The Liberal Option

Yesterday's compromise with House Blue Dogs that left the public option in the health care reform bill intact showed that liberal pushback against DINOs and Blue Dogs may be starting to have an effect.

Steve Benen had a pretty depressing piece Tuesday explaining why liberals and progressives in Congress have less power than the Blue Dogs, even though the Progressive Caucus is larger than the Blue Dog Caucus.

Progressive members of Congress are already on board with reform. They like the tri-committee proposal in the House, and fully embrace the HELP committee's bill in the Senate. They don't need coaxing or deals or enticements or concessions. They have legislation they like, and there's not much more for them to talk about.
For conservatives, it's obviously an entirely different dynamic. Conservatives don't really want to overhaul the system. Democrats on the right are skeptical of the approach, and Republicans on the right oppose reform in a more fundamental way. If reform has to be "bipartisan," and can't pass the House without Blue Dogs, that necessarily means making the bill worse.

It also means conservatives have the leverage. If they don't get the changes they want, they'll kill reform and do extraordinary damage to the Obama presidency -- an outcome they don't consider especially troublesome. If conservatives do get the changes they want, it's assumed liberals will go along, because some reform will be preferable to the status quo, and they have a vested interest in not undermining the White House.

So, it becomes easier to imagine a scenario in the fall in which center-right lawmakers -- some Democrats, some not; some in the Senate, some not -- hold reform hostage until it looks like the kind of bill they want. The left is told, "Take it or leave it." If liberals say it's a bridge too far, conservatives will say, "We had a bipartisan bill ready to go, but the left killed health care." If liberals swallow hard and accept it, the once-in-a-generation opportunity will have passed, and a weak bill will become law.

In comments, sgwhiteinfla responded:

There is another option which few liberals and progressives are talking about in the blogosphere which to me should be a no brainer.

Put a progressive bill up for a vote.

Game Set Match. The Blue Dogs will never be able to keep their coalition together enough to vote down Health Care reform.

Lets be real about some things here. Blue Dogs normally come from red or purple districts. But they STILL get voted in primarily by Democrats. If they vote against health care reform they can kiss their political careers good bye.

Now a few of them may not care because they will have lucrative jobs lined up with health insurance companies much like Tauzin. However most of them will want to keep their job in the House and will break away and vote yea.

Why Pelosi and Waxman can't see this I simply don't know. Put THEM on the spot. Bring the bill to the floor and have them actually put their name behind a no vote.
Their coalition has already splintered over a public option. The upside is if they bring a progressive bill to the floor and put them on the spot, not only will the bill pass, its also likely to shatter the Blue Dog coalition forever.

This is not over, kids. Congress is on vacation for the next month, which gives us 31 days to lay a hurt on the Blue Dogs but good.

Keep the pressure on. Here's a quick way to get to the contact information for your elected officials. (Scroll down to box on the right labelled "My Elected Officials" and enter your zip code.)

Alternatively, Max at Firedoglake explains how to put recalcitrant congress critters up against the wall - the Facebook wall.