Reid under pressure to rein in centrists

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/reid-under-pressure-to-rein-in-centrists-2009-08-21.html

Liberal activists are pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and party leaders to crack down on renegade centrist Democrats who might block President Obama’s healthcare overhaul.

Democratic leaders should make it clear to Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and other centrists that they have an obligation to help the party advance a Democratic healthcare bill this fall, the activists say, and those that disregard the call and join in a Republican filibuster should face real consequences.

For months they have been frustrated with Reid’s tolerance for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a centrist who has kept the party waiting for weeks while pursuing an elusive bipartisan deal with Republican members of the committee.

Now liberal activists say it is time to instill some party discipline so that Democrats can take full advantage of the power they have controlling 60 Senate seats. They have gone so far to suggest that centrists should be threatened with lack of financial support from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

"There ought to be real pressure in terms of making it clear to people what is expected,” said Robert Borosage, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future. “They are not going to get support from DSCC if they’re not going to be loyal on basic procedural votes to give the president an up-or-down vote on his plan.

Remember how he prevented that FREAK Alito from stacking our SC to the bat-shit-looney right?


Oh Wait! :evilgrin:

We have 60 seats and it can be done. Reid has to start acting like a majority leader and get the president's agenda passed and Health care is at the top.

and healthcare reform is one of those issues. If we cannot depend on these Democrats at this time, then I think it is only reasonable to suggest that they cannot depend on us in their next election. It's a two-way street.

Then everytime he does something WEAK we will have a spokesman to screw him for it in the news!

as shitty as it is compared to SPHC. Burn the progressive left and you will be sorry!

While I do agree that the party should be responsive to its liberal base (and the Party seems to be ignoring us at the moment), the Party would be better off doing nothing than passing a watered-down "health insurance reform" bill that amounts to little more than a bail-out of the health insurance industry. If the Party abandons "health insurance reform," I think we'll be fine in 2010. If the Party passes "health insurance reform" with a robust public option (one that is projected to cover 50+ million Americans within five years), then I think we'll be fine in 2010. If the Party passes a bill that amounts to nothing more than a gift to the health insurance industry, the Party will (and should) lose its base in 2010 and also lose Congress.

We voted for change. We have tolerated the bail-out of the financial sector. We will not tolerate a gift to the unethical and unproductive health insurance industry.

:dem:

-Laelth

of the urinal inspection committee. Put them where they can't do any harm.