This was written in the Opinion section of the WSJ. They are even more allergic to facts and fact checking than WaPo when George Will spins a yarn.

Need. Better. Democrats.

Enough, and just enough, r's will, in the end, vote for the public option.

All the rest is kabuki

al from is the tip of teh iceberg of the corporate containment of the democratic party. he is not a democrat...he only plays one in the media to aid his corporate masters and insure that all republican attacks on the democrats seem legitimate.

and no one has seen the polarization obama is seeing, no one.

okay, maybe abe, ya know...

If corruption would actually smell, From would be a very lonesome person...

While Obama's sell-out to Goldman Sachs is a disaster, it is stuff like this that leads me to believe that a DLC candidate (like Hillary) would have been worse.

It's not just the Republican party that's changed. The Democrats are more friendly to corporations than to labor or liberals.

Al From is to the Republican party as

Neville Chamberlain was to the Nazi Party

Republicans don't want bipartisanship, they want capitulation.

Al From has less credibility among Democrats than Mitch McConnell. Ignore him.

It's like these Establishment folks live in a different world. And in most respects, they do. They have no understanding, much less care, of what people from the middle class on down are having to deal with.

Do they really want this to come down to pitchforks and torches? Because that may well happen if health care, banking, and housing issues aren't addressed in meaningful ways. I don't know if the oligarchy recognizes this possibility, or if they do they don't care.

I cease to be amazed anymore at how clueless, out-of-touch or just plain dishonest some Democrats are. I guess they don't read blogs. It is funny that the bipartisan fetishists keep urging Democrats to drop the public option, which is the most popular part of the health care plan.

"There were lots of northern liberal Republicans in Congress,"

Yes, and I saw one, just the other day. He was suitably stuffed in a waistcoat and spats, in a glass case, next to the Dodo Bird. . .

Scott Lemieux's point is an important one that we all have to keep in mind. There are two political groups that have essentially switched sides. The first was the conservative Southern Democrats, or "Dixiecrats," who, in reaction to the Civil Rights law, finally got over that fact that Abe Lincoln was a Republican and moved over to the Republican Party. This accounted in large measure for the Republican successes of the past 30 years. In the meantime, though, the former liberal to moderate wing of the Republican party was pushed out by the take-no-prisoners right. These people and their contemporary counterparts are now moderate to conservative Democrats, the "blue dogs." Many of the current blue dogs would have been moderate Republicans if they had been born 20-30 years earlier. This trend is sure to continue as the GOP sinks further into right-wing craziness.

What this means is that "bipartisanship" now really means getting consensus within the two wings of the Democratic party.

A health-care-reform bill without a public plan will earn Congress and the Democrats the mushrooming contempt of the public as we discover that our representatives have created an inadequate and unaffordable monstrosity that each of us is compelled to pay for. Passage of a bill without a public plan will hurt Democrats in every election. Those who are benighted enough to vote for Republicans today will not hold their representatives responsible for their behavior.

A health-care-reform bill with a public plan that actually delivers health care to the public in time for the elections will earn Congress and the Democrats the respect of the public as we discover what life is like when we don't have to worry every day about how to postpone or pay for necessary medical care. Republicans may benefit from this respect, or some of the benighted few might even recognize that their representatives were even wrong about this.

Maybe From, who styles himself as a Democratic Leader, can explain why he advocates a plan that guarantees Democratic failure while providing cover for Republicans. How do his antics benefit or strengthen Democrats? If he is opposed the a public plan (of course he is), he should step up and say so, rather than pretend that his public attempt to undermine health reform is pragmatic or Democratic.

Did anybody listen to what the mob was yelling at Lindsay Graham the other day. Among the problems with Al From's analysis is the assumption that the current Republican party is a real political party made up of people desirous of meeting in the middle. It isn't. The modern Republican party is a relatively large but shrinking social movement mostly made up of true believers who refuse to compromise. Current Republican office holders are prisoners of their crazy "base." They couldn't act in a statesman like fashion if they wanted too.

DLC = Dipshit Leaderless Council = rethug lite

As always, the DLC is the prime example of why trying to be rethugnican lites is just a sellout of the american workers.

We know that it is difficult, but democrats should try to be democrats and give up trying to be a lite version of rethugs.

has anyone ever lost an election by doing the exact opposite of what al from recommended?

As far as I'm concerned this is treason. I fail to see any way in which Al is playing for us. Someone bought him off. Here is their mail: dlc_admin@dlc.org.

Here's my mail:

-----------

Thanks guys,

I have considered you useful players on our team. You have historicly done some good stuff. Clinton is an american hero and he will remain an american hero. Sadly you have lost whatever respect you've earned with me. When Al lends his names to op-eds in conservative mouthpiece WSJ, furthermore opeds that quite blatantly does nothing to further our progressive course - but rather willingly and knowingly aims to sabotage it.

Let me make this clear: from my perspective there is and always will be a need for smart, useful, progressive centrism. Put another way, we need good people - as you have been - that are out there on the baricades making the case for the superiority of progressive policies; not only to us true believers but to all americans. Our ideas will win on their merits, but we need to make the pitch to everyone, in every feasible way.

Sadly, it's all to apparent that you've been bought. Al is confused if he thinks that progressive grassroots will mistake treason and political necessity. His current course of action is not compatible with a guy on our team. Who payed him off? May I suggest you guys go Zell Miller all the way?

There will be no support, no contributions, no loyalty for you from any proper democrat from this point forward. Fuck you guys sincerely. Bask in your five minutes of man bites dog fame and look forward to a future with no friends and no respect.

Br,
Danny

Is From not aware of this?

No. This is another edition of Simple answers.......

[M]ake one more effort to bring moderate Republicans along.

Now Lucy, you're sure that you will hold the football for me THIS TIME and not snatch it away at the last second when I try to kick it? Really?

A health-care-reform bill without a public plan will earn Congress and the Democrats the mushrooming contempt of the public as we discover that our representatives have created an inadequate and unaffordable monstrosity that each of us is compelled to pay for. Passage of a bill without a public plan will hurt Democrats in every election.

Thanks Boolaboola!

This is succinct and accurate.

If the insurance industry grip isn't loosened now, "reform" won't come until the healthcare car is already over the cliff rather than teetering over the brink, OR it won't come at all, an the once might U.S. economy will be second tier at best.

It's actually in Big Insurance and Big Pharma's "enlightened" long term self interest to suck it up and accept more modest increases in future profit.

Think about that.

All they are being asked to do is reduce future profit so that the vicious cost cycle is broken. They will get many more premium payers and prescription drug buyers. The net profit to their shareholders will increase. Only the margins will go down. But no on in the history of capitalism has ever been able to actually spend or invest a margin point. Net profit is all that matters and future business.

Of course, the lunatics in charge of the asylum (senior execs) are paid based on short term returns, so that's why they resist.

I say change their bonus structure so that the bulk of their variable compensation is awarded every five years based on long term performance. No more annual or quarterly numbers games.

From fundamentally misunderstands something. Democrats could propose a bill exactly like Republicans want and Republicans would vote against specifically because it was proposed by Democrats. The Republican strategy - if one wants to call it that - is to resist any and all measures brought up by Democrats no matter what. I would have though that he has spent enough time up here to figure that out.

I can't decide if he is a) stupid, b) naive, c) disingenuous, d)blind, or e) some combo of any of the above. What game is he playing?

Geez, you'd think From would be satisfied with almost destroying the Dem Party once, but now he's going for a repeat.

From's reference to the bipartisan nature of the civil rights and medicare reforms leaves out the fact that during that time there were adults in the republican party. What a horse's ass.

C'mon. DLC = Republican Lite.

"Many of the current blue dogs would have been moderate Republicans if they had been born 20-30 years earlier. This trend is sure to continue as the GOP sinks further into right-wing craziness."

Hell Yes,
I'll go even further, Howard Dean, Al Frankin, and Alan Grayson would have been a comfortable fit in Ike’s republican party

Here is another article decrying the fact that there is not enough bi-partisanship with a bunch of Village types decrying the incivility.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-16-voa36.cfm

This bi-partisanship stuff is part of the full court press being put out there by the health care industry along with their various reports. I am surprised Lanny Davis isn't running around somewhere either.

The DLC represents corporate interests who just happen to give money to Democrats such as Steny Hoyer, John Murtha or Dollar Bill Bradley before them.

"one more effort to bring moderate Republicans along"

My reaction when I read this was that I thought she came along. She did vote for it in committee so what more can you expect? After all, there aren't any other moderate Republicans, are there?