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GOP's New Tactic: Alarm Rivals
WSJ ^ | 03/12/10 | Naftali Ben David

Posted on 03/11/2010 8:30:58 PM PST by freespirited

With a final vote drawing near on President Obama's health-care overhaul, Republicans' latest strategy can be neatly summarized: try to scare the daylights out of House Democrats.

For months Republicans have been telling the public that the Democrats' plan is a government takeover of healthcare. Now they are ramping up their warnings to Democratic lawmakers themselves, saying a "yes" vote puts their careers at risk.

A GOP-funded billboard in Bismark, ND, targets the state's sole congressman, Earl Pomeroy, for defeat.

Democrats ridicule the notion that Republican leaders are concerned they could lose seats, and also contend that voters have been pelted with misinformation. If it passes and the public sees its benefits, support for the plan and those who enacted it will rise, they say.

"I'm ready for that battle," said Sander Levin (D-MI) whose district includes many conservative Democrats. "I have confidence people will decide that responsible reform was better than the status quo...."

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which coordinates GOP House campaigns, has launched a "Code Red" initiative targeting individual Democrats. This includes a billboard in Bismarck, N.D., aimed at Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota's only congressman. "Stop Obamacare-Beat Pomeroy," reads the 24-foot white-on-red billboard, a block from Pomeroy's office.

Pomeroy has won his recent elections by large margins. But North Dakota is a conservative state that supported John McCain by 53% to 45% in the 2008 presidential election, and in the current climate few Democrats in conservative areas can feel sure of re-election.

Pomeroy couldn't be reached for comment. But when the House passed the overhaul in November, he voted for it, saying the bill wasn't perfect but made an important step forward.

Republicans are also targeting other Democrats, mostly in swing districts, including Gabrielle Gifford of Arizona, Rick Boucher of Virginia and Jim Matheson of Utah....

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2010; gop; midterms; obamacare

1 posted on 03/11/2010 8:30:58 PM PST by freespirited
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To: freespirited
If it passes and the public sees its benefits, support for the plan and those who enacted it will rise, they say.

Keep believing that, dems. You'll be a shoe-in in November. (Heh!)

2 posted on 03/11/2010 8:37:31 PM PST by jellybean ( Bookmark http://altfreerepublic.freeforums.org/index.php for when FR is down)
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To: freespirited

STOP OBAMA'S SOCIALISM

DEFEAT ALL DEMOCRATS


3 posted on 03/11/2010 8:41:37 PM PST by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
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To: freespirited

STOP OBAMA'S SOCIALISM

DEFEAT ALL DEMOCRATS


4 posted on 03/11/2010 8:44:45 PM PST by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
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To: freespirited
These traitorous bastards should be afraid to show their faces in their home districts. They no longer deserve our respect or our polite deference, and should be scorned, cursed, ridiculed and shunned in public. Each stroll down the airport concourse should be met with curses and catcalls from outraged constituents whose only regret is having left their pitchforks at home.

I have fought against people who posed less of a threat to our nation that this President and this Congress. And I respected them a lot more. Our day of reckoning comes in November; until then, my contempt will continue to boil.

5 posted on 03/11/2010 8:47:25 PM PST by Always A Marine
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To: jellybean
If it passes and the public sees its benefits, support for the plan and those who enacted it will rise, they say.

That will be a neat trick because the taxes start immediately and the "health care" starts in four years.

In the intervening four years, there will be CHAOS in the health insurance industry and the medical device industry specifically, and the health care industry in general. Real, genuine chaos.

6 posted on 03/11/2010 8:48:59 PM PST by TexasNative2000 (This seems like fairly decisive evidence that the dream can, in fact, die.)
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To: jellybean

They are delusional, thinking passing the bill will help them.

Passing the bill will destroy the Democrats for a decade.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2469197/posts


7 posted on 03/11/2010 8:50:28 PM PST by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
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To: freespirited
But North Dakota is a conservative moderate state that supported a liberal, John McCain by 53% to 45% in the 2008 presidential election
8 posted on 03/11/2010 9:08:12 PM PST by DrDavid (George Orwell was an optimist.)
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To: freespirited

How can they tell us this bill is so great when they keep telling us they haven’t read it?

Is there anything dumber than that?


9 posted on 03/11/2010 9:21:39 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: jellybean
I think they actually have a point, but only to a degree. Part of the reasons of 0bama's low number today is many liberals considered him useless who couldn't deliver what he promised. If they manage to pass the health care bill, I think these liberals will tick the numbers up a bit. However, the health care bill has low supports among both Republicans and independents, so if they dream that 0bama's and Congress' ratings to reach the numbers in January 2009, they are dreaming.

Let's not fall into the thinking that 0bama's low numbers are only because the HC bill is too liberal. Just as Dubya's low numbers were the result of conservatives deserting him, 0bama's, too, are driven by liberals who consider him 'not liberal enough'.

10 posted on 03/11/2010 10:33:17 PM PST by paudio (Are you better off today than in 2006, when the Democrats took over the Congress?)
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To: freespirited

“”I’m ready for that battle,” said Sander Levin (D-MI) whose district includes many conservative Democrats. “I have confidence people will decide that responsible reform was better than the status quo....” “

They talk about reform when it’s a whole restructuring of our system into a SOCIALIZED deathcare. They’re so busy listening to themselves talk they forget we’re the people who have to use it. How dare they make decisions for us on something they wouldn’t take for themselves or their families.


11 posted on 03/12/2010 12:08:31 AM PST by bronxville
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To: freespirited

It’s only a problem when Republicans do it, not when demwits do.

Defeat Obamacare call list: List now contains the new MAYBES culled from FR posts.
PLEASE CALL! DC OFFICE LOCAL OFFICE State District

Code Red” - House Target List on Health Care

The National Republican Congressional Committee has published a target list on health care. In addition to continuing to contact the five Tennessee Democrat Congressmen, you can go http://www.votervoice.net/link/clickthrough/ext/94697.aspx to contact some of these targets. Much of the talk following Obama’s announcement has focused on how to defeat this second bill through reconciliation, but that is misleading because the first step to defeating Obamacare is not by concentrating on defeating the “fixer” bill but by defeating the Senate bill in the House when it goes to the floor for an up-or-down vote on Thursday, March 18th.

Rep. Lincoln Davis 202-225-6831 Columbia office: 931-490-8699
Rep. Jim Cooper 202-225-4311 Nashville office: 615-736-5295
Rep. Bart Gordon 202-225-4231 Murfreesboro office: 615-896-1986
John Tanner (202) 225-4714, Union City, (731) 885-7070, Jackson Phone: (731) 423-4848, Millington (901) 873-5690 TN (MAYBE)
Rep. Steve Cohen 202-225-3265 Memphis office: 901-544-4131
Harry Mitchell (202) 225-2190 (480) 946-2411 AZ 5th District
Gabrielle Giffords (202) 225-2542 (520) 881-3588 AZ 8th District
Ann Kirkpatrick (202) 225-2315 (928) 226-6914 AZ 1st District
Jerry McNerney (202) 225-1947 925-833-0643 CA 11th District
John Salazar 202-225-4761 970-245-7107 CO 3rd District
Jim Himes (202) 225-5541 (866) 453-0028 CT 4th District
Alan Grayson (202) 225-2176 (407) 841-1757 FL 8th District
Bill Foster (202) 225-2976 630-406-1114 IL 14th District
Baron Hill 202 225 5315 812 288 3999 IN 9th District
Mark Schauer (202) 225-6276 (517) 780-9075 MI 7th District
Gary Peters (202) 225-5802 (248) 273-4227 MI 9th District
Dina Titus (202) 225-3252 702-256-DINA (3462) NV 3rd District
Carol Shea-Porter (202) 225-5456 (603) 743-4813 NH 1st District
Tim Bishop (202) 225-3826 (631) 696-6500 NY 1st District
John Hall (202) 225-5441 (845) 225-3641 x49371 NY 19th District
Bill Owens (202) 225-4611 (315) 782-3150 NY 23rd District
Mike Arcuri (202)225-3665 (315)793-8146 NY 24th District
Dan Maffei (202) 225-3701 (315) 423-5657 NY 25th District
Earl Pomeroy (202) 225-2611 (701) 224-0355 ND At-Large District
Steven Driehaus (202) 225-2216 (513) 684-2723 OH 1st District
Mary Jo Kilroy (202) 225-2015 (614) 294-2196 OH 15th District
Zach Space (202) 225-6265 (330) 364-4300 OH 18th District
Kathy Dahlkemper (202) 225-5406 (814) 456-2038 PA 3rd District
Patrick Murphy (202) 225-4276 (215) 826-1963 PA 8th District
Christopher Carney (202) 225-3731 (570) 585-9988 PA 10th District
Paul Kanjorski (202) 225-6511 (570) 825-2200 PA 11th District
John Spratt (202) 225-5501 (803)327-1114 SC 5th District
Tom Perriello (202) 225-4711 (276) 656-2291 VA 5th District
Alan Mollohan (202) 225-4172 (304) 623-4422 WVA 1st District
Nick Rahall (202) 225-3452 (304) 252-5000 WVA 3rd District
Steve Kagen (202) 225-5665 (920) 437-1954 WI 8th District

Bart Stupak (202) 225 4735 MI (MAYBE)
Brian Baird (202) 225-3536, Vancouver, (360) 695-6292. Olympia, (360) 352-9768, (MAYBE)
senator mark begich (202) 224-3004 toll free. (877) 501 - 6275 just became a MAYBE
Jason Altmire 202-225-2565, Aliquippa, 724-378-0928,
Natrona Heights, 724-226-1304 (MAYBE)

On the Bubble (Major developments from the “yes” and “no” columns in the House)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2467046/posts


12 posted on 03/12/2010 8:17:54 AM PST by GailA (obamacare paid for by cuts & taxes on most vulnerable Veterans, disabled,seniors & retired Military)
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To: freespirited
It's the libdems who are the alarmists. We are barraged by a tall-tale of some 45,000 deaths attributable to lack of health insurance. Those (supposed) deaths are Nancy Pelosi's fault alone. Pelosi is the only one capable of calling the Senate bill to a vote in the House of Representatives. She is the only one stopping it. The Republicans cannot stop her from calling for the vote, yet she has not. She has resisted taking the vote for 11 full weeks - directly attributing to the deaths of 9515 Americans (based on the libdem "stat"). To add insult to injury, she may allow the House to go on a 2 week vacation,without taking the vote. This will result in the deaths of an additional 1730 Americans.

More Americans will have died by inaction of Nancy Pelosi since Christmas Eve than died from the terrorist actions on 9-11.

13 posted on 03/12/2010 8:26:29 AM PST by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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