The Primary Weapon (Democratic infighting)

New Republic ^ | July 13, 2009 | Jonathan Chait

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A few weeks ago, Senator Dianne Feinstein announced that she and other Senate Democrats harbored reservations about President Obama's plans to overhaul the health care system. This came atop previous comments to the effect that she didn't believe in sweeping reform ("I am a bit of an incrementalist"), that the cost of reform might be prohibitive (a concern she failed to raise when voting for the Bush tax cuts in 2001).

The reaction from the left was swift and, by the standards of such things, furious. Which is to say, not very furious. Union president Gerald McEntee complained in a press release, "Senator Feinstein's comments today take the discussion of health care reform in the wrong direction." The wrong direction! Take that, Feinstein! And if finding herself on the business end of a polite but disappointed press release didn't put the fear of God in California's senior Senator, the liberal group Health Care for America Now piled on with a petition stating, "[W]e need a senator who is championing, not naysaying, the need for reform. We're hoping Sen. Feinstein becomes a 'champion' for the people of California and stand [sic] up for President Obama's health reform."

Somehow this display of left-wing muscle failed to intimidate Feinstein, who has continued to express her skepticism about the main reform plans. She now taunts her pro-reform critics, "It doesn't move me one whit. They are spending a lot of money on something that is not productive."

Feinstein's clearly right--the liberal efforts to sway her aren't productive. I have a suggestion for something that would be productive: run a primary challenge against her.

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I enjoyed this article. Time for a Democratic civil war! Do you think Hillary is upset about the tanking economy -- I suspect she is thinking about 2012.