Blogs and Stories
Obama's New 'Best Friends'
AP Photo
With Republican Chuck Grassley now saying health-care reform may come by November, John Avlon argues that centrist Blue Dog Democrats are the president's best hope to save his plan. Avlon is the author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America.
President Obama’s health-care overhaul efforts—and his overall poll numbers—are suffering from bailout backlash. Fifty percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s health-care efforts to date, compared to 44 percent who approve—echoing the 55 percent who disapprove of Obama’s handling of the federal deficit. The Gallup poll sums up these findings neatly by saying: “Americans are concerned about the long-term implications of increased levels of government spending and the expansion of government's role in society.”
Liberals are giving into the same hyper-partisan temptations that led to the repudiation of Tom DeLay’s conservative Congress. It might be emotionally satisfying, but it’s bad long-term politics.
This should be a wakeup call for both the Obama administration and congressional Democrats. But the only people who seem to be listening are the Blue Dog Democrats, and a small bipartisan group of Senate centrists.
Attacked as villains by liberals and accused of slowing down the legislation’s passage, they are the unsung heroes of health-care reform. They are not trying to kill Obama’s initiative; they are trying to save it.
Barack Obama’s 2008 victory was not a liberal ideological mandate but a vote against the Bush era’s polarizing play-to-the-base politics. Congressional centrists are trying to help the president follow through on his rhetoric about a new era of bipartisan consultation and cooperation. They are doing the heavy lifting of trying to forge the broadest possible coalition of support, while liberal leaders encourage a narrow play-to-the-base party-line vote. In the process, congressional centrists are pragmatically looking out for President Obama’s interests in the larger electorate.
No one should know this better than Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who recruited many of these centrist Blue Dogs as congressional candidates in 2006. Their selection led directly to the Democrats’ recapture of Congress after the conservatives’ ideological over-reach.
The pendulum swing of politics has a funny way of self-perpetuating. Emanuel remembers the way that Bill Clinton’s unified-Democratric control of Congress evaporated after perceptions of a left-wing lurch amid the last Democratic attempt at health-care reform. The Blue Dogs are the emissaries of this received wisdom; they are Barack Obama’s best friends on Capitol Hill right now.
Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America. By John Avlon. 304 pages. Beast Books. $15.95.
The Blue Dogs are 40 or so Democrats, largely from swing districts in the South and Midwest, led by Tennessee’s Jim Cooper and Arkansas’ Mike Ross. In the Senate, centrist efforts are being led by a bipartisan group chaired by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Republican ranking member Chuck Grassley. Together, across the divisions of Congress, these two groups are consistent in their commitment to fiscal responsibility at a time of unprecedented spending.
They may be the only ones in Washington taking President Obama at his word that any health-care plan must be deficit neutral. House Democrats took a hit when the Congressional Budget Office announced that the liberal plan would add billions of new annual costs to the current system. Congressman Charles Rangel’s (D-NY) proposed surcharge tax on top earners likewise ran counter to desired narratives when it became evident that it meant the top combined tax rate in states like New York and California could approach 60 percent, feeding into Republican campaign-era claims about Obama’s incipient socialism. Centrists helped kill the surcharge and expanded the number of small businesses that would be exempted from providing compulsory coverage. And a proposed Independent Medicare Advisory Board would establish a bipartisan framework to recommend "entitlement" overhaul savings that would be presented to the president directly, helping achieve the promised deficit reduction.
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
Justice Clinton?
As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
The 'Birthers' Began on the Left
John Avlon’s new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the web and in paperback. Advance orders can be placed here. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
Queen of the Tea Party
John Avlon’s new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the web and in paperback. Advance orders can be placed here. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
The Tea Party, Day 2
John Avlon’s new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the web and in paperback. Advance orders can be placed here. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
squiggy
The American people want health-care reform that reduces consumer costs but there is no mandate for artificial urgency or ideological purity.
This is what it is all about. It will not take effect until 2013. Not sure what the rush is!
nickatdabeach
Here is Obama's Kenyan birth certificate. read it & weep.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=105764
nickatdabeach
Here is Obama's Kenyan birth certificate. read it & weep.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=105764
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
connie47
There are a half dozen things wrong with your new birth certificate. Here are two. The Republic of Kenya not formed until 1964. You apparently thing that a birth certificate in a Muslim nation has doesn't require baby's name, but rather his "Christian name." Yeah, they do the same thing in Saudi, lol.
Pathetic
connie47
What happened to the posts I answered above? There was no bad language in them. Some stupidity, sure, but no reason to remove.
squiggy
They pulled all of Nic's stuff, even from yesterday's cheat!
connie47
Wow. Wonder what you have to do to earn that treatment! He was odious, but not foul mouthed, which is the only thing I approve of deleting for. Well, that and vicious personal attacks.
Ritarita
Oh no!
That was Nicky who got pulled?
Damn.
If he gets banned for good
We'll never know if he got to fill
Todd's shoes
Once the Palins divorced-
As he claimed he wanted to do.
Hahahahaaa.
Bad dog Nicky
Bad bad dog.
Dolmance
Without a public option, there is no real reform.
The "Blue Dogs," have taken a lot of money from the health insurance industry, who doesn't want real reform.
This article is nonsense.
AlanD2
I agree. Single-payer would be even better. It works for Medicare, so why can't it work for everybody?
ME-EMo
Every article from this writer is nonsense. If you don't believe me just read how he fawn over Bill O'Reilly in his Olbermann article.
neverlate
As the article points out a good percentage (majority) of Americans just do not trust that the Government can execute on a Public Option without creating another underfunded entitlement. Obama would be smart to tack back to the center and get rid of Emmanuel. I doubt this is going to happen, as I believe Obama is a leftist.
allonfla
Obama is no Leftist. He will take anybody's solution as long as it works.
Ronym5
Oh come on John you know those co-ops have little to no negotiating power.
You also know the conservatives weren't kicked out do to ideological overreach but the Iraq war, rampant corruption, and a failed economy.
This myth of overreach is shoddy journalism at best and an attempt at republican style swift-boating of democrats at worst.
Next as to the "Blue Dogs" caring about the budget that is a blatant lie last week they took out one hundred billion dollars of savings in the house health care bill, not to mention the farm subsidies and military pork these people love.
Next to the corruption.
Max Baucus and the rest have received millions in bribes from the health care companies to kill this bill.
In fact Max is known as the Senator from K Street because he receives more donations from lobbyist than from his own state.
Finally you analogies to FDR and LBJ's administrations.
What you forget is the liberal tilt in the country and the fact it was before the Reagan-Limbaugh radicalization of the right wing.
John your article amounts to nothing more than a hatchet job on liberals and a suck up to Max the most corrupt senator in washington Baucus.
How much bid the health insurance lobbyist pay you to write it?
allonfla
I doubt very much that the Blue Dogs have Obama's interest in mind. They don't have the country's best interest in mind. They only care about themselves.
FNYGY1
I don't believe the GOP is going to back anything the Democrats come up with - and for purely political reasons. The GOP will let the Blue Dogs carry their water, then attack them in the next election for getting them wet.
daniel66
Sounds right-- if the Blue Dogs go along with the President's plan. Dolmance is correct about the Blue Dogs taking alot of insurance money. They are going to something to please the special interest donors to their campaigns..
BioProf
The crux of your column seems to be that the current administration should be very concerned with constructing a truly bipartisan solution to our health care problems, that they should try to mimic the bipartisanship of 1935 and 1965. To support your idea, you rely heavily on the votes totals for the passage of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965, both of which passed with substantial Republican support in both raw numbers and percent of Republican caucus.
Where you go astray, I think, is in equating 1965 Republicans with 2009 Republicans. (I was not around in 1935, so I can't comment on that Congress.) A quick look at the make-up of the 89th Congress on Wikipedia allowed me to remember the politics of many of the senators. I could identify at least 12 Republicans who were considered liberal-to-moderate senators (Aiken (VT), Saltonstall (MA), Smith (ME), Kuchel (CA), Cotton (NH), Case (NJ), Cooper (KY), Morton (KY), Javits (NY), Prouty (VT), Fong (HI), McIntyre (NH), plus possibly 3-5 more whose politics I don't recall). Additionally, there were many extremely conservative southern senators who called themselves Democrats (Harry Byrd of Virginia being the archetype). The 1965 numbers are apples to the 2009 oranges.
There were Republicans back then who were progressive or amenable to compromise. This is most certainly not the case today. Beyond Senators Snowe and Collins (and, maybe on a good day, Lugar, Gregg, or Voinovich), you will be hard pressed to find any other 2009 Republicans who see their job as anything other than obstruction and thwarting anything the Obama administration proposes.
This being the reality of our current situation, I really think the Democrats must resist the fantasy of "bipartisanship" when there are, essentially, no Republicans to be bipartisan with. As the attached column proposes, time will be better spent working with the hesitant Democrats, and if any Republican wants to jump on the train of historical inevitability, welcome them heartily, but give them nothing.
Finally, a "pyrrhic victory" implies a strategic defeat. The headline writer for your column pulled the wrong sentence to emphasize. All polls show a substantial majority of our populace recognizing that health care is a problem and wanting the government to fix it. Once this bill is passed and people see its results, the approval will approach the levels of approval for Medicare. There may be a negative response for the Blue Dogs in 2010, but by 2012, the benefits will bolster all Democrats who can claim a part of fixing the problem.
jonboinAR
Spot on, Prof! The "Blue Dogs" are probably somewhere to the right of where the liberal Repubs were in the '60's. The current Republicans? The Dems need to just forget about them. I really don't hear anything productive, or even slightly bipartisan, from the conservative side, pretty nearly pure obstructionism, just as in the Clinton era.
mcmchugh99
In the past, there were Progressive Republicans, Rockefeller and Eisenhower Republicans who supported the New Deal, Great Society, civil rights and so on. Nixon was certianly not a "liberal", but he shared the general consensus of that era in favor of Keynesianism and the welfare state.
Then we had 30 years of the Age of Reagan, which has just ended--very badly, too.
kat387s
John Avlon was a former speech writer for Rudy Guliani. Enough said........
tarryh
Dear boy, you don't really think the doggies are Obama's best friends, now do you? How naive! "The 52" are in it only for themselves. They love the limelight. TV reporters dashing about. Chasing them. Looks soooo good back in the district. And The "52" certainly do love the money.....fundraisers all through July during the evening whilst "legislating reform" during the day. More large checks from the health care industry than ever before. Wow!!! This is real good for the doggie business model. Representative Ross is in seventh heaven. Of course every dog does have his day and I would say the November 2, 2010 may a bad one for the doggies. Woof!
doubleaseven
Now that I see Mr. Avalon's background I can see through his manufactured truths. I bet even Obama does not know who his best friends are. And Avalon even wants to rewrite History (after all he has cut his teeth under Uncle Rudy) about who helped Obama in his campaign. I have received many a personal note asking me to join hands with "Organizing for Amarica" to mount a vigorous defense of the HCR including the PO. Last I checked OfA was not a Blue Dog organization. Obama had debunked the BS about PO parleyed by the detractors of the PO; Avlon must have been fast asleep during that presser. His lies know no bounds when he portrays the BDs as the only ones concerned about the Cost of HCR. Last I checked the HELP committee had been scored at 600B.
The material on the Myths perpetrated by GOPsters and moles like Avlon are numerous. But the following tries to slay some of the more frequently raised Bogeyman.
Slaying the Health Care Bogey Men
-------------------------------------------------
The tone of the dialog on Public Insurance Option is quite disturbing. In a recent TV appearance, Both Grassley and Cornyn pushed the same talking points, though not quite as stridently as Cantor, Pence, Boehner et al would have. Cornyn came close. He made up the story that 120 million people will lose their Private Insurance if PO was included in the Bill. Totally unsubstantiated nonsense. In fact PO is an Option. Unlike Single Payer which would eliminate the Insurance Companies all together. Thus the consumer will have an opportunity to select between Private & Public.
The following attempts to slay the Bogey Men repeatedly raised by the Insurance Lobby and their proxies in the Senate. Hopefully this will be useful in keeping some of the more slippery in the "Democrats & Open Minded Republicans" caucus on the straight and narrow.
=================================================
Ins lobby says "Public Option hurts Free Market". Nothing Free MT about Ins Oligarchy sanctioned by Govt to loot Captive Customers. Current state of Insurance does not provide meaningful choice. It is a myth that one can choose from the so called 1300 companies. In fact it is wasted effort to try finding a difference between rates for comparable plans between the very few choices available in a particular area. If the Govt run option is inefficient & less patient friendly, it should be easy to compete with it. The reason the Oligarchs are trying to scare the public is to preserve their current Govt protected status.
Another canard "most people love their current Employer paid plans". The high premiums today are passed on to the employees in the form of lower salaries or makes the Companies uncompetitive on the world stage. Not only the employees be happier if their portion of the premium $ got reduced. The employers should be a lot happier by subscribing to a PO or another competitive Private Plan, allowing them to compete more effectively in a global market.
Fake argument: P.O. will put Govt between the patient and the doctor - don't the Private Insurance Companies do that. If the Ins Co stands more lightly between the Doctor and the Patient, the consumer will be able to choose between the Private & Public Options.
"Expensive PO will bust the Budget". PO should run on a "break even" basis without any government subsidies. The only cost should be to cover the uninsured. This should be the same with or without PO. If GOP/Effete-Dems do not want to cover the uninsured, they should stand up and say so, instead of using false arguments to scare the public. Spreading fear has become the MO of this coalition - from NIMBY to PO.
Health CoOps are a Red Herring. Organizing Health CoOp would be much harder than Food CoOp. No good Doc will sign up with fledgling CoOp. No negotiating power. Harmless and toothless option designed to please the Lobby.
ThinkAgain
It's hard to imagine that the far left will self destruct so soon, but self destruct they will. They're too "far" away from most people. That's only attractive to people when they're really pissed and frustrated at the other side usually because the other side is too far out in the other direction.
Ritarita
?
Carole65
??
Andreams
After seeing red about Grassley and November, I have to hang on to Baucus saying 9-15. We should have had a bill out of that comiittee by early July and there is no excuse for them going on vacation before they finish but November; better not be.
Facepuncher
Why does no one in the mainstream media (or here for that matter) bring up the fact that the "blue dogs" have received tens of millions in campaign contributions from the insurance industry?
They oppose healthcare reform because they are owned by the insurance industry. By ignoring this Obama is complicit in their corruption.
Me, and everyone else that voted for Obama were hoodwinked. I voted for a Liberal and I got a do-nothing centrist like Clinton. Might as well have voted for Hillary.
pjmanshardtlaw
Do you think "conservative fear mongering about nationalization of health care" is a responsible comment given that both Obama and Barney Frank have been caught on videotape saying that they desire a public option because it will eventually lead to a single-payer plan?
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.