Progressive Caucus Finds Itself In A Strange Place: Power

DeSwiss

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Wed Aug-26-09 04:46 AM
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Progressive Caucus Finds Itself In A Strange Place: Power

Ryan Grim | Huffington Post | Updated: 08-25-09 08:24 PM

Rep. Ra�l Grijalva (D-Ariz.)

The White House expressed surprise last week that the "left of the left" had clung so forcefully to the public insurance option as a must-have element of health care reform. Some old hands in the administration were more likely surprised by the simple fact that, at this late stage, they still have to deal with progressives in Congress. And who can blame them?

"We're the group that speaks to the righteousness of an issue, inevitably the decisions about how that issue's going to be addressed are conducted somewhere else," said Rep. Ra�l Grijalva (D-Ariz.), describing the traditional fecklessness of progressives in Congress. "The fact that we have stuck to our guns about the public option has surprised people." A majority of the 81 Congressional Progressive Caucus members of the House have vowed to oppose any health care bill that does not include a "robust public option." That threat has kept it alive.

With 256 seats in the House and 218 needed to pass a bill, Democrats simply can't move health care reform on their own without progressive caucus support. The question facing the White House and congressional leadership: Just how serious are they? Interviews with CPC leaders and a look at the group's behavior suggest that leadership would be well advised to consider the threat real. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has repeatedly acknowledged the reality that the progressives can block the bill.

In June, she was asked by HuffPost if she would allow health care reform without a public option to pass the House. "It's not a question of allow. It wouldn't have the votes," she said. When the White House went squishy last week on the public option ("not essential"/"one sliver"/"a piece"), Pelosi returned to the basic calculus. "There's no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option," she said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/25/progressive-caucus-finds_n_268754.html">MORE

- In the past, groups like the DLC with their stinkin' and flea-bitten Blue Dogs; and even further back... back to when they used to have those um... ahhh.... Yeah! "liberal" Republicans (a species that is now extinct), well they were able to scatter and undermine the progressive caucus efforts merely by throwing some bits and pieces on the ground and then standing back to watch them fight over the scraps and gristle they'd been given. It was always an embarrassing spectacle to have to watch. But that's life.

And yet just as a broken clock is at least right twice a day, Progressives were bound to find themselves on the right side, unified and with the power to decide things, at least once in their lifetimes.

And I believe that this is that moment....
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DeSwiss

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