Senate DINOs Announce Plan to Destroy Obama's Presidency

Because there is really no other way to describe this.

Roll Call reports that a group of 15-20 “moderate” Senate Democrats — boosted by their success in “paring down the more than $900 billion economic stimulus bill to $787 billion” — plans to “formally announce next week that it is aligning as a loose coalition or working group focused on deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility”:

Led by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), members said early press reports of their meetings were mischaracterized as an opposition group to President Barack Obama’s agenda and budget. But they acknowledge that they are seeking to restrain the influence of party liberals in the White House and on Capitol Hill. […]

[Nebraska Sen. Ben] Nelson said the moderate bloc is modeled after the Blue Dogs, but that the realities of the Senate prevent them from being as organized or unified as the House group, which regularly wins concessions from House Democratic leaders.

But as one anonymous Democratic senator told Roll Call, “Once you decide to be part of a bloc that is completely dislocated from the main [Democratic] caucus interests, you’ve not only separated yourself, you’ve also burned a lot of bridges.” Politico previously explained the possible implications of such a group, writing, “If the moderate Democrats in the Senate are willing to work with moderate Republicans…they will negate the White House’s ability to portray opposition…as partisan obstructionism.”

Kevin Drum pours fiery sarcasm on their asses:

ThinkProgress glosses a Roll Call story today telling us that Evan Bayh is spearheading a group of 15-20 Democratic senators "seeking to restrain the influence of party liberals in the White House and on Capitol Hill."

And it's about time, isn't it? We've now gone nearly a full two months without Democrats forming a circular firing squad designed to bring down a Democratic president and prove that Democrats can't actually get anything done. I say, that's two months too long.

But at least a bunch of senators will get to preen a bit about how they managed to water down progressive legislation and get the White House to beg them for their votes. And that's what public service is all about, isn't it?

Steven Benen reminds us that Matt Yglesias nailed the pathetic psychology behind DINO treason.

A couple of weeks ago, Matt Yglesias had a great item explaining how "moderate" Democrats like Bayh view the policymaking process.

[T]he key legislative players aren't reasonable, moderate people they're "reasonable" "Senate moderates." A "Senate moderate" is someone who takes his party's proposals, objects to them, waters them down a bit, and then congratulates himself on a job well done. Which is great if his party's proposals are unduly immoderate. But it's big-time trouble if his party puts a reasonable, moderate agenda on the table.

After all, you don't maintain the painstakingly achieved Nelson/Bayh "Senate moderate" brand by clapping politely. You need to bitch and moan and be quoted in inside-baseball only media outlets that none of your constituents pay attention to, and hold conferences and have meetings at the White House where people hold your hands. You need to be praised by the opposition party, and extract your pound of flesh from the proposal. Then when it looks like it might go down to defeat, you can vote for the somewhat-watered-down version and be the hero who saved the day and nobody will mention that you saved the day from yourself.

But you really do need to do that stuff. You can't just say "well, this is a reasonable proposal so I'll back it." Then your moderate license gets taken away.

The answer, then, is for President Obama to readjust his approach to negotiating.

The president seems to believe in honesty -- work hard to create sound ideas, and then encourage reasonable lawmakers to vote for them. What nonsense. Obama apparently needs to high-ball every proposal so Bayh and the Blue Dogs can water them down to "reasonable" levels and feel good about themselves.

Stomping on their necks until they scream for mercy works for me, but I'm not as subtle as the President.

More importantly, even if President Obama manages to co-opt the Baby Liebermans long enough to get universal health care, carbon caps and a second stimulus passed, the Ungrateful Bastards Caucus will remain in office unless we vote them out.

Yes, we know it can be done, because it has been done. Just two years ago, DINO extraordinaire Al Wynn was ousted in the Maryland Congressional Democratic primary by novice and Proud Liberal Donna Edwards, who went on to win the general election.

Progressive groups specifically targeted Wynn because of his conservative, un-Democratic positions, and Edward ran on a specifically DINO-killing platform.

That success led to the formation of Accountability Now, dedicated to recruiting and supporting primary election opposition to "Democrats" in Congress who are more beholden to corporate interests and Beltway groupthink than to their constituents.

I'd say announcing your intention of stopping President Obama from rebuilding a nation destroyed by three decades of criminal corporate greed pretty much qualifies Bayh's Senate Blue Dogs as Accountability Now targets.

Read about Accountability Now's plans for the 2010 elections here. Join the good fight today.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic.