Posted on 07/29/2009 7:09:41 AM PDT by markomalley
Liberal frustration started to boil over in the House on Tuesday as negotiations over healthcare reform with centrist Blue Dog Democrats dragged into a second week.
The delay prompted Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to lash out at the Blue Dogs as hypocritical and even hint that more liberal Democrats might challenge them in primaries.
“On the one hand they don’t want to spend money, but on the other hand they want to spend money when it benefits them or their district,” Waters said on MSNBC, referring to Blue Dogs’ demand to increase Medicare reimbursements for rural physicians.
Seven Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have effectively blocked the panel from working on the bill for more than a week, saying it’s too expensive and puts too much of a burden on small employers.
Asked if she would recruit more liberal candidates to run against Blue Dogs, Waters said, “That’s normally not done.”
But she added: “There may be people out there listening and observing all of this who may get motivated based on what they’re seeing and throw their hat into the ring.”
She also criticized White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for recruiting many of the House’s more conservative members when he headed the House Democrats’ campaign arm. Now, she said, “The chickens are coming home to roost.”
Waters is known as a firebrand who isn’t afraid to stir up controversy in her own party. But she is also a member of leadership, as a chief deputy whip, and chairs a subcommittee on the House Financial Services Committee
Her remarks were an escalation from more veiled remarks from liberals last week, such as Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee’s (D-Calif.) saying, “We don’t think any one group in our caucus ought to be able to derail this.”
The comments ended a truce of sorts that has existed since Democrats took power in 2007 aiming to end the Iraq war by cutting off funding. Waters was a founding member, along with Lee, of the Out-of-Iraq caucus, which was frustrated by the unwillingness of centrist Democrats, particularly Blue Dogs, to support cutting off funds.
Liberals grumbled privately at the time that Blue Dogs were willing to spend hundreds of billions on the war but not on social programs. But they never went public with their criticism.
Attempts to get comments from a spokeswoman for the Blue Dogs and the spokesman for Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) were unsuccessful.
The tongue-lashing by Waters follows criticism by liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Monday that “the Blue Dogs aren’t making sense,” as well as Rep. Hank Johnson’s (D-Ga.) comment that the seven Blue Dogs are “a non-diverse group” of white men.
Other liberal Democrats on Tuesday expressed irritation that Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) had made an offer to Blue Dogs on his panel without informing other committee members.
One panel member, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), said that Waxman is in danger of losing the votes of liberals like herself and other supporters of a public option in the negotiations.
“There’s a point where you lose New Dem and Progressive votes on the bill,” Baldwin said. “Some of the proposals they’re bringing forward would have the net effect of weakening the public option.”
The seven Blue Dogs took the offer from Waxman — which they described as a “watered-down” version of their demands — to the entire Blue Dog Coalition on Tuesday morning. But they had not decided by press time whether to accept that offer or to send Waxman a counterproposal. After spending the morning with their membership, they spent the afternoon holed up with Emanuel, Waxman and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the Speaker’s office.
The small group of Blue Dogs remain hung up on a number of items, including the cost of a public healthcare option and the need to see the eventual bill bring down government spending on healthcare.
Liberals were also less than pleased to learn the Senate Finance Committee has abandoned plans for a public option and an employer mandate.
“The Senate can dance to their own tune,” said Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.). “There will be no voting for a bill that doesn’t have a robust public option.
“We’re not doing this in the House to have the Senate muck it up,” she said, noting that she had just come from a meeting with Pelosi where the Speaker had reaffirmed her commitment to a public option.
President Obama appeared to do much the same a little later in the day, when at a town hall meeting he said it makes sense to have a public option to compete with private plans in order to keep healthcare costs down.
House leaders also worked to prepare freshman lawmakers for a recess likely to be filled with protests and television advertisements from opponents of Obama’s drive for a healthcare overhaul. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, briefed the freshmen on polls and messaging to help sell the legislation.
Blue Dogs are Democrats who have actually read the healthcare bill.
I’d laugh if some Blue Dogs change parties because of this.
Sad thing is, it’d probably make the GOP more conservative.
What good is a threat from a sitting democrat official that won’t be there after the next election?
Thugs.
Mad Dog threatens Blue Dogs
With a threat like that, they need to get voter registration forms and wave them in front of Waters/Pelosi faces and tell them to go ahead and run a liberal because the Blue Dogs are from more Conservative districts and then tell them you run a liberal against me, I am running as a Republican.
Knew it was going to come down to intimidation and get dirty. Bet they have threatened to cut off their funding as well.
Primary ‘em Waters. It will make them that much easier to beat in Nov.
The Blue Grass Dem’s should tell this old racist to go straight to the burning place..The only way we will get rid of these old black racist like Waters is if they have a heart attack..That will never happen since they have no heart..
Memo to Maxine: I hope more Lefty candidates to try and challenge. They will crash and burn.
Y’all have got to remember that Maxine Waters led the protests that erupted into the LA riots of 1992.
It doesn’t have to make sense.
I predict this will happen
Waters really knows a lot about the voting patterns of the Blue Dog Districts. She complains that they want to vote their conscience instead of the party line. As a card carrying member of the “Black Caucus’, what motivates her vote. By the way, her district is about 98% Black.
I have always thought she was an idiot — thanks for the reminder on her part in the LA riots of 1992.
Actually, it isn't. Her district has been undergoing a dramatic racial shift. It was heavily Black when she was first elected, but it's now majority/plurality Latino. Because most of the Latinos as of yet don't vote (many because they're disinterested or haven't reached the voting age), she hasn't been bounced, yet, but she has potential trouble on the horizon (at least in the Dem primary).
I say we pass a bill that no one can read that dismisses the left wing of the democratic party.
Blue Dogs Democrats are big government liberals. The only reason why they are holding this up is to extract more dollars from the Government.
Dumb*ss, that's the ONLY reason Democrats won these races. They had to pretend to be conservative Democrats!
Ugly dog barks at blue dogs.
Oh yeah, she's credible.
Yep. The policies she has embraced will eventually lead to her defeat. Right now she’s riding a political tiger. As soon as the Latinos decide, through their local ACORN operatives, that they need a place at the table in Washington, Maxine is headed for the political trash can.
If they’re smart, they’ll change their party affiliation and be Republicans. Being a Democrat in 2010 looks like a losing proposition at present according to the generic ballot. Nancy Pelousy is hated and not trusted, and only by electing a GOP majority can she be hoisted out of the Speaker seat.
But it also shows that Maxine’s an idiot (we all knew that) because these Blue Dogs ran specifically AS conservatives. If they’d run as liberals, they’d never have been elected in the first place. Maxine’s threats are groundless - because they are going to get an earful when they get home.
I'm no political neophyte but I swear I've never heard or read the terms before this health care nonsense has been in the news.
She's what you get when you allow people who can't read, write or pay taxes to vote.
Only tax-payers should be allowed to vote.
The real problem the Dems will have in CA will be with redistricting. Even with them in charge, they cannot continue to keep the same current lines to elect all those nearly 3 dozen jealous Socialist whores (of course, they’ll take it out on our dwindling membership there, which is now at about 19, well below the 26 we had in the mid ‘90s when we tied the monsters).
And the difference is...
“The delay prompted Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to lash out at the Blue Dogs as hypocritical and even hint that more liberal Democrats might challenge them in primaries.”
Excellent, put those seats in the Republican column.
Finally, a DINO schism in the democrat party. Everyone should join democrat-friends political boards and push this insurrection. Maybe the media will start talking about how fractured the Dems are for a change.
So Maxine Waters is on record witholding medical care from rural citizens. And Obambi says that the policies aren't "about him".
She’ll be in congress. She’s in a “protected” gerrymandered district in which the vote is “majority minority”. But, the sad part is, she’s probably the “best and brightest” in that district.
That’s what I was thinking.
These conservative Dems were promoted and recruited because they COULD win in conservative districts.
Put some libs on the ballot and the GOP will take the seats.
I read an article in the WSJ yesterday that said when push comes to shove, most of the those Blue Dogs end up voting with the Democrats, even on big ticket items. It will be interesting to see just what happens with Obamacare.
If Waters wants to run more liberal Dems against them, that's fine with me. It will make for an even MORE clear contrast, if some conservative Republicans run against them in 2010.
Blue Dogs are those Democrats who can be somewhat conservative, compared to their more rabid colleagues. Those folks are called Yellow Dog Democrats, because it was always said they’d vote for a Yellow Dog, as long as it’s a Democrat.
She really is clueless, isn’t she? The only reason they were elected is because they ran as CONSERVATIVE Democrats. Go ahead Rats, run left-wing radicals in these districts next time and see what happens.
Doesn’t she have another illegal bank deal to make with her husband?
Is factual because her constituents keep electing her, they must not know enough to be embarrassed by this witless woman.
Oh, lord, I just ate...
You see, you have to actually have a brain along with common sense and she has neither.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.