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7/22: You're Playing Into Their Hands!

July 22, 2009 12:33 PM by Ian Faerstein | |

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Liberal bloggers are buzzing about an internal RNC memo -- a copy of which was obtained by The Huffington Post's Sam Stein -- which "calls for like-minded advocates to help defeat" Pres. Obama's health care proposal "by delaying its consideration." The netroots see this memo as proof that the GOP "isn't interested in reforming the existing health care system" and that congressional Dems should stop trying to negotiate with them. Joan McCarter writes: "The sooner Democrats on the Hill recognize that delaying this process just plays into the Republicans' hands, the better." However, that's not stopping Blue Dog Dems from demanding that health care reform "happen in a bipartisan way" -- to the netroots' frustration.

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

HEALTH CARE REFORM: Bad-Faith Negotiators?

Lefty bloggers see the RNC memo as proof that the GOP isn't interested in reforming the health care system:

  • Daily Kos' mcjoan: "This is just longer form (10 pages, in fact) Bill Kristol. Kill it, kill it through delay. The sooner Democrats on the Hill recognize that delaying this process just plays into the Republicans' hands, the better. But it also has the potential to put the Republicans in deeper political doo-doo, as the White House well knows. They are exposing the GOP's effort to kill healthcare reform for what it really is -- an effort to bring down a very popular president. They're playing politics with our lives."
  • Oliver Willis: "A memo being circulated in GOP circles shows us much of what we already knew: the right isn't interested in reforming the existing health care systen, and in fact their overriding goal is to prevent President Obama from doing so. The Republican alternative to health care reform being enacted by the president and Democrats is for you to pray for your ailments to be cured and to pray for the mountain of debt caused by medical needs to evaporate."
  • Firedoglake's Jason Rosenbaum: "[R]emember, there is no Republican plan for health care, not to mention one that addresses either health care costs or quality. So their line about proposing a sensible alternative is pure fiction. Their opposition to health care reform has nothing to do with saving you or your family money, helping small businesses being crushed by health care costs, or stopping rising premiums from wrecking our economy. Instead, the strategy here is to make sure health care is President Obama's 'Waterloo', so Republicans can win back at least a shred of the power in Congress they squandered passing President Bush's policies that destroyed our economy in the first place. And anybody on either side of the aisle who talks about slowing down or killing health reform (and make no mistake, slowing down reform is killing it), is playing into Republican hands."
  • The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "The Republican strategy against health care reform is entirely transparent. It's like watching a football team that doesn't bother huddling to call a play in advance, but instead just tells the other team exactly what they're about to do. [...] Republicans are saying the same things in private that they're saying in public -- and they're effectively daring the majority to overcome their opposition."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Are The Blue Dogs Digging Their Own Graves?

digby:

"Regardless of the merits of the [health care reform] plan itself, which I'm sure will be the subject of arguments for decades to come, the political stakes of everyone concerned will rest on whether or not the Democrats were able to pass a much needed reform when they had the power to do it. This is what Democrats say they want to do and the people said, go forth and get it done --- here's a popular president, a large majority and [60] Senate votes. If they can't do it now, they will have lost all credibility and the Republicans will be handed an undeserved chance to recover prematurely.

Now, I have no doubt that certain Blue Dogs and Democratic wingnuts think they can personally benefit by distancing themselves from Democratic initiatives. They are stupid. If Obama goes down in flames, as [Ronald] Brownstein says, those in conservative districts will get creamed by a Republican challenger in 2010, regardless of whether they voted against the health care bill. They are the ones who will pay the price for Obama's failure, not him and not the liberals who voted for it.

Any Blue Dog from a swing district who is listening to little Republican birdies whispering in his ear telling them that he has to vote against Obama's agenda or risk losing in 2010 is a useful idiot who is engineering his own defeat. This isn't 1994 and it isn't 2004, and if these guys don't see that the only thing that can defeat them at this point is a widespread belief in Democratic failure, then they probably need to go back to the private sector and stand in the unemployment line like everyone else. The glory days of self-serving bipartisan backstabbing and double dealing are no longer operative. They will be the first ones to drown if the Democratic ship goes down. This is party politics now whether they like it or not."

LEST WE FORGET: Man At Bar Clinging To Muted 'King Of Queens' Episode Like Life Preserver

From The Onion:

"DENVER, CO -- Like a desperate shipwreck survivor clutching at flotsam in the North Atlantic, area bar patron Kyle Whaley kept his eyes glued to a muted episode of the sitcom King Of Queens Monday, attempting to look as if he had some reason to be at Snooker's Bar and Grill despite not knowing anyone there. 'Last I hear Bob was back at his landscaping job,' a nearby bar patron said in a conversation Whaley had no hope of joining. Watching without sound or subtitles, Whaley shifted nervously on his barstool and locked his gaze on the program like a man cornered by an angry bear. As of press time, there was only one segment left after the upcoming commercial break, and Whaley's options were quickly running out."