Poor little Blue Dogs. Nobody wants them to fuck up collaborate on healthcare:
45 Centrist Democrats Protest Secrecy of Health Care Talks
Forty-five House Democrats in the party’s moderate-to-conservative wing have protested the secretive process by which party leaders in their chamber are developing legislation to remake the health care system.The lawmakers, members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, said they were "increasingly troubled" by their exclusion from the bill-writing process. They expressed their concerns in a letter delivered Monday to three House committee chairmen writing the bill, which House leaders hope to pass this summer.Representative Mike Ross, an Arkansas Democrat who is chairman of the coalition’s health task force, said: "We don’t need a select group of members of Congress or staff members writing this legislation. We don’t want a briefing on the bill after it’s written. We want to help write it."
Well, there’s a problem here. Lobbyists Chuck Merlin at BKSH describes himself thusly:
He is perhaps best known for his close affiliation with the Blue Dog Coalition, an alliance of more than 50 pro-business, conservative House Democrats whose votes have become coveted.
In other words, everyone knows the Blue Dogs are for sale, and Chuck can help you make the buy.
Lobbyists at the C2 Group have a whole page on the Blue Dogs, and partner Jeff Murray "specializes in coordinating clients’ interests in the Blue Dog Coalition of the House." And how does he "coordinate clients’ interests" with the Blue Dogs? Glad you asked:
The C2 Group, recognizing the increasing reliance and need for campaign funds, has stepped into this fundraising void to assist party leaders and specific candidates. Unlike many firms, the partners of the C2 Group, working closely with their clients, host and co-host dozens of fundraising events each campaign cycle raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for select candidates and Members of Congress. Our high profile in this area has secured critical recognition from party leaders and Members of Congress as a "go to" firm that responds on behalf of those Members of Congress that are critical to our clients.
In addition to our own fundraising activities, C2 Group assists those clients that maintain Political Action Committees (PACs) by identifying opportunities to invest in events that provide the best "bang-for-the-buck" in Washington, DC. We recognize that PACs are funded by hard working, dedicated employees and want to make sure that each dollar is recognized by the candidates that receive our client’s support.
Take a look at the Blue Dog PAC receipts for the first quarter of 2009 — $792,250. There is no shortage of health care companies who have maxed out and are anxious to have their "interests coordinated."
Sure does suck when the "for sale" sign is out, everybody wants to buy, and nobody will let you close the deal.
Related posts:
- Blue Dogs Can’t Find a Bone? PAC Donations Plummet
- Group Tied to Swift Boat Veterans, Willie Horton Ads Supporting Blue Dogs
- Over Half of Blue Dogs’ 2009 Campaign Contributions from Health Care Industry
- Waxman: Blue Dogs Trying to “Eviscerate” Health Care
- Blue Dogs and Republicans Agree: No Health Care Vote Before Recess
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Jane of Arc, the conscience of the Democratic party. Thank you so much for the NAMING of these, who would
sell it really cheaploot the country under the banner of “public” service.That’s great. The should take out a billboard: “vote for sale.” Or did they already? :-)
We need to make bribing Congress illegal again.
Here here!
Since I live smack in Blue Dog country, I have thought these are not “pure” Blue Dogs. They are Bumpus’s Blue Dogs…they will smash in the door and steal the turkey off your table and thunder out again, sayin’ “who, us????”
I’m ready to play hardball with my blue dog congressman to get him to do the right thing — I haven’t completely written him off yet. But my senator Evan Bayh is a lost cause and I’m thinking about starting a campaign to chisel away at his inexplicably high approval ratings here in Indiana and try to recruit a quality primary candidate for him.
I need to see if http://www.byeBayh.com is available.
Just emailed Chuck a url for your post.
Awww, too bad they were denied coverage because of their “pre-existing condition.”
Sure does suck when the “for sale” sign is out, everybody wants to buy, and nobody will let you close the deal.
Too bad, so sad.
;)
Time to spay and neuter some Blue Dawgs!
I think one of the things we can do to keep big business from buying our law is something sander0 suggested
“for profit” oranizations should be barred from contributing to politicians and barred from lobbying
we really need laws like this, we also need to rescind personhood from corporations so they enjoy no right to petition government for redress, which is the right they use to justify their lobbying campaign
time to let them know we are going to mount primary challenges as well
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
It appears that the Obama political strategy over the long term is to consolidate power in the House of Representatives, starve the Blue Dogs out and pressure the Senate from the riotous masses on the House floor (and then get the bastards in conference). I have been worried for some time about the potential that corporate money could grow the Democratic majority in the House so obese as to make the party ineffective and end representative democracy with a wisper instead of a bang but maybe I have underestimated the Vulcan in the White House.
Maybe this process of gestating national healthcare will establish a template for political movement going forward into 2010 and beyond…I think maybe EFCA looks a lot healthier in early 2010 under this scenario.
But anyways, there are still hundreds of thousands of kids in the desert and more linin’ up outside the recruitin’ stations and no draft and national service legislation to dilute the all-volunteer military. So…
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THIS WAR IS OURS, WE PAID FOR IT AND NOW WE GOTTA END IT!!
@Sufilizard2
Byebayh.com is available at the time of posting this.
Excellent post Norske… and why are we at war in Afghanistan? Didn’t we read the AQ is gone from there and weren’t they the reason we went in there?
Well done.
Can someone explain what the health care industry is now promising to get health care coverage to everyone? They are lowering the (outrageous) cost by 1.5%… let’s see… the premiums are say $6000/yr and saving $90 is going to get the uninsured banging down the doors to buy coverage??? ha?
Public campaign financing is absolutely essential for the people to ever again have a truly representative government.
As I understand it it is worse than that. They are saying that they will pare back future increases by 1.5% per annum. So instead of raising costs 6% next year they would only go up 4.5%.
ha?
ummm, no.
Thanks for the good reminder,jayt.
The question is how?
My doctor said the other day that the whole health care system is a racket. She’s exactly right and we are all paying the price.
How blatant can you get? How blatant can you get?
How obvious does a quid pro quo have to be to be prosecutable? Oh to have these bastards testify under oath to a grand jury.
It’s so topsy turvy when Rove’s Justice Department can persecute a decent man like Don Siegelman, but these corrupt greedhead Blue Dog bastards get off scot free.
The government and corporations are rackets. They stick us, bleed us and leave us to die.
I am in Joe Donnelly’s district, and his web page has a link to the Blue Dog Coalition, but he’s not listed on the C2 page. Hmmmmm….
About as blatant as shooting someone in the face.
How is Don doing these days?
It’s surprising to me, how low the price is to buy these people.
Feeling like a voodoo doll, doll?
I am spitting needles today. How bout your self?
Similar. Too many spinning plates to keep going. I’ve already called DC and left a message for Harry Reid.
According to Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Siegelman
Seconded.
A riff on that is an idea Sara had over at thenexthurrah. Limit corporate contributions to a percentage (let’s say 30%) of whatever a rep can raise from registered voters. Limit what a registered voter can give to something like a $100 (for all their elected officials). Then maybe you have to backfill this with some tax dollars. This would force legislators back to the voters to generate campaign dollars.
This is a very poor description of what Sara was trying to say, but I thought I’d just put it out there.
Bullseye. Thank you.
I was shocked when he didn’t get off completely.
Not so low when you factor in their earnings after they quit congress and become lobbyists.
Rahm has sent the word down. No dealing with the Dogs. They are either in or their out; if they are out, there will be retribution. Get used to it. I think that sends a very clear message. If they want to go over to the 22 percenters on the thug side, they are welcome to it.
I think Joe’s on the fence, that’s why I say I haven’t written him off yet, but he definitely has some serious Blue Dog leanings. He needs intense pressure to push him in a better direction. He especially needs to hear from us on health care.
My sense on Joe’s positions are:
1) Health Care — will probably not support real change unless we can really apply pressure letters and phone calls to his congressional offices as well as letters to the editor in local papers and television stations.
2) Card Check — I think we have a very good chance of getting him to support this, but it’s not a given.
Donnelly is a pro-life Catholic so there are some issues we just don’t have much of a chance with, but on most other issues I think there is hope although he will tend to vote more conservatively unless there’s real pressure from the grass roots.
The 11th Circuit Court must still be full of snakes.
Not only that, but force them to actually listen to the voters. More out spoken voters! Fewer Corporate Lobbyists!
Does anyone else think there’s potential for a major political realignment?
I’m not saying it’s definitely going to happen, but I see the possibility of the Blue Dogs and the few remaining moderate Republicans joining to form a new opposition party while the current Right-wing extremists in the Republican Party become a fringe, regional party.
Then maybe the Democratic Party could go back under control of the “democratic wing” of the Democratic Party.
Thanks, Sufi. I have written his office many times and always get a canned response that often is not related to the issue at hand. He showed up at a Rebuilding Together work day a couple of weeks ago and went around glad handing. I stayed away from him, figuring it was not the venue to raise political concerns.
My daughter can’t understand why I’m down on Bayh. I keep sending her stuff, but she’s a busy mom with small children and not really political.
So true.
My hope is if Dems extend their majorities in 2010, we could get a shot at real reform.
Not because it would be the correct thing to do; heavens no!
But because it would self serving for incumbents to then limit the amount of money any opponent could raise going forward.
They could then explain (with chests pumped up full of righteousness) how they “Have begun the hard task of taking money out of politics” with a straight face.
I think this is the money quote:
And their clients are? Members of the biomedical establishment, perhaps?
That’s intersting; which led me to the thought that the Blue Dogs might be the GOP’s only “quick fix” out there.
There sure aren’t gonna get the numbers they need to become relevant again organically — they have lost the under 30 and Latino vote for years to come.
Christy’s up with
OLC: A Possible Carrot For Harry Reid And The Rule Of Law
If you succesfully blocked all campaign financing, corporations would simply finance something like “The Senator Smuggins memorial Ketchup Research Institute” in the Senator’s home town. the possibilities are, alas, endless. Nonethelss I am strongly for public finanacing.
Sons of bitches! Bumpuses!
The only way to get our govt back is to put the politicians on what I call the “UTC Buyer Rules” – and public campaign funding.
Seriously, the only way to make sure they’re not bought is to buy them ourselves, and we don’t have the bucks the corporations do.
Unbought Congresscritter is an oxymoron.
Agree.
Also under current U.S. law as I understand it, corporations are “people,” wrt campaign donations.
It’s another case of progress, not perfection. The more we can force them out of the weeds, the better for the nation.
Aw, poor Blue Dogs. If they can’t sell enough votes, we might have some sort of health coverage for the 22,000 Americans who die every year from want of health care.
Is it just me, or do the Blue Dog Dems remind y’all of Hank in the Hank the Cowdog series of children’s books?
Always into somethin’ and always takin’ credit for that in which they had no hand…
Blue “Dogs” is a poor metaphor, becasuse it maligns a noble and loyal beast. These are Blue Bottles–they feed off the gangrenous limbs of democracy.
blue dog? how about green dog for money!!!
I have never seen a group so willing to make themselves irrelevant. The more they talk, the fewer the number of people who listen. This is a strange form of prostitution: they are willing to screw you for less than the bozo next door. Unique. Stupid.
If anybody’s still reading comments on this, let me chime in with, “Thank you, Jane!”
My recommendations are: Limit all campaign contributions to those directly donated by human American citizens below the amount of — say — $2000.
Second recommendation is: Let’s rent a billboard near the capitol and advertise for the Blue Dogs right where they don’t want anybody to see it: daylight.
I’ve got just two words for them and they ain’t merry christmas.