The Blue Dogs asked for and (mostly) got what they asked for from the Democratic Leadership

[CreekDog]

-no public option
-a weaker health care bill
-strong limitations on choice in the health care bill
-no vote on tax cuts (because they didn't want to cut taxes for the non-rich at the expense of the rich)

this was all done to protect their electoral viability. and because the Blue Dogs were willing to use their numbers to kill outright any progress that they didn't like (and it seemed like they didn't like *any* health care reform at all.

perhaps we should ask the 23 of 46 Blue Dogs who have been successfully reelected how well that worked out for them.

and we should also ask if all the accomodation of their requests ended up weakening or watering down good policies to the extent that they were no longer very effective (stimulus, health care, financial reform, etc.)

i sure hope we don't take their word on what will be good for them (and us) in 2012.

[Name removed]

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[PassingFair]

2. Kicked and Recommended.

Here's what DFA had to say this morning:

"The fact is progressive heroes who lost last night like Russ Feingold and Alan Grayson became collateral damage in a toxic election environment created by weak leadership and corporate Democrats who refused to stand up and fight for real change. Progressives like Annie Kuster, Mary Jo Kilroy, and Tom Perriello ran some of the strongest grassroots campaigns in history, but were drowned out by unregulated corporate front groups that spent hundreds of millions to scare and lie to voters.

The biggest lesson from last night is actually pretty simple. For Democrats to win in the future, they need to fight for the people they represent and stop cutting deals to water down reform with the same corporate interests who will turn around and spend unlimited amounts of money to defeat Democrats year after year. "



Very depressing birthday for me today! (But not the first one).
That's the problem with early November birthdays.

Could be worse, could have my husband's birthday...April SIXTEENTH.