Feingold assessment = We're Democrats and we're losers!

[wowimthere]

If the Democrats... with majorities in the House and the Senate... don't pass a solid bill for healthcare reform then they will surely lose seats in the senate and the house. Obama's mistake is that he let the senate and house do their constitutional duty and craft legislation. He decided that it was best to play the BI-partisan rather than the Partisan. If trying bi-partisanship is a flaw then we don't remember the last 8 years.

I don't blame the President for this debacle. I blame the Democrats in the House and senate for caving to special interests and for deciding the moral high ground isn't worth the effort. Democrats will look foolish if they mirror Feingold's assessment about not getting healthcare reformed. They will look like sheep slaughtered by the Republican and Healthcare Bogeymen seizing victory to monied interests.

Can anyone believe that Democrats replete with majorities in the entire government would let rowdies in the minority steal their thunder? Would would have thought? Who would have thought that the Democrats wouldn't have learned anything from the last 8 years? Democrats didn't learn anything through the experience during the Clinton's' failed pursuit of healthcare reform?

Folks... if Feingold has rested his hat on failure... then the Democratic party is a failure and we should look for more of the last 8 years come 2010. I can only assume that politicians can be a dumb lot because they don't believe fire burns. I want to exclude Obama from this polluted lot... because he is working his butt off to change this country through a barrage of backlash and representative big status quo government. If Healthcare doesn't get reformed in a meaningful way, Dems will once again prove that they can not be trusted to do right by the people who charged them with changing this country. Dems will have ruined any chance of keeping majorities because they are like pigs eating from the trough of special interests... like the Republicans. Dems will prove once again that they are a failure in leadership, weak and spineless in the face of the good sense to fix what we all know is broken.

[Pirate Smile]

1. Me to Feingold - just shut up.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. CC: Lieberman, Joe; Schumer, Chuck (nt)

[Teaser]

17. Nah, Schumer is very good lately

the only Senator really pushing hard on any public option at all..

[bvar22]

19. What Schumer "says" in front of the cameras,

...and what Schumer "does" behind your back are two different things.
Schumer is one of the dirtiest weasels in the Senate.
Schumer, head if the DSCC, in ONE of the BIGGEST reasons our current "Democratic" Senate looks more like a Republican Senate.

[Teaser]

22. nevertheless

he is working harder for reconciliation and the public, even behind the scenes, than any other Senator right now.

[cascadiance]

23. He's also trying to ramrod through expanding the cap on H-1B visas at a time we DON'T need them!

And tons of high tech workers are out of jobs that could do the work that they are trying to scam others to work for low pay instead.

Schumer might be talking about public option to mask what he's doing, but he's going to try and push through this bill first by labor day after recess without many knowing about it.

http://www.cio.com/article/497081/Analysis_the_Next_H_1B_Fight_Begins_By_Labor_Day

So, NO, Schumer doesn't deserve our praise, but our scorn for still not working for the people!

[Teaser]

27. meh

sorry. I can see that people aren't all good or all bad. I'll take his good parts, work with them, and be happy with them.

[frylock]

20. Feingold is one of the only TRUE democrats left..

so yeah, you go ahead and tell Feingold to shut the fuck up.

[Cant trust em]

2. Most of these "democrats" are barely democrats anyway

They are about as centered as centered can be.

Our majority isn't worth a whole lot.

[wowimthere]

4. If heathcare insurance is not reformed the centrist Dems will lose their seats

They seem to be too dumb to read the tea leaves. If they don't do big things then why do we need them? They are no different than the pole across the way.

[thoughtcrime1984]

3. Blue Dogs+ Repubs= more Conservatives than Liberals

These conservative Dems are killing us. I suppose that is all we can hope for in the conservative South and the Bible Belt, as a Congressperson who is too "Liberal" would probably be just as unattractive as the Republican challengers in these areas.

[quantass]

5. It frustrates me to no end

How a party who has all the power in the world to change things is ALWAYS afraid to do anything....WTF!?!? No wonder America is so messed up. The right end up getting their way and end up messing things up and it is only then that democrats are given a chance to fix things (by the public) and get nothing else done because when they do they 1) do it half-assed that ends up badly 2) gets attacked with lies and they cave 3) they postpone it because they are too weak to try.

The democratic party has some nice ideals but it is shameful that the party does absoultely nothing when they have clear majorities given to them by the people to enact change. If this were republican we'd already be the fabled Klingon moon Praxus (as seen Star Trek: Undiscovered Country) blown half to bits by overmining and silly politics....and the republicans would still find a way to blame the democrats for the result with the democrats apologizing for something they had no hand in doing. I say once again: WTF?

[wowimthere]

6. Amen to that!

[thoughtcrime1984]

7. It is damn frustrating

Would a third political party (with legitimate following) made of true Liberals be the answer? At this point, if such a Party would emerge, I'd be there. Something with a more Populist slant. Not just the message, but actions to support the message.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. You must be Canadian if you think we really have all the power in the world. (nt)

[redqueen]

21. +1

This party is nearly as sold-out as the right.

[Cha]

8. Speak for your

loser self.

[bvar22]

11. The Democratic Party is OUT of EXCUSES.

The voters elected Democrats because they want CHANGE.

The Democrats own the White House.
The Democrats own The Senate.
The Democrats own The House.
The Democrats OWN Health Care Reform.
If The Democrats don't perform, The Democrats WILL own that Failure.
The public WILL blame The Democrats...
And rightly so.

The MAJORITY of Americans support, at a minimum, a STRONG Public Option ("like Medicare") that is available to ALL. If the Democrats produce a weak, watered down "Public Option" that is off limits to most Americans, or worse, Mandatory Insurance without a Public Option....there will be no one else to blame.

The Democrats OWN Health Care Reform.
No. More. Excuses!

On Edit:
K&R back up to an even 0.

[ChiciB1]

12. Here, Here... WELL SAID!!! Got The Whole Enchilada... BUT

no spice or sauce to go with it!!!

[invictus]

13. But who owns the Democrats?

Answer: the corporations and other monied interests.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

18. No no they're keeping their powder dry because we all know that middle of the road voters......

blah blah blah....... These muthafuckas are pathetic.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

25. Exactly right. Which is why Joe Scarborough was pushing that on Meet The Press

We do OWN it. That is the new Republican meme. They will NEVER vote for a Dem healthcare bill. The only people we have compromised or negotiated with is ourselves!

[invictus]

14. K&R

[valerief]

15. I get so tired of euphemisms like "caving in to special interests." We always have to

interpret that as "being bought by big money."

[flpoljunkie]

16. Feingold: No Health Care Bill Likely Before Christmas, Perhaps Not At All

Feingold: No health care bill before Christmas
Large Mercer crowd opposes reform plans

Richard Moore
Investigative Reporter

Tuesday, August 25, 2009


U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold told a large crowd gathered for a listening session in Iron County last week there would likely be no health care bill before the end of the year - and perhaps not at all.

It was an assessment Feingold said he didn't like, but the prospect of no health care legislation brought a burst of applause from a packed house of nearly 150 citizens at the Mercer Community Center.

"Nobody is going to bring a bill before Christmas, and maybe not even then, if this ever happens," Feingold said. "The divisions are so deep. I never seen anything like that."

Feingold reiterated his appraisal a bit later.

"We're headed in the direction of doing absolutely nothing, and I think that's unfortunate," he said when asked about the plight of uninsured Americans.

The Mercer session was spirited but civil - as Feingold himself accurately described it - with most people focused squarely on the health care issue, followed by the deficit as a runner-up concern.

During the discussion, Feingold said he could not declare whether he would support a health reform bill until he has actually seen one, and he said he would then seek out the opinions of Wisconsinites. The Senate recessed in late July with a deadlocked Senate Finance Committee unable to finish work on a bill.

"When I get a proposal I can look at it and decide whether I will support it," he said. "I will let the people of the entire state talk to me."

http://www.lakelandtimes.com/print.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=9&ArticleID=10027

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

24. I think he sees what I see

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6389894

No action at all will be just as deadly for the Democrats with their entire base as screwing it up. Hey, what if . . . they didn't SCREW IT UP?!!

[ProSense]

26. Evidently, he has changed his mind:

Feingold backs off pessimistic HCR assessment

[flpoljunkie]

28. Excellent news, ProSense!

[bvar22]

29. Some things we KNOW about Feingold:

1) He will be one of the FEW who actually reads the entire Bill before voting on it.

2) If the Bill is a veiled scam to channel more $MONEY$ to the Health Insurance Industry, he WILL vote against it.

I TRUST Feingold.

[joeycola]

30. so do I.