Um, this has more to do with 20+ years of Third Way Dems appeasing real crazies,

[joshcryer]

126. You tell them "Obama said he wanted to put everything on the table."

Then you tell them that "Obama said that he wanted to cut the deficit."

Then you tell them that "Obama is keeping his campaign promises, and we should hold his feet to the fire and tell him that we don't like the specific approaches he's taking."

Then you say, "What Obama does is not pertinent to our willingness to elect other Democrats or realistic independents or third parties. We must get out the vote and not demoralize the vote by damaging the image of the party in power using right wing talking points."

It is a lie that the Democrats advocated Simpson-Bowles cuts, and that's why nothing came of Simpson-Bowles. The Chained-CPI proposal was legitimate, but it also came with a poverty exemption / threshold which is why it was never going to pass (which the rationalists on this site have been saying for years).

Simpson-Bowles was fucking theater and it didn't merit the Democrats losing 63 seats in the house, 6 Governorships, and 6 Senate seats. Except DUers cheered the loss of the blue dogs even as liberals like Grayson and Feingold were shrugged off as unfortunate collateral damage to rid the party of conservadems. It's shameful.