I half wonder if the Stupak Amendment wasn’t made to fail, to give a good handful of the most conservative democrats (apparently a lordly more of them than you’d expect — a few of  them I genuinely have to wonder why they are Democrats) one bonafida in their districts — as they garnered a full ten members of Congress to the vote — in re-election, some roosters coming home to roast off of 2006 strategy in particular of “Fit the District” slotting (one that was best represented with Senator Bob Casey in Pennsylvania), and really probably an unnecessary over-reach in the gauge of bringing about a “Big Tent” with a bit too reflexive mood in picking the more “moderate” or conservative candidate in various primaries.

They don’t call these things “Wedge Issues” for no reason.

All the while, with the suspicion that it will be blown up down the road.  These congress members get their Issue Wedge checked off to stand proud and proclaim themselves “Not a Libural”, and while the repercussions of the Issue having been thrown out there in the first place are pretty toxic politically, it’s less toxic for the cynical Democratic cause of the “Democratic Party Incumbent Racket” than not getting a damned Health Care bill passed.

Know your Caro, from the second volume on Lyndon Johnson Master of the Senate — a quick google search to get a quick encapsulation of some of the important cynical wheel-deeling:

Caro lays out the cajoling, wheeling, dealing, strong arming, and compromising in the fight for the civil rights bill as well as the complicated linkages between the civil rights bill and other legislation to obtain LBJ’s winning coalition. Among other things, Johnson brokered a deal between Western Democrats who wanted public power and conservative Southern Democrats who wanted the most watered down civil rights bill possible. The Southerners voted for a public power bill they had previously opposed, but did not filibuster the emerging civil rights bills once key changes were made. The Southerners opposed the bill on the floor and voted against it, but would never used the one weapon which could have killed it entirely. The Western Democrats got their public power (at least in the Senate) and supported watering down the civil rights bill which would not hurt them politically back home in that era. Northern Democrats eventually were reconciled to the fact that some bill was better than nothing and Southern Democrats were reconciled to the fact that some bill was inevitable.

The key matter in my half-baked political theory:  You know why the Southern Democrats voted for the Public Power?  The Public Power, at least in the crucial Southern Powerbrokers’ minds, was not meant to Stand.  It would be killed just down the road, in our rather noxious Senate system, though the Western Democrats would still be able to trump it in their elections.  But it was an important show of strength of reliability at that juncture.
Of course, things might have been able to work out better for a real civil rights bill if, at Vice President Nixon’s entreaty to Senate Liberals such as Hubert Humphrey at the start of the session, they had gone ahead and killed the Filibuster.  It rhymes familiarity to the current debate as the Democratic leadership holds out 60 Senators — or else ponders Reconciliation.

Then again, the Stupak Amendment has that “throw a bomb into the proceedings” feel to it — an issue that had been neutralized, your Bob Casey, Jr. roaming about for some party splinters.

Worth noting in this duo of Weekly Standard Covers — apparently the GOP is Sarah Palin, flanked by the modern day incarnations of Andrew Jackson and William Jennings Bryan, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.  Populists them all.

tap tap tap.

I’ll give this one up: I already stated that I don’t think Jon Corzine’s defeat adds up to much in the “Donkey versus Elephant Game” – though it’s good to be rid of that one, perhaps, and the air of Plutocracy ala Goldman Sacchs.  (In regards to plutocrats and one item I saw last week being batted about, slightly contrarian-wise:  I’d like to hope that “millionaires” would be over-represented in the Congress — you’d hope it would be made up of, you know, successful people.  I suppose we’d hope for a few more people from poorer background “made good”, but beware of that too: Tom Delay fits that category.)

You know his victory in 2005?  It came pretty much because of George Bush.  No longer was he able to tug behind a nationalized message of anti-Bush sentiment, he was exposed and defeated.   So maybe there is something to be said about Corzine’s defeat after all in the D versus R game that even skeptical I can throw to the Republicans as meaning a good sign for 2010: there are Democrats up for re-election who fit Corzine’s profile in swatches and switches.  The problem might be that the strange desire to stick in people fitting Doug Hoffman’s profile — though even that might be massaged: a tact of awareness of the locality as against the chief movement conservative causes should float in percentage margins, right?

Let us now take a note of this list of Congress critters — Democrats who voted against the House Health Care Bill — and come back in a year to see how much this staved off re-election disaster.  Another way of looking at this is geographically, and with a good guage on geographic size a rough rural / urban dividision — note that the Southern and border state Democratic vote favors the “no”.

 Jason Altmire D PA-4,   John Adler D NJ-3,  Rick Boucher D VA-9, Allen Boyd D FL-2,  Brian Baird D WA-3,  John Barrow D GA-12, Dan Boren D OK-2,  John Boccieri D OH-16,Bobby Bright D AL-2,  Ben Chandler D KY-6,  Travis Childers D MS-1,  Lincoln Davis D TN-4,  Artur Davis D AL-7,  Chet Edwards D TX-17,  Bart Gordon D TN-6,  Parker Griffith D AL-5,  Tim Holden D PA-17,  Stephanie Herseth Sandlin D SD-1,  Dennis J. Kucinich D OH-10,  Larry Kissell D NC-8, Suzanne Kosmas D FL-24, Frank Kratovil Jr. D MD-1,  Mike McIntyre D NC-7,  Jim Matheson D UT-2,  Jim Marshall D GA-8,  Charlie Melancon D LA-3,  Betsy Markey D  CO-4, Eric Massa D NY-29, Michael E. McMahon D NY-13, Walt Minnick D ID-1,  Scott Murphy D NY-20,  Glenn Nye D VA-2, Collin C. Peterson D MN-7,  Mike Ross D AR-4,  Ike Skelton D MO-4,  Heath Shuler  D NC-11,  John Tanner D TN-8, Gene Taylor D MS-4,  Harry Teague D NM-2.

The other thing I’d need to know is the list of Congress critters classified as “Blue Dogs” not on this list — who voted for the Act — and see how much that one staved off re-election disaster.  It is also worth noting that Dennis Kucinich chose to vote “no”, coming from the opposite direction with his party dissent.

Than there’s Joseph Cao, the lone Republican vote for this bill, and the man who made mince-meat of John Boehner’s claim that “The only bi-partisan vote is the one against” the bill.  I hate rhetoric like that one.  We’ll come back in a year and see if his job was saved.  I suppose that he’s likely going to be elected out of office will be shown by Republicans that this tact is senseless electorally, but in all honesty I always think that Cao should take his term of office as a bit of “funny money”, a license to vote as he sees fit without too much concern for figuring out his re-election prospects.

Well, it’s good to have an answer, I guess.:

“Why did you do it?” one television reporter asked.

“Because they left me to rot,” Rodriguez said.

In tough times like these, when one person might find a livelihood at the mercy of Unemployment from a former employer who well within their bottom line need to not – it is sometimes surprising there aren’t more of these.  Cries of “Keep your chin up” become meaningless when tangible needs need to be met.
Of course, also in times like these, mental health resources dry up a tad.

Over to Fort Hood, and as I ponder the futility of partisans making it a sheer D v R issue thrown by way of the Drudge Report, there are a few approaches more sane people have made in  making sense of the senseless.  A econd and third tour of duty  with little rest time make a sane person mad, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder — in this case, a second-hand PTSD.  The Muslim slurs added up, I suppose, enough to the point where it’s the only story for some movement conservative types in the “War on Terror”.

Do you believe this guy?

Now, as the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate prepare for next year’s midterm elections, some moderate Democrats are wondering whether they can afford to follow President Obama’s ambitious legislative agenda on such controversial issues as healthcare and climate change. One said the results were a “wake-up call.”

“There are going to be a lot more tensions between the White House and Congress,” predicted Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a member of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats. “They’ve been under the surface so far — and they’re going to come out in the open.”

The answer is no.  I don’t believe Jim Cooper and his select handful of Blue Dog Democrats.  To recap the elections of 2009: New Jersey: one unpopular Democratic Governor defeated by an unpopular Republican Incumbent in a state where the Republicans had been knocking on the door for all of Bush’s terms — they were due, and the state no longer had Bush to kick around.  Virginia: the Democrat gave Democrats no reason to vote, proclaiming he might just use the opt out provision for the Public Option.  If Virginia gives a cautionary lesson, it cautions every which way.  Maybe he wouldn’t have won anyway, but it’s also worth pointing out that quite a few voters would rather vote without having it diagnosed in terms of the Obama versus Opposition Party Game — a Governor, not a Message.
And, frankly, had Health Care been passed in the Summer, Corzine probably would have been re-elected.

So, we have either that most rarefied of political altitudes, that swallows crap whole, or we have the search for an excuse from those weird Centrist Nibbling Creatures.  The good news is the worst of them, the ones we can absolutely count on not being part of the 218 votes Pelosi is shifting around for right now, will be taken out in the next election in the “Republican Resurgence” (an election year that, unlike their heralded victory of 2009 will likely result in them gaining a handful of Congressional seats instead of losing a seat) — goodbye to Walt Minnick.

The question regarding Virginia: so the Democrats nominated a bad candidate.  Were either of his two main primary opponents any better or more appealing?  Terry McAuliffe is full of baloney, surely, and imported a false “Clinton versus Obama” contest that was best ignored.  Despite his baloney, or maybe because of it, he did have a pulse, though, and probably would have had a pulse in the general.  Enough that he would have done better than Deeds.