A new DNC memo implies that voting for health care actually helped candidates. That is just stunningly dishonest.

Barney Frank was considered one of Cook’s “competitive races.” His district has a Democratic partisan voting index of +14, and Barney crushed his GOP opponent, 61-36. So no, it’s not really fair to compare what happened to Barney Frank to what happened to say, Chet Edwards in an R+20 district. Of the 53 Democrats who hailed from districts with a Republican partisan voting index of +1 or more, only three who voted for the health care bill survived: Joe Donnelly, Bill Owens and Nick Rahall.

A new SurveyUSA poll out today shows Tom Perriello trailing Republican Robert Hurt by 23 points.  In February, prior to the health care vote, PPP polling showed Perriello essentially tied with Hurt. This confirms what FDL has been saying for months:  forcing members of Congress like Tom Perriello to vote for the health care bill was [...]

Today, Dennis Kucinich appeared at a rally with President Obama in Cleveland, despite the fact that the White House sent MoveOn to picket and threaten him if he honors his pledge and votes against the health care bill with no public option.

But that’s more than you can say for freshman Congressman John Boccieri, a military veteran who is on the GOP’s target list for the fall. He suddenly had to go to a dog-and-pony show in his district and watch a check being presented for a runway extension at a local airport and couldn’t appear with the President.

If this is the best we can do after the nation pours its collective hope into something, it really is the end of empire. And everyone in town, at one level or another, seems to know it.