FLASHBACK: Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Worry About the Left

[DrToast]

Remember this from last month?

Turn off MSNBC. Tune out Howard Dean and Keith Olbermann. The White House has its liberal wing in hand on health care, says White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

“There are no liberals left to get” in the Senate, Emanuel said in an interview, shrugging off some noise from the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) that a few liberals might bolt over the compromises made with conservative Democrats.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/12/18/rahm-emanuel-dont-worry-about-the-left/

So who had it right? Rahm? Or this guy:

“I don’t think the White House recognizes how much trouble they’re in,” said one former Democratic official this morning. “I think they’re miscalaculating what’s happening with progressives and the left. They feel like they’re being taken for granted.”

I'll add that I'm in no way rooting for Coakley to lose in MA, but I'm not the least bit surprised she's having trouble. And I think it's directly related to the White House pissing on its base.

[Lasher]

1. There might not have been many liberals left to get.

But there were lots of them left to lose.

[daa]

25. Toooo funny the truth hurts

The next bunch to be surprised is the repugs. People hate Congress and lobbyists and corruption, not just dems. That made my day.

[cyclezealot]

2. Liberals make up the vast majority of House Dem caucus..

We are just too submissive to bullying. To note. It was Howard Dean that brought back the Democratic majority in the COngress as chair of the DNC.. And where was Rahm in 1994 when the Democrats lost control of the COngress.
BIll Clinton's chief of staff.

[tsuki]

15. No, Rahm did that, just ask him. He's a smart Chicago politician. nt

[thunder rising]

3. Totally agree! Rahm can kiss my @$#. I want him to apologize to the left.

Rahm is such a genius.

[Enthusiast]

4. Rahm Emanuel is the

kind of DINO that is ruining our party and the country.

[Raine]

5. Yeah well he can think about whether or not

their votes were needed when they don't get them.

[lbrtbell]

6. Memo to Rahm:

FUCK OFF. I watch Keith and Rachel, because they tell the truth about DINO's like you.

Pardon my French, but it had to be said.

[invictus]

7. K&R

[old mark]

8. Coakley seemed to think she would automatically win because she

is a female Democrat. Emanuel thinks everyone will support Dems no matter what.

I hope both of them are having serious second thoughts now, and I hope they both have enough sense to at least try to win some of the left back.
I'd really hate to see republicans win anything, ever.

mark

[dkf]

10. Both Coakley and Obama/Rahm think they are the lefts too big to fail

They can act with impunity because we have to bail them out.

[dkf]

9. I'm still wondering if union members aren't feeling the love for this administration

It's hard to be enthused about someone that made light of and decides to crush your hard gained health benefits.

Then after a compromise recognizing how unfair the bill would have been they expect unions to turn on a dime and go all out to save Obama's ass?

Obama hasn't done diddly for the unions. I don't blame them if the can't quite get the energy up to save coakley.

[JamesA1102]

11. Actually Rahm was talking about votes in Congress

Not about in the general electorate. This is just a total twisting and mischaracterization of what the man said. That's just not right. Let's not pull the same BS that FAUX News does, we should be better than that.

[DrToast]

12. No, it's not twisting what he said

Because the meaning is the same. If he's alienating liberals in Congress, you don't think he's alienating liberal voters? Also, Rahm has along and documented history of disparaging liberal democrats. Are you going to pretend that history doesn't exist?

[Clio the Leo]

14. How does "there are no liberals left to get"....

.... mean "we dont need the liberals" or "Screw the liberals" ..... sounds to me that he was saying they have the liberal vote on lock.

Are you reading what RAHM said or the reporter?


And if the WH really didn't care about not getting liberal votes in the Senate (as the article is suggesting, then why did all of the liberals vote for the bill? could it be because this article was wrong?)

this OP is puzzling.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. Don't you grasp that those votes in Congress represent

the general electorate? My Rep's vote IS my vote, the only one I get. His vote is not his, it is ours, that of the district he represents. Those Congress members would not even have a vote if their constituents had not entrusted them with the right to cast their common vote.
Rahm said exactly what he said, and when you speak of he or she who represents me, you are speaking of and to me. I guess you have never had representatives on a more personal scale. They are acting upon granted agency, not acting from a right or entitlement of their own. You have it all backwards.

[JamesA1102]

19. I think Clio the Leo above got it right.

And looking at the origin of the quote, it's from the Wall Street Journal owned by Rupert Murdoch.

So RM takes an innocent quote about counting votes in Congress and twists it to make it sound like Rahm was insulting liberals and everyone falls for it. Nice divide and conquer technique.

[WeDidIt]

21. More specifically, liberals in the Senate

Even more specifically, on what was the final bill in the Senate.

And looking back at that vote, Emmanuel was 100% correct.

But idiots will still take it out of context and use Rahm as their bogeyman, mostly because they're idiots.

[JamesA1102]

27. I still find it interesting that the source for the quote

and the spin on it came from the Wall Street Journal and no one questioned it. And I thought only FAUX News viewers were that gullible.

[Clio the Leo]

13. She's losing independents....

Seventy-eight percent of registered Democrats preferred Coakley, while 91 percent of registered Republicans and 65 percent of independents favored Brown.

61 percent believe the federal government cannot afford the proposed national health care plan

http://www.suffolk.edu/39994.html

[Hello_Kitty]

28. 78% of Dems supporting you sucks.

And you assume, I guess, that all independents lean to the right.

[ProgressOnTheMove]

17. The problem is how the WH are and Coakley is as state AG are 2 different ...

things. From reading her profile she is exactly what we need in DC right now and staying at home is only spite towards ourselves in the long term. This will hurt the people far, far more than it will Pres. Obama. The way you bring the WH towards us is have a Congress that is closer to our ideals or logically the WH will be conservative as that's all that can get passed. This to me is just repeating history and I don't get it Bill Clinton would of been way more progressive if we had given him the progressive Congress to allow him to do so. It just seems like here we go again and in 8 years time the next Bushy won't go easy on us at all.

[BklnDem75]

18. Isn't this the actual article?

In an interview Friday, Mr. Emanuel expressed little concern for the president's standing with the Democratic base. Mr. Emanuel said the liberal wing of the party is already coming back to the fold.

For instance, liberals such as Mr. Weiner now say they will work to make the bill more like the House version in House-Senate negotiations, rather than implore the Senate to kill the bill.

Mr. Emanuel argued that this generation of liberal political figures won't repeat their predecessors' mistakes in not reaching deals on health care. The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said his greatest regret was not cutting a deal with Richard Nixon on universal health care. Former President Bill Clinton has lamented that he didn't take up moderate Republican Sen. John Chafee on a compromise that could have secured a health-care bill early in his presidency, Mr. Emanuel said.

"Every time they've gotten close to the deal, they've passed up the opportunity and chosen to walk away from a particular chance where they've lost the forest for the trees," Mr. Emanuel said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126135972428799563.html?mod=WSJ_topics_obama


Please point out where Rahm makes that quote. Why isn't it in the actual article written by same author? Perhaps Mr. Weisman knew he'd have his ass handed to him if he added that bs quote in a real article. WSJ owned by News Corp. Nuff said.

[WeDidIt]

20. Context

Emmanuel was talking about Liberals in the Senate regarding the Senate bill specifically.

Idiots extend that to all liberals every where.

[MadBadger]

22. Looks like Rahm had it right.

The statement was about the Senate, and Liberal Democrats are backing the bill. Even if they have to hold their nose to do so.

[IndianaGreen]

23. Has Coakley come out for the Public Option and against the Senate's HCR?

That would be the best thing to counteract Brown!

[Armstead]

24. Part of her problem is that Massachusetts has experience with "reform"

Massachusetts is a mixed bag in terms of healthcare reform.

Romneycare which was imposed a few years ago is similar to what Team Rhambama are trying to impose on the whole country.

Healthcare reform here was done in a halfassed manner. Mandates pissed a lot of people off. Everyone -- including many supporters of Romneycare -- admit that the state only did half the job, and that costs are still way too high.

But Massachusetts also has something the US doesn't. We've always been a fairly progressive state in terms of healthcare access. Nogt great, but compared to other states and national policy, we were ahead of the pack before Romneycare. We have a version of a "public option" plan which provides coverage at a mower cost to those who qualify.

Part of what I think is happening in Massachusetts is that we see the snake oil of the kind of HCR that team Rhambama and the DLC Congress want. And we know it is stupid.

So, for moderates and independents, the notion of voting for Coakley to "save" health care is a dog that doesn't hunt. Instead, those swing voters in the state are more inclined to send a message by voting against the Democrat. And the "liberal base" is not fired up to go to the effort of supporting "the party."

It will be a stupid mistake if that combination of populist anger and liberal Democratic apathy results in placing a teabag Republican into Teddy's seat. But it will be understandable, and underscores how the national Democratic Party is screwing the pooch by serving up the same old DLC tripe.

[IndianaGreen]

26. Those are great observations on your part

Since the Senate's HCR is nearly a carbon copy of Romney Care, it naturally follows that the electorate won't be moved by calls to "save HCR."

The DLC is digging the grave for the Democratic Party, and people are still cheering the DLC. Frakking amazing stupidity!

[Vidar]

29. K&R.