Self-serving conservative Senators "don’t...care if this once-in-a-generation opportunity implodes"

[ProSense]

Do Moderate Dem Senators Recognize Urgency Of Need For Reform?

It’s worth noting that this is one of the central questions that will decide the outcome of negotiations over the health care bill in the Senate — and, more broadly, whether it succeeds or fails in the end.

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But some on the wonky left are pessimistic about the urgency moderate Dem Senators feel about the necessity of getting it done. Both Johnathan Cohn and Steve Benen are sounding that alarm, with Benen perhaps most apprehensive:

We’re dealing with a series of upcoming negotiations in which conservative Dems’ indifference gives them leverage. In other words, Lieberman, Nelson, & Co. don’t much care if this once-in-a-generation opportunity implodes, while reform advocates care very much. These rather obvious bargaining positions create a playing field that is anything but level.

This seems right, but it’s also worth noting that the pressure on moderate Dems not to allow reform to collapse is going to be unspeakably intense once success is genuinely within reach. Right now it’s easier for moderate Dems to hold out the possibility of bailing in the end, because the prospect of success is only dimly visible and the consequences of failure have not yet become truly apparent.

Keep in mind that these moderate Dems have already gone on record articulating the dramatic need for reform — if only as a way to gain cover for agreeing to vote to move the bill forward. When final success is genuinely within reach, moderate Dems will quite literally be faced with a stark choice between embracing whatever compromise emerges, and letting the whole thing come crashing down, with potentially catastrophic consequences for their party and, by their own lights, the country as a whole.

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Assholes.



Edited title to reflect reality.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. I'll be happy when all moderates, blue dogs, etc are tossed out of office.

Hit them where it hurts - get these life time politicians who have no concern except for their own survival out of business.

[Clio the Leo]

9. And be replaced with Republicans?

Because that's who you'd get.

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. I know. Wish we could get true Dems in there. Frustrated....arggggh

[Clio the Leo]

12. lol, well, we cant........

...... we're lucky to have them.

It could be MUCH worse.

[DJ13]

2. They arent "moderates"

I wish the MSM (and DU) would label them appropriately as CONSERVATIVE Dems.

The MSM insists on the "moderate" term to make those reactionary right wingers in our party sound like the sane ones, and its a lie.

[ProSense]

5. At least one isn't even a Democract, but that's the label in the article. n/t

[DJ13]

6. I wasnt blaming you. You just used the title they gave that article

Sorry if it sounded like that.

[seattle_blue]

10. I've been thinking the same thing

Calling them conservative democrats is like trying to sell vegan pork chops...

[SharonAnn]

14. Thank you. That's what I scream at the TV. They're conservatives, not moderates!

[Cha]

3. I'm guessing they don't understand

the whole "karma's a bitch", either?

[Bleacher Creature]

4. I've got no problem with the moderate Democrats.

Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd, Bob Mendendez, etc. are all good guys.

It's the right-wing, conservative Dems that piss me off to no end.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. Those 'self-serving moderates' are doing...

...you a favor.

Their vote to kill the bill is the correct vote. It's a vote for an awful status quo.

The very terribleness of the status quo will bring single payer, if only the terribleness is terrible enough, and it will be, if we just wait long enough. And here is where these self-serving moderates, and the extreme conservatives, are our allies, not our enemies.

Hey, it's not like we're not making progress. At least Reid'll see his bill get defeated on the floor. Fifteen years ago the bill was pulled from the Senate calendar by Democratic leadership before it ever saw the floor.

By straight line extrapolation somewhere around 2025 or so, we'll get a good bill that passes both Houses, but gets butchered in conference, and one or the other House rejects the conference committee report.

And around 2040 or so, a good bill finally goes through to the President's desk. Where a Republican vetoes it.

So 2065 it is. I'll be decades dead by then, but hey, it'll be a good bill.

People with pre-existing conditions, or who have suffered recision, or who with subsidies could have obtained insurance in the meantime will surely understand their historic role in the process.

We must assure them that we will honor their sacrifice with a day, or something.

[ProSense]

8. "...you a favor. Their vote to kill the bill is the correct vote."

Idiotic, but if you want to encourage the assholes, go right ahead.

[stevietheman]

13. The centrist Dems and Lieberman aren't voting against cloture on the final bill...

Yes, it is all about them... about what they can extract before the final bill is readied, about what they can extract for their next re-election effort, and about what they can extract for their power positions on Capitol Hill.

But, vote against cloture on considering the final bill? I don't believe they really are prepared to lose everything like that.

They will produce amazing sound and fury, but when push comes to shove, they will finally say that the final bill (whatever it is) is bad, but not too odious to block a final vote for.

Mark my words.

Edit: onerous -> odious