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Congress Faces Backlash Whether Overhaul Passes Or Not
The Wall Street Journal ^ | 09-13-09 | GERALD F. SEIB

Posted on 09/13/2009 6:40:34 PM PDT by GOP_Lady

When American political discourse has reached the point where a congressman shouts "You lie!" at the president during a nationally televised address, it must be a sign that the stakes are running pretty high.

And so they are in the great health debate. Most analysis, though, has focused on only one side of the political poker game now under way: Will lawmakers pay a political price if they vote for a health bill that proves unpopular?

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 111th; bho44; bhohealthcare; congress; obama; seib
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VIDEO AT LINK.
1 posted on 09/13/2009 6:40:35 PM PDT by GOP_Lady
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To: GOP_Lady

I want Joe Wilson as MY congressman! America needs more Joe Wilsons and fewer Pelosis, Fwanks, Murthas and Rangels.


2 posted on 09/13/2009 6:43:42 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Americans! "Behaving badly" since April 19, 1775!)
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To: GOP_Lady

Unless the blue dogs cave, it’s toast. Any GOPer voting for this monstrosity won’t survive their next election. The hounds of hell will be at their campaign doorstep to ensure a monsterous defeat in the PRIMARY.


3 posted on 09/13/2009 6:45:48 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Throw the bums out who vote yes on the bail out)
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To: GOP_Lady
Yet the equation isn't quite that simple. Mr. Ornstein says that, as they watch the health debate, voters are making mental notes on whether the Democrats who control both houses of Congress and the White House can govern effectively. A broad sense that a party is unable to get things done, he argues, may be more damaging than the unhappiness lawmakers generate by doing something controversial.

Norm Ornstein is an idiot and as corrupt as it gets and should be driven from the temple and tarred and feathered.

4 posted on 09/13/2009 6:46:19 PM PDT by Bahbah (Only dead fish go with the flow)
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To: GOP_Lady

I am of the same belief. Screw Congress, the lifers are going home.


5 posted on 09/13/2009 6:46:23 PM PDT by eyedigress
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To: GOP_Lady
Every single Representative who votes for a health care plan as unpopular as this one (and even 20% unpopularity would cause massive problems downstream) will discover that he can no longer answer all the correspondence nor appear in public.

One of the very special problems with HR3200 is that it is so complex (having been put together with a computer by a madman) that people know the "death panels" are still in there, just hidden.

There's no member of Congress who can stand up to the accusation he voted for "death panels" ~ particularly when he can't specifically find them in the text.

6 posted on 09/13/2009 6:46:24 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: GOP_Lady

Fine with me. Can I take a turn with the whip?


7 posted on 09/13/2009 6:46:32 PM PDT by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: GOP_Lady

The 2010 mid-term elections are gonna see widespread changes, IMO.


8 posted on 09/13/2009 6:50:59 PM PDT by Jack Hammer (w)
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To: VRWC For Truth

I almost hope Juan McCain votes for it so he loses in the primary in 2010.


9 posted on 09/13/2009 6:51:31 PM PDT by Frantzie (Lou Dobbs & Glenn Beck- American Heroes! Bill O'Reilly = Liar)
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To: VRWC For Truth

The problem is that if the blue dogs think they are going to lose anyway, they might just side with the Rats and start passing all sorts of crap.


10 posted on 09/13/2009 6:54:10 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth. Socialism is the equal distribution of misery.)
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To: GOP_Lady

This is kinda funny. But the good political scientist Ornstein is leaving out one thing: The Dems that support this healthsham are in safe districts. They’re so safe that they can run brothels, commit tax fraud, and live in a state outside of their district’s home state and still get reelected.


11 posted on 09/13/2009 6:54:23 PM PDT by NotSoModerate (Report dissenters to snitch@whitehouse.gov for a $4,500 tax credit)
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To: GOP_Lady
Will lawmakers pay a political price if they vote for a health bill that proves unpopular?

Every reputable poll now shows that the health bill already IS unpopular. Where do publications get writers like these?

12 posted on 09/13/2009 6:55:50 PM PDT by Colonel_Flagg (No apologies.)
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To: Bahbah
a party is unable to get things done, he argues, may be more damaging than the unhappiness lawmakers generate by doing something controversial.

About some things, maybe...but not about something as personal as healthcare!

13 posted on 09/13/2009 7:01:11 PM PDT by lonestar (Obama is turning Bush's "mess" into a catastrophe.)
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To: Frantzie

I dont think McKook is gonna vote for it. He usually balks at these pie-in-the-sky schemes with ridiculous pricetags.


14 posted on 09/13/2009 7:02:06 PM PDT by freespirited (Liberals are only liberal about sex & drugs. Otherwise, they want to control your life. --DHorowitz)
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To: NotSoModerate

Right and with the gerrymandering only a few seats are up for grabs.


15 posted on 09/13/2009 7:05:38 PM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

With the way things are going now, I would really watch Congress. No matter what happens, many of them will most likely be voted out of office. I’m sure they know that so they may try and pull stuff that the people won’t like.


16 posted on 09/13/2009 7:07:02 PM PDT by RC2 (Our Failure is Not an Option)
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To: freespirited

Juan McCain might because he “respects” Obama so much and knows “Obama loves the Constitution” and all the other isnane rambling McKook does.

I bet if it had endless benefits for illegals, like they already get, McCain and his buddy Graham-nesty would probably vote for it.


17 posted on 09/13/2009 7:08:33 PM PDT by Frantzie (Lou Dobbs & Glenn Beck- American Heroes! Bill O'Reilly = Liar)
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To: RC2

I am sure they will. The next year is going to be very interesting. Shenanigans galore.


18 posted on 09/13/2009 7:08:44 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Americans! "Behaving badly" since April 19, 1775!)
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To: GOP_Lady
GOP_Lady wrote:
That, Mr. Ornstein believes, is the lesson Democrats learned, with great pain, from their disastrous flirtation with health care in 1993 and 1994. The Clinton administration proposed a large health overhaul that grew highly contentious and collapsed. Nothing controversial passed -- yet the Democrats who were in control got hammered in the 1994 midterm elections anyway, losing 54 seats. They were neither rewarded for letting a health overhaul die, nor for giving it the ol' college try.
This is a theme I've heard repeatedly from the Democrat analysts. Occasionally from Bechtel on Fox, but more often from the really rabid ones that appear over on MSNBC, on Olberman’s show and with Ed Schultz.

They are convinced that if they don’t pass it, it will be a repeat of 1994. That part I get. There is probably something to it.

But the solution in their minds is that they must pass this health care reform plan. And it has to be bold, it has to have the public option. Heck, some of the lefties think the public option was a sellout from the single payer system. They believe that if they pass it, they will be heroes, and they will win an even larger majority in 2010.

19 posted on 09/13/2009 7:28:25 PM PDT by cc2k (Are you better off today than you were $4,000,000,000,000 ago?)
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To: GOP_Lady

Cheer up, Folks! Take a look at the mess after the coronation and the pictures after the tea party:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2338953/posts

BO is talking to his constituency and he knows he can lie all he wants to because very, very few of them are going to check anything and the committed who do will be happy that he lied.

What is forgotten is that many more on the right are careful and rememer. It’s just as well they underestimate the size of the 9/12 tea party. Let them. Don’t rouse any interest.

We’re looking at 2010.


20 posted on 09/13/2009 7:28:30 PM PDT by Bhoy (Joe Wilson said it all.)
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