Obama Is 'Keeping Score' on Those Who Vote Against Him
Gandalf Grey
Published on Friday, December 18, 2009 by Firedoglake
Obama Is 'Keeping Score' on Those Who Vote Against Him
by Jane Hamsher
A story in the Hill this morning lets us know that Obama is very much aware
of Pete DeFazio's votes against his legislation:
Obama himself has taken notice. "Don't think we're not keeping score,
brother," Obama told DeFazio during a closed-door meeting of the House
Democratic Caucus, according to members afterward.
That's pretty powerful. The President of the United States calling you out
for disloyalty in front of your peers.
Of course, DeFazio is the one floating this story, entiitled "Pelosi, Rahm
do not scare Rep. DeFazio." DeFazio is in a potentially tough (D+2) district
in 2010, given the current lack of Democratic enthusiasm for showing up at
the polls (which Rahm Emanuel thinks will be fixed by a "win" on health
care).
There are three things interesting about the story. One, Obama himself is
once again arm-twisting someone NOT named Lieberman, Nelson, Landrieu or
Lincoln. Two, DeFazio is already running against his own party in a tough
district. And three, he's not "running to the right" but rather using a
populist message to do it:
His populism has played well back home. DeFazio won his 2008 election with
82 percent of the vote, even though his district isn't overwhelmingly
Democratic. Obama won it by 11 percentage points, but President George W.
Bush won nearly as many votes as Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004.
Eric Massa made a very shrewd move on the first health care vote, when he
pleased both liberal and conservative voters in an R+2 district by voting
"nay" because he said the health care bill wasn't strong enough.
I wonder how many others will start to see that a party "w" for a bill that
mandates paying 8% of your income to private corporations and using the IRS
as a collection agency is political suicide for them, and come to the same
conclusion as Massa before we're through.
DeFazio told Mike Stark he would vote against any bill that does not have a
strong public plan in July, and signed a letter saying would do so. So
we'll probably soon see whether DeFazio's actions match up with the
populist rhetoric.
� 2009 Firedoglake
Jane Hamsher is the founder of firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared
on The Daily Beat, AlterNet, The Nation and The American Prospect.
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