Wtf?!!

[Wendy!]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/24/hoyer/

I am appalled and disgusted. Can someone explain to me the logic behind this?
Dolan? Will Obama save us from our own party? I am embarrassed for myself as a member of the Democratic Party and the only saving grace is that Obes is running for president, however, I just don't trust where we are right now. The Democrats have done a crappy job running the House and I fear that even if Barack wins, the House will be turned back over to the Republicans and we still won't get anything done, it'll be the Clinton years all over again. Am I wrong in assuming this? I love my country, but I'm seriously scared of it right now...

[kremidas]

This was a smartly timed piece of strategy and legislation by the republicans. Not only did they get democrats to once again capitulate to white house and the right wing, but they are getting the democratic base to cast doubt on Obama.

He has pretty much the following choices...

1.) Quietly vote "No" on the bill without making a statement, hoping that Republicans don't make too big of a deal over it, while also earning scorn from the lefty blogosphere for not "being a leader."


2.) Loudly vote "No," thus causing a spike in both victorious blog posts and t-shirt sales at RedState that read "Obama is a Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey." Oh, and many nasty news cycles about how he's weak.


3.) Try his best to fix the bill with little help from his party, then vote "Yes" to avoid the Right Wing smear jobs that might turn this country back over to McCain for the next four years.


Oh, and he's got little-to-no back-up from his own party if he votes "No" on this.

This is the same republican party that got us to have John Kerry as our candidate by attacking him prematurely so we would rally around him, and who tried to do the same thing with Hillary. They are experts at this game, don't fall into that trap.

[macarthur31]

Agreed. No need to chicken little about this -- its all gamesmanship from the Repubs.

It doesn't help that Obama's own party is capitulating on this, but all of the seats in the house are up this time around. I think fivethirtyeight.com noted that most of the Dems that voted for this bill hailed from swingstate districts. (Which begs the question -- are they being conservative with this because they're in a tough district, or were they already conservative from the beginning?)

At the same time, the Senate still has a chance at this, and I'd expect Obama to make a charge at trying to remove retroactive immunity. Or perhaps write the bill in such a way that Bush would have to veto it.

Of if Obama does bite the bullet because he doesn't want to show up Pelosi, Hoyer and Reid, I get it.