, that's a cheering crowd you hear in the background - they weren't protesters!
Immediately after I spoke with Congressman Perriello, we walked back to the House office buildings. Earlier, the Congressman told me that he had taken a lot of heat from protesters and it wasn't much fun. So when I heard a crowd chanting, I assumed it was more protesters and tried to walk the Congressman to the other side of the street. But then I heard what they were saying: "Yes we did! Yes we did!" Hundreds of people were cheering the passage of health care! We ended up crossing the street again and walking through the folks whose support was so crucial throughout the process. For once, Congressman Perriello (and other Democrats, including Alan Grayson!) got to hear a lot of "Thank You"s and "You Rock"s: