Michael Moore, The "Blue Cross Blue Dogs" and the Useful Primary Process

[David Zephyr]

Back in August, Paul Street over at zmag.org, wrote a scathing article exposing what he called our very own "Blue Cross Blue Dogs" and how they are so beholden to those who have purchased them. I am including the link to that very good article for all to read.

Michael Moore, a voice with a megaphone, has issued a warning to these Blue Cross Blue Dogs (has a real ring of truth in it, doesn't it?) that many of us will be actively opposing these jerks next year if they choose money and power over the people they promised to serve. I am so with Michael Moore.

Many of us here at the DU have complained about the insidious corporate backstabbers within our own party and have championed the idea of using the primary process against them. It's rarely happened. Jim Dean and Ned Lamont put Joe Lieberman in the race for his life and, in spite of the fact that he's still in the Senate, Lieberman is hardly the power broker he once was. There were many lessons from that primary that Lamont won beside the fact that Lieberman wound up back in the Senate. What's another lesson?

Another lesson that these Blue Cross Blue Dogs (I just have to use that term one more time) also learn is that what is usually an idle threat about a primary challenge can actually materialize and make their road back to D.C. a rough one. If they betray the American People and Democrats, then that road should be a rough one.

Kudos to Michael Moore.

Here's the link to Paul Street's article on what he calls The Blue Cross Blue Dogs; please pass it along to others:

http://www.zmag.org/zspace/commentaries/3949

[WeDidIt]

1. The most high profile target right now is Blanche Lincoln

She's facing a brutal re-election against any Republican right now.

The threat of a primary challenge will end her career in the Senate, guaranteed.

[David Zephyr]

2. Well, she deserves our neglect if she betrays us now.

“For some in my caucus, when they talk about a public option, they’re talking about another entitlement program, and we can’t afford that right now as a nation,” Lincoln said in a speech to the Elder Law Task Force at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “I’m not going to vote for a bill that’s not deficit-neutral, and I’m not going to vote for a bill that doesn’t do something about curbing the cost in the out years, because it would be pointless. ... I would not support a solely government-funded public option. We can’t afford that.” -- Congresswoman Blance Lincoln, Arkansas