http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/pro-reform-forces-divided-over-whether-to-pressure-dems-on-health-care/Pro Reform Forces Divided Over Whether To Pressure Dems On Health Care
It’s a sub-plot that’s gone under-reported: There’s a real split developing among the pro-health care reform forces over whether — and how aggressively — to target fellow Democrats who are refusing to back a public option or who are wavering on other core principles of reform.
That tension flared into the open just now, with blogger Jane Hamsher, a leader of the get-tough-with-Dems camp, taking an open shot at the huge reform group Health Care for America Now, which has largely refrained from targeting fellow Dems.
On one side of this divide are the big DC power liberal groups, such as HCAN, which have generally heeded the request of White House advisers like Rahm Emanuel, who reportedly told liberal leaders that friendly fire is “f**ing stupid.”
On the other side: Bloggers like Hamsher and Markos Moulitsas, as well as scrappier groups like MoveOn and Democracy for America, which are defying the White House and running ads against key centrist Dems.
Today HCAN went up with a new ad targeting GOP Senator John Ensign over his ethics woes and his penchant for insurance money.
The get-tough-with-Dems camp doesn’t understand why the big groups are spending resources attacking Repblicans who are never going to support any version of reform, and say centrist Dems are the main obstructionists. Moulitsas recently accused such groups of “playing nice with the White House” rather than squander a chance to attend the “next White House cocktail party.”
Hamsher, for her part, today blasted HCAN’s ad as a “complete waste of money,” and demanded to know why HCAN wouldn’t join efforts to aggressively target Dems and keep them in line. HCAN declined comment.In a very general sense, this emerging schism reflects one that’s been around since at least 2004, when Howard Dean and his following went to war over more cautious, centrist, Betway Dems over the party’s response to the rising unpopularity of Bush and the Iraq War. These tensions could worsen in the days and weeks ahead — unless Dem Congressional leaders figure out a way of reaching consensus around a public option that’s acceptable to all parties.
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